Dumping Sky to Save Money

PhotogTom

What are my options if I leave Sky? What I don't watch or would miss is Sky Sports and Movies. What I do watch are Discovery, History, etc channels. I also watch Sky Atlantic. Also the IE channels and BBC, Channel 4 etc.

What will I have to give up if I go leave Sky and what should I go to to get the most for my money?

Oh, I also have Sky Plus -what are my DVR options?

FREETV

PhotogTom wrote: »

What are my options if I leave Sky? What I don't watch or would miss is Sky Sports and Movies. What I do watch are Discovery, History, etc channels. I also watch Sky Atlantic. Also the IE channels and BBC, Channel 4 etc.

What will I have to give up if I go leave Sky and what should I go to to get the most for my money?

Oh, I also have Sky Plus -what are my DVR options?

A Humax Foxsat Freesat PVR box is your best option with a 500 or 1TB hard drive, there is also a fairly new second generation Humax Freesat box which will record several stations at the same time when a firmware update is made available by Humax in the future. A saorview twin tuner PVR which has a T2 tuner when launched and the proper grouped aerial for your nearest transmitter and decent Webro WF100 satellite cable should suffice. You could use your Sky box for the FTA channels but will lose the Sky+ functionality when your contract is terminated. Try to watch History, Discovery etc on the internet.

FREETV

PhotogTom wrote: »

What are my options if I leave Sky? What I don't watch or would miss is Sky Sports and Movies. What I do watch are Discovery, History, etc channels. I also watch Sky Atlantic. Also the IE channels and BBC, Channel 4 etc.

What will I have to give up if I go leave Sky and what should I go to to get the most for my money?

Oh, I also have Sky Plus -what are my DVR options?

Whereabouts are you located? Freeview overspill from Northern Ireland and Wales is receivable in certain areas and has Quest which has Discovery programmes free.

PhotogTom

FREETV wrote: »

Whereabouts are you located? Freeview overspill from Northern Ireland and Wales is receivable in certain areas.

I
I'm down the country in N Tipp.

Where do I go to get that kind of kit?

What about channel availability? Is there some site that lists the channels I can get?

FREETV

PhotogTom wrote: »

I
I'm down the country in N Tipp.

Where do I go to get that kind of kit?

What about channel availability? Is there some site that lists the channels I can get?

No Freeview in your area so unfortunately. See http://www.freesat.co.uk/
Try ebay and amazon.co.uk as they seem to be the cheapest for prices, delivery and stock etc. X
There are lots of other stations which can also be added manually. http://www.lyngsat.com/Eutelsat-28A-and-Astra-1N-2A-2B-2F.html There are decent MBC stations at 26E also FTA which would require at least a 1.2 Metre satellite dish or Triax TD110 at the very least to receive them. http://www.lyngsat.com/Badr-4.html http://www.mbc.net/en.html http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HUMAX-FOXSAT-HDR-500-FREESAT-500GB-PVR-/221055358263?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Satellite_TV_Receivers&hash=item3377ed1537

NIMAN

If you want to keep Discovery and History channels then I'm afraid you will not get these free, and will have to keep the minimum $ky package.

Freesat will be your only option (no Freeview where you are) so this is your channel list
http://www.freesat.co.uk/what-you-get/our-channels

brokenarms

I have freesat.

Is there any other channels I can add to the EPG ? Its just a plain foxsat hd box.

Tuned into the oul black north.

PhotogTom

Niman, thanks for that. I'll have to make a decision.

homer911

brokenarms wrote: »

I have freesat.

Is there any other channels I can add to the EPG ? Its just a plain foxsat hd box.

Tuned into the oul black north.

If you have a plain foxsat hd box, then you dont have Freesat

A Freesat+ box provides a full 7 day epg, series link for recording etc.

Ronnie Raygun

homer911 wrote: »

If you have a plain foxsat hd box, then you dont have Freesat

Why would a Freesat branded box, like the Humax Foxsat HD, not provide Freesat, or do you just mean the non-recording version isn't worth bothering with?

evilivor

homer911 wrote: »

If you have a plain foxsat hd box, then you dont have Freesat.

Yes they do. The plain Foxsat hd box is one of the better Freesat boxes.

im invisible

FREETV wrote: »

Whereabouts are you located? Freeview overspill from Northern Ireland and Wales is receivable in certain areas and has Quest which has Discovery programmes free.

you had my hopes up there for a minute, after checking on the satellite and aerial channels, can get the spill-over from the north, but no sign on that, and its encrypted on the satellite...

have a (saorview approved) Nordmende NM7100M4

Capt'n Midnight

If you only watch certain programs then you could investigate Netflix or similar if you have decent broadband. You could consider getting DVD box sets when they are on special.

Anyway have a long hard look a the programming on Discovery/History to see just how many of those programs are also on Channel 4 / BBC even RTE do similar stuff at night - it's a bit all over the place just record it - , if you are in to WWII then Channel 5 and some of the free movie channels do lots of docus on it.

brokenarms

homer911 wrote: »

If you have a plain foxsat hd box, then you dont have Freesat

A Freesat+ box provides a full 7 day epg, series link for recording etc.

I dont understand . I have a 7 day epg and series link on my non recordable Freesat Humex foxsat hd box. It is branded freesat.

Im I missing something?

Peter Rhea

im invisible wrote: »

FREETV wrote: »

Whereabouts are you located? Freeview overspill from Northern Ireland and Wales is receivable in certain areas and has Quest which has Discovery programmes free.

you had my hopes up there for a minute, after checking on the satellite and aerial channels, can get the spill-over from the north, but no sign on that, and its encrypted on the satellite...

have a (saorview approved) Nordmende NM7100M4

Quest is only available from the 3 main NI transmitters: Divis, Brougher Mountain & Limavady. There are 3 multiplexes worth of commercial services, that aren't broadcast from the smaller transmitters.

These commercial muxes are also transmitted with lower power than the public service channels at the main sites & in some cases will be more prone to interference from other transmitters (Divis v. Mt. Leinster being a case in point).

Bullseye1

I have Sky movies in a deal until end of February but ive just signed up for a free one months trial with Neflix and I have to say its way better value for money at €7.99 a month where as Sky Movies costs around €20 a month. I'll be cancelling Sky Movies in Feb and keep the basic sky package and Netflix.

evilivor

brokenarms wrote: »

I dont understand . I have a 7 day epg and series link on my non recordable Freesat Humex foxsat hd box. It is branded freesat.

Im I missing something?

You're fine, the other poster was incorrect. As to your query, the only channels you can access on your machine's EPG are those on Freesat.

If you you switch to non-Freesat mode you can get some additional channels but you will have to switch between modes to get them. In non-Freesat mode the EPG will only give Next and Now info.

FREETV

im invisible wrote: »

you had my hopes up there for a minute, after checking on the satellite and aerial channels, can get the spill-over from the north, but no sign on that, and its encrypted on the satellite...

have a (saorview approved) Nordmende NM7100M4

The Mount Leinster transmitter is high and very high powered at 160,000 watts and on the same channel number CH.23 as Divis so it is wiping out the reception of Quest and all of the other stations on that multiplex in areas from Dundalk to parts of Meath. My Dad cannot receive it in Trim for the last few weeks now since they stupidly changed to CH.23 from Mount Leinster and RTENL obviously couldn't give a s**t about interfering with Freeview or are as d**b as hell.

Peter Rhea

FREETV wrote: »

. . . they stupidly changed to CH.23 from Mount Leinster and RTENL obviously couldn't give a s**t about interfering with Freeview or are as d**b as hell.

I'll just point out for the benefit of others in this thread, that all channels used by RTENL at all their transmission sites above a certain power level, have been allocated by international agreement, based on long established frequency planning procedures, aided by modern software.

It would be totally unreasonable to expect this to extend to protecting reception of UK services within Ireland, or even to protecting marginal reception on the NI side of the border, especially for the commercial muxes.

Also, the situation cannot be compared to RTE in NI, as there's a whole political dimension & will here, that simply doesn't exist from the opposite perspective.

NIMAN

Bullseye1 wrote: »

I have Sky movies in a deal until end of February but ive just signed up for a free one months trial with Neflix and I have to say its way better value for money at €7.99 a month where as Sky Movies costs around €20 a month. I'll be cancelling Sky Movies in Feb and keep the basic sky package and Netflix.

If people were to have unlimited download allowance in Ireland, then NetFlix could really hammer $ky Movies subscriptions.

Unfortunately most people probably run with some sort of monthly allowance and so need to be careful not to exceed this, or they have the potential to get hit with an unexpected bill.

JDxtra

You can't compare Netflix and Sky Movies. Netflix is cheaper, yes - but it has only some average content and a lot of poor content.

Of course it's completely subjective and what you are into - but Netflix are not in the market to compete with Sky Movies. They are aiming for the bottom end of the market with a low price point.

Even Apple only permit Netflix on their Apple TV devices because they are not competing with their own rental/PPV content.

JDxtra

NIMAN wrote: »

If people were to have unlimited download allowance in Ireland, then NetFlix could really hammer $ky Movies subscriptions.

It's a concern for some, but I use UPC broadband (very hard to hit your limit!) and I still would not keep my Netflix sub. It was fine for a month or two, but then I got bored of it. Also, the kids would only watch the same one or two movies over and over so we don't miss much from it.

FREETV

I heard that Sky Now is a lot better than Netflix but more expensive because they show movies three months after release and the rights cost more as a result.

FREETV

Peter Rhea wrote: »

I'll just point out for the benefit of others in this thread, that all channels used by RTENL at all their transmission sites above a certain power level, have been allocated by international agreement, based on long established frequency planning procedures, aided by modern software.

It would be totally unreasonable to expect this to extend to protecting reception of UK services within Ireland, or even to protecting marginal reception on the NI side of the border, especially for the commercial muxes.

Also, the situation cannot be compared to RTE in NI, as there's a whole political dimension & will here, that simply doesn't exist from the opposite perspective.

Yes but it will cause havoc in the fine months when there is high pressure Peter and that software isn't very accurate either.

Peter Rhea

It won't cause havoc. We very, very rarely get any kind of extreme enhanced propagation in Ireland & what we do get is taken into account when interference/time calculations are being made.