Dumping Sky, any ideas what to get.

billgibney

After 18 years I'm getting rid of sky, 42 euro for basic package

At the moment I have a sky HD box.

When my contract is finished next month can I get the basic channels on the box? I know recording is gone.

Ideally I'd like saorview FTA combo box that would use the existing dish with me fiddling around, also the ability to record is a must, 2 channels if possible.

I read somewhere that some boxes use the apps from rte virgin etc and you can't skip ads, any truth in that?

Also if possible a recommendation of a good supplier.

Thanks

dxhound2005

I think there used to be a lot of threads like this, but not so many recently. Perhaps people have found other ways to get content over the internet, and satellite and terrestrial TV are on the way out. But here are two of the most recent threads which might be of some use to you. You didn't mention whether you have an aerial. You will need one if you want to get the Irish stations.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058320362/cord-cutting-advice

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058305556/moving-from-sky#latest

billgibney

Yes there's an aerial outlet in the room and I have an large indoor Aerial in the attic that the son used years ago, I'd forgotten about that?

Doodah7

This is plug and play with your existing cabling.

Richer Sounds Ireland - Freesat UHD4X 1000 1TB

icdg

OP just to confirm you have Sky+HD not Sky Q?

If so you can keep your box, and use it to pick up free to air UK channels. Yes recording will be gone and so will Irish stations. You may wish to only use this as a short term solution.

As you have Sky+HD, you’ll be able to swap this for any FTA reciever, and you aren’t limited to the Freesat 4K as you would be with Sky Q. You will find various recommendations on other threads in this forum. If you do want a true Freesat box there are older models (Freesat HD) which are cheaper than that one.You may wish to consider a combo box that will allow you to pick up Irish TV channels (Saorview) using an aerial. Depending on your location a €20-40 rabbits ears may work (unfortunately it doesn’t really for me, not even a powered one, and I live in the Dublin area). If not you will need to decide whether you’re happy relying on the player apps or want to invest in a roof top aerial which will come at a significant but once-off price.

lgs 4

If looking for a box with Saor and Freesat with a 7 EPG .Check this out . https://www.satworld.ie/zgemma-h7s-4k-uhd-500gb-hdd.html.

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121661181#Comment_121661181

I would doubt that would have Freesat, which is basically a very easy to use interface to satellite channels, which auto updates.

It's likely free to air satellite. But won't have Freesat GUI.

lgs 4

I find it easy to use .It combines the epg from Freesat and sky . It's not Freesat brand .

Widescreen

That looks very good, is there much set up involved?

galtee boy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121664949#Comment_121664949

Exactly, does this come as plug and play ? ie, combined 7 day epg for Irish and UK channels out of the box ? Or do you need a degree in computer science to set it up ?

dxhound2005

It is the zgemma-h7s. There is a thread with 1,900 posts about it on the page.

andy1249

There is no Official Freesat box available in this country that is any good.

The FTA / Saorview Connect combo available does not give you a 7 day EPG on both and already has a very poor rep in terms of usability and reliability.

Freesat boxes from the UK don't do saorview , and need a UK postcode to work here , catchup services and apps like iplayer etc. dont work unless you use a VPN ..... i.e. the degree in computer science nobody seems to want to have !!!

Humax used to be the official freesat supplier , mine died with a common problem ( 1000s ) , now Arris is the only official supplier , and that it just as bad it would seem.

In Ireland , if you dont want to pay for sky , you need an enigma 2 combo box.

Ideally you want a box with 2 DVB S2 or FBC tuners for satellite and at least one DVB T tuner for Saorview

Freetv.ie will sell you a combo box already setup , they dont sell Zgemmas , but enigma 2 combo boxes dont have to be Zgemmas.

https://www.freetv.ie/satellite/receivers/linux/

There are lots of no nonsense videos from these lads as well if you get stuck.

Setup is a bit involved , but it is just selecting the right option from a few menus , i.e. satellite is astra 28E and you must know what saorview transmitter serves your area , punch all that info into the " Autobouquet Maker " and run it , then you have a working box.

Bouquets are just bunches of channels , news , movies , children , etc.

Recording is a " timer" , series link recording is an " autotimer"

Dont mess around with skins and it will never give you any trouble , igs 4's post above shows the default skin for openvix I think , at least thats what Im using and it looks the same.

The Zgemma is cheap , that is why its so popular.

Other options are Gigablue and VU+ , not so cheap but better built.

Edit: One more thing , none of these boxes do streaming service apps like netflix , disney + , Prime etc.

Edited at 5:17 pm to clarify that the Saorview Connect is not Freesat , its just FTA with Now and Next for Satellite channels.

Gerry Wicklow

Just to add to what @andy1249 posted. Be careful with the really low-end budget combo boxes. Some have very crude interfaces and only basic now/next EPGs for satellite. Enigma is the flavour of Linux to look for in listings.

To be clear, FreeSat is proprietary software that gives you access to the FreeSat EPG data and facilities like autotuning. Unlike Sky who encrypts their channels, FreeSat does not broadcast any channels but gives you access to some existing free channels. There is no such thing as a FreeSat combo box. FreeSat does not include all the freely available satellite channels. Some TV companies do not pay to be included on the FreeSat EPG (EG CNN news). Any box that combines satellite and terrestrial can receive all the Free-To-Air (FTA) satellite and terrestrial channels. Combo boxes do require some degree of setting up. Even if pre-configured by the seller you will still need to add your home network* and local terrestrial (Saorview) settings.

*You do not need a network connection for a combo box to work but it does add a lot of useful features such as streaming live or recorded TV to other devices on your home network.

icdg

Just to give the argument in favour of Freesat.

Freesat gives you a seven day EPG that works just like the Sky EPG and doesn’t need rescans when channels are added or removed or change frequencies. Absolutely it does not have every FTA channel on Astra. The majority however are there. It is a low maintenance solution therefore when compared with generic FTA boxes.

While Freesat does require the inputting of a UK postcode, there is no validation done to make sure the viewer is actually in that postcode. It is not a regional restriction just a method of selecting which BBC and ITV regions are at the top of the EPG. You can input any UK postcode you like. BT1 1AA for Northern Ireland is used by many, some prefer a London postcode. No geoblocking is applied to the satellite signal. It is true that UK non-subscription catch up services other than Channel 4 do not generally work here. That applies no matter what equipment you use. Discussing methods of circumventing this is against the charter.

An alternative to a combo box is to use your TV’s built in receiver (if your TV was manufactured in the last 15 years or so) to access Saorview (and indeed you may also be able to access FTA satellite this way depending on your TV model). You will have to use two separate EPGs for terrestrial and satellite though. You may also have to bring your own hard drive for PVR features and may not be able for record more than one channel at once.

It is also possible to use the Irish player apps to stream the majority of the Saorview channels, if you are willing to put up with the pre roll adverts that are the scourge of those of us who choose to watch Irish FTA tv this way.

billgibney

Thanks for all the advise, I don't mind paying a couple of hundred as a once off charge.

I'll look into the vu+ as well

Madd002

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058332412/dumping-sky-any-ideas-what-to-get

Same here, if you have the same old old sky HD box like we have, take card out and turn off switch on wall, wait 10 secs turn back on again and see if you have all the free to air English channels, bbc is now gone HD so you'll find that on ch 801. If you get a standard aerial & your tv is saorview ready it'll give you all irish channels + some. That's what we using in our bigger living room. I've just cancelled sky q so it's gonna be gone in a week. we've just sourced an old sky box in UK as I have 2 spare here but they don't work they have to be 1st edition ones. Hope it works for you. If all else fails I'll be going looking for one of those set top boxes everyone recommended.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121667766#Comment_121667766

Is the Zgemma H7s the answer all the time or are there alternatives ?

My story.

Had Sky for years, got rid of it and used an old flaky Optimus Plus 2xSat 1x DTTV tuner for a year.

I was ok with it, wife and kids not so much.

Sky rang back offered €19 a month for Sky Q so we took it.

Last year that went up to €25.

Now the contract is up and they want €41 a year so we are cancelling again.

I'm not using the Optimus Plus again, so is there a 2x Sat 1x DTTV turner out there that is not a Zgemma H7s ?

I've nothing against a Zgemma H7s as such it's just that I would like to see if there are alternatives.

I'm fine for LNB, antenna and I love Linux, I just want to see if there are other triple tuner products out there.

Gerry Wicklow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121706926#Comment_121706926

Gigablue and VU+ are the main alternatives to the Zgemma but are noticeably dearer.

swoofer

The simple answer is no there are no longer many alternatives and as you will discover its all about VALUE for money.

If you want a good box get this one BUT make sure they have the DTT tuner. This one is simply the best and this price is good, the dtt tuner is about 90 euro but its a twin so you can record all of SAORVIEW simultaneously. They are in short supply. The sat tuner is FBC = Full Band capture and with 2 sat connections you can record about 6 channels simultaneously, with a unicable LNB it will be more but that's another story.

VU+ Duo 4K SE BT Edition, Sat-/Terr.-Receiver schwarz, DVB-S2X FBC Twin Tuner, DVB-T2 Dual Tuner (alternate.de)

429 plus cost of SSD and delivery will push up price.

Your SKY Q lnb may not be a hybrid so will not be suitable for enigma 2 boxes.

The zgemma h7s is 145 plus ssd, now you may guess why its so popular.

But at 41 a month you are quids in after a year.

andy1249

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121707249#Comment_121707249

I got mine of Amazon.de for about 379 delivered. I ordered with twin FBC and DVB-T and no hard drive as I have plenty of those. Hard drive goes into a pull out drawer at the back , it takes 2.5 inch HDD or SSD drives.

There are lots of sellers on Amazon , just make sure the configuration you want is correct.

Ive had 2 Zgemma's , both died , I wasn't buying a third , thats why I shelled out for the VU+ , which is built like a tank.

Note, it doesn't perform any better , its just a better build quality.

green123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121707249#Comment_121707249

Where are the h7s for 145?

Gerry Wicklow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121722828#Comment_121722828

https://www.world-of-satellite.co.uk/zgemma-h7s

Or keep an eye on amazon.DE

green123

Gerry, Thanks for that link. I was checking another link from I think swoofer to amazon.de for 170.

So, world of sat will be cheaper if customs and all the brexit shipping extras don't cost too much.

Is the advise not to get the option of a hdd installed? And get my own ssd separately?

Gerry Wicklow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121723715#Comment_121723715

They take the standard 2.5" drive. You might have one knocking about. They are pretty cheap now anyway. It simply plugs into a slot at the rear

green123

Thanks again for getting back to me.

I do have a few low capacity HDDs, only 1 SSD in an old unused laptop.

Sorry I have edited my above post. It was more a question about whether it's better or necessary to get a HDD or a SSD? world of sat are installing HDD.

I currently have a Tiviar. And I remember clareman recommending drives specifically for recording? Maybe cctv spec?

Or do most people just go with regular best value cheap drives and not have any problems?

Gerry Wicklow

I've used SSDs for years without issue. My current setup is only 120Gb. Anything I intend keeping I transfer to NAS. The main disadvantage of HDD is if you have the box in a bedroom and don't want to hear the disc spin up during the night to update the EPG or record.

swoofer

Amazon de is the price, you have to go through the rigamarole of adding to basket, then price changes because of VAT and then delivery is added, its even cheaper today €141.00.

I would not buy from WORLD OF SAT. Customs will add VAT, customs, then admin and you pay vat on the lot. And if you have an amazon DE account its easier to send back.

SSD is best, quieter, faster and the new zgemma h7s has a slot at the rear that may will take an ordinary HDD. CRUCIAL do an 120gb ssd for 23 euro at Amazon uk and there is a 48ogb one on amazon de for 41 euro.

I have an amazon de account and I have just discovered when I search for zgemma h7s I get a different price as to what I get when I search with no account. Its €170.00 with no account and 127 with.!!

Just to prove it here is a pic showing it with delivery.

IMG_4821.PNG

I should add when you get box it will have an adpater that will allow you to connect a USB hdd but never liked them.

Fr Tod Umptious

Sky came back with €28 a month so we settled for that and are out of the Triple tuner STB search game for another year at least.

green123

Thanks swoofer.

Yes, I was only seeing the 170 price, but now I can see the 127 offer if I sign up to prime.

brokenbad

Have an old type sky box but a lot of the UK channels are no longer accessible - any recommendations on something basic i can hook up to my existing sky dish to access the likes of BBC 1 & 2, ITV, Channel 4, etc....

swoofer

this is as basic as you can get but a good make, have a look

https://www.freetv.ie/satellite-receiver/