Alternative to Sky HD

[admin_exported]

I'm fed up with Sky since going to HD.
The picture regularly freezes, the box (this is my 3rd) is very noisy & the fan seems to be on a lot.
The customer service is hopeless and usually involves dealing with an offshore setup.
Oh, and now they're denying the 3 month half price offer they recently made me, so are charging full price.
Edit:- Also have found that in HD, it seems to struggle to find series links

Am tempted to go to Virgin as I had their broadband in the past which worked fine, but what are the alternatives, and how well do they work?

One thing I do like about Sky is the navigation of channels and recording etc.
.

R

 

[digigriffin]

If the picture is freezing on live tv I think this is most likely down to dish alignment?

It could also be that the cable from the lnb has deteriorated due to water ingress?

Was any of this checked when the boxes were replace?

I thought that it was standard on a SkyHD installation that even if a previous install was present everything was to be replaced?

I am sympathic to your situation, but as a SkyHD user myself I have none of your issues.

 

[Anonymous]

If you need Sky for sport I would stick with it. It sounds like installation problems, if so they can be easily sorted out.

However if you only really need freeview, buy a Sony 890 which not only records onto its large hard drive but does a very good job of up scaling everything to full HD. Consider also the latest twin digital tuners that do the same without the DVD re writing.

 

[Alsone]

Your alternatives are:

1. Virgin, as you correctly identified provided of course there's a cable down your street and you're prepared to continue paying a subscription.

2. Freeview - obviously you're accepting reduced content but being rewarded with no monthly payments.

3. Freesat from the BBC/ ITV (not Sky Freesat) - this will give you free channels in both SD and HD (if you buy a HD box). If you buy the Humax PVR then you'll have the same functionality as Sky +. The plus is agian no subscription, the minus is reduced programme content.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Rooster:
I'm fed up with Sky since going to HD.
The picture regularly freezes, the box (this is my 3rd) is very noisy & the fan seems to be on a lot.
The customer service is hopeless and usually involves dealing with an offshore setup.
Oh, and now they're denying the 3 month half price offer they recently made me, so are charging full price.
Edit:- Also have found that in HD, it seems to struggle to find series links

Am tempted to go to Virgin as I had their broadband in the past which worked fine, but what are the alternatives, and how well do they work?

One thing I do like about Sky is the navigation of channels and recording etc.
.

R

The set up must be wrong - I have had no issues in 18 months with SkyHD and it's broadband. Virgin is terrible and the broadband even worse. My sister has just swapped over to Sky for that very reason.

 

[Anonymous]

They claim to have run some kind of utility which said the signal was weak. When the engineer came out he said he'd never heard of this and just checked the alignment. When we went HD they put a new bit on the end of the arm, along with a new cable, but the dish itself looks a bit rusty to me. If frequently locks up, especially when raining.

By the way I have the Pioneer PDP428XD. I have also experienced the picture & sound being out of synch, but this was made better by turning off the surround sound features built into the TV.

The whole HD experience has been totally naff.

R

 

[digigriffin]

I would say that you should only get a picture break up on sky during a heavy thunderstorm.

It only happens to me it it looks like a monsoon outside.

If less rain that this is causing picture breakup again disk alignment or perhaps the actual dish as you have suggested.

The bit on the end of the arm with the disk is the lnb and this is a common fault too.

Sky have be far the most HD material in this country, so a move to Virgin and you would lose out on most of the available HD goodness.

I would push for Sky to do a re-installation as things are obviously not right.