Freesat, Sky HD+, Freeview or wait a while

[admin_exported]

I'm thinking about an upgrade to at least one of our TV's (and the assocoiated boxes.)

Can't decide if we should upgrade Sky to Sky HD+ as the've just offered a free box. Or dump Sky and go Freesat or wait until the new Freeview HD TV's start to appear which I assume will happen next year?

Sky movies is not a big deal for us so our main broadcast watching would be the HD content on BBC and ITV. We tend to buy movies on disc if we want to watch tem.

Any thoughts greatly appraciated - Thanks

 

[Tonya]

Well, based on your viewing habits, go for the FreeSat option.
Although I have SkyHD, I use my Humax FoxSat HD receiver when the weather really gets bad (I'm in Norway) as it locks onto the weaker signals when my Sky system (Samsung) starts getting blocky.
As both systems are using the same 1.2 metre dish I can only conclude that the tuner threshold is superior in the Humax FreeSat!
By going the FreeSat route, you tick the boxes when it comes to BBC HD & ITV HD (plus Luxe HD for what it's worth) with more channels to follow.

You can also see lots of other FTA channels including Sky News without paying any subscription whatsoever, so you will recover the initial outlay of the FreeSat box in no time.

In saying that, some of the Sky HD channels are rather good but still come in second to a good 1080p BluRay disc on a full HD monitor . . . .

 

[PIPPI]

I have never seen Sky news on Freesat, freeview yes.

 

[Dave_]

PIPPI:I have never seen Sky news on Freesat, freeview yes.It's not available on the Freesat EPG, but you can access it on your STB in non-Freesat mode.

 

[Tonya]

Sorry PIPPI, I should have explained in more detail.
On the receiver's menu, you can decide to show just FreeSat channels, or all, where it displays all the channels it can find.
Some are of course scrambled (denoted by the ND symbol), but there are many that are FTV or Free To View and Sky News is included in that group.
If you take the time to go through all the channels available, there are some quite good ones up there for free . . . .