Best Freeview+ box

Chris · 15 August 2010, 09:10

Having decided not to send Murdoch any more of my hard earned cash I am going over to Freeview.

I have been looking to see what sort of hardware is available for Freeview+ and so far it looks like the Topfield range of PVR's is the way to go if you want the same functionality as Sky+

Any thoughts or experiences would be welcome.

Thanks

Mollers · 15 August 2010, 09:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

Having decided not to send Murdoch any more of my hard earned cash...

Have you played the 'I want to cancel' game with Sky yet?

With a little skilled negotiation, you might be surprised what you'll get out of them.

Chris · 15 August 2010, 09:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mollers

Have you played the 'I want to cancel' game with Sky yet?

With a little skilled negotiation, you might be surprised what you'll get out of them.

Oh yes!.. they don't like to lose a customer, offering me an HDPLUS box etc.

Ultimately I can get all the Freeview channels in this area which almost covers all the channels we watched on Sky and not pay a penny. I have already had 3 Sky+ boxes go tits up on me so have no real inclination to want to stay with Sky.

I like the look of the new TiVo premier box however its not available over here yet.

Mollers · 15 August 2010, 09:45

I agree, I hate the b*****ds, but I do like a bit of rugby and cricket. Without Sky Sport, your pretty much stuffed. We currently have Sky+ on a freebie.

chris123 · 15 August 2010, 09:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

Having decided not to send Murdoch any more of my hard earned cash I am going over to Freeview.

I have been looking to see what sort of hardware is available for Freeview+ and so far it looks like the Topfield range of PVR's is the way to go if you want the same functionality as Sky+

Any thoughts or experiences would be welcome.

Thanks

Topfield are generally well regarded, as are Humax - their latest box is here:

http://www.techdigest.tv/2010/05/humax_hdr-fox_t.html

I would recommend you get a box that supports DVB-T2 rather than just DVB-T. DVB-T2 is the latest transmission standard for terrestrial tv - all the terrestrial HD channels (available post digital switchover) will be transmitted in DVB-T2, and without a compatible box you will not receive them.

Cheers

Chris

martini · 15 August 2010, 10:00

My telly's got a built in free-sat. Haven't got round to getting Sky yet. Depends what you like to watch I suppose but what an absolute load of rubbish I get on mine, Randall & Hopkirk Deceased is about as good as it gets

Mollers · 15 August 2010, 10:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by martini

Randall & Hopkirk Deceased is about as good as it gets

I suppose 'Allo Allo' touches a bit of a nerve.

the_fifer · 15 August 2010, 13:54

Chris

DON'T GET FREESAT. I bought a Humax box model doesn't really matter given what im going to say.
It looked good but kept going to sleep and wasn't able to wake it up again despite looking at comments online and removing the plastic film from behind the flip down front, changed the batteries in the hand set etc etc, only way to fix it was to do a reboot, ow and it wouldn't load the latest software upgraded either and the menu system took a lot of thought. Yes i could have taken it back and got a new one but it was a blessing in disguise.
I now have a Sagem freeview box with built in hard drive and yes it doesn't look as fancy but it was a good bit cheaper and most importantly it shows a good numberof channels that the FREESAT doesn't including Dave, Quest and a few others who's name i forget.

In my humble opinion firstly consider the channels you want (if u google freesat channels that will let you know what you get) Humax is too techno and the machine can't handle it consider a Sagem

Bigmuz7 · 15 August 2010, 17:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

I have already had 3 Sky+ boxes go tits up on me so have no real inclination to want to stay with Sky.

I know how you feel on that score

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

I like the look of the new TiVo premier box however its not available over here yet.

I had the old one and it was an excellent piece of kit

Sky bought them out, to remove competition for their own service and sky plus boxes .. I didnt know they were coming back ?

But if they are, I'd have one in a jiffy .. easy to use and it learns what you watch, so seeks out similar material and records it automagically for you, very clever piece stuff that genuinely made telly watching more useable when so many channels are avaialable

IIRC you still needed sky back then, because it used sky's EPG to get the channel listings, dont know how it goes now though ?

Nos4r2 · 15 August 2010, 18:26

Chris, why not just keep your current setup and stop paying them? You still get most of the channels you get on Freeview as free channels through Sky..

Bigmuz7 · 15 August 2010, 19:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nos4r2

Chris, why not just keep your current setup and stop paying them? You still get most of the channels you get on Freeview as free channels through Sky..

I got reduced to about 6 channels when I tried that at a holiday home IIRC

Nos4r2 · 15 August 2010, 19:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bigmuz7

I got reduced to about 6 channels when I tried that at a holiday home IIRC

I've got 30+ channels on mine, just with the free sky card in it not counting all the news channels.

All the BBCs, all the ITVs+C4 (apart from E4) including Film4 and a shedload of others. It's worth seeing what's there when the subscriptions expire before spending money on another box.

Bigmuz7 · 15 August 2010, 19:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nos4r2

I've got 30+ channels on mine, just with the free sky card in it not counting all the news channels.

All the BBCs, all the ITVs+C4 (apart from E4) including Film4 and a shedload of others. It's worth seeing what's there when the subscriptions expire before spending money on another box.

Hmm wonder why they did that to me then ?

Is it just a bog standard box ?

Nos4r2 · 15 August 2010, 21:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bigmuz7

Hmm wonder why they did that to me then ?

Is it just a bog standard box ?

I've got 2 boxes-a bog standard one and a Sky+ box which both do exactly the same.

The sky+ features don't work without paid subscription though.

Chris · 15 August 2010, 22:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nos4r2

I've got 2 boxes-a bog standard one and a Sky+ box which both do exactly the same.

The sky+ features don't work without paid subscription though.

My exisitng Sky+ box is fecked so damned if I am going to waste any more money on a new one. I dont want to pay £10 for having Sky+ either.

I think I might give the Humax a whirl.

Sky is wank anyway 999 channels of repeats.

Feck it

Blue Lightning · 16 August 2010, 09:09

I've got a Humax HD Freesat recorder and am v.pleased with it.
Almost as many channels as Sky, and you get recording / pause live TV etc for zero ongoing monthly cost ...

Chris · 17 August 2010, 10:36

I'm going to give the Tesco box ago.

I like the 3 year warranty option as these HDD based recorders do seem to suffer failures and it seems to have pretty comprehensive features considering its only £200.

John Kennett · 20 August 2010, 06:30

I got a Topfield TF5800 a couple of years or so ago, and have almost forgotten what TV adverts look like. On the few occasions when we watch TV live I really resent not being able to fast forward the ads!

The standard user interface on the Topfield is pretty dire, but it's very configurable and with a little bit of tweaking you can set it up to suit you Installing MyStuff and setting a few options completelely transforms it. If you are more geeky then there are loads of add ons too. Have a look at www.toppy.org.uk for more info.

I did have a hard disk failure, but tech support was excellent even after I had buggered around trying to fix it myself.