Has anyone got Freesat, and is it better than freeview.

I know there are more channels and they already have HD channels.

I already have freeview, which is ok, and sky, but am thinking of giving up sky, and getting a hard drive box, the freesat does look a better deal, thoughts please.

All you need is an existing Sat dish (some packages come with a dish) and you get all the non-subscription channels,
which is many more channels than Freeview.

Another advantage of Freesat is that you just need to get a satellite signal, which in a lot of places will be easier than getting a reliable Freeview signal.

I got it just because of that, as I'm in an area with very poor terrestrial reception, unless I want to speak Welsh

I am quite lucky that i can recieve all the freeview channels, with a strong signal on 2 tvs, i also have sky, so already have a dish set up.

Looking at both setups, freesat does appear to have more going for it, just waiting for there freesat+ box to come out, then i will prob go for it.

How much do these freesat boxes cost?

For just the box I mean?

It definitely makes sense compared to Freeview due to the HD content (mainly BBC HD and ITV HD) although I'd make sure your Freeview box is still around for when it rains.............

Not really an alternative to Sky (or Cable) though, but if you don't watch the Sky channels no point having it.

From approx. £45.00 for a SD box, up to about £150 for a HD box, depending on make. Argos do them.

The freesat+ box is due out very soon. dont know the price of it yet though

Thanks John

Hold up, wait a minute.

I have a freesat HD box but you should be aware that even though you might get more channels than freeview (although I'm not sure about that) you will be missing some key ones that freeview does have.

e.g. right now there is no 5 (although that's coming this month), no dave, no 5 US, no Fiver, and a whole heap of other channels missing. Something to do with the difference between "free to air" and "free to view". Just because a channel is free doesn't mean it's available on Freesat.

Have a look here for a list of channels currently available and although it looks a lot it's mostly regional or rubbish.


It doesn't bother me since I tend to watch shows Dl'ed on a HTPC (which is why the sky subscription made no sense) but if you like some of the freeview channels like Dave then you'll be losing them.

HD is nice - but so far it's only really BBC cos ITV do b-all.

Wimbledon was great in HD and F1 will be awesome next year but you need to weigh up the pros and cons.

If you do go for it my advise is to go for a Humax box - (the HDR if you can afford and are prepared to wait.)

hope that helps

This is a particular bone of contention in Mid Wales. Because there is currently no Freeview transmission in this area, there are TV channels available for free elsewhere in the British Isles that we have to pay for with a Sky subscription.

Anyway, on the subject of FreeSat, I bought myself a Panasonic TH-42PZ81B, 42" plasma with built-in Freeview and FreeSat. You certainly get what you pay for, the picture quality is awesome, and unlike the cheap own-brand sets (Durabrand, Onn, etc.) the set hardly gets warm.

Is Channel 4 HD coming anytime soon or is that going to remain Sky only for the time being? If it is I might think about it as we've already got a dish, so would just need a box...........

And yes if F1 is actually in HD next year, then I'll definitely be upgrading to a V+ box at that time

How weard is that lol, iv just been lookin in2 this readin up & shoppin about.

Been lookin @ the Humax u can get them 4 £100 on E-Bay new

The humax HD is a nice bit of kit - great EPG. If you have a dish already and don't want to pay Sky it's a pretty good option - although for now you'll have less worthwhile channels than freeview but I would think that'll change soon.

No iv not got a dish so guna cost me a bit more than some, im a bit miffed iv got freeview built in & av now got 2 go back 2 a box but it does say new channels are gettin added all the time & i want 2 get full potential out of my TV

Im likein the Humax with the hard drive but thats £300

If you're thinking of a new TV at the same time, you can get Panasonic ones with built-in Freesat as well. I've got the same model (minus the Freesat) and the picture is superb; it's a great TV. Then there is no box, you just stick the cable from the satellite socket in the back alongside the normal aerial.

I have an HD tv with built in freeview, and a freeview box in the bedroom, and have all the channels, so by buying the freesat+ box, i should have the best of both, and save £600 a year on sky.

If you're already a Sky subscriber, why not switch to Freesat from Sky (which will cost you nothing) instead of switching to Freesat from BBC?

Do you really pay £600 a year to Sky? £50/month? How will you cope without it if you have such a high package normally?

Have to agree that's a lot though, we pay £40/month to VM for everything so that's a lot of money for just TV...........

Well i got my Humax im all set up & there is nothin 2 watch in HD & what little there is,is rubbish

But the quality is spot on just wish there was more choice

We have Freeview but our terrestrial reception is not too good (we are in the "shadow" of a hill). We bought an HD ready TV some time ago but have put off buying a freesat box until one is available with twin channels and recording facilities. We have just taken delivery of a Humax Foxsat - HDR box with twin channels and a 320Gb hard drive and are literally waiting for the installation guy to come along this morning to put up the dish etc.

I hope I haven't jumped the gun. Will let you know how we get on . . . . . . .

The dish is installed and the Humax PVR worked straight out of the box - excellent reception - good pictures, but as someone remarked earlier, not much in HD.

First impression is that some aspects of its operation (recording, replaying and deleting programmes) are a good deal more complicated that with our Freeview PVR - whether this is necessary to deal with High Definition or satellite reception or is just them trying to be clever I don't know, but it really is much less intuitive than with the Freeview box and I have yet to get comfortable with it.

One of the silly disadvantages that I had not anticipated is that the channel numbers start from 100 upwards which means that to change the standard channels you have to enter three digits on the remote rather than one or two i.e. BBC One is 101; BBC Two is 102; ITV is 103 etc.

Finally, I cannot find the UK History channel and that's a pain because I like it a lot.

Yeah the 3 digits r a pain

I find BBC HD better than ITV do u ?