FreeSat Vs FreeView

[SexyGreyFox]

Sounds awfully like something you have to update on a regular basis as opposed to just working

Only if you've got a motorised dish, I'm now fixed for the last 5 years.
You can keep up with your 'Enigma 2 requires constant updates' nonsense but it's untrue.
I will agree there's a learning curve to get an Enigma 2 STB to your preferences but if I was to die now my wife should still be using that STB until she dies without any update.
My VU+ Solo2 lasted for 9 years without a single update and to be honest you only updated the channels on the satellites that weren't 28.2E.

 

[Jez]

To be honest, I could probably more than survive with my AppleTV box - it has all of the catch-up services, I tend to always have a Netflix & Prime subscription and then periodically take out Disney/AppleTV subscriptions when I want to binge something (and I'll do the same with NowTV going forward).
Mainly for the wife to be honest as she will just settle down and watch something as it is being broadcast. I know the Gen3 FreeSat boxes aren't cheap, but again my thinking is initial outlay and then it'll just keep on working, no further costs etc.

Replying specifically to this as you mentioned that you already have an AppleTV:

I ditched sky years ago and based on recommendation on this forum swapped to an Apple TV combined with Channels app and an HDHomerun - it is fantastic and now serves all of our TV. The HDhomerun is a device which sits on your LAN, has 2 tuners and feeds all of the freeview channels into IP bundles. You then install an Apple TV app called "Channels" which has a lovely EPG. I bundled the biggest aerial i could find from screwfix (about £20 ) into our loft and tore down the ugly dish which i didnt technically have planning permission for anyway.

https://getchannels.com/apple-tv/

Wouldnt want to move away from this, but then i love Apple UIs.

Added small bonus is that plex and apps like VLC can also dial into the HDhomerun separately, so my PCs and things can all watch live freeview if they wanted to, over our LAN.

 

[stoofa]

Replying specifically to this as you mentioned that you already have an AppleTV:

I ditched sky years ago and based on recommendation on this forum swapped to an Apple TV combined with Channels app and an HDHomerun - it is fantastic and now serves all of our TV. The HDhomerun is a device which sits on your LAN, has 2 tuners and feeds all of the freeview channels into IP bundles. You then install an Apple TV app called "Channels" which has a lovely EPG. I bundled the biggest aerial i could find from screwfix (about £20 ) into our loft and tore down the ugly dish which i didnt technically have planning permission for anyway.

https://getchannels.com/apple-tv/

Wouldnt want to move away from this, but then i love Apple UIs.

Added small bonus is that plex and apps like VLC can also dial into the HDhomerun separately, so my PCs and things can all watch live freeview if they wanted to, over our LAN.

Thank you for that post - very interesting.
I'll have a read up about all of that.

 

[Jez]

Thank you for that post - very interesting.
I'll have a read up about all of that.

Meant to also say, I wouldn’t want to subscribe to the “DVR” version of the app which I linked to above. Who needs a DVR in 2022 (The stand-alone app still caches the live channel so you can still live pause and rewind etc).

I’ve got the standalone app for Apple TV and iPhones etc. https://getchannels.com/for-hdhomerun/

 

[Blackjack Davy]

Freeview or Freesat? If you have a dish then freesat everytime theres far more channels available hundreds as well as more HD theres maybe only a dozen freeview channels here and only BBC one in HD freesat by contrast has Two, Four, Ch4, Ch5, Quest, etc etc. You can get FTA channels via regular satellite DVB S/S2 tuner or via the Freesat epg. Whats the difference? Well freesat is curated its easy to use/setup and has a tv guide the other has a few more channels that are not on the epg like yesterday+1, yesterday is on it but +1 is not for some reason despite both being SD FTA

Many/most TV's have a satellite tuner these days but a box may give a better picture especially for SD

 

[LuckyBenski]

Full disclosure - I do work in the broadcast industry, albeit on the smart TV/software side...

Aside from increased HD channels I find choice between satellite and terrestrial usually comes down to signal availability. If you've got an antenna and dish already that's a great position to be in - you could test the terrestrial experience on your TV and go from there.

Out of interest did they reclaim the SkyQ box and/or does it work without a subscription? I know older Sky boxes can be used effectively as Freesat boxes.

Freeview or Freesat? If you have a dish then freesat everytime theres far more channels available hundreds as well as more HD theres maybe only a dozen freeview channels here and only BBC one in HD freesat by contrast has Two, Four, Ch4, Ch5, Quest, etc etc. You can get FTA channels via regular satellite DVB S/S2 tuner or via the Freesat epg. Whats the difference? Well freesat is curated its easy to use/setup and has a tv guide the other has a few more channels that are not on the epg like yesterday+1, yesterday is on it but +1 is not for some reason despite both being SD FTA

Many/most TV's have a satellite tuner these days but a box may give a better picture especially for SD

Sounds like you have terrible signal. Typical channel scan for me brings about 130 services, which is something like 80 TV channels and the rest are HD, radio, specialist etc.

Satellite tuners are still in less than half of TVs IMO, obviously with a skew towards the higher end brands. If you go with a bigger name there's better odds.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

Sounds like you have terrible signal. Typical channel scan for me brings about 130 services, which is something like 80 TV channels and the rest are HD, radio, specialist etc.

I believe it depends on where you live? Here on the south coast I did a rescan on Freeview and it returned a grand total of 53 channels my mothers place in the SW has a similar number maybe a few more but definitely limited compared with 191 channels on Freesat and 262 on general satellite fta admitedly a number of those are regional variations. Freeview is BBC 1,2,4, ITV1,2,3,4,Ch4,5, Film4,More4,E4,Cbeebies,BBC news, parliament and a selection of BBC radio

I have a satellite tuner in a Hisense (£280) and Freesat + satellite in a Bravia (£688) people need to check the specs before buying of course

 

[LuckyBenski]

I believe it depends on where you live? Here on the south coast I did a rescan on Freeview and it returned a grand total of 53 channels my mothers place in the SW has a similar number maybe a few more but definitely limited compared with 191 channels on Freesat and 262 on general satellite

Yep definitely depends on region e.g. some areas don't have certain multiplexes as they depend on secondary repeaters etc. And interesting that by comparison, satellite only has one "transmitter region" which covers the entire British isles. I never saw that comparison before

 

[stoofa]

Full disclosure - I do work in the broadcast industry, albeit on the smart TV/software side...

Aside from increased HD channels I find choice between satellite and terrestrial usually comes down to signal availability. If you've got an antenna and dish already that's a great position to be in - you could test the terrestrial experience on your TV and go from there.

Out of interest did they reclaim the SkyQ box and/or does it work without a subscription? I know older Sky boxes can be used effectively as Freesat boxes.

I've been told the SkyQ box will have to be returned - it's one of the nice 2TB HDR boxes, but despite everything I paid at install time, it was only ever mine for as long as I had the service. I'm not convinced they still offer the option to keep (even with a cost) the old Q box.
The dish is still there and I was very much hoping that if I went the FreeSat route it would be unplug SkyQ box, plug in replacement FreeSat box and rescan. I also got the impression that as long as it is a Gen3 box, all "should" just work and I'd also get three record one live (If I wanted to record stuff).

 

[LuckyBenski]

The dish is still there and I was very much hoping that if I went the FreeSat route it would be unplug SkyQ box, plug in replacement FreeSat box and rescan. I also got the impression that as long as it is a Gen3 box, all "should" just work and I'd also get three record one live (If I wanted to record stuff).

Just done a quick search and that does look to be the case

 

[Mel_P]

If you’re going Freesat, try to get a Humax receiver as the latest generation Freesat boxes (Arris) have excellent HW, but they outsourced the OS and it’s very sluggish.

Humax dont seem to make them any more - only second hand ones available?

 

[Mel_P]

The dispute with Channel 4 (missing HD channels and other C4 brands like Box music channels and the like) has all been recently resolved and they have been relisted in the Freesat EPG

The "All4 app is not available (yet?) on "on demand"?

 

[jaybee]

These are the two main parts:

https://www.world-of-satellite.co.u...eivers/vu-plus/vu-plus-uno-4k-se-fbc-dvb-s-s2
Gigablue are also OK but I'm a VU+ fanboy.

https://www.world-of-satellite.co.u...-lnb/gt-sat-gt-s1dcss24-unicable-lnb-1-legacy

This is a good guide on how to setup the 8 tuners - https://www.world-of-satellite.com/showthread.php?60640-GT-Sat-GT-dLNB1DY-and-tuner-configuration

A guide to using Unicable - https://www.world-of-satellite.com/showthread.php?59981-Guide-to-using-Unicable&highlight=unicable

It is straight forward to be honest but I'm always here.
I could also give you my image so you'd have nothing to setup.
You can even get a VU+ APP on your phone so when aligning the LNB/Dish you can see the signal strength.

And of course if you live near Stoke you can always come round.

Coming back to this...
Do I have to use a unicable LNB? I currently have an octo "normal" LNB for a sky style elliptical dish. As in the mini dish. Can I not use one or two of the connections off that, or will it not send all the data I need down it?

With regard to the box you use, are there any competing ones that offer the same but cheaper? I don't care for the functionality as a set top box at all. It will sit in a cupboard and just provide the live Freesat streams for me. Do you know what the power consumption at the wall is for the unit you have whilst idle and in use? What about standby mode or does it not have that? Boot up time from standby and full off? Does it get hot? Does it have a fan and make any noise? I take it I won't need a hard drive if I am not utilizing any of the features of a viewer/client locally from it.

With regard to the 8 tuners I'm wondering if I need them or could suffice with less. The clients I want to watch Freesat on are all fairly modern TVs but I guess I would need to grab some firesticks for those duties. With that in mind, I can't record to a firestick can I? I mean what does one do for storage? Do you use the recording feature at all?

Thanks for the info on this.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

Coming back to this...
Do I have to use a unicable LNB? I currently have an octo "normal" LNB for a sky style elliptical dish. As in the mini dish. Can I not use one or two of the connections off that, or will it not send all the data I need down it?

With regard to the box you use, are there any competing ones that offer the same but cheaper? I don't care for the functionality as a set top box at all. It will sit in a cupboard and just provide the live Freesat streams for me. Do you know what the power consumption at the wall is for the unit you have whilst idle and in use? What about standby mode or does it not have that? Boot up time from standby and full off? Does it get hot? Does it have a fan and make any noise? I take it I won't need a hard drive if I am not utilizing any of the features of a viewer/client locally from it.

With regard to the 8 tuners I'm wondering if I need them or could suffice with less. The clients I want to watch Freesat on are all fairly modern TVs but I guess I would need to grab some firesticks for those duties. With that in mind, I can't record to a firestick can I? I mean what does one do for storage? Do you use the recording feature at all?

Thanks for the info on this.

You need a Unicable LNB to get the most out of a Unicable box.
Gigablue also do Unicable and are a bit cheaper.
The clients could programme the STB from the Firestick so it records to the STB hard drive.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Humax dont seem to make them any more - only second hand ones available?

Some online stores still claim to have stock.

Arris now make Freesat boxes, but the user reviews of their early products aren’t great.

 

[Mel_P]

Sound is not great on Freesat but that is the fault of Freesat transmissions not the STB I believe?