Decent Freesat recorder box?

Hey hey,

Noticed my monthly Sky direct debit increased by £10 this month, going up all the way up to £52 quid in June - this is from £28 and so I’ve finally given up and cancelled, after 21 years as a Sky customer. They claim to have restructured their packages and my legacy pricing and deal is no longer available.

Thing is for me, Sky without Movies has no value and to keep the price reasonable that is all I can cancel, never had boxsets, just had the base package and movies (technically the kids channels to but they were free and just full of adverts and Imported crap), and so Disney+, Netflix and Freesat seems a good way forward.

So here’s the question, any Freesat recorder boxes you’d recommend? Haven’t had freeview for years but I always remember how unstable the boxes used to be, missing recordings etc and one thing I will give Sky credit for is the set top box has been rock solid for many years.

Any suggestions?

Looked at NowTV?

I wouldn't give up to easily with Sky. My mum is able to get her original legacy package renewed every 12 months and she has only been with them for 15 years.

She is still on the original Sky World package and they seem very reluctant to move her onto anything else.

There's not a huge amount of choice in the Freesat PVR area these days. Humax may still sell a box (though I'm not sure they have a G3 box).

Freesat themselves have just launched their own G3 boxes made by Arris.

Also - you don't get C4HD on Freesat (C4 only pay for the SD channel to be in the EPG). You can add it outside the EPG on some boxes - but you lose the ease of recording.

Freeview HD is definitely worth considering - that includes C4HD and you have a wider choice of boxes (though a smaller selection of channel - but C4+1 HD and 4Seven HD are Freeview HD exclusive ISTR if you get COM7 / COM8)

I was on the call for 35 minutes, lets say with time on hold and security checks it's half an hour.. i don't think there is many more times i could ask for the same thing!



Noggin - thank you - I don't have a freeview aerial, but our house is relatively new and has points in every room so it is something i might consider, when we looked at most of the stuff we watch, it's still mostly the original terrestrial channels and vod, so i probably won't loose much by going to freeview, it just liked the convenience of a drop in replacement box.

A colleague of mine when buying his mum’s house had to change the Sky from his mum’s name to his, which resulted in his mother having to cancel the account and then my colleague starting a new one. Apparently Sky had called his mother frequently with some really good deals. It maybe worth holding outright and see if they come calling back.

Funny that, I phoned up Sky yesterday and I got through straight away.
Mind you it might have had something to do with being an 0800 number... funny how quickly the phones get answered when they're paying for the call and not you

The website saynoto0870.com is your friend. I save a fortune in telephone call charges with this where possible...

No I got through straightaway, maybe five minutes waiting for all the keyworker messages, menu system navigation etc. For 30 minutes I was speaking to somebody, first somebody in billing and then “disconnections”... I was only asking for the price to be the same as I’ve been paying and if they want to throw in box sets, they can but it has no value to me so I wouldn’t be prepared to pay anymore than a token amount for it. If I wanted it badly enough I would have 2 less coffees a week and I’d a pay for it. They wouldn’t go lower than £37 so... and that’s too much really

less of an issue these days though as 03 numbers have mostly replaced 08.

Managed to talk Virgin round recently into a discount although they said to stay on my old Mix TV bundle rather than moving to either Big or Bigger as you get a better selection of channels on the legacy one for the same price.

This is true, but not the point I was getting at. Why pay for a phone call when you can find a free number? I don't have inclusive calls on the landline, and these days they charge you 26p just to set it up, never mind anything else!

03 numbers are now classed the same as 01 and 02 numbers, so they're included within your mobile minutes.