TV box

[swill453]

Having used Virgin cable TV for decades, I'm moving house to somewhere with no Virgin availability.

The house has a Sky satellite dish, so the easy, but expensive, option would seem to get Sky broadband and a Sky Q box. I have a good 4K OLED TV, so it seems to make best use of that I'd be looking at forking out £70+ per month to Sky, and that's without any sports or movie channels.

So I'm looking at cheaper options. I may go for broadband only, and add a TV box to it. From previous discussion on here I don't think I want to rely on the digital terrestrial facilities of my TV alone.

So can anyone recommend a particular TV box? I don't really think I need 4k capability, since I understand there aren't actually any Freeview 4K channels? My TV apps can take care of any Netflix or Amazon Prime Ultra HD viewing that I'd be doing.

Scott.

[Markab01]

As you have a sat dish I would be looking at a Freesat box and not a freeview one.

I would look at the very extensive range on offer and decide whether I needed recording facilities and narrow it down from there.
Sorry that I cannot recommend any particular one and I do not think the one that I use is still available. Panasonic with HDD and Blu Ray recorder.

[swill453]

As you have a sat dish I would be looking at a Freesat box and not a freeview one.

I had mentally ruled out Freesat as I understood Channel 4 HD wasn't available on it, a showstopper for me. But I've just googled it and see it's available now.

Scott.

[scotview]

As you have a sat dish I would be looking at a Freesat box and not a freeview one.

Another advantage of Freesat is that you get Bloomberg TV and I think it is subscription free. Freeview doesn't have Bloomberg.

[Urbandreamer]

Amazon are currently selling their firestick for £23.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08C1RR8JM/ ... =pd_gw_unk

I bought a second one, for a second TV or to take upon holiday.
I don't actually use it that much but my wife loves EuroSport.

Of course you do need to pay if you want a subscription to the likes of EuroSport, Netflix et-al, though I-player etc are free (covered by license fee).

[airbus330]

Before committing to SKY Q, see if you can find a friend who has one to play with. We changed from Sky+ HD machine to the SkyQ and are quite dissatisfied with it. Poor SD picture, clunky UI and a known issue of dropping the Wifi connection every other day. The programme guide, IMHO, is also inferior. Unfortunately, where we live makes alternative services unattractive or impossible, but we made a mistake changing to Q. The only alternative that looks vaguely attractive is the BT TV Box, but then you are tying yourself to BT Internet which is a prerequisite for the service. If your new home has a strong internet speed, Sky Glass might be worth investigating.

[swill453]

Amazon are currently selling their firestick for £23.

I know I haven't really stated my requirements, but I'm looking for a TV box with hard disk for Freeview/sat recording, series recording, pausing live TV, that sort of thing.

I reckon my smart TV would cover just about everything that the Firestick can do anyway.

Scott.

[swill453]

Sky Glass might be worth investigating.

Having spent over a grand on a smart 4K OLED TV, Sky Glass isn't for me thanks.

Scott.

[Redmires]

Amazon are currently selling their firestick for £23.

I know I haven't really stated my requirements, but I'm looking for a TV box with hard disk for Freeview/sat recording, series recording, pausing live TV, that sort of thing.

I reckon my smart TV would cover just about everything that the Firestick can do anyway.

Scott.

I was just about to recommend the Humax Freesat box that I have, which does everything on your list, but I've just looked on their website and they have stopped selling Freesat's. They still do Freeview boxes though and I have one of these too (HDR-1800T). Quite a few models are out of stock but there's a Humax HDR-1800T 500GB Freeview HD Recorder for £129

https://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/freeview.html

Or a bit cheaper for a refurbished model.

https://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/refurbished.html

I've been well pleased with Humax's over the years and never really had issues with them.

PS. Thanks for the tip about C4 HD. It was removed from Freesat a year or two ago but I've just checked and it's back on Channel 126. Nice one!

[AF62]

So can anyone recommend a particular TV box?

Aside from the boxes supplied by the service providers (Virgin, Sky, BT) you are going to be limited because boxes to record tv is an end of life market, going the same way as Betamax, VHS, and DVD recorders, as people have moved on to streaming tv (and if you want to pause live tv most tvs allow you to put in a memory stick that will then allow this).

Humax and Manhattan are the few companies out there still making them. Humax are ok and my parents had one, but their remote controls seem to fall apart quickly and are damned expensive to replace. Manhattan has always appeared to be a ‘cheap & cheerful’ brand.