Freesat

No - though DJGM did. The OP didn't mention Sky+ recording either I guess!

It's horses for courses. If HD and recording aren't issues for you - and iPlayer on your telly isn't either (Freesat HD boxes are doing that ISTR) then "Freesat from Sky" is a good solution - if HD and free recording are important - then Freesat is worth a look.

Channel 4 HD comes to Freesat in April! Good News.

Excellent news indeed. The Freesat HD offering has been very slow to improve IMO.

I'm also thinking of moving to Freesat - I don't think there's anything on Freesat from Sky which I will miss and I don't want to have to pay Sky for the recording functionality. The Humax FoxSAT seems to be the best machine out there and offers a few features which the Sky+ HD box doesn't.

Channel 4 HD in FTA is up and testing on 12606V at 28250 SR using FEC3/4 (and QPSK not 8PSK?) DVB-S2. It's the first DVB-S2 Freesat HD channel (BBC One HD, BBC HD and the Freesat ITV1 HD feeds are DVB-S)

I've added it to my Windows Media Center set-up and it works fine. I've also added it to a Foxsat HDR that my dad runs (though as it isn't in the EPG you have to switch to non-Freesat mode to watch it)

Hopefully FilmFour HD will make it onto Freesat sometime.

Isn't FilmFour HD Virgin Media only at the moment (I think Virgin did a deal with C4?)

I guess Sky have no interest in assisting C4 to provide FilmFour HD on DSat (as it is competition for their movie channels) - unlike the main C4HD (which Sky probably funded in return for exclusivity for a period - which is now coming to an end?)

I think so but I don't know how long that is due to go on. Hopefully it will be available to go on Freesat at some point. I thought OFCOM were supposed to be looking into exclusivity of channels on particular platforms. It seems a bit odd that VM have git this and nobody else has got it yet they were complaining about Sky keeping the HD sports channels to themselves.

At the end of the day, it's the viewers who are losing out.

I think the difference was that Sky owned the platform AND the channel - whereas Virgin have done a deal with a third party. That's quite a different issue.

Indeed and thereby lies the problem.

I've never managed to work out why Sky is allowed to be a channel owner and service provider. That seems wrong to me.

Why? There is nothing to stop other people doing the same.

Sky don't own all the channels on their platform.

You're not alone with that thought - and in some countries it isn't possible to be both a major platform provider AND a major channel provider - to avoid such a monopoly developing and the market being controlled (and thus distorted)