How to watch freesat - viewing card or Humax?

Hi

Apologies if this has been asked before (I'm sure it has!) but...

I've cancelled my Sky subscription and want to watch and record freesat channels via my Sky dish.

Which is the best option?

A Sky Freesat card? Or a Humax box?

Or something else?

Humax they are best Freesat boxes and Sky won’t let you without a subscription.

Hi Jon. Thanks.

I was under the impression that you could buy a Freesat viewing card from Sky for £25. Is a subscription also required?

If you've cancelled your Sky subscription, your existing card should turn into a 'freesat from Sky' card. The viewing card is required to get the correct region, to enable certain PIN protections and provides access to a small number of free-to-view channels (encrypted, but free to watch), including Sony Movie Channel and Insight TV HD.

Sky has traditionally required viewers to continue paying in order to retain the Sky+HD recording functionality.

This is not required on Freesat Humax boxes, however the range of channels in the EPG is more limited; the Freesat channel list does not include every free-to-air satellite channel, although it's possible to manually add missing channels, although newer Freesat boxes make this process a little more cumbersome than it used to be.

A switch from Sky to Freesat involves changing the receiver - unless you have SkyQ, where the LNB on the dish will need to be changed.

Many thanks!

Just so I'm clear (sorry if I seem a bit dim...), can I use my Sky box and existing Sky viewing card and get a reasonable selection of free to view channels?

Can you clarify what you mean in your last sentence that I 'need to change the receiver'?

As long as you don't want to record anything from your post-subscription Sky STB, then it will offer you more than a Freesat STB - but not the HD channels (apart from PSBs) you'll mainly get just an SD-only offering.


You can configure it all through a DVD recorder to allow you to record programmes, but only on a channel you're tuned to, not anything else.

Many newer TVs have Freesat built in, and you can connect an external HDD to record programmes other than the one you're watching. They also allow access to Catch-up TV, On Demand etc, but only via streaming - not the progressive download that Sky uses.

Depending on your circumstances, it may be worth considering just keeping the Sky+ subscription (£10 a month) which retains every function except the pay-TV channels on Sky. Sky no longer count you as a subscriber, so you would soon receive good offers to "go back to them".

That's very helpful. Thank you!

What's different about the Sky Q LNB?

It’s wideband rather than the old high/low band switched LNB and so incompatible with most other receivers- including Freesat ones. If there are other types of boxes installed in a household (or you ask the engineer very nicely) Sky can fit a ‘hybrid’ LNB that will work with both.

Sky Q can also use Unicable LNBs (not to be confused with the Sky SCR stuff used previously). Most Sky Q installs use the 2 x LNB feed Wideband horizontal and vertical LNBs - but you can also use Unicable or Unicable II I believe.

You'll get about a year's worth of 'come back to Sky' offers - I think the lowest I got was 60% off for a year; another was Sky+ functionality only for £5/mo. Clearly they'd rather have some money from you than none.