Right all we’re getting a nice shiny new HD tv (old one was early HD But had no access to HD content…excellent! :roll:).

Currently paying loads for sky basic service and only using freeview channels and recording.

We would like to simplify things somewhat and save sending a widget of money to sky every month. Please can the STW family advise me on:
HD freeview recorder box
Decent yet simple sound option
Anything else that is really needed in this day and age I.e. Streaming stuff or bluray, raspberry pi and any other cool kit I could persuade my wife to adopt!!

The caveat is that we live in the country and Internet is mega uber crap so no internet streaming content available until BT find £900k to connect our village with the rest of the country!

Cost effective options only please. Thanks in advance.

Cheers

Chris

if you have sky – get a freesat hd box

Humax make the gold standard of PVR boxes. They make the ones for BT so you can get their boxes used on ebay http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/digital-home/3507739/bt-youview-box-review-2014/ for about £100

you don’t need BT services to use it, just internet if you want the Iplayer stuff

How does freesat differ to freeview?

Ps thanks for advice so far!

free sat comes down at satellite dish, freeview down an ariel

I thought modern smart TV’s will act as a PVR by just adding a memory stick? We have a Sony TV which does this and it appears to work fine (i never watch tv, so i tried it, but don’t use this feature regularly), so you might be able to save some money / reduce box count by ditching the PVR?

A Youview box will have no advantage over its close relative, a Humax box, if your internet is truly rubbish. (say, below 2mb) However, if you know fibre to the cab is coming via BT or BDUK council funding, it might be worth going for the Youview box to futureproof. I cabled my estate for fibre but the lonely little cab for my street didn’t qualify, three years later it looks like BDUK will get it up and running in a few months 🙂

BT Youview is a freeview box needing an aerial, Humax do freeview and freesat.

There are some subtle differences with the channels available on each, I think Dave springs to mind as being available on one and not the other.

P.S Don’t know about Humax boxes, but the BT branded one is not as slick as a Sky box to navigate, its a little more clunky/laggy and the menus are upside down (guide at the bottom, press up to navigate the programs).

Better than Sky though with their non-stop advert runs every few minutes, I cancelled two years ago and then went back for a year on 75% off packages and £100 credit, and hardly watched the damn thing.

Thanks for all of your advice gang. Our internet is snail paced 0.8-1.2mb so terrible and not likely to get faster in the near future. Am I correct to understand that until internet is improved youview has no real benefits over freesat or freeview? Youview is the same as ‘freetime’ on sat I think isn’t it (so both need decent interenet connection).

Would freesat be relatively futureproof as it has freetime or is youview the better long termer?

All very confusing!

With internet that slow there’s no point IMHO buying something like YouView for an internet streaming service you won’t be able to use. However, if you have a load of digital content (e.g. music, photos, movies) it might be worth looking at something like Apple TV. Such devices will allow you to stream your own content over your local network but also have access to streaming services for if/when you get 21st century internet.

It is a bit of a minefield since not all TVs and set-top boxes have the same features and services, so start small and build up rather than do it all at once. It if were me in your shoes I’d just buy a TV with built in Freesat HD tuner and sort the rest when you learn what you miss.

[EDIT] for example I have music, photos and movies on my Mac. I can access all of them via Apple TV for viewing/listening on the big screen and stereo. No internet needed. The screensaver is a nice mix of photos from years gone by that mean photos are seen and not just filed away on a hard drive.

The BT box is a cheap way of getting the freeview HD functionality.

A new TV might offer some PVR functionality but it is unlikely to be as ‘sorted’ as a Humax (if the Humax is ‘sorted’ – I only have brief experience of an early one which seemed OK).

Freesat should be better than Freeview as they have loads more bandwidth to play with, so the pictures should be a lot better.

However everything seems to be ‘crippled’ to match freeview limitations so freeview doesn’t look deficient compared to the other options.

First of all i’d try ringing up Sky. I’m thinking about ditching Sky as i’ve got the basic package and the channels I watch are all available on freest/freeview. However a mate of mine tells me to just ring them up, threaten to leave and the chances are they’ll slash your monthly bill for a period of time. He’s been doing this for the last 2 yrs, so has been paying about 50% or less of what he should for the package he’s got. I’m going to try this in the new year because the Sky box seems to work a lot better than the Humax boxes from what I can tell, though my box is very old and getting clunky and crashy now so I’ll need to negotiate in a new sky box.

I’m very suspicious about TV over the internet. I’ve got a decent internet connection (between 25 and 50 Mbps) and watching HD content on iPlayer, Netflix and other services i’ve been disappointed with the picture quality – it is noticeably inferior to Sky HD, Freesat HD and definitely Blue Ray. Though these internet broadcasts are 1080×1920, so HD resolution, they are noticeably not at the same quality (maybe lower bit rate / frame rate or something). So if I were you, if picture quality is important to you (it is to me – i’ve bought an expensive TV and want to maximise its capability) then i’d stick with the conventional transmission methods rather than going to an internet based system.

If you’re deciding between freesat and freeview then take a look at the channel options as there are some differences, also, as i’ve got no ariel, the only downside to satellite is that in poor weather with heavy clouds and snow (as we had the other day) you can lose the signal. One alternative to the separate sky/humax box is to buy a TV with the capability of connecting an external USB HDD, which will enable you to record shows and get the pause/rewind/fast-forward functionality, though as there is no twin tuner you won’t be able to record one show and simultaneously watch another show on a different channel, so there are limitations.

For a decent yet cost effective sound option i’d suggest one of these all in one 5.1 surround sound systems. Less complex than a separate system, but far better than soundbar options – surround sound makes a film. They can be had for about £350 or so and the only downside is placement of speakers and hiding the wires.

All sound advice guys. Think i’ll go with the start slow approach here. The TV is a present so will await that and then attach a Freesat HD box if required.

It might be a good longer term project to collate all of our ‘well-distributed’ formats of media and get them onto one device.

Last thought: Are blurays going to be obselete with the progressions of streamed media (only useful for those in the broadband slow lane!)

Thanks all and happy new year in advance!

p.s. Just seen Wobbliscott’s great reply. Think internet is a no-no for now so definitely going for a Sat option I think. Glad you mentioned about the sound bar as was curious. Hiding wires is all part of the challenge anyway!

have a look at humax direct managers specials for cheap capable freeview and freesat boxes

Last thought: Are blurays going to be obselete with the progressions of streamed media

A typical bluray disc will still be a better image quality than a streamed movie for the time being, some streaming services are better than others. Of the ones I have access to I reckon Netflix is probably the best followed in order by iPlayer, amazon prime, 4OD and ITV player bringing up the rear. All a bit redundant until you can get a reliable, fast connection but I don’t think you’re missing out on anything other than convenience.

To give an alternative view to wobbliscott on soundbars. I’ve just removed a 5 speaker + sub system from our living room and replaced it with a soundbar, I found with the layout of our relatively small living room the 5 speaker setup was overkill (we were sat almost on top of the rear speakers) and the voice track of lots of things ended up a little lost. New soundbar has far better clarity and although I can no longer hear something entering the scene from behind me the overall quality and depth of the sound is much better. For comparison the 5:1 speakers and amp cost twice that of the soundbar so it’s not like I’ve necessarily stepped up to achieve better results. If I had a larger room where I could properly position decent sized speakers without it looking like a hifi shop then I would probably go for 5:1 but I don’t think it’s necessarily a perfect solution for small rooms.

[edit]

We’ve had BT TV for the last twelve months and can’t think of a time when I’ve watched any of their own channels, theres a fair amount of content, it’s just not for me. At the time it seemed like a fairly inexpensive way to get the PVR and have a dabble with some additional content, but I’ll be cancelling the BT TV subscription in the next week or so and keeping the PVR which I do find useful for recording stuff to view later.

The industry has only just signed up to commit to developing a 4k Blu-Ray format so it will be years before systems come to market by the time they’ve agreed a common format/standard, so 1080 HD Blu-Ray will remain the main format for a number of years yet I think. The problem with Internet is you cannot establish what it is you’re getting. At least with Blu-Ray you know what you’ve got, but with data streaming in via the Internet you haven’t a clue. That might not bother people – like I said before, I’ve invested in the decent kit so don’t want to sully that by feeding it with crap, so for me I’ll stick with Blu-Ray for the foreseeable.

Sounsd good guys. Small room here so perhaps soundbar the best option. Worst case scenario I can have a soundbar in the mancave and 5.1 in the living room!

Might be an obvious thing to say but all sound bars (or any other sound systems) are not created equal. Don’t rely on online reviews or even first hand experience from us on here, we all have different expectations how something should look, sound and function. Try and get yourself somewhere that’ll let you compare a few different models so that you can find the style and price point that best suits your needs. It’s good to ask about and get a general idea of what might be suitable but the last bit of the process really needs to be you standing in front of something and deciding whether or not you like the sound.

Over the last 5 years I’ve convinced myself that I really needed the latest greatest sound innovation of the time on several occasions only to turn up in store with cash in my pocket for a listen and realise that I didn’t really like the sound quality. If nothing else that process saved me a lot of money.

I have just bought a Denon DHT 100 sound base. It was only £129 from hyperfi ebay store, as it was a Denon refurbished item.
I listened to the Minx TV, Sony HT-XT1 and the Canton DM5.
I can’s see how the Denon is lacking in any way, to any of these, certainly at the volumes I can use without disturbing the neighbour.
It really brings out the atmosphere in blu-ray films and the Wii U games (Need for Speed) sounds ace blasting through tunnels in a lamborghini!