topic Re: Alternative to sky q in Sky Q

Alternative to sky q

dardismagee — Sun, 03 Mar 2024 21:03:55 GMT

Hi. I'm currently on the tv essentials package and broadband with sky. I have a sky q box. I'm paying £15 basically to record/pause tv. If I cancel I have to give the sky q box back to sky.

Is there an alternative box so I'm not switching cables etc. A straight swap?

Thank u

Re: Alternative to sky q

nigea99 — Sun, 03 Mar 2024 21:07:39 GMT

@dardismagee wrote:

Hi. I'm currently on the tv essentials package and broadband with sky. I have a sky q box. I'm paying £15 basically to record/pause tv. If I cancel I have to give the sky q box back to sky.

Is there an alternative box so I'm not switching cables etc. A straight swap?

Thank u

hi @dardismagee

Yes a Freesat 4K box will work with the same set up

Re: Alternative to sky q

oldfella — Sun, 03 Mar 2024 21:08:01 GMT

@dardismagee wrote:

Hi. I'm currently on the tv essentials package and broadband with sky. I have a sky q box. I'm paying £15 basically to record/pause tv. If I cancel I have to give the sky q box back to sky.

Is there an alternative box so I'm not switching cables etc. A straight swap?

Thank u

Hi @dardismagee

The latest Freesat 4K boxes will work with the Sky Dish and LNB.

https://www.freesat.co.uk/

Re: Alternative to sky q

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Mar 2024 21:29:02 GMT

Hi @dardismagee ,

Freesat is a great alternative which works with the Sky dish, you can find more information here: https://www.freesat.co.uk/switching-is-easy .

As you would be switching from Sky Q then your dish is likely to have a wideband LNB and you will be able to record three different channels while you watch another, or record four different channels while you watch a recording you made earlier (or any programme On Demand).

Freesat 4K boxes are available as recordable or non-recordable; the recordable sounds most suitable, as you are able to pause/rewind and record live TV, whereas the non-recordable box does not allow you to do either.

The Freesat 4k Recordable Box allows you to stream on demand content, record programmes (also using the Freesat app) and pause/rewind live TV.

The 4K Recordable box is available in 500GB (approx. 250 SD hours), 1TB (approx. 500 SD hours) and 2TB (approx. 1000 SD hours).

Regards,

Daniel.

Re: Alternative to sky q

MattHill — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 14:19:44 GMT

How are you paying £15pm? I've literally just come off Chat with Sky rep who told me that Sky Signature is the lowest TV package I can have, at £35pm?

Re: Alternative to sky q

dardismagee — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 14:26:26 GMT

@MattHill sky don't like to tell you about this package. Its called tv essentials £15 a month. Basically I can still keep the q box and have access to all freeview channels and still b able to record pause rewind etc

Re: Alternative to sky q

MattHill — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 14:38:16 GMT

Wow, this is how they reward me for 22 years with Sky? Lying to me about what packages I can downgrade to? Thanks for the info 🙂

Re: Alternative to sky q

GlamRock — Fri, 03 May 2024 18:00:17 GMT

They didn't offer up this info at all during my cancellation convo but the email after says:

"If you are cancelling your TV service and retaining Broadband, you do not need to return the Sky Q Hub or Booster."

Which is well worth knowing!

Re: Alternative to sky q

Invisiblename — Fri, 03 May 2024 18:33:52 GMT

@GlamRock wrote:
They didn't offer up this info at all during my cancellation convo but the email after says:

"If you are cancelling your TV service and retaining Broadband, you do not need to return the Sky Q Hub or Booster."

Which is well worth knowing!

They are not referencing the Sky Q satellite receiver, just the equipment associated with Sky broadband.

Re: Alternative to sky q

Forever+Customer — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 14:39:35 GMT

Yeah same here my price went up by 30 to 40% in the last year and they didn't seem to care too much about offering me a better deal after over 22 years of custom. Then after cancelling I see that the Sky Q box even blocks free services like BBC iPlayer so I've just packaged up my Q box to send back.

The packaging provided for return of equipment is shockingly bad - I can only assume the eqipment goes straight into the trash on return.

End of an era - shame really all they had to do was knock a tenner a month off and I'd have probably signed up for another year or 2. Nevermind too late now the Q box gets collected tomorrow. Time to go shopping for a Freeview or Freesat recorder I guess.

Re: Alternative to sky q

Padam_Padam — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 14:45:42 GMT

@Forever+Customer wrote:
Yeah same here my price went up by 30 to 40% in the last year and they didn't seem to care too much about offering me a better deal after over 22 years of custom. Then after cancelling I see that the Sky Q box even blocks free services like BBC iPlayer so I've just packaged up my Q box to send back.

The packaging provided for return of equipment is shockingly bad - I can only assume the eqipment goes straight into the trash on return.

End of an era - shame really all they had to do was knock a tenner a month off and I'd have probably signed up for another year or 2. Nevermind too late now the Q box gets collected tomorrow. Time to go shopping for a Freeview or Freesat recorder I guess.

If you have a Freeview antenna then I can recommend the newly launched Manhattan T4-R recorder. Very easy to use, has a full searchable EPG, all the free to air catch up apps, watchlist, etc. Records two channels at once and very easy to skip through ads on recordings.

Re: Alternative to sky q

Forever+Customer — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 14:53:00 GMT

Thanks - I've been trying to find a freview box that can also get the Disney+ app but it seems these boxes only do Netflix & Prime in addition to the usual catch up apps.

Re: Alternative to sky q

TimmyBGood — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 15:38:32 GMT

@Forever+Customer wrote:

Then after cancelling I see that the Sky Q box even blocks free services like BBC iPlayer so I've just packaged up my Q box to send back.

Without a subscription that's a requirement anyway.

The packaging provided for return of equipment is shockingly bad - I can only assume the eqipment goes straight into the trash on return.

As far as we know it's refurbished, but after eight years Q is almost certainly at market saturation (and superceded by Glass/Stream) so realistically Sky doesn't need that many spare boxes any more.

Time to go shopping for a Freeview or Freesat recorder I guess.

Be aware that Freesat is only going to be losing channels from now on: Freeview Play is most versatile, with Freely being rather limited at the moment.

Re: Alternative to sky q

Forever+Customer — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 15:44:22 GMT

Yes it does appear that satellite TV's days are numbered.

Re: Alternative to sky q

Padam_Padam — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 15:52:14 GMT

@Forever+Customer wrote:
Thanks - I've been trying to find a freview box that can also get the Disney+ app but it seems these boxes only do Netflix & Prime in addition to the usual catch up apps.

Depending on how much you record, you may find that your TV has a perfectly good Freeview receiver built in, along with the ability to set recordings to any USB flash or hard drive. That's what I currently do with my Panasonic OLED which has Freeview Play built in. I added a 256Gb USB flash drive (which cost less than £20) and I can record anything easily from the full EPG. It only has a single tuner so can only record one thing at a time but we watch so little free-to-air TV that it's perfectly adequate for our needs. The TV also has all the catch-up apps built in along with Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, Prime, etc but we mainly use an Apple TV 4K box to stream all our TV these days.

Re: Alternative to sky q

Forever+Customer — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 19:20:19 GMT

Leaning towards giving an Apple TV box a whirl.

Re: Alternative to sky q

Wolves12 — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 08:58:38 GMT

I too was in the same situation., sky reduced the cost by £5, to £41 per month for Sky Signiture. (£9 of that is HD!!) Which will only creap back up next April by £2-3 anyway.

After 20+ years... I took a leap of faith and so far, so good..

I moved to TV viewing through my Apple tv box. Picture quality is much better on the streaming sites and I feel in complete control on what I pay. NOW Tv does me and there are little deals popping up every month avoiding the Minimum terms clasues. I'm paying 6.99 for entertaiment and 6.00 for booster (non contract)..

My Broadband is middle of range and holds well with no glitches and i'm paying annually for Discovery Plus (£40) and dip in and out for Paramount at £7.

It's not everyones cup of tea, but it's certainly nice being in control and avoiding a 24 month contract....

I don't work for Sky, theses views are my own.

Thanks.

Re: Alternative to sky q

Forever+Customer — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 11:04:50 GMT

I'd have happily kept my Sky Q box for another few years if Sky had been willing to at least negotiate on price but they refused and there's no way I'm taking a 30-40% increase in a single year it's just not reasonable. I had been a Sky customer for decades so much for loyalty or VIP status.

It's clear that Sky want to ditch their satellite TV overheads completely and go all IP so you end up paying for the broadband connection and they pocket more profit. Looks like existing Sky Q customers will gradually get price bullied out in pursuance of this strategy. Such a shame as I really liked the independance of dish TV and hybrid boxes were a good mix for when there are comms issues.

Well a foot shot for Sky with this customer as you did not make me feel wanted and now I'm gone and will shortly also take my entire family and all our mobile/sim contracts away to other providers. Sad to have to do it but as Magnus Magnusson used to say "I've started so I'll finish".

Re: Alternative to sky q

Mark39 — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 13:32:26 GMT

@Forever+Customer wrote:

It's clear that Sky want to ditch their satellite TV overheads completely and go all IP so you end up paying for the broadband connection and they pocket more profit.

You don't need Sky Broadband to make use of Sky Stream, any more than you do for Sky Q. Both will work with any service provider.

Re: Alternative to sky q

TimmyBGood — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 13:50:47 GMT

@Forever+Customer wrote:

It's clear that Sky want to ditch their satellite TV overheads completely and go all IP

If SES doesn't replace the trio of orbiting platforms at 28.2E before they run out of positioning propellant, Sky has very little choice about a technology shift. Satellite television doesn't work very well if there are no satellites for all those dishes to point at.

I'd also note that Sky isn't a pioneering UK satellite television company any more, it's the European division of an American cable corporation.