Best box to buy for freeview

[SheilaH]

Hi everyone,

Asking on behalf of my 90yo grandmother. 

She had Sky TV with all the sports for my grandad but he's now passed away and as she only watches Freeview she wanted a cheaper option going forward. (Phone, internet and freeview)

That turned out to be TalkTalk but she can't get used to the remote control and the EPG layout and misses the familiarity of Sky. 

Although we packed up the Sky box and returned it to Sky I see you can continue to use the boxes for Freeview. (I did some research on here first to avoid duplicating a question). 

But I guess I have a few questions still:

• Given we have the Sky infrastructure such as the dish and aerial and we only want Freeview what would be the best Sky box to buy and where could we get it the cheapest? The ability to pause and rewind would be great but not essential. 
  
  
• How different is the Sky EPG from what it was two years ago? We were going to change everything back to Sky as the contract is ending but they've offered her a great deal to continue but she still misses Sky. 

I know questions about freeview are not uncommon here so hope you don't mind yet another question on it. 

thanks for your time

[caesarome]

@SheilaH 

What box did she previously have was it a Sky+ one because the only option via Sky now is Sky Essentials which involves a Sky Q box:

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/tv-essentials

[nigea99]

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@SheilaH wrote:

Hi everyone,

Asking on behalf of my 90yo grandmother. 

She had Sky TV with all the sports for my grandad but he's now passed away and as she only watches Freeview she wanted a cheaper option going forward. (Phone, internet and freeview)

That turned out to be TalkTalk but she can't get used to the remote control and the EPG layout and misses the familiarity of Sky. 

Although we packed up the Sky box and returned it to Sky I see you can continue to use the boxes for Freeview. (I did some research on here first to avoid duplicating a question). 

But I guess I have a few questions still:

• Given we have the Sky infrastructure such as the dish and aerial and we only want Freeview what would be the best Sky box to buy and where could we get it the cheapest? The ability to pause and rewind would be great but not essential. 
  
  
• How different is the Sky EPG from what it was two years ago? We were going to change everything back to Sky as the contract is ending but they've offered her a great deal to continue but she still misses Sky. 

I know questions about freeview are not uncommon here so hope you don't mind yet another question on it. 

thanks for your time

---

Hi @SheilaH 

It does depend on what box she had - whether it was a SKY +/HD  box or SKY Q 

You mention Freeview - Freeview is actually the terrestrial service receoved via an aerial rather than a dish that all TVs shouold be able to receive - is uing this an option or is the  Tereestrial TV reception poor ?

This may be the cheapest option 

Freesat is the Free to air version delivered by Satellite  - 

If she had SKY HD then getting a second hand box may be the best option but SKY HD boxes won't work if she had SKY Q.. A SKY HD box can only be used to view i.e. not record  without the subscription

If she had SKY Q then  SKY do an essentials package as @caesarome mentions - you can't buy SKY Q  - only subscribe

SKY Q uses thumbnails and more graphical & has voice control whereas SKY HD is a simpler text based format that I suspect she is used to

The newer Freesat 4K boxes to buy can work with the set up that was used for both SKY HD & SKY Q and can record but I have no idea how easy the UI is  

[Mark39]

@SheilaH I've little to add to @nigea99's post except that I would guess your grandmother had Sky Q, if she was asked to return the box on cancellation.

Sky+ boxes are customer owned and don't have to be returned to Sky on cancellation.

[TimmyBGood]

@SheilaH 

As noted above, you appear to be referring to Freesat rather than Freeview (the distinction is crucial) because Freeview doesn't use a dish at all while Freesat absolutely requires one.

For a versatile box to attach to a satellite dish cable you'd want the most recent Freesat 4K recorder you can find, but be aware these are becoming extinct as the end of satellite television approaches.