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As above, Sky finally went back after almost 30 years. Bought a 2TB Manhattan box that plugs into standard aerial. I tried Freesat 18 months ago and wasn’t impressed, it just felt clunky and slow. The Manhattan box is far better, a lot faster and the remote feels nice, it’s programmable, you point your TV remote at the Manhattan remote, press certain buttons and it learns the functions. You can record 2 programs whilst watching a third.
Enyaq EV
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I went a slightly different route and got an Apple TV+, it has breathed new life into an ‘old’ Sony TV. I don’t pay a subscription but do use all the catch up TV players.
The Manhattan box sounds like a good substitution for Sky.
Skoda Enyaq Race Blue
I went a slightly different route and got an Apple TV+, it has breathed new life into an ‘old’ Sony TV. I don’t pay a subscription but do use all the catch up TV players. The Manhattan box sounds like a good substitution for Sky.
I had the first generation Apple TV box, I used it to cast from my phone to the tv. For all my apps, YouTube, Prime, Netflix etc I use a 4k Firestick.
Another reason not to go down the Freesat route, the satellites that provide it are coming to the end of their life, they’re due to be switched off in 2029.
Enyaq EV
I’m afraid to say we are approaching the end of the road for terrestrial and satellite TV. Since the analogue was switched off around a decade or so ago, full coverage Freeview (6 mux) masts have declined, leaving those on the whole with an aerial without expensive equipment hooked up to half coverage Freeview (3 mux) repeater masts. In 2022 mux E (com7) closed, as the licence expires and won’t be renewed, further reducing the amount of frequency capacity available for both HD & SD services on Freeview. Similarly, temporary Com8 was closed in 2020, initially seeing channels move to Com7 until its closure in 2022, and Com8 was handed over to the 5G network.
This will see terrestrial Freeview life expectancy end in 2034, and in a similar way, as licences aren’t renewed by broadcasters, satellite-based Freesat is expected to end by the end of the decade, as broadcasters push towards streaming, which means if you were to join Sky today, you would have little option other than to take their streaming box.
In its basic form the Freely set-top box is one such streaming device. On-demand app-based players, in the majority, aren’t always capable of allowing you to pause and rewind without a dedicated box that can do it for you. Equally and perhaps more important, unlike recorded content, streaming will likely force viewers to sit through ever-lengthening ad breaks even when watching, as it stands today and maybe in the future!
This, imo, will be the next BT Openreach scandal, which saw them digitise phone lines!
EDIT: In more detail to above.
Freely in it’s current form is available on Hisense & Bush TV’s. It was announce last year that a set-top box was coming. One is still planned however, BBC is now considering a dedicated Freely device, which could see them ditch Freeview. In my view they won’t be ditching Freeview untill licences run out as explained above.
More details here: https://www.cordbusters.co.uk/bbc-hinting-freely-box-end-freeview-era/
I think they’ll struggle to switch off Freeview, they’re are 16 million homes in the UK who use it whilst only 2 million use Freesat. Cant see any government letting them go streaming only, too many older folk won’t be able to watch.
Enyaq EV
The same was said about BT/Openreach!
Moves to transition the UK’s free to air broadcasters to an all-streaming future have gathered pace with the latest 2035 seeing as tipping point and BBC is leading the charge, with other broadcasters following in the wind.
Plans to preserve the BBC for the next generation are its priority and involves among other things expanding its content credentials service Verify, taking control of the UK’s inevitable shift to IP. The BBC is already in talks, doing deals with Big Tech on AI to scale production and securing prominence for its channels on streaming services. The latter further includes a plan to develop a streaming media device dedicated to UK free to air channels.
The BBC is losing half a billion pounds a year to licence fee cancellations, non renewals and dodgers – and it’s getting worse. BBC said in it’s annual report, the number of TV Licences in force fell to 23.8 million, down from 24.1 million last year and continues to fall year on year. BBC iPlayer is booming, young viewers are abandoning traditional TV in droves, and the clock is ticking towards the 2027 Charter renewal that could reshape how we fund public service broadcasting forever. Recently it’s chairmain pointed towards future streaming on TV, And if one bradcaster goes they all will follow, as Com licences will be too expensive to maintain.
Whether Freeview stays or goes or even integrated, alot of the equipment with have today will become obsolete and you mart TV could be the command centre for free to air sevices.
I still don’t understand why you can’t have a freeview app on devices like Firestick and Apple TV. Anyone would think they want you to buy their TV’s with Freely built in.
Enyaq EV
I still don’t understand why you can’t have a freeview app on devices like Firestick and Apple TV. Anyone would think they want you to buy their TV’s with Freely built in.
You probably will – If you look a Freely its got the feel of freeview, so they could become backwards compatible which each other, as it just the software skin say.
How you going on with the manhattan box?
@Kezo, It’s great, software is really quick, no lags like the Freesat branded box I tried last year. It prompts you to select a HD version of a channel if you land on a SD version. Also, it integrates with IPlayer and the like and automatically gives you online channels, for example BBC news is standard definition, but channel 501 is HD via IPlayer, when you select, it instantly opens iPlayer and gives you the HD version.
Im convinced Freesat have pulled their boxes due to the Satellites being decommissioned, have a look at their website, none are available.
Enyaq EV
I’m stuck, mainly because my transmitter mast is a repeater, so I would get half freeview from three muxes. Although I’m essentially atop a mountain (it helps), I am still out of coverage for fo Wenvoe & Carmel full Freeview transmitters. I woud therefore need better equipment and, as I have no aerial now, it would be full install by someone, as I’m done with climbing !
At the rear of the garage there is a dish, which is the way I wanted to go, but with Humax no longer suppling Freesat box, essentially leave me with the Arris box, a company with no previous in this stuff and it remains sh!t along with reviews inclusive of yours maintaining those views. The only other way is a Linux based box, which would get 4hd, the Ariss box misses.
I could replace the dish with anaerial, but that would only allow signals from my local transnitter.
Freeview seems to have switched to manhatten boxes, which are availble on their website, but the humax auro only shows where to buy, As for Freesat’s Arris box, it remains available, when I have just checked.
Freeview (DVB T2) & Freesat (DVB S2) are two very different things in how they broadcast what is basically the same TV and I can’t see one affecting the other, unless BBC, ITV etc withdrew their services from both at the ssame time.
I will however most likely go freeview and stump up the cost for the right equipment.
I’ve read the Arris box has a lot of hard drive failures after 2 years. The boxes have definitely been pulled from the Freesat website and the Freesat outlet website where they sell refurbished boxes. They were all available last week as I was looking g at them, now all sizes out of stock on both the main site and outlet site, something fishy going on.
Enyaq EV
Have you checked the 500gb, 1tb and 2tb and you are right sir!
On both the normal site and their outlet site. Smells a bit 🐟 🐟
Enyaq EV
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