Going to France later in the year and already have a satellite dish cables etc so now looking for advice on buying a free to air box, options seem to be Sky, freesat ,or generic box any thoughts would be welcome.
I have a generic box but got so fed up with not having a program guide I purchased a Freesat [Humax] HD box, it is excellent. New TV Avtex comes with built in generic decoder, but for the above reason we don't us that.
So consider how important having an EPG in France will be to you.
I bought one of these last year just for the van, but it is now used in the house it's a brilliant piece of kit for the price, we have a old skybox that only gets the free channels so this was bought to upgrade it.
This is cheaper than i paid last year.... Amazon @ £74.99 ....
The HB-1000S can be connected wirelessly via an optional Wi-Fi dongle which is supplied separately. ( you need that for the on demand channels ) we have used ours through the MiFi ok, or you can connect it to the site WiFi ( if the site has got it ) you can also connect a portable hard drive to record programs to be viewed later.
We use an old SKY box (bought at a car boot sale) but HUMAX boxes seem very popular. Make sure it works before you leave home though - I know a couple of people that have had to change them.
Just as an aside - where are you going in France? If you're going South of Bordeaux you'll have a problem getting UK TV.
Troll along to your local Cash Converters and get a Sky multi-room box - should cost you less than £20 with remote and guarantee. You will need a HDMI cable to go with it - doesn't matter if your set is not HD so long as it has an HDMI input - a very good one will cost a few quid from Toolstation (or Screwfix if you must.)
I suggest CC to buy from as it will likely have an expired subscription card in it that will still work for Freesat and will be for your area. If there is no card then you will get BBC1 London and ITV Central West on 101 and 103. BBC regions are available around the 970 area but getting your local ITV is a bit more technical. If there is no card you can of course buy one form Sky £25 once off.
Do not be confused. A Sky box is essentially the same as any other sat receiver but has heavily modified software, However unlike earlier such boxes, the multi-room (and its big brother the Sky+HD which uses the same receiver parts) is nowhere near as deaf. The multi-room box is also quite small and light and only draws 8W.
The Humax box is very good and sensitive - but at a price.
Thanks for the link Sproket to the Humax freesat box , I was going to buy the expensive one with built in hard drive , which is around £160 ish , but I am pleased I saw your link and I can buy the cheaper one and use my portable memory box to record video to
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