JohnLy's Review of FreeSat
17th Feb 2009
Overall Rating
- Value for money
- Customer Service
- Time Service UsedLess than a Week
- Features
What a disappointment FREESAT has turned out to be. The initial advertising 'blurb 'promised a HD service to rival SKY. I spent £300 on a Humax PVR HD and a lot more on a 1018p television set in order to obtain lots of HD programmes without having to pay the Sky HD premium each month. All the non-HD programmes on Freesat I could already obtain through my Freeview or very basic non-HD Sky subscription.
What do I get from Freesat? A daytime BBC HD channel showing nothing but HD previews repeated endlessly time after time. Those of us who have gone for the Freesat HD already know what is on it and how good the definition is and those who have not got it cannot see the improved quality of the HD features anyway. After the preview comes two hours of children ' s TV. I ' m sure most of the children looking in could not care less whether the Tellytubbies are a bit fuzzy round the edges or not! After that there are usually some 'bits and pieces 'involving Jules Holland. I ' m sure he is quite a nice chap but there is only so much of anyone that one can take!
In the later evening there are usually one or two programmes which are actually worth watching in HD but even then some of them are only repeats of what we watched earlier in the week on HD! As to ITV1 ' s HD output " don ' t even go there " if you are lucky you might just find one of their HD programmes in the TV guide magazines!
What a wasted opportunity. The BBC HD channel could be putting out good programmes throughout the day which the HD PVRs could be recording to be watched in the evening.
Incidentally, I have nothing but good things to say about the Humax PVR HD. It boots up quite quickly from 'stand by 'and using it to record is simplicity itself. It is just a pity that it is given such a limited selection of programmes to record in HD.
I have taken part in the Freesat 'on line viewing survey 'and have made my views abundantly clear to those running it!
What am I about to do now? Well the Sky HD+ box is now being offered at £49 so I am going to upgrade my Sky subscription to HD and pay the £10 per month with a good grace! JohnL.
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Members' Comments onJohnLy's Review
micko1952 on 25th Oct 2009
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I found this review very helpful because...it confirmed what i thought you cannot beat the big companies i:e virgin /sky nothing is free in this world