Freesat+ vs Sky+: The verdict
12 February 2009

"TV shows that are part of a series are all grouped together in folders making finding programmes to watch a good deal easier than Sky+."

First of all, apologies for the fact that I haven't posted since just before Christmas. This delay does mean, however, that I've had a good few weeks to get used to Freesat+ and this article will talk about what I think of it so far.

For those who don't know, Freesat is the satellite equivalent of Freeview. It's telly without a subscription received via a dish stuck to the side of your house. The obvious competitor is Sky whose paid for service currently has several million subscribers. I used to be one of those but realised that I was paying over £200 a year just to watch 24, Prison Break and Lost. Apart from those shows, I was mainly watching free to air services from the likes of the BBC and Channel 4. So I dumped Sky and went to Freesat. To do likewise all you need to do is just replace your set top box; you can keep the same dish and cabling. I opted for the Sky+-like Freesat+ Foxsat HDR from Humax.

Freesat+ is very like Sky+. It enables you to pause live telly, record two programmes at once (and watch a pre-recorded show at the same time if you wish). In many ways, however, I was surprised to find Freesat+ better in many respects. For example, the Series Record function on Sky+ is a real pain to set up. How many times did I sit there pressing the green button in the Sky Guide trying to get it to recognise the fact that a programme was part of a series? I lost count. With Freesat+ when you select a programme to record in the on-screen TV guide you are immediately prompted to select whether you want to record that single broadcast or the entire series. No waiting around, no extra presses of the remote. A very well implemented function. Incidently, as the Humax Freesat+ is HD compatibile, if the show you want to record is being broadcast in HD (even if this is on a different channel) you can choose to record the higher quality broadcast.

While we're on the subject of recording programmes, there's a another very good feature of Freesat+ that is missing from Sky's arsenal. If you have a couple of programmes already set up to record and you choose another show to do the same that clashes, Sky+ will prompt you to delete one of the existing recordings. Freesat+ is cleverer. If you choose a "third recording" Freesat+ will automatically locate an alternative broadcast (if one is available) and ask you if you'd like to tape that instead. This is a brilliant feature. It's fast too. With shows on BBC One it'll even find if an alternative broadcast is scheduled on the network in another region (BBC One Northern Ireland, for example). This has been well thought out by the software developers and works extremely well.

Recorded programmes are kept in the "Media list". Radio and TV shows are separate and you can even plug in an external hard drive or memory stick and copy music and picture files to the Foxsat box to view on your TV. This makes the unit a real media hub; or at least closer to a hub than any other set up boxes on the market at the moment. TV shows that are part of a series are all grouped together in folders making finding programmes to watch a good deal easier than Sky+.

However, there is one fly in the ointment. I've noticed on more than one occasion that a recording has failed. A couple of times the recording is showin in the listing as having not completed but no reason is given. Once or twice, the recording (although scheduled) hasn't happened at all with no explanation and nothing appearing in the media list by way of an explanation. It appears to be something to do with lots of recordings being set on different channels that start and end close to each other. I've started setting programmes to record on channels like Channel4+1 just to avoid the inconvenience of missing an episode of something and not realising. This must be a bug in the software, but is intermittent so difficult for the developers to fix (if they even know about it yet). If you're thinking of buying Freesat+, I wouldn't let this bug put you off, no doubt it will be fixed in a future software release and (like Sky and Freeview) these are made available automatically over the air.

Future developments
A interesting future development for Freesat is the inclusion of internet delivered content. There is an ethernet port on the back of the Foxsat box (all Freesat boxes must have one of these ports to qualify as a Freesat endorsed product) and in the future you will be able to plug your Freesat decoder into your home network. Rumour has it that it is planned to offer BBC iPlayer via this as well as some of the other on-demand services. Unfortunately, with Project Kangaroo being blocked by Ofcom Freesat may very well have to come up with a "Plan B" to implement this feature set fully. Still, this is an interesting prospect and one to watch closely over the coming months.

Hopefully, the amount of HD content will improve. You can get the BBC HD channel and Freesat is the only way to get ITV HD (although there is very limited HD content from ITV at the moment). Unfortunately Channel 4 HD is not available and Sky1 HD (along with all the Sky HD channels) are very unlikely to ever be included. HD is the future, and Freesat need to increase the HD content as a matter of urgency. It would also be nice to see Dave as this is on Freeview, but contractually this is a hot potato (so I hear).

Summary
Freesat (and especially Freesat+) is very welcome competition for Sky. If the HD content can be increased (which is free on Freesat, of course) then it will offer an excellent free platform for satellite viewers and, for those that stick with Sky, likely keep their monthly premiums down.