We are moving house soon and leaving behind our 24MB broadband with Be. So I started to have a look at the market and came up with this matrix of the 3 main options.
| Service | Sky | Virgin | FreeView and Bulldog |
|---|---|---|---|
| TV | £15 (best) | £11 (ok) | £0 (worst) |
| Telephone | £11 | £0 | £11 |
| Internet (unlimited) | £10 (16MB) | £25 (4MB) | £20 (16MB) |
| Monthly costs | £36 | £36 | £31 |
| Initial costs | £30 | £15 | £85 |
As you can see there isn't that much in it between Sky and Virgin. Sky has the advantage of better TV (SkyOne) and user interface everyone is used to. Virgin on the other hand has the advantage of easy instillation, and more solid internet, and no BT line meaning one instillation date.
FreeView on the other hand has the advantage of no monthly charge, and the choice of broadband even with Be offering up to 24MB speeds and no usage limits. However you end up getting two bills rather than the one from Virgin.
Sky+ is really cool, but Virgin have the same service (apparently slightly better but more expensive) but you can also get ones for free view!
TV recorders
- Sky+
- £100
- Virgin+
- £150 plus £5 a month
- Free view
- £173 (Sony SVR-S500)
At the end of the day FreeView may be the easiest option, Virgin seem like they tie you in a bit, and Sky needs a dish, which sounds like hassle if your renting the property. Plus I know we could upgrade the FreeView box at a later date, and also get a Airport Extrema for some 802.11n speed!!!
I haven't looked at BT vision, because of problems with them in the past, there may also be other options, so let me know if you have any...
@Andrew: That's what you get for living in the sticks ;)
@Ian Yeah apparently it can! Although I think I may just go the free view option.. less tie in. Also how long before all the sky only channels realise they can get more viewers on freeview?
The only ones I can speak from personal experience for are the digifusion ones. I've had one for a while (a 150 iirc, no longer available i think) and it's been reasonable, but a bit flaky, I had to get a replacement just after I got it, and while the replacement has been OK it did eat a power adaptor (which was replaced with a funky maplins one). The humax ones looked good (picture in picture!), and the thomson ones seemed OK, but the digitalspy forums are probably the place to go for the l33t infoze.
Two points though: 1) it must have twin tuners, most do, but I've seen some that don't, and not being able to record and watch different things sounds irritating. 2) it might be worth considering one with a DVD recorder, as one of the slightly annoying things about my one is that you can't really get the recordings off the damn thing. I'd imagine that with a DVD built in you'd be able to archive things off to it, which could well come in handy.
Getting owned by the two tuners would suck!
After suffering for a year, thanks to Sagem, all for the sake of about £10 I think I may opt for the Sony one. Buying into the brand, although I may start with a cheap one.
I'm not sure about the DVD thing, I expect the format is going to be something retarded and the compression about 0. Meaning you will end up with one episode of 24 on a DVD that no one can watch...