UK Freeview recording options?

1vincent

Newbie
Hi.

My dad's neighbours are having a massive wrap around extension built and for the past 4/5 days they have had scaffolding put up. Now they have covered the house in a "tin hat" (i think that is what is called) and now his sky Q doesn't work only recorded shows and catch up.

Last year he had scaffolding up as he was having fascia/soffit and guttering replaced and he was without Q for 3 weeks and after a few days none of the recorded shows or catch up worked as the sky tech person said the box needs a sat signal every few days to keep active.

The neighbour has told him that the scaffolding will be up fror at least 4 months. His min term deal with sky ends in June so i have told him to call and cancel as not good paying for it if you cant watch anything.

My question is what options are there for him to record Freeview channels and watch catch up progs as he only has a non-smart tv and i did get him a firestick with iptv on it but he could not get on with it.

I have been looking at youview boxes and freeview recorders on ebay/amazon but he doesn't want to spend more than £60 (2nd hand) as he wants to go back to sky after the building work has finished, that is if the dish can get a signal.

Any advice would be great.
 
You could possibly ring sky explain the situation with regards to scaffolding been up and they may come out and move the dish to where the signal is not been blocked.
There’s no point in cancelling until scaffold is taken down cause what is he going to do if they have to have it up again cancel sky again and cost more money in cancellation.

Only other alternative is getting a recordable freeview box and using that as a temp fix if all else fails as it will also come in handy as a backup if sky ever goes down or waiting for an engineer visit ect
 
Agree with baz moving the dish to some sort of structure in the garden side of the shed or fence pole would be a better option. If sky wont do it a local installer would and he could maybe get the neighbour to cover the cost of it.
 
You could possibly ring sky explain the situation with regards to scaffolding been up and they may come out and move the dish to where the signal is not been blocked.
There’s no point in cancelling until scaffold is taken down cause what is he going to do if they have to have it up again cancel sky again and cost more money in cancellation.

Only other alternative is getting a recordable freeview box and using that as a temp fix if all else fails as it will also come in handy as a backup if sky ever goes down or waiting for an engineer visit ect
He has 2 months left at £53 pm on his 18 month deal and then it goes up to £106 pm so i don't see him paying that to watch a blank screen.

He hasn't got anywhere else to put a dish as it is up near the gutter line on a hipped roof and at the moment the scaffolding is 4 metres from the side of his house. His next door neighbour on his semi has a dish at ground level at the front part of a bay window and he said yesterday that he is having signal issues now.
 
Just tell Sky that you have not been getting a signal for the past couple of days and you have no idea why. If they ask about the dish, say it has not moved etc.

The 'expert' on the phone will ask you to go through some basic troubleshooting steps. As these will not resolves this, they will send out an engineer fairly quick.

If the engineer cannot find anywhere to relocate the dish safely where you are happy with it too, they'll have to pause or cancel your sub. (The pause or cancellation date should be from either when you started getting the signal issues or from when you make the phone call).
 
For Freeview, any Enigma2 receiver with a Terrestrial tuner will allow recording. But catchup is not possible.

Note:
I presume by Freeview, you mean services using an aerial. i.e you are not referring to Free to Air services on 28.2 satellite. If this is not what you mean, please clarify.
 
For Freeview, any Enigma2 receiver with a Terrestrial tuner will allow recording. But catchup is not possible.

Note:
I presume by Freeview, you mean services using an aerial. i.e you are not referring to Free to Air services on 28.2 satellite. If this is not what you mean, please clarify.
Freeview through an aerial on his chimney.

I have an Enigma2 box with sat/terrestrial and it works great for us. For him things have to be simple.

Just tell Sky that you have not been getting a signal for the past couple of days and you have no idea why. If they ask about the dish, say it has not moved etc.

The 'expert' on the phone will ask you to go through some basic troubleshooting steps. As these will not resolves this, they will send out an engineer fairly quick.

If the engineer cannot find anywhere to relocate the dish safely where you are happy with it too, they'll have to pause or cancel your sub. (The pause or cancellation date should be from either when you started getting the signal issues or from when you make the phone call).
He has weeks left on his current deal and he or i call sky and negotiate a deal and this was what we were going to do next month and if no offer was good he would put in his cancelation notice.

There is no other place to put the dish as the scaffolding is 16 metres wide and goes all the way to above the roof/chimney on the 3 bed semi.

The house will be a 5 bed house and will be 12 metres wide when finished.

Anyhow he will have to make do with freeview/youview box recorder for the next few monts.
 
Depends how well he gets on with his neighbour,
But you could make a formal claim against them as their actions are impacting his enjoyment of his property.
Otherwise it's a sky problem, they either provide him with a signal/service as per their contract, or they cancel/freeze it FOC
 
With regards to an E2 receiver, maybe you could disable the Satellite tuner on your receiver and create just Freeview bouquets. Then let him see how he gets on. Set it up to always show bouquets, avoid using the EPG button as channel selection method at first, he should be fine. Especially if he selects by channel number.
 
Depends how well he gets on with his neighbour,
But you could make a formal claim against them as their actions are impacting his enjoyment of his property.
Otherwise it's a sky problem, they either provide him with a signal/service as per their contract, or they cancel/freeze it FOC
They bought the house 8 months ago and gutted the whole house and applied for planning and got it.

Since they got PP builders have been at the house from 7am to 8pm 7 days a week and holidays.

My dad never knew about the scaffolding going up until last week when heard lots of noise outside at 7am and then he saw somebody in his back garden and went out to ask what was going on and he said he needs to put the scaffolding in garden.

My dad went tthrough his housw and into his driveway and they had put 40/50 poles, boards and other stuff on his drive without asking and also they parked their car on his drive.

When he started talking to one of them 6 or 7 men came from the house and were surrounding him and as he is 81 he thought he would leave it,

He has it all on cctv and later that day spoke to site boss and he said he has no control of the scaffolding people.

I don't think he will get any joy out of the owners.
 
With regards to an E2 receiver, maybe you could disable the Satellite tuner on your receiver and create just Freeview bouquets. Then let him see how he gets on. Set it up to always show bouquets, avoid using the EPG button as channel selection method at first, he should be fine. Especially if he selects by channel number.
Sorry i should of made it clear that the Enigma2 box is at my house and that is what i use for myself.
 
You were very clear. I'm just suggesting he tries it out and sees if he is OK with it.
Thanks for your replies.

I have taken the Enigma2 box to his house when stayed there while he came out of hospital and i looked after him for 8 days and he tried then but even after me showing him dozens of time how to use he couldn't get on with and also a firestick.

Strange thing is when he visits a neighbour he can use their youview box ok as they spend a few hours a week catching up and thinking about the good old days.

I will get him a youview/freeview box recorder for now but has anybody got any recs or advice on which one to get and if possible where to buy from please.
 
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