Sky+ Box - Use Without Sky Subscription As A Player.

[Mr-H]

I currently have a Sky subscription, and use a Sky+ HD box. I am thinking about changing to a Freeview or Freesat + box, but my difficulty is that I can't seem to empty the Sky box of recordings!! My question is - could I use the Sky box as a player without a Sky subscription? I thought that perhaps I could use both Sky and Free.... boxes for playback until the Sky box is empty. Can I?

[Buenchico]

When you stop paying a subscription to Sky, your Sky+ box looses all functionality as a recording device. You can't record programmes on it and you can't view programmes that you've already recorded. You can, however, continue to use it to receive all of the 'free to air' channels, which are listed here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free-to-air_channels_at_28%C2%B0E#Channel_sections

A basic Freesat receiver doesn't really add much to that but many boxes now have 'on demand' apps and/or a recording facility:
http://www.freesat.co.uk/channels

You should note that, although the total number of Freesat channels is greater than that for Freeview, some of the most popular channels aren't available without subscription via a satellite dish. In particular, the UKTV channels (such as Dave, Yesterday, Drama, etc) are only available free-of-charge on Freeview:
http://www.freeview.co.uk/whats-on/channels

[ubasses]

Unfortunately not. The best way would be to get your freeview box first & start doing all your new recordings on it. Then you can watch all the old ones on Sky and cancel.

[Mr-H]

As usual - many thanks for the good and prompt replies!

[Hopkirk]

Doesn't your TV have built in Freeview?

[Mr-H]

Yes, but not a recorder.