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Freesat have released some new television adverts to highlight the new service, <free time>.
The new adverts, which focus on the ability to go backwards through the TV Guide and access missed programmes via on-demand, are due to be shown on national television from this weekend.
Freesat continue to take the approach of ‘amusing’ adverts to sell the product, but personally I’d prefer them to stick to clear facts and avoid the quirky approach. Still a vast improvement on previous ones though.
Desiree explains that, thanks to freesat+ with free time she has found the secret of turning back time and need never miss her favourite TV:
Meet Ray. He can’t tell you what he does… luckily he has our brand new freesat+ box with free time – it’s a cracking piece of kit:
Freesat should take this approach. Appreciate that Microsoft have a significant marketing budget, but it grabs attention with amazing graphics and a catchy tune:
October 26th, 2012 at 8:19 pm
these are much better than the old ones – at least they tell you about the service a little better.
btw admin – not sure you meant to include an IE9 advert link
al catrazQuote
October 26th, 2012 at 8:20 pm
oh – re-read the full article – yes you did! :0
al catrazQuote
October 26th, 2012 at 8:52 pm
I think the ad with ‘Ray’ looks better than the Desiree one, it conveys the message better but on the whole both are good adverts. I agree with admin there’s still a bit of a quirkiness involved but the general points of the product are sold much better than the previous set of ads.
It looks like Sky are upping their game with catch-up now they’ve got iPlayer on board so freesat need a good strong marketing ad for the same service which this does do fairly well. I like the fact too they make a strong point showing an existing satellite dish and saying it’s subscription free, conveys the message that it’s easy for those from Sky to churn and replace their Sky+ HD receivers with freesat ones instead.
Interestingly I wonder if iPlayer will work on Sky hardware without subscription, technically it should as a licence fee funded product on their platform but nothing would put it past those lot to disable it!
NeilQuote
October 27th, 2012 at 8:17 am
Like the new ads but i dont need them bacause my brand spanking new HDR1000s 1TB box is being delivred today direct from the lovely people at Humax Direct. I dont understand why there is only a £20 diffrence between the 500GB model and 1TB model, its a no brainer which one to go for!. Thanks for a brilliant web site i check it out most days for info and reviews etc.
MattQuote
October 27th, 2012 at 8:23 am
The margin between the two is even less in terms of trade price, so it is actually a surprise that Humax have launched both. Having said that, a few quid difference does matter to some if they know they won’t fill the capacity anyway.
Just a shame that Humax have decided to sell the 1TB direct for a few weeks first, which is definitely frowned upon by the industry and a total advantage being taken. £299 is very high, these would retail for £40 less if some of the larger independent retailers could get hold of them.
adminQuote
October 27th, 2012 at 9:58 am
How much stock of the existing HDR’s have they got left? I imagine within 3-6 Months the HDR 1000-S will drop in price once unit numbers begin to shift.
NeilQuote
October 27th, 2012 at 10:02 am
Zero 1TB’s, haven’t had stock for 1-2 months now, just what remains at the retailers. Still producing the final run of 500GB, so maybe enough for the rest of the year. Humax don’t make regular price cuts, so wouldn’t expect the trade price to change in quite some time, so retail prices will just be how low retailers than squeeze the margin.
adminQuote
October 27th, 2012 at 10:08 am
Maybe Humax should have just had the 1TB model for sale then at say £280 , would make more sence to me. The main reason i chose the 1TB over 500GB was because i was fed up of having to delete stuff to make room for new stuff on my 320GB Humax Fox sat HD. When you record most things in HD it soon eats up the space, and when BBC HD showed 3D brocasts it took even more space up!. But the only down side to this swap is my 6 year old will loose all of his LazyTown recordings on the old box :O and ill loose all my James bond movies which ive been recording in HD
. Im sure that i wont have much problem filling up 1TB with recordings , especialy with all the HD movies and tv on over the xmas holidays!. Thanks again for your reply , Matt.
MattQuote
October 27th, 2012 at 10:14 am
Matt, never tried it myself, but I’m sure you’ll be able to transfer the recordings away from your FOXSAT to PC and then to the HDR-1000S.
adminQuote
October 27th, 2012 at 10:15 am
I think it is highly likely that Humax will run the 500GB HDR-1000S until they have used up their hard drives (they might be using the same one as the FOXSAT-HDR, not sure), then just sell the 1TB, with a 2TB in the future.
adminQuote
October 27th, 2012 at 11:05 am
Ok thanks ill google or you tube it how to tranfer from humax too humax via pc. Cheers, Matt.
MattQuote
October 27th, 2012 at 11:59 am
Neither advert actually TELLS you that freetime is dependent on broadband. Oh sure its in the small print but as its fundamental to the service they really should be more open and honest. No point getting peoples hopes up and then disappointing them.
mike65Quote
October 27th, 2012 at 1:47 pm
BBC iplayer coming to sky 30th october like all on demand from sky the program will be downloaded onto the hard drive so without a subscription it will not work as you need a subscription to record on the sky box.
gingercolQuote
October 27th, 2012 at 6:53 pm
Tried to do that myself and unfortunately I couldn’t get it to work. It transferred from USB to hdd but wouldn’t play
Mark DyerQuote
October 28th, 2012 at 1:20 pm
I’m getting the new box next week.
Has anyone any idea when the 4OD and demand 5 coming I know it says coming soon but hope they mean this not like there coming soon with itv player last year
Don’t need to know exact date just if it’s like November ? December ?
Thanks
DaveQuote
October 28th, 2012 at 1:23 pm
And it’s shocking that on sky you cannot watch iplayer if you don’t subscribe
I know someone with sky and they are not really proper itv player and demand 5 I think they just let you re watch certan things not search what you want ?
DaveQuote
October 28th, 2012 at 5:00 pm
I live in Spain where it’s not possible to access BBC iplayer via an internet connection . I hope that Freesat’s new “Free Time” service is available via the satellite dish. Does anyone know if it will be possible?
SpainQuote
October 28th, 2012 at 5:02 pm
Same restrictions, you can access the free channels via an appropriate dish, but you can’t access the backwards EPG or on-demand services unless using an VPN to mask your IP address as one from the UK.
adminQuote
October 28th, 2012 at 5:26 pm
Thanks for your swift response. I have two separate telephone sockets in my lounge. Presumably the VPN is set on the Freesat box or in my router. If I use a separate router for my freesat connection then perhaps I can access the “Free Time ” service via this second router and continue to use my original router as my standard internet connection ?
SpainQuote
October 28th, 2012 at 5:32 pm
No sorry, VPN services don’t work that way. Think you might need to research them on the web.
adminQuote
October 28th, 2012 at 6:31 pm
Thanks for that advice admin. I’ve been looking into VPN as you suggested and am not happy about the security aspects so will manage without “Free Time”
SpainQuote
October 28th, 2012 at 8:53 pm
I thought so. I’m inclined to say it’s typical of them but this sort of practice will help sell new freetime STB’s to ex-Sky churners.
You might want to wait a while before purchasing a new HDR too as it’s likely the new Astra 2F satellite, once in service by December, will have a much tigher footprint resulting in a loss of reception in most parts of Southern and Eastern Europe.
NeilQuote
October 29th, 2012 at 12:20 am
Thank you Neil, would you trust a VOP service?
SpainQuote
October 29th, 2012 at 12:42 am
You might want to wait a while before purchasing a newHDR too as it’s likely the new Astra 2F satellite, once in service by December, will have a much tigher footprint resulting in a loss of reception in most parts of Southern and Eastern Europe.
Sorry Neil. I meant to say “Would you feel happy trusting a VPN provider?”
SpainQuote
October 29th, 2012 at 10:04 am
Spain: I also live in spain and have been looking into this. There is no reason not to trust VPN services and there are many out there.
The only way I can see to do it would be to connect to a VPN via a router that has been flashed with new firmware. It’s a bit techie and complicated but I think that it is possible.
MartinQuote
October 29th, 2012 at 10:38 am
Spain: you need to have a chat with someone in the know about how VPN works, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work and reliably too providing you’ve got a decent broadband connection.
NeilQuote
October 30th, 2012 at 11:06 am
much better than the originals, feels like the one i made http://youtu.be/y4j_SCGcog4
was closely listened to
stingy alQuote
October 30th, 2012 at 11:19 am
This got posted on The Register after the Freesat ads were shown http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/30/freesat/.
It still slightly amazes me that people haven’t heard of Freesat as a free alternative to $ky. Not sure how encouraging it is that the site got knocked out though. It doesn’t exactly give a great first impression, but I guess there’s no such thing as bad publicity…
John HQuote
October 30th, 2012 at 6:56 pm
Sounds like good news to me. Either that or FS’s web hosting doesn’t deliver enough bandwidth! Lets hope it’s down to sheer demand and maybe just what FS need to push .
NeilQuote
October 31st, 2012 at 10:22 am
Only two on demand players on Freesat Freetime as opposed to eight on YouView. Which would logically choose if you wanted on demand services?
Freetime dosen’t add up yet its promises promises as usual.
Richard CrichtonQuote
October 31st, 2012 at 10:52 am
They do say by the end of the year they’ll have 4OD and Demand 5, guess they need to deliver on this promise and as G2 uses different technology than G1 then it’s easier without software updates per device. Lets hope they do get netflix on board together with lovefilm as your right that’s what will make the difference. I do hear though from various sources that youview isn’t shifting much in terms of unit sales.
NeilQuote
October 31st, 2012 at 11:05 am
It probably isn’t as unit sales but will get it as part of their broadband and phone package. I went with the TalkTalk deal as I was already a customer and am pleased I did. Got lots of American complete seasons like Alcatraz S1 to watch for free in TV Gift which is in TalkTalk player. ABC TV OD, Warner TV OD,Sony Ent.TV, Sony Retro, Scamp (Kids shows).
Richard CrichtonQuote
October 31st, 2012 at 4:50 pm
It doesn’t matter how big Microsoft’s marketing budget is, it doesn’t change the fact that IE is a load of rubbish. But then I’m a web developer and we all HATE IE with a passion (it’s in the job description). Freesat may not have as much cash to spend on adverts, but at least they tell the truth.
#justsaying
Andy ClaytonQuote
October 31st, 2012 at 7:31 pm
I see that the 1TB version has now been released, at £299 direct from Humax.
John HerefordQuote
October 31st, 2012 at 7:57 pm
Yep, been available from them for a week or two…before allowing stock to the others (hasn’t gone down well in the industry!) Will appear in the major retailers and those approved resellers in the next few days.
adminQuote
November 1st, 2012 at 12:17 pm
Without a subscription, Sky does not allow one to even access one’s own hard drives, even to watch previously recorded programmes, and in facts says that it erases the content from it! Their catch-up TV services are not streamed but downloaded podcast fashion, so cannot be accessed without a subscription.
lozarithmQuote
November 1st, 2012 at 7:27 pm
I find the ad with the ugly woman so offensive that I turn it off. The name of a new service needs to be there to be seen much earlier than the closing shot.
pinusQuote
November 2nd, 2012 at 11:52 am
So they block you from viewing PSB content paid for by peoples licence fee? Outrageous but benefits freesat and freetime!!
NeilQuote
November 2nd, 2012 at 11:38 pm
Small print on Sky website states that bbc iplayer is available without a sky subscription – not that there is much point having a box without subscription as all the features are disabled! Just get Freesat instead. The cost of even the new Humax box is cheaper than 12 months sky entertainment package.
Lee SQuote
November 3rd, 2012 at 1:20 am
That’s true, I’m intrigued to know what is free though on Sky’s version of iPlayer as it downloads to the STB as lozarithm says in post 36. Your right that a Freesat STB is the equivalent of a year’s Sky subscription and you still have a working product at the end of 12mths unlike Sky once you cancel!
NeilQuote
November 3rd, 2012 at 2:57 pm
Yes you are correct, as this article mentions:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2012/iplayer-sky-plus.html
….not sure I see it as a true on demand service as the selected programs are downloaded to the sky planner to view. In my view, true on demand services should be streamed direct to the device instantly for viewing. With Sky’s on demand system, you are having to forever delete the program once you have watched it as they are downloaded to a space on the hard drive – also making programs un-watchable if you cancelled the subscription. Freesat Free time is far more attractive in my opinion.
Lee SQuote
November 4th, 2012 at 7:10 pm
The standard YouView offering only has six on-demand services – the four terrestial broadcasters plus Channel 5′s Milkshake and Sky’s Now TV film service (£15pm). Any additional on-demand services are extras from the ISPs.
Launching Freetime without all four PSBs’ players is poor given Freesat’s previous reputation in this area. However, I can understand that if development fell behind on the players, Humax would prefer to manufacture its next batch of Freesat PVRs to the new, more future-proof G2 standard than Freesat+.
AndrewQuote
November 5th, 2012 at 7:54 am
TalkTalk YouView has 8 on demand players in Scotland (at least) the ones Andrew mentioned plus STV player and TalkTalk player. Freesat must be desperate to launch Freetime with only 2 players. I guess you would have plenty of free time if you went for that
PS. Still waiting for STV HD on Freesat EPG.
Richard CrichtonQuote
November 5th, 2012 at 6:34 pm
Nice to see 6 Freesat products for sale in Asda, including Manhattan Plaza DS-100A but no sign of Freetime yet.
Richard CrichtonQuote
November 7th, 2012 at 12:26 am
Richard – am I right in thinking that youview,both broadcast and streaming (sky channels etc..) is SD only?
GlynQuote
November 7th, 2012 at 6:41 pm
the new freesat advert thats on, is the lafy whos 90 odd actually lesley joseph with a prosthetic face. my hubby says it is and i agree with him.
gillQuote
November 7th, 2012 at 6:42 pm
is desiree lesley joseph.
gillQuote
November 7th, 2012 at 9:48 pm
I wonder if there’ll be any HDR-1000S’s in the comet liquidation sale that starts tomorrow? almost certainly not, but worth a visit perhaps… just in case!
Al CatrazQuote
November 7th, 2012 at 10:26 pm
Comet were selling HDR-1000s’s at 30% off at Team Valley, Gateshead this afternoon. The staff were going around marking all stock varying between 10% for tablets up to 30% for hard drive recorders.The sale seemed to have started early.
Ian BestQuote
November 8th, 2012 at 9:42 am
No it’s HD as well. There are the 4 HD channels BBC, ITV and CH4 plus streaming HD available is on some on demand programmes. BBC HD streaming is much better than Freesats BBC HD better quality option which is the equivalent of broadcast SD.
Richard CrichtonQuote
November 8th, 2012 at 10:36 am
But I guess the Sky package is SD?
GlynQuote
November 8th, 2012 at 10:49 am
managed to find one in Comet this morning – 30%off = £195.99!
Al CatrazQuote
November 8th, 2012 at 12:02 pm
Bargain, but suspect there will only be a few in-store so grab whilst you can.
On a similar note, should anyone still be looking for arguable the best receiver, the Humax FOXSAT-HDR, satbuyer now offering the 500GB for £199.95 plus delivery which is the best price I’ve seen brand new (with 24 month warranty).
http://www.joinfreesat.co.uk/link.php?product=satbuyerhumaxhdr500
adminQuote
November 8th, 2012 at 12:55 pm
Looks like we all better get down to Comet and grab some deals before they all go!! Sad to see another electrical retailer go under but signs of the times I guess.
NeilQuote
November 8th, 2012 at 4:42 pm
It’s easy to copy programmes to a pc from a Humax box. Connect a usb ext.drive to the box and press opt+ on remote. Then go to file manager and copy from Humax box to drive, then connect same drive to pc and copy as usual. I also copy family films and music from my pc to my Humax box via a usb ext.drive. Just follow on-screen advice.
IanQuote
November 8th, 2012 at 5:12 pm
Richard CrichtonQuote
November 8th, 2012 at 7:58 pm
So does this mean there’s no need to worry about filling the hard drive? If I start running out of space, I can just copy programmes onto a PC or NAS device and watch them from there?
Al CatrazQuote
November 9th, 2012 at 9:38 am
i h
Been informed that the Sky boosts are good quality but SD. TalkTalk stipulate 5mbps minimum for Sky boosts.
Richard CrichtonQuote
November 9th, 2012 at 11:17 am
They’re a bit better than the old Freesat advert (salesman in airlock) and a lot better than the Halfords Adverts on Dave, though I do realise that thats not saying much…….
RogerQuote
November 9th, 2012 at 2:17 pm
I saw the Desiree ad a few times on Channel 4 last night, seems they are pushing it quite hard in the run up to Christmas. I’ve still not seen the other ad yet.
NeilQuote
November 9th, 2012 at 6:37 pm
Just slightly off topic folks but there’s currently a Playboy HD test card going to air on 11390V, whilst thought initially this would be the paywalled channel EPG data now suggests it is for ‘Playboy TV Chat’ so likely we’ll see the first ‘slapper on the sofa’ channel in HD!
Not saying it’s the best content by any stretch of the imagination but as the SD version is already on the platform then I guess could very soon be Freesat’s 6th HD channel.
NeilQuote
November 9th, 2012 at 6:40 pm
That would be a bit of a dilemma for Freesat wouldn’t it. Would they really want to promote Freesat with 6 HD channels, four flagship channels, one news channel and one slapper channel hmmm.
adminQuote
November 9th, 2012 at 7:01 pm
That’s my very thinking, guess if it is the slapper channel that goes HD then it will be quietly added for HD users, still don’t know how they’d then justify the number they’ve got?
NeilQuote
November 10th, 2012 at 10:25 am
VHS won against Beta because Sony would not allow porn on its format not that Playboy is porn so perhaps Freesat should make a virtue of it if it comes to that.
SR 27500 FEC 2/3 BTW.
Richard CrichtonQuote
November 10th, 2012 at 9:30 pm
When is 4OD or demand 5 coming anyone ???
Dave wQuote
November 10th, 2012 at 9:33 pm
I have left sky this week once and for all hope I don’t regret it ?
I’m looking forward to a good year 2013 hopefully
Some now channels ???????????
Dave wQuote
November 12th, 2012 at 10:30 pm
Just took a look at the add non freesat channels the Africa channel s on there well worth a look pluse some other ones as well hop they will be available on the epg soon
MartinQuote
November 12th, 2012 at 10:33 pm
By the way admin couldn’t get on to the site today untill now I was redirected sating the the website might have moved just to let you know just in case you where unaware
MartinQuote
November 12th, 2012 at 10:42 pm
Yes, sorry about that, the server completely failed (multiple hardware failures) including data drives so has taken me 20 hours to fix; fortunately covering up until Saturday evening when the backup took place (phew!). Should be running ok again now…fingers crossed! If any of you found any errors (please have a look around), let me know.
adminQuote
November 13th, 2012 at 10:17 am
Having problems getting the site back on my netbook Just getting a pageholder . Have flushed the thingy but still the same.
Pity Freesat isn’t showing the Ricky Hatton comeback fight on the 24th for free on Primetime (PPV) like TallkTalk YouView is. Freesat need to get something going for them soon . What is happening regarding the rumoured Netflix deal anyone know.
Richard CrichtonQuote
November 13th, 2012 at 10:21 am
Had the same on my iphone, just try hitting refresh a million times and make sure it is routing to joinfreesat.co.uk and not adding the extra bit on the end.
adminQuote
November 13th, 2012 at 10:27 am
Ok will try that, cheers admin.
Richard CrichtonQuote
November 13th, 2012 at 5:11 pm
BBC One HD Scotland & Wales testing:
11022 H
23000 2/3
8PSK DVB-S2
ianQuote
November 13th, 2012 at 7:53 pm
hi has nothing happened for a while last update was 26 oct
also can the new freesat box put non freesat channels and freesat channels on same guide or even via say a colour button
and i could not get on here yesterday aswell but all is good NOW ….
and any NEWS if freesat is possibly getting netflix
thanks
daveQuote
November 13th, 2012 at 11:29 pm
That’s a pleasant surpise!
Wonderful!
Except they still show the “BBC One HD can’t show programs from your area” when the regional variations are on.
Sighs…
Again.
Brian DamageQuote
November 14th, 2012 at 10:44 am
UPDATE 13/11/12 – BBC 1 HD – Two versions of “BBC 1 HD England” have now appeared on the Astra 1N satellite at 28.2 degrees east frequency of 11.023 H, SR 23.000, FEC 2/3, DVB-S2 8PSK, they are labelled as “8901″ and “8911″
From http://robssatellitetv.webs.com/astra1n.htm
Richard CrichtonQuote
November 14th, 2012 at 11:08 am
Hi admin
Any news on Netflix joining yet its been a couple of month since last heard anything about it . I checked on line and a few papers saying its coming soon
Can you help
Dave wQuote
November 14th, 2012 at 11:15 am
Nothing I can say at this stage sorry. Suspect freesat are focusing all their attention on bringing 4OD and Demand 5 to market first, in line with their promise of launch this year.
adminQuote
November 14th, 2012 at 9:16 pm
I know it is a few days late but just to let “Spain” know that he can get satellite broadband in Spain for about 30 euro per month and 6Mbts (not up to) and you get a UK IP adress. This is a reasonable price for Spain and if after the about 24th November 2F date and we do not get any more Freesat/Sky programs he will at least be able to get IPTV but that will only be SD as HD will require to much bandwith to make it price worthy.
His old Sat dish will get the broadband signal but will require a new LNB for broadband fitting.
Soldierboy 001Quote
November 15th, 2012 at 4:39 pm
4OD and Demand are still scheduled for this year. Checked with freesat today and got the following statement:
adminQuote
November 16th, 2012 at 9:40 pm
this sounds great admin thanks for update ..:-)
just a quick question have just bought a manhatten recorder for bedroom its not come yet .but is it possible to record channels on the non freesat mode via the star button
thanks for your help
dave wQuote
November 16th, 2012 at 10:03 pm
Hi Guys,
I notice that the dish in the Desiree ad isnt waterproofed with neither almagamating tape or even the shroud pulled down, ironic really as this is a common found fault on cheapo contractor installs for both sky & freesat, At least they are being honest with what some unfortunate customers can expect !
I wonder if the dish was held up with only two bolts ?
Mark Aberfan Aerials
Mark Aberfan AerialsQuote
November 19th, 2012 at 1:28 pm
Thanks for that Soldierboy 001 but where do I go to get this service?
SpainQuote
November 19th, 2012 at 6:21 pm
Just Google “Tooway” and you will find several companies that offer what you need.
MartinQuote
November 20th, 2012 at 9:12 pm
can someone please tell me who desiree is from the freestat advert, was she and actress? does anyone know her surname
GillQuote