Freeview and Freesat on one box?

This question came in from Stephen Pearson, one of our podcast listeners:

“Are you aware of any device or PVR that will allow me to watch both freeview and freesat from the same device? I have found that freeview has more decent channels while freesat has more hd content.”

This is a tricky one, but we’ll try to help

TV Sets with Freesat and Freeview

There are a few of these on the market. Almost all new TV sets have Freeview built-in these days, and a small selection of TV sets on the market also have an on-board Freesat decoder.

At the time of writing, there are four LCD or Plasma TV sets on sale at Currys that have both Freeview HD and Freesat HD built in. Cheapest of these at the time of writing is the PANASONIC VIERA TX-L37DT30B, for £850. This also supports 3D TV.

To have a look what Currys offer in the way of Freeview and Freesat TV sets, go to the Currys HD TV set list

PANASONIC VIERA TX-L37DT30B with Freesat and Freeview

Set-top boxes with Freesat and Freeview

We’ve looked, and we can’t find any. Although there are TV sets with both services built-in, demand for a set-top box with both appears to be pretty low.

The solution? If your TV set has Freeview built-in, then all you’ll need is a Freesat box connected to the telly either with a SCART lead, or for HD, with an HDMI lead. This will give you access to Freeview on the telly, and Freesat via the Line In on your telly.

PVRs with Freesat and Freeview

As far as we know, there is no single PVR (hard disk recorder) that has both Freeview and Freesat built-in. Again, we weren’t surprised about this, as mixing the two technologies on one box would be problematic. Try to imagine the Electronic Programme Guide with two different services mixed together… very messy.

The workaround here if you want to be able to record both Freeview and Freesat onto the same box, is to look for a DVD/HDD Recorder with Freeview built-in.

A standard Freeview PVR will only be able to record Freeview channels, but many DVD recorder / Hard Drive Recorder combo boxes can cope with recording the built-in Freeview, as well as an external source connected via a SCART lead. This would mean that you’d be able to record Freeview with the box’s onscreen Electronic Programme Guide, and the output of a connected Freesat box via the Line In

Panasonic DMR-EX773EBK DVD/HDDRecorder

Again, a quick look on Currys reveals that there are several combined DVD/HDD recorders with built-in Freeview, including models from Panasonic and LG. Take a look at www.currys.co.uk to see what recorders are currently available.

If you know of any boxes that have both Freeview and Freesat built-in, please let us know using the comments below.