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Best Freeview Box to Replace Sky 2020

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Are you trying to find the best Freeview box to replace Sky? This article will look at five of the top Freeview boxes to help you narrow down your search! We will look at the pros, cons and key features of each of these products.

Replacing Sky TV with a Freeview Box

Sky TV has been widespread across the UK for decades and has many millions of subscribers throughout the country. However, Freeview boxes have become a popular alternative. A Freeview box or receiver is that which picks up a limited but diverse range of channels. Best of all, there are no contracts or monthly costs attached. Freeview channels include BBC One, BBC Two, Channel 4, ITV, FreeSports and Film4.

You may decide that you’d rather have a Freeview box than Sky to save on costs. Further, many people are losing interest in TV. They are finding that they can access most, if not all of the content they need online through the likes of YouTube and Netflix. With that said, a Freeview box can still give you access to many channels without the high monthly costs of Sky. For those with a declining interest in TV, many find this to be a worthwhile one-time purchase. Let’s now take a look at five of the best Freeview boxes on the market.

Top 5 Freeview Boxes

Best Freeview Box to Replace Sky for you and the family

Humax FVP-5000T

  • Freeview Play
  • Record multiple programmes simultaneously
  • Features Netflix
  • 100+ TV channels
  • Includes 15 HD channels
  • Wi-Fi enabled

If you’re looking for a top of the range Freeview box, the FVP-5000T is a great choice. This HD recorder box can offer 500GB or 2TB of disk space, depending on which model you buy. The 500GB model will let you record three programmes at once while the 2TB box allows for four simultaneous recordings. This is with thanks to its built-in Wi-Fi. With Freeview Play, you can watch shows on-demand. It will provide you with access to content from the likes of ITV Hub, UKTV Play and the BBC iPlayer. You can also pause and rewind live TV with the FVP-5000T.

Further, this box comes with over 100 TV channels and radio stations. It also has an energy class A rating, meaning that it is viewed highly for energy attributes such as its consumption, capacity and efficiency. While it’s a more expensive option, the FVP-5000T is arguably the best Freeview box to replace Sky. It’s also a great choice if you’re looking for the best TV recorder 2020 which comes with Freeview.

Manhattan T3-R

  • Over 85 channels
  • 7 day catch-up TV
  • 500GB or 1TB storage
  • Offers pause and rewind live TV
  • Features YouTube and YouTube Kids

The T3-R also comes with Freeview Play, providing multi-channel catch-up TV. For recording content, there is a 500GB and 1TB model available. They allow for 300 and 600 hours of TV recordings respectively. The T3-R has Wi-Fi access and supports Ultra HD and HDR TV. You can also enjoy the benefits of pausing and rewinding live TV and recording hours upon hours of your favourite programmes. In addition, with this Manhattan Freeview box, you can watch YouTube and YouTube kids on the largest screen in the house. In terms of its downsides, the T3-R does not feature Netflix or Amazon Prime.

BT YouView+

  • 70+ channels
  • Easy set up
  • On-demand TV
  • Netflix
  • Pause and rewind live TV
  • YouView+

As you may have guessed, this BT box features YouView+ instead of Freeview. However, you can still access free-to-air channels with the BT YouView+. You will need to connect a cable, which is included with the box to your internet router to set it up. Once launched, you can access Netflix, an on-demand library of TV and films and record up to 300 hours of content.

With the YouView+, you can catch up on seven days of programming and films such as from the BBC iPlayer and All4. While it’s not the cheapest option on our list, it is a relatively inexpensive choice while still having many of the benefits of a top of the range product.

Manhattan T1 Freeview

  • Access to internet channels
  • Sold with 1.2 metre HDMI cable
  • 85 TV channels
  • Includes 15 HD TV channels
  • 1 week+ TV guide
  • Set TV reminders

The T1 is a compact, low-cost Freeview box and another product from Manhattan. This box offers a TV guide spanning eight days, HD programming and fantastic coverage across the nation. It comes with over 25 radio channels and 85 TV stations, of which 15 are HD. You can set reminders for your favourite programmes with the T1 and should it ever break, it comes with a two-year warranty. Further, the included 1.2m HDMI cable allows for a quick and straightforward installation.

However, the T1 does not feature catch-up TV or Netflix. Nevertheless, as an inexpensive choice, it still has plenty of channels and will meet all of your basic TV requirements. With the purchase of a casting device, you can still enjoy Netflix, YouTube and many other video services on your TV while having the T1.

Manhattan T3 Freeview Play 4K Smart Box

  • 85+ Freeview channels
  • YouTube and iPlayer in 4K
  • Seven-day catch-up TV
  • On-demand TV
  • YouTube and YouTube Kids
  • Smart search and personal watchlist

The T3 is a cheaper alternative to the T3-R coming in at almost half the price. Unfortunately, you can’t record with this box nor does it come with Netflix or Amazon Prime. However, this won’t be an issue if you have a casting media player or are happy to stream online content through another device. The T3 comes with over 85 Freeview channels, catch-up and on-demand TV and access to YouTube and YouTube Kids. As with the T1, this is a smart choice if you’re looking for something straightforward without a large price tag. If you have a 4K TV, then you can also enjoy YouTube and the BBC iPlayer in Ultra-HD with this Freeview box. In addition, it provides excellent image and sound quality and features Wi-Fi and a quad-core CPU.

Best Choice for Me

When choosing the best Freeview box to replace Sky for you, it’s important to consider the qualities and cost-range you’re looking for. The great thing about a Freeview box is that regardless of the product price, you’ll face no monthly subscription fees. This means that you can give more weight to the quality of the product than you might if you were facing a bill every four weeks.

Premier leauge on Freeview

We hope you enjoyed our review of the five best Freeview boxes. Let us know in the comments if you’ve decided which Freeview box to replace Sky with. We have plenty more content that you’d likely find useful such as regarding what Premier League games you can access with Freeview and whether or not you need an aerial for a TV with built-in Freeview.

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