The only difference between making a decision to buy freeview boxes as cheaply as possible, and to go for the more expensive ones, is in the reliability of the kit. So cheap freeview boxes tend to work sporadically and be easily affected by weather conditions (freeview has a habit of going “funny” when storms come in, or the pressure changes); while more expensive freeview boxes, with their upgraded components, are more solid.
Your decision, then, on whether to buy freeview boxes for as little money as you can, or perhaps to treat yourself to a slightly better built model, should be based first on how much you can actually afford and second on how much you intend to use the things. There’s no point in buying a freeview box for £80 if you only really want to watch the news every now and then, or maybe catch a cartoon after work on a Friday night. Similarly, there’s no point trying to buy freeview boxes for practically nothing if you actually care about watching a film all the way to its conclusion without having to get up and reset the software. Make an informed choice according to your budget and your interest and you won’t go far wrong.
Freeview, of course, is ideal for the person who doesn’t watch much TV – because it’s paid for once, over the counter, and that’s it. Once you have a freeview box you don’t need to pay any monthly fees, or anything at all (except the yearly licensing fee) in order to watch the channels it receives. Anyone who watches TV intermittently would do far better to buy freeview boxes (even successions of throwaway cheapies) than tie themselves to a contract stuffed with channels and add-ons they neither understand nor want.
It’s really only a good idea to go for a contract if you’re either rich or a proper telly addict. Otherwise, freeview boxes tend to have enough coming through them (including some of the most-watched film channels and all of the most popular US stuff) to satisfy the normal person. People who have gone for contracts often reveal that they might as well have decided to buy freeview boxes, for all the difference it would have made. In the final analysis, the amount of programmes they watch that don’t fall within the purview of freeview is so tiny their contracts hardly ever get used.
