In article 0,
mike ring wrote:
I had fox damage ;-) to my TV cable,

Flying foxes?

No - the aerial cables come down the side wall and into the cellar via an
air brick. And a dying fox decided to chew them as a final act before
popping his clogs.

snip

And now ***** Sky is taking away channels 3, 4, and 5 unless I
subscribe, I didn't think that was legal, and freeview piillates and
locks solid, usually in the middle of a recording.

BTW, are the modern boxes any better than my Philips Ondigital?

Yes.

Apart from the locking up it produces LF audio which is annoying through
my audio system (but inaudible on the telly speakers

I've not had this trouble with mine, and have in fact relegated it to an
audio only device. It used to cause the most amazing splats on TV audio
when it locked up, though, but doesn't lock up on sound only stuff. At the
moment, the bitrates off Freeview are rather better for radio than DAB.
But I'm sure they'll find a way of worsening them soon.

--
*You are validating my inherent mistrust of strangers

Dave Plowman London SW 12
RIP Acorn