How do you (easily) get iplayer, C2 OD etc on the box rather than pc?

I thought a hummy etc might do it but it seems not. I might be putting a pc in my living room which would make doing it via cable easy? (but less easy, i.e. no remote, in terms of control?)

Don’t Playstation 3’s do this?

I’ve had a look at this and the best solution I found is still a PC. I got a Dell Optiplex 760 with W7 for £160 reconditioned on ebay and it’s spot on – quiet, small and trouble free.

I have a Keysonic keyboard/touchpad thing that’s brilliant – 5+ years and still going strong.

I use VLC for watching DVDs and use the android app on my phone to work as a remote. There are also free ‘mouse’ apps for the phone (eg gpad).

PS3 + USB keyboard

it’s PS3 season too.

I’m not interested in a PS3 ta, looks like me old pentium may live again!

Why not?

You can get iplayer through the Wii but the quality isnt great

I`m hoping to do it through Ipad and/or apple tv

I would do as GW suggests. Also get BF3, MW3 and Skyrim and forget exactly what you wanted iPlayer for in the first place 😉

….that or knock up a small media pc or hack an AppleTV.

I like my Apple TV…works fine and not v expensive

does/can you make apple tv record?

no it doesnt record, its just a watching device aswell as link with i tunes for film rentals etc. its simplicity is what i like ..suits me 🙂

if you rent/buy a film on your laptop or i pad you can still play them on telly via the i player too!

I just got a blue ray player from sinsburys £75 or £79 that says it does the internet telly thing.

it is a Sony BDP-S185

It also look like i can get movies onling from love film! see what happens when you RTFM.

Off to find an ethernet cable to try it out.

GW – should I want one? I don’t play computer games and have plenty gadgets in the house already.

dunno if it helps, but you can connect lovefilm from your laptop to the tv.

Yeah apple TV is good but has its limits. For an all round media center, I still reckoned that a PC was a better bet and didn’t cost much more.

PS3 would work, and can be used as an entertainment system. They are pretty much silent, have a remote and loads of other cool features. You don’t have to use it for games. You can play Avi’s, DVD’s, Blu-Ray, it has a very good upscaler built in and loads more.

AppleTV – I guess you may have to jailbreak it to get the best out of it..

I have a PS3 which I do use for this duty clubber, but I am coming round to wanting a nettop to fulfil the roll. The acer revos are the things I’ve been looking at, don’t know if that’s of any use to you.

GW – should I want one?

Well it will do everything you are asking and way more. and they are fairly cheap now.
You honestly reckon you wouldn’t enjoy any games at all?
have you never played computer games?

I’ve lost weekends on computer games when you were in nappies mate! And more recently…

They are £230 on scumbay…I have an old pc & a blu-ray player, what would it do for me?

what would it do for me?

Both, but the PS3 would probably be higher quality, due to the built in upscaler and easier.

You don’t have to play games on it, it’s not law, but it is crime. 😉

I’ve lost weekends on computer games when you were in nappies mate!

you do talk some amount of pish Al 😆

Oh sorry I forgot you’re in your 40s – it’s your immaturity that confuses me 😉 :irony:

So can someone give me a list of what the PS3 will do/or correct mine):

1. play dvds/blu-ray (I’m still on dvd, my telly is only 720)
2. stream internet tv like iplayer
3. cost £230
4. stream music/internet radio/spotify?

no it doesnt record, its just a watching device aswell as link with i tunes for film rentals etc.

Not exactly. I’ve got XBMC on my AppleTV and using the icefilms plugin I can download films/TV to watch later. The AppleTV has 7gig of storage space to play with – not a lot but enought for 5 or six films.

PS3 can…

1. play dvds/blu-ray/Avi’s
2. stream internet TV, iPlayer/ITVPlayer/4od
3. cost £230
4. stream music/internet radio/pandora
5. Stream stuff from your DLNA/NAS/PC (video & music)
6. Play Photos/Videos/Camera’s from USB
7. Can record live TV, if you buy PlayTV.

AppleTV is also worth looking at, but you would have to Jailbreak it to get the most out of it.

I use the ps3 for TV I player act But ! crap watching You Tube through it

I’ve got one of the new Apple Mac Mini’s hooked upto my tv via a hdmi lead. Operate it with the wifi keyboard and trackpad. Probably not the cheapest way to get the internet on the tv but all works really well.

think I’ll just wait for he xb360 update due shortly…

Apparently you can use the BBC iPlayer app for the iPad and then sling that to an apple TV via Airplay which is pretty slick. Why you can’t do iPlayer with the appleTV alone, I don’t know.

My Sony TV has iPlayer built in which works really well.

I use the Apple TV for watching stuff from my laptop via PLEX. (worked out of the box unlike XBMC which I couldn’t be bothered to fiddle around with)

Brand new stand alone PS3s are around £190 (Tesco/Asda etc.), S/H £100*

*also budget for random spoon modding

if you have an old pc. install xbmc live on it. a fantstic bit of software.
I’ve got it running on a home build htpc with a tuner card and 2tb storage. I have my video/ music library on it. I can watch and record live TV. and use 4od, iplayer, icefilms etc too

Not exactly. I’ve got XBMC on my AppleTV and using the icefilms plugin I can download films/TV to watch later. The AppleTV has 7gig of storage space to play with – not a lot but enought for 5 or six films.

Is that an old AppleTV though? Didn’t think the new ones had any (accessible) onboard storage. Or a browser come to that?

the older ones had 80Gb/160Gb

Is that an old AppleTV though? Didn’t think the new ones had any (accessible) onboard storage. Or a browser come to that?

No that’s the new, black type. Apple don’t make it well known that the storage is there but it is.
No browser, you install XBMC to fully appreciate what the ATV can do.
If I’m not downloading directly with Icefilms I simply ftp into the ATV and copy the video files in that way.
The nice thing about the new ATV is that they are very small, no moving bits and use practically no power. Oh, and you can control them with either an iPhone or iPad

I have just read this and nodded to myself going ” hmm”. I have no idea what you are all typing about. 😥

If you’re not bothered about games, Sony’s Blu Ray players do a lot of what the PS3 does for a lot less money. I’ve had one 15 months or so now and it works very well. I get iPlayer, 5 OD, on it, You Tube, Love Film (requires subscription), Qriosity (pay as you go movies), DLNA media client (so so) and of course it plays discs so has replaced the DVD player. There’s loads of other not-so-good internet content too, but oddly not all the internet content on the PS3 finds its way to the BD players. There’s no browser for example, although I gather the PS3 one is a bit naff anyway Careful research is needed but I’ve not regretted my BD player and never play Blu Ray discs!

Was looking to do the same myself, blu-ray player was an option but I was also looking to ditch Sky so went for a Humax Freesat Foxsat PVR (£175 grade A refurb direct from Humax).

I’ve done what Mr_Mojo did, although my Mini was the previous model, going cheap. Had the optical drive removed and a second HDD installed. An extra 2Gb RAM was found on a shelf, and I got the BT keyboard and Trackpad. 1.1Tb of internal storage, and I’ll probably get one of those Seagate Go-Flex externals to back up to, as they have a remote access app available that bypasses the computer itself. 3.2Tb ought to do for a while…
FWIW I have zero interest in games, I get bored with them very quickly.

Lots of options really depends on how far you want to go. Currently I have the following options
HTPC running free view and ( when I finally get it all configured) freesat through win7 media centre with 12tb of storage 😆
Samsung C7000 tv which is networked so has the Samsung apps so iplayer, love film, YouTube etc. and records to an external HD plugged into it
Samsung blu- ray player which has the apps as well plus the option of cat5 or wifi connection £200
Wii which will do iplayer ( but as mentioned above quality not great) £ 150
iPad one of which will mirror (or I can just use my pico projector onto the wall) £lots

Overall best solution is still the HTPC can record, gets over the air and sat tv play any video file you throw at it, web with flash etc for midweek movies on here Mine even looks like a bit of proper av kit with a silverstone mc16 case but that was nearly £200 on it’s own, the silent fans and other quiet components along with all the drives (upgraded those this year) bring the price up to about a grand but it’s a proper bit of kit!

Oh and if you go that route definite +1 on the key sonic wireless keyboard, had mine for years and works a treat only need to replace the 2AA batteries every 6 months or so, one of the best £25 I’ve spent it looks like the bottom half of a laptop with compact keyboard and trackpad really excellent bit of kit.

I have a lead connecting the PC to a HDMI port on the TV for video then another cable to the TV for audio, then use a remote mouse/keyboard app with the ipod touch which works over the home wifi 😀