So - after picking up an offer 18months ago for Sky Movies at 1/2 price for 18months the monthly TV bill has crept up to an eye watering £75/month (not including Disney or Apple)
So have just got off the phone & cancelled. They have asked for the Sky Q box & remote back, which is slightly annoying as I thought we'd get to keep it & just drop to Freesat (the box is 7/8 years old & it's not going to like they are going to resell it)
As the sky box is going - & we don't have a conventional ariel - what options are there out there? We can watch all normal broadcast TV over the web apps on the TV. Then anything sky related I figure we can look at Now TV.
Are there any options that I am missing?
That's how we do it. Never use a set top box anymore. All streaming. Have a few Google chrome sticks for non smart telly use.
We can watch all normal broadcast TV over the web apps on the TV.
Is this right? Can you watch any channels live other than BBC through streaming on apps? Or nearly live - watch from start after the programme has started.
This is mainly relevant for sport I guess
Well you can watch C4 - don't really care for ITV
C4 doesn't work live on my TV app. But just found a old thread that suggests it, bizarrely, varies between brand of TV
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/off-topic/channel-4-live-streaming-oddity/
I still like a set top box. Set it to record everything I like the look of then I effectively have my own on demand streaming service but it's just programs I like and I can fast forward through the adverts. You do need a dish or aerial but that is cheap.
Still use normal streaming occasionally but not a fan of the ad breaks, especially the long one at the start.
Getting a terrestrial aerial installed might not be a bad idea in any case. The last time I had one fitted - around the time of the analogue switch-off I think - I got change from £100 for a high-gain antenna.
Is this right? Can you watch any channels live other than BBC through streaming on apps? Or nearly live - watch from start after the programme has started.
"All" might be a stretch, but with some you can. The annoyance is that each broadcaster uses its own app (which is partly why I suggested a regular aerial, it's a lot less faff to channel-hop) and they are not of equal quality if they're even available at all. I have to farm out to the Xbox for Channel 4 because for some unholy reason their app isn't available on my £1500 TV.
My non-smart TV in the other room has an Amazon Fire Stick plugged into the back of it, that works well but the menu can be sluggish because I bought a cheap one. I believe the 4k versions are much slicker. That mostly gets used for kids' cartoons on YouTube.
As for sports I have no idea, but I doubt you'll get much interesting for free.
Nvidia Shield > Benq 4K HDR projector + dib in and out of most streaming providers when it suits.
Don't really watch network TV.
Current Subs to paramount plus, netflix, nowtv, YouTube, prime. Pause a few in the summer.
Room is light controlled because I'm a sucker for colour accuracy and the cinema experience.
Viewing has never been so good.
I still like a set top box. Set it to record everything I like the look of then I effectively have my own on demand streaming service but it's just programs I like and I can fast forward through the adverts. You do need a dish or aerial but that is cheap.
Still use normal streaming occasionally but not a fan of the ad breaks, especially the long one at the start.
The other consideration here is if you have multiple feeds, you can receive / record from multiple sources.
Back when I had what was then Sky HD it had a "quad LNB" with two coaxial cables running to the box, so feeds of two channels. I could watch one channel whilst recording another, or I could record two channels so long as I either watched one of those two or didn't watch anything. If I was watching TV and a second scheduled recording was due to start, I'd get an alert asking whether I wanted to switch channels or cancel one of the recordings. With a rooftop aerial I could leave the two Sky channels recording and just switch back to DTV and watch a third terrestrial broadcast independently.
Obviously though, less of an issue these days with the meteoric rise of streaming services. My partner 'watches' vacuous daytime TV for little more than background noise, most of what I watch is streamed either via commercial services or backups on my media server.
Via an 8" tablet hot spotting from my phone. Probably not the solution you are after though 😁
Amazon firestick until I started using the OK apps on our LG TV.
stream stuff I’ve previously saved using Jellyfin from our NAS or stream stuff from C4, iPlayer, and Netflix.
Used to have a TiVo but found we recorded lots and watched little of it.
4k ROKU stick.
I cancelled Sky Stream recently and using a Fire TV 4k stick, it was £40 a few weeks ago. It works in a very similar way. It has a live tv guide. I might change to an Apple TV device and move the fire tv to another tele. The apple devices open up the apps more quickly than anything else. You can download a live tv guide that is good for £6 on apple.
Recently stayed in Chester, the hotel had a 4k Roku TV!! My mind was blown. 🤯
Like my oven which has not been used since we got an air fryer, I don't think my terrestrial ariel has been troubled to do any work for at least a year, probably more. Roku stick 99% of the time and sometimes on a laptop when we can't agree on what to watch or I can't drown out the drivel she's put on. Which reminds me, the ariel is connected to a booster which is always disturbingly warm to the touch and must be consuming a good chunk of power - should probably crawl into the loft space and turn it off. That would mean going into the bat's manor and I'm too much of a chicken to do that - they own that part of the house and I know my place.
I watched a random YouTube video earlier today about digging trenches (my life rocks) and they were talking about cable - I thought - 'how quaint'. Is cable (as opposed to broadcasting over in the internet) even a thing in the UK anymore?
🤫 Iptv
We’ve got a recordable Freesat box (just plug your satelite cables in the back), but increasingly we stream more than we watch live or record. 4k Firestick works really well and it shows what is playing live too.
I'm still happy with Sky (Stream), but the consensus seems to be that, for people who don't want Freeview/Freesat, then an Apple TV + TV launcher app give the best user experience for watching live TV. I use that combo when I'm staying away from home (take my Apple TV with me), and can confirm it is very slick.
eg.;
I put this on my sky dish
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07GS1Z2YP?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1
Main TV has freesat built in and we have a freesat recorder on that and Apple TV.
Other TV's have built in freesat.
All connected to the internet for streaming via apps.
No Ariel as we don't get the full range of Freeview.
I still use my nearly 25 year old sky dish, connect it to the TV which has freesat built in like many modern ones. Works absolutely fine unless a bird sits between the receiver and the dish.
I still use my nearly 25 year old sky dish, connect it to the TV which has freesat built in like many modern ones. Works absolutely fine unless a bird sits between the receiver and the dish.
(the box is 7/8 years old & it's not going to like they are going to resell it)
It will contain info about your viewing habits etc. That is info that can be collected and probably sold on.
It's the same with the router, they send you a new one but ask for the discontinued one back. As its discontinued/will never be reused, its either a case of they collect all the parts, and sell those for recycling, which is really unlikely given the low numbers of old routers that would produce, or they want the info collected in the memory.
Call me an old cynic ...
Discovery+ €5 / month and another €5 for Express VPN on the Mac Mini.
Thats it. Nothing else
Sat dish, box and 5e/year card which gets me the main French and German channels. Geographical restrictions cut me out of UK streaming and I can't be arsed to get a proxy for poxy TV.
It will contain info about your viewing habits etc. That is info that can be collected and probably sold on.
It's the same with the router, they send you a new one but ask for the discontinued one back. As its discontinued/will never be reused, its either a case of they collect all the parts, and sell those for recycling, which is really unlikely given the low numbers of old routers that would produce, or they want the info collected in the memory.
Call me an old cynic ...
My old HD box contractually had to be connected to a phone line for the first 12 months for this reason, it would occasionally phone home. Quite what value eight years' worth of viewing data from a former customer would have to Sky let alone reselling to anyone else, I have no idea (and the latter would likely be a serious breach of DPA / UK GDPR).
As for the router, it's connected to Sky's point of presence over the Internet. Unless you routinely use a VPN, any "info" on a domestic router will already be on Sky's servers. I'd guess the same is probably true of modern Sky TV boxes, they're surely connected to the Internet these days rather than a landline.
My old HD box contractually had to be connected to a phone line for the first 12 months for this reason, it would occasionally phone home.
First thing I did when the engineer left was unplug mine, never heard a thing.
Returning old kit may be due to WEEE regulations. Suppliers need to provide customers with a way to dispose of old kit so it can be recycled.