Coming to the end of my sky contract and they are really looking to hike my bill, I know I can play the cancel game to get a better rate, but, I’ve looked through what we are actually watching and recording and seems like its entirely channels which are on freeview. We dont have sports, we do have movies but with the rise of Prime, Netflix and Disney+ good movies aren’t going to Sky anymore and I think the same will happen with series once HBO Max launches in europe.

We dont really watch much TV live, we depend on the sky box to record it to watch later. I think I’d be able to drop sky and pick up an Apple TV and then install BBC iPlayer, ITVhub, etc and get a similar viewing experience of watching live tv or watch catch up for shows we’ve missed? or am I wrong?

Any users of Apple TV here also care to praise it or leave some scorn?

yep, I did that about 4 years ago I think after a problem with my Sky dish (was only using it for Freesat anyway!), normal aerial never really worked properly so have been internet-only via ATV for that time.

It find it very good (controller takes a bit of getting used to!)… you have to get used to not being able to pause/rewind live telly vs the Sky box (but then, there isn’t really a compelling reason that you need to watch live anyway as almost everything is available on catch-up/apps etc). Apps are all good & updated regularly so no problems there.

You can still watch most Sky channels in the form of Now TV (pretty cheap, plus offers on cards with codes are often available!)

Not an Apple TV device, but our Samsung Smart Tv has all the apps so gives the same experience minus the apple eye candy, with 1 remote.

Ditched Sky but kept subs to Netflix and Disney+. We watch most of our TV live or via iPlayer and 4od. I don’t miss the recording on the Q box at all, and can’t see a reason to ever go back to sky.

I got a free sub to the Apple TV service with a phone purchase, and haven’t watched anything on it.

Have been using an Apple TV for our main source of tv for several years now. All the main apps are there (bbc, itv, channel 4, channel 5, now tv, Disney, prime, Netflix etc).

It works particularly well if you have other Apple devices, you can use phone or iPad as a remote, AirPlay to it etc.

I changed to it because our aerial was a bit useless, and the apps built into the tv were laggy and became unsupported as the tv aged.

Rather than Apple TV, I use Google TV.

It’s a better interface, cheaper and integrates more neatly than another box under the telly.

I’ve not had an aerial / statellite dish for four years and no probs with Google or Android TV before that.

Well worth checking out.

Google TV review What Hifi

Anyone tried to stop Sky and go to Now TV, when i try and do it on the website seems to say i cannot get Now and it detects i pay monthly for Sky?

After 19 years I stopped Sky early this year and don’t miss it in the slightest – technology has passed them by and I think they’re **** personally but we’ll see.

Our setup now:
TV1: Old Panasonic Plasma with a Chromecast with Google TV (which is really good) and an old Humax Freeview recorder running custom software that does automatic recording schedules and removes adverts. It also streams recorded programs to the other TV, laptop, phones, etc.

TV2: New LG that has Netflix, Prime, YouTube, etc all built in and can stream programs recorded by the Humax in the other room. I’ve plugged in a spare laptop HD allowing it to do pause, rewind and recording if needed.

Frankly I couldn’t ask for anything more other than the demise of Sky. But that will come eventually as falling customer numbers force them to raise prices even more meaning customers see the light and dump them.

Any users of Apple TV here also care to praise it or leave some scorn?

I think they are great. Obviously people will tell you you can get something that does the same for a fraction of the price, but I think in reality the only other device that comes close to offering all the features and app selection is the Nvidia Shield which is a similar price.

It’s worth noting that the remote that comes with the current model is infinitely better than the previous generation (which was an abomination).

Frankly I couldn’t ask for anything more other than the demise of Sky. But that will come eventually as falling customer numbers force them to raise prices even more meaning customers see the light and dump them.

Interestingly with Glass they have actually lowered their prices and scrapped contracts altogether. The 55″ Glass TV plus all the channels we had was no more expensive than the old dish based package we had before.

It is really odd that Sky haven’t kept pace with streaming and instead have been relying on satellite dishes. I know they have now launched Glass but that is a bold / silly move when everyone else manages with dongles or apps in the TV plus a subscription.

I’ve had Apple TV for years. It is too expensive for what it is and it is a complete mystery why it has so much storage when you can’t download a movie on to it (which you might want to to do if taking it away somewhere). The older remote is designed to disappear into the darkest gates of hell inside your sofa and never be found again. But, despite that, it works faultlessly, UI is smooth and integration with other Apple devices is seamless. It is typical Apple.

PS, the remote must have a mini nuclear reactor in it. I am pretty sure I have never recharged it in all the years of owning it.

I know they have now launched Glass but that is a bold / silly move when everyone else manages with dongles or apps in the TV plus a subscription.

Glass has most of the apps built in and a basic Netflix sub included in the standard package. Can’t remember if Apple TV is on there – would have to check – but Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime etc are all baked into the software and the search feature scans across all of them as well as Sky’s own stuff. Really is very good. The TV even has a normal antenna port to support Freeview as well.

I watch almost everything via an Xbox (One). Similar price to Apple TV and can run all the same catchup apps (except possibly Apple TV+, haven’t looked into that one). Haven’t needed the aerial for about 5 years.

Obviously the Xbox means you can play games, but the minor downsides are that it’s also got a slightly noisy fan and probably a less slick interface than Apple TV.

fire tv 4k and the fire tv cube are both half price at the moment (and thus a fraction of apple tv cost) – if you’ve got apple content on a bunch of other things that you need to share then the apple device might have an advantage, otherwise save your cash

Roku box here – cheap, cheerful, effective.

I have an Apple TV and like it. Usually get a Eurosport Player subscription for ~£20 a year as the app works really well.

Of course one of the big advantages of the Apple TV box is you can install Zwift on it making it dead easy to set up a Zwift TV in your pain cave. ‘Tis why I got one 🙂

As above, the Fire TV 4K is cheap as chips for what you get, we’ve one plugged into the bedroom tele for all streaming needs.

It’s what we do. The AppleTV is pretty good at search and tracking for next/new episodes of the stuff you’re watching across the various streaming apps.

Live or near-live via the apps is hit and miss. BBC do it well, things like F1 highlights on C4 can take a while to appear once the show has finished.

We just have an aerial connected for Cbeebies.

Anyone tried to stop Sky and go to Now TV, when i try and do it on the website seems to say i cannot get Now and it detects i pay monthly for Sky?

Ah didn’t know that, it’s been on my to do list for a while to get a Now TV subscription and see what it’s like living Sky Q free for a month and get rid of Sky Q if there were no real issues. Didn’t realise they don’t allow Now TV if your address already has Sky – surely that can’t be strictly legit though so I imagine there’s a way around (they might just say it’s to stop you accidentally subscribing twice or something as their initial defence)

It is really odd that Sky haven’t kept pace with streaming and instead have been relying on satellite dishes. I know they have now launched Glass but that is a bold / silly move when everyone else manages with dongles or apps in the TV plus a subscription.

That’s kind of what Now TV is though really – but yes it is lagging behind other streaming services (last time I looked it didn’t offer 4k let alone HDR but maybe that’s changed). I can see why Sky are dragging their feet though, presumably they make more profit per customer from Sky TV vs Now TV and until it reaches a point they’re losing so many Sky TV customers to streaming platforms (and not gaining Now TV subscribers at the same rate) they’re just shooting themselves in the foot to make Now TV a match for Sky TV now. Sky Glass is a stepping stone to eek out some additional revenue but surely ultimately they’ll just be offering a streaming service with various options in it (although turning off the satellites and forcing everyone to switch is likely many years away)

a complete mystery why it has so much storage when you can’t download a movie on to it

You can save your games to the TV box, hence the storage. 64GB isn’t much to save movies to as a decent film is 15GB with no compression and a decent sound track

We just have an aerial connected for Cbeebies.

We just watch cbeebies on the iPlayer app.

We’ve been on Apple TVs for a few years as well. As well as doing all the TV we want, it does Apple Arcade games as well.

We did it a couple of years ago and mostly no regrets at all.

Streaming services are obviously good as you currently know them: iPlayer is amazingly good, All4 is pretty good but ITV hub is utterly frustrating, whether you chuck them four quid a month or don’t. It’s almost Redbull TV app bad…

Apple TV does all except local BBC news on iPlayer. I bought a month of Now TV, which I cancelled yesterday*, just to watch F1 live. We also subscribe to Eurosport and Netflix, and watch films via Apple and Curzon. I port it through the home cinema and have a Freeview TV in another room. Channel 4 app has been a little glitchy of late.

*Not a simple process compared with day passes I have used in the past, but just set a calendar reminder.

Channel 4 app has been a little glitchy of late.

Well if they will burn down their data centre without a robust DR procedure in place, nor back-ups! Good to see that they are getting the newly re-written system up and running, restart went missing for a good while as they had to completely re-write the software.

@dannybgoode Apple TV was announced earlier this week for Sky Glass

For those who recommend Fire Box, once you buy the firebox do you then also have to subscribe to Amazon Prime to get the better content?
Also looking at cancelling Sky. I hardly watch it as most of the shows I watch with the kids are now on other platforms. Don’t mind paying a larger upfront cost but would like to reduce the total amount of monthly subscriptions.

Apple TV is now on Sky Q and Glass. Looks very much like a v1.0 app, but it’s functional.

Seems like some people are talking about the subscription service and some taking about the little black hardware box. Whilst there’s overlap they’re not the same thing.

@scuttler there’s an Apple TV app which is not a subscription service and Apple TV plus which is (accessed through the non subscription app), plus of course the little black box. I use the walled fruity garden and it’s extremely confusing at times.

I believe part of the Apple TV on Sky Glass announcement included a reciprocal “Sky app on Apple TV*” announcement, which will be nice, and possible one step towards dish-less Sky**

* The little black box Apple TV
** As is already available in some countries, and opposed to the watered down NowTV option.

The Apple TV app has been moved to the folder of death – along with most of the other Apple Pay for me apps I don’t use. The hardware is great. The newest hardware 4k has HDMI Arc, which will give cinema surround with my Sonos Amp and a pair of Ones. I have yet to test this since I need an Arc splitter to feed the visual to the projector.

How does everyone search for programmes or simply browse to find something to watch without skipping through multiple apps? I have SkyQ and an ATV box but almost exclusively use the SkyQ as it’s easier to search including live and within iPlayer etc. We also often watch recorded (or paused) programmes while they are still on live so we can skip through the adverts and guff. Also, waiting for things to appear on catch-up is a pain and rather random – e.g. F1. Any tips for these aspects?

How does everyone search for programmes or simply browse to find something to watch without skipping through multiple apps?

I’m not entirely sure what you mean there, but I’ve still got the sky app on my phone which is good for seeing what’s on live TV.

We had an issue with Freeview last night and just watched iPlayer and CH5 (I know, I’m sorry) live.
Worked well even with a very lowly 9Mbps fibre connection (roll on the fttp we seen to be getting next year!)

How does everyone search for programmes or simply browse to find something to watch without skipping through multiple apps?

We tend to know roughly which service something is on then just use the search function in that app. I tend to use keyboard input from my phone, my wife uses Siri. Just using voice serach from the main menu can work but is less reliable.

The only problem we run into is that it’s not great at finding a specific episode of something if you’re watching out of sequence. It’s only really an issue with Hey Duggee though to be honest.

A potential major downside of Apple TV boxes that I wish more people would shout about is lack of support for subtitles on iPlayer.

Other than that, having used a Firestick and a Roku before an Apple TV box there’s very little between them for the most part. The Apple box is more powerful which was important for me to stream locally stored movies, but now most of the processing for that has moved onto my NAS. It works well in the Apple ecosystem as well – it’s a HomeKit hub and good for Airplay, and as others have said you can use iPhones iPads etc as remotes and keyboards which is nice. Especially because the old touchpad remote is one of the worst things ever designed.

They’ve all got the same apps for the most part. Firestick is focused on Prime, Roku pushes services they make revenue from but neither are too obnoxious about it.

edit- I’ve never had sky but have been aerial free for years using streaming tv. Haven’t usually had super fast broadband but it’s not been an issue.

A potential major downside of Apple TV boxes that I wish more people would shout about is lack of support for subtitles on iPlayer

I haven’t looked yet but is this not the BBC limiting access to their IP like they do with Sounds that won’t play natively on HomePods as Aunty won’t allow it?

EDIT it looks like 6 of one and half a dozen of the other with BBC not engineering their app to show titles on AppleTV (market share?) because it’s not like the Android based solutions they currently use.

EDIT 2 AppleTV supports close captioning natively so it looks more like a BBC problem than an Apple one.

@sandwich technical details are here

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/cy/request/686620/response/1643150/attach/html/4/RFI20201271%20FOI%20Response.pdf.html

basically Apple require subtitles are done in a different way to other services. Seems like the engineering issue could be resolved by Apple or the BBC, but one definitely has more resources than the other! Regardless, it’s been like this for years so for anyone requiring subtitles on iPlayer, don’t get an Apple TV box.

Apple TV. Very nice. Too expensive though. I have a couple of the HD ones. Was almost tempted to get a 4K one but a 4K fire stick is a lot cheaper. Does much the same job. And has the advantage over the HD ATVs that it will play MKVs mostly without complaint.

The iPlayer on fire stick is dreadful though.

It does look from the FOI response that Aunty is dragging her heels on the engineering, after all they are responsible for the production of their app. They have got the able-bodied population sorted but can’t be arsed to sort the disabled out. If I were deaf I would be bringing a DDA based case against them.
It is a similar approach to that used by the fibre providers who are happy to get the easy stuff done but drag their feet with getting the remoter parts of the country connected up.

How does everyone search for programmes or simply browse to find something to watch without skipping through multiple apps?

I’ll plug Google TV again!

It does exactly that, and brings back search results across all your apps / subscriptions and presents them ready to go – just select and it launches the content there and then.

Covers everything you use: BBC, ‘flix, Prime etc etc etc

Also, it recommends stuff from across your subs based on what you watch. As you’d expect from Google, it’s pretty accurate.

It’s a third the price of Apple TV, with 4K and Dolby support.

Nice remote and slick interface. You can voice search from the remote as well, and just say ‘Play Breaking Bad’ and it’ll play your next episode, or where you left off on the last one. You don’t need to be in the app for it to do this either.

Or, ‘Watch Die Hard’ and if it’s not available for free, brings up the various paid options across the platforms (inc Apple TV).

5/5 from What Hifi and just £60.

Zwift is the only thing I can think of that it doesn’t do.

I’ll plug Google TV again!

It does exactly that, and brings back search results across all your apps

Yes, now I understand what the original question was. I was just about to post this.
The Google TV makes it very easy to find content. Unlike the fire stick or Apple TV, the Google TV does not push its own products.