Television Help

[Parm]

i want to move into the 21st century and would like to upgrade my TV channels to the digital age

I've spent loads of time on the Internet in an attempt to research this all but got to say I'm even more confused with, chrome cast, fire stick, Kodi, locked, un locked, jail broken etc etc etc.

Currently I have a £50/month sky TV subscription which I'm paying £20 per month. I would like the option for a few films and a few new documentaries if at all possible.

The fastet Internet connection I can have in the village is 5.6 MB, provided by Plusnet, the broadband router is located in the same room as the TV and other hardware I have is a laptop and iPad and I know nothing about computers

What do you experts recommend I get that easy to set up as I know nothing about this sort of stuff

 

[bigegg]

I bought a now tv box - £15 plus (i think) 7? quid a month for sky entertainment.
I installed "plex" on my pc, so any video files on my pc can be played through tv.
Truth be told, its better just to connect pc straight to tv and use the various free streaming services - which plusnet dont block.

 

[WorkshopChris]

Give a Now TV box a try, less than £ 20.00 month gets you films and the main sky channels, plus on demand i player and you tube on the TV, great if your broadband will run it.
A Box is about £ 15.00

 

[skotl]

I'm getting deja vu, all over again

I still recommend an Amazon Fire Stick, especially if you have Amazon Prime. It's worth looking at Apple TV and the Google ChromeCast, too (as in "pick one", not "buy all three"!)

 

[Parm]

I'm getting deja vu, all over again

I still recommend an Amazon Fire Stick, especially if you have Amazon Prime. It's worth looking at Apple TV and the Google ChromeCast, too (as in "pick one", not "buy all three"!)

Very much so !! I gave up last time cause it got too complicated, I'm trying to have another go but it doesn't seem any easier. The more I investigate the more complex it gets

 

[WorkshopChris]

I still recommend an Amazon Fire Stick, especially if you have Amazon Prime.

What content do you get is it pay on demand? i went with the now tv as it was no ongoing contract and just plugs into tv with hdmi older tv doesnt have usb.
EDIT. We have 3 boxes at home all on same account.

 

[Kayos]

I have a basic virgin media package, only because the new boxes have Netflix and YouTube installed so the young un can flit and change between what he wants

For the grown ups I'm using a Rasberry Pi, it can stream movies and music from my nas and as its fanless it's also silent in operation

I've also heard it's possible to download stuff from the Internet, but I'm not into that sort of thing......

 

[gaz1]

i just have net gets everything i want when i want it however i can also use a firestick and that makes the rest free as well

i also have freeview channels as well

 

[Parm]

You lot aren't helping much !!!!!

 

[the snooper]

You lot aren't helping much !!!!!

what ever you get most tv is repeated junk

 

[RonA]

As a follow on from Parm's question I have one of my own ref Now TV boxes.
I have a seven year old Panasonic Plasma TV in the lounge (still has a great picture & sound) with both freesat Satellite & Internet connections + a connected Now TV box. In the bedroom I have freesat satellite box also internet connected.
At present I can access I player on both systems but come Sept they are shutting the freesat Iplayer facility down.
As the TV in the lounge has a Now TV box I can still acces I Player via the box, so no problems there. I could connect another Now TV box to the Sat box upstairs (it has an HDMI input). The question is could they both be run on the same (single) account? . I know I can nominate up to 4 devices on the present account, would this extend to another box?

RonA

 

[RonA]

Yes Ron, it does.

We have 3 boxes and my phone nominated on the nowTV account, and you can chop and change as you see fit.

Thanks Pdg, I'll pick one up next time I go shopping.
RonA

 

[wookie]

You lot aren't helping much !!!!!

Ok...... allow me to offer my view on Kodi....

I have a Kodi setup here, (it used to be called XBMC), well it is absolutely fantastic, I have ripped all my Blurays & DVD's & music on it, it also has multiple freesat and freeview tuners so it records and plays back all my Tv.

My "smart" Tv is now only used as a dumb screen and a pair of speakers, all my Tv watching is done via Kodi, it's great having all my movies and Tv boxsets on it, no searching for the correct disc just pull up a menu and hit play, no waiting for the menus & adverts & piracy warnings etc just straight into the content, it remembers what you've watched etc etc. There are loads of plugins so you can stream from the internet but I usually just download stuff like Project Binky and play it back on Kodi, I really can't sing it's praises too much.

Now the down sides, ideally you need to leave the computer running it on permanently so watch the power draw as it can soon run up your electric bill. Mine is an AT5IONT based system that isn't the most powerful but it averages only 35-40 watts and has a couple of extremely quiet fans, it's basically a silent pc with a massive passive heatsink on the CPU and GPU with 10TB of storage, currently it has been running for over a year without any reboots at all, but because it's a low power system I had to spend time fine tuning it so that only the bare minimum of services are running so it works smoothly.

 

[skotl]

I think Parm's looking for a much more straightforward, out-of-the-box solution

So I think the suggestions are a Now TV box and maybe something like a fire stick, chromecast or apple TV to watch films on?

 

[gaz1]

fire stick and the internet is all you need all the rest is free via the net

 

[TechnicAl]

Ive got Sky and BT Sport so all together Im paying about £120 / month.......2 of my lads have Chromecast and get what I get (and more) for nothing

I really should follow them but I dont know what Im doing

 

[WorkshopChris]

fire stick and the internet is all you need all the rest is free via the net

Without explaining how can you expand on that statement at all.

 

[ronan]

Ok...... allow me to offer my view on Kodi....

I have a Kodi setup here, (it used to be called XBMC), well it is absolutely fantastic, I have ripped all my Blurays & DVD's & music on it, it also has multiple freesat and freeview tuners so it records and plays back all my Tv.

My "smart" Tv is now only used as a dumb screen and a pair of speakers, all my Tv watching is done via Kodi, it's great having all my movies and Tv boxsets on it, no searching for the correct disc just pull up a menu and hit play, no waiting for the menus & adverts & piracy warnings etc just straight into the content, it remembers what you've watched etc etc. There are loads of plugins so you can stream from the internet but I usually just download stuff like Project Binky and play it back on Kodi, I really can't sing it's praises too much.

Now the down sides, ideally you need to leave the computer running it on permanently so watch the power draw as it can soon run up your electric bill. Mine is an AT5IONT based system that isn't the most powerful but it averages only 35-40 watts and has a couple of extremely quiet fans, it's basically a silent pc with a massive passive heatsink on the CPU and GPU with 10TB of storage, currently it has been running for over a year without any reboots at all, but because it's a low power system I had to spend time fine tuning it so that only the bare minimum of services are running so it works smoothly.

What addons do you use Wookie ?

 

[gaz1]

yeah its kodi and xbmc via a pc gives everything you need for free

 

[octo0072000]

what about Freesat anyone use it once up and running it's free