Scrapping sky. What are the options.

[Rubric]

Ok, at the moment I have sky unlimited bb. There phone line through their equipment at the exchange and the top whack tv package. I've got a 3d smart tv from toshiba and a ps3.

At the moment I'm paying £70ish a month to sky and that's about to go up by £14.50 when my offer on movies runs out in June.

I currently watch the odd film here and there and American series like revolution on sky 1 and person of interest on 5.

My question is, should I cut sky loose, how easy is it to get content of American shows and get it on my tv through the ps3 and what's the best bet on broadband provider to operate this way.

 

[Tuthmes]

eztv

 

[Raven]

I am doing the same when BT pull their finger out and sort out the fibre into the village. Turns out Openreach put the first box in the wrong place, the second box was the wrong type and upon installing the third, correct box, they buggered up the fibre...

We are probably going to go with BT vision and using Netflix or Lovefilm via the BT box. I have a PS3 but as far as I know it can all be done directly on the BT box. The TV aerial blew off our house several years ago and I haven't bothered putting a new one up so freeview is out of the question.

I don't know if you can get 3D content on anything but Sky or Blueray though so if you want that especially you might be better sticking with Sky. Even though their prices are obscene...our bill comes in at about £95 a month for TV/phone/internet.

Edit, there was a thread about proxy servers around here not so long ago, might be an idea for American TV shows, several are available legally a day or so after TV on Netflix...not sure how that would work with a BT box, Freeview box or PS3.

 

[ileks]

Buy a USB external hard drive (or even a small 16gb one). Pirate anything you could possibly want, drag & drop on to the USB drive and play it on the smart tv.

 

[ECA]

Ok, at the moment I have sky unlimited bb. There phone line through their equipment at the exchange and the top whack tv package. I've got a 3d smart tv from toshiba and a ps3.

At the moment I'm paying £70ish a month to sky and that's about to go up by £14.50 when my offer on movies runs out in June.

I currently watch the odd film here and there and American series like revolution on sky 1 and person of interest on 5.

My question is, should I cut sky loose, how easy is it to get content of American shows and get it on my tv through the ps3 and what's the best bet on broadband provider to operate this way.

Get some ethernet over power plugs and ps3media server on your pc, download everything to your pc > stream to ps3.

 

[Hawkwind]

eztv

Daillytvtorrents is better and much quicker with the updates

 

[leggy]

Get some ethernet over power plugs and ps3media server on your pc, download everything to your pc > stream to ps3.

Pretty much my setup with a micro server and a media player (formerly 360).

The other option is a bookshelf and some quality reading material. Seriously, I have mostly given up TV (except for game of thrones and justified)

 

[- English -]

My tv is linked up to my pc via a HD cable. I have an external HD which has some old tv series/movies on, and my gf subscribes to netflix / viaplay (dk), so if theres anything we want to watch I just drag and drop the browser to the TV and play

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

You can stream directly to smart TVs. No need for Xbox or PS3.

 

[DaGaffer]

Main TV has Apple TV (for movie rental and Netflix) and an Rpi for XBMC. They are all on a wired connection (via switch) to the router, which also on a wired connection to a Synology NAS, which is where I store movies and TV (I haven't got around to music yet). The TV in the spare room gets XBMC wirelessly using a 40 quid Android stick (it can also get Netflix). Laptop and main upstairs desktop (in bedroom) get XBMC wirelessly and also have Netflix (US version, thank you Chrome). The phones and Tab are all on the network as well.

I still have Sky (also connected by ethernet to the same router as everything else in the living room) but if it wasn't for Sport and kids channels I'd barely use it (I do use Sky GO on the upstairs PC as well). If I was in the UK I wouldn't have Sky, just Freeview and I'd use NowTV for sports as and when I had time.

 

[DaGaffer]

You can stream directly to smart TVs. No need for Xbox or PS3.

Most Smart TVs' basic DNLA is shit though.

 

[Raven]

Especially the Sony ones

*waits*

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Main TV has Apple TV (for movie rental and Netflix) and an Rpi for XBMC. They are all on a wired connection (via switch) to the router, which also on a wired connection to a Synology NAS, which is where I store movies and TV (I haven't got around to music yet). The TV in the spare room gets XBMC wirelessly using a 40 quid Android stick (it can also get Netflix). Laptop and main upstairs desktop (in bedroom) get XBMC wirelessly and also have Netflix (US version, thank you Chrome). The phones and Tab are all on the network as well.

I still have Sky (also connected by ethernet to the same router as everything else in the living room) but if it wasn't for Sport and kids channels I'd barely use it (I do use Sky GO on the upstairs PC as well). If I was in the UK I wouldn't have Sky, just Freeview and I'd use NowTV for sports as and when I had time.

Moar brackets pls

 

[Lamp]

Buy a USB external hard drive (or even a small 16gb one). Pirate anything you could possibly want, drag & drop on to the USB drive and play it on the smart tv.

16 Gb is fine if you don't want to keep anything for long.
As soon as you start collecting entire seasons, then start replacing your DVD collection with torrented stuff, you'll need several TBs if you plan on keeping them. Of course if you've got really fast internet, you could bung everything into online storage.

 

[DaGaffer]

Moar brackets pls

Amazingly, only one bracket in use.

 

[Raven]

Anyone know if I can ditch sky but use the box for Freesat and still record TV? Wife is moaning because she records Eastenders/Coronation street sometimes.

Apparently it's not the same on Iplayer/ITV player.

 

[DaGaffer]

Anyone know if I can ditch sky but use the box for Freesat and still record TV? Wife is moaning because she records Eastenders/Coronation street sometimes.

Apparently it's not the same on Iplayer/ITV player.

I don't think you can keep the record functionality.

 

[Aoami]

Anyone know if I can ditch sky but use the box for Freesat and still record TV? Wife is moaning because she records Eastenders/Coronation street sometimes.

Apparently it's not the same on Iplayer/ITV player.

Buy her a VCR and say "You can choose between the 21st century and this"

 

[Poag]

Anyone know if I can ditch sky but use the box for Freesat and still record TV? Wife is moaning because she records Eastenders/Coronation street sometimes.

Apparently it's not the same on Iplayer/ITV player.

No you can't. However can just go a buy a freesat box. This is the one we have Humax and it'll do the job, arguably better aswell. Our freesat box is silent. Wheres the GFs sky box makes a real racket.

 

[Raven]

Oh, ta. Will have a look into that.

 

[JBP|]

I've just got my pc plugged in to the tv to cut down on faffing about a wireless mouse and keyboard are a must though.

The only issue I have is that the pc case doesn't sit flush in the tv stand, but I can live with that for now.

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Most Smart TVs' basic DNLA is shit though.

Quite possibly, I don't have experience of a lot of different Smart TVs. I've got a Samsung and it directly streams everything up to 1080p 3D without difficulty.

 

[DaGaffer]

Quite possibly, I don't have experience of a lot of different Smart TVs. I've got a Samsung and it directly streams everything up to 1080p 3D without difficulty.

It'll stream it (mostly) but that's not the same as finding it. I have hundreds of movies and episodes and the Samsung menus suck donkey balls. Not keen on MKV either. There's a Plex app but I've never gotten Plex to work properly so hence XBMC.

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

It'll stream it (mostly) but that's not the same as finding it. I have hundreds of movies and episodes and the Samsung menus suck donkey balls. Not keen on MKV either. There's a Plex app but I've never gotten Plex to work properly so hence XBMC.

Interesting. I've never had any issues and not had to use anything but the Samsung 'Source' button on the TV zapper. I'm using a Netgear Something-or-other ReadyNAS which is cabled onto my physical network and has a static IP, but the TV connects to it via the wireless network point. Its been fine with MKVs and other file formats. It has to be - She Who Must Be Adored is not technical and I hate spending much time doing technical support if I can avoid it.

 

[Rubric]

Thanks guys. Been trying out with streaming via the ps3. Had some issues with playstation media server but then found vuze I think it was called. Works perfectly. Here's to only watching the tv I choose to watch and not getting sucked into the box that gets switched on automatically when there's nothing on.

 

[Job]

Android tv. .make sure you buy dual core with 1gb ram.