Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms getting rid of Sky?

Had Sky for a number of years now, basically since the BBC gave up full F1 coverage. And F1 is mostly what we use it for though we do find the recording box very usefule for its ability to skip adverts.

I'm inclined to dump Sky - fed up of the regular price increases. But we have no terrestrial signal worth a damn so we need to keep the satellite connection. If I move to Freesat, what sort of box will give me the same pre recording facilities as the Sky box does?

But technology is changing with the possibility of getting TV via the internet. Our TV ( 42 in LCD) is oldish but fully functional so I dont see the need to replace yet. So how do I get the internet into the TV?

Its all so fluid with three means of transmission ( radio, satellite and internbet) all with differeing characteristics and equipment.

Help!

You really need a smart tv , and to make it work it needs at least 2mbs . more would be better , then you have utube , internet access , netflix type channels if you want to pay into that and catch up on tv stations so less need to record as its available for around a month to access. Smart tv's have dropped in price a lot and improved , and last years models are a bargain.

We have never had Sky. Never had a council house to put the dish on.

+1

I got rid of Sky yonks ago. Get a Humax box and use the Sky dish.
Simples!

You’ll need either a smart tv with a freesat tuner or a freesat PVR. Take a look at Humax Digital’s freesat boxes. Record 3 programmes at once and easy to skip through adverts. Humax have an online shop or sell through the likes of John Lewis.

With a Humax box you wouldn’t have to get a freesat TV. (I’m assuming your existing TV is freeview). You could get a smart TV and record to a portable hard drive but you’re then limited to the number of channels you can record simultaneously.

We have been here before
HUMAX BOX @ £160
KODI BOX @ £25

does the lot if you have basic internet and no monthly fees.

Hope some of this helps.

First question. Do you have a decent quality Internet connection?
1. Speed above 6-8Mb needed for responsive downloads at 1080p HD picture quality. (you can record out of hours as well) 3-4Mb for standard resolution if you are not worried. This should avoid stammers in viewing if you hit download _and_ watch in real time. If you want 4K/UHD then >16Mb/sec would be a guide.
2. I would recommend an uncapped data allowance if you start to pull TV through the Internet to avoid extra bills. Most companies provide this now so look for uncapped or unlimited tariffs. In general the providers user portal shows you how much you have used.

There are a lot of ways of getting TV through the Internet.

1. Netflix or other online services.
2. Amazon Prime (combines well with delivery if you Internet shop a lot)
3. All4/BBC iPlayer and other channels that are free over the web (I expect they will go to subscription in the future as little is honestly free)
4. Sky also offer NOW.TV which is run from an iThing or PC and allows you groups of channels over the Internet. It is mostly the same model as Netflix with a login and access to bundles of content through your PC.
5. It is rumoured that you can share a Sky account.....ahem..... If someone has Sky they can add additional logins to their account and the other person can use the iPad or PC/Mac tools to watch pretty much everything through this. So if someone has Sky and does not mind sharing (it costs them nothing) you use this with their bundles if you can link your iThing/PC to the TV. If for example someone wanted Sky F1 like my SIL does.

Most of these sites can run from a laptop etc. Slave an old PC or laptop with an HDMI connector into your TV and get a bluetooth keyboard to use from the sofa is one clunky option. You have to use an HDMI as this carries the content protection needed

You can buy one or more of the small plug-in boxes but these are generally single-tasking and only give a few of the channels. There is a good review of them here. http://uk.pcmag.com/media-hubs-receivers...evices-of-2018. Many of these are to allow older TV's to use them and newer smart TV's have these built in as menu choices (applications).

Modern SmartTV's have software on them to play many of these channels (iPlayer/All4/Netflix/Amazon etc) from the TV itself so avoiding other boxes. In this case beware that they usually have a single tuner and so what is being recorded is also being watched in general. Some more expensive models offer dual tuners (one recording to USB/Disc and the other being watched) but these are less common.

Most of the modern TV's have the ability to put a high capacity USB memory dongle in the rear which also acts as the disc to store/record programs for later review. Some older models may have capacity limits on these so beware if you do want to carry a lot when away on holiday for example. Example https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Ultra-USB-Flash-Drive/dp/B00YFI1A66/ref=sr_1_4?

In some cases you can also add a small external USB disc drive instead of a USB memory fob if you do need greater capacity. USB discs can be from 1-4Tb. Some take power through USB and others have external power of their own. - example https://www.amazon.co.uk/ADATA-Stylish-External-Drives-AHV620-2TU3-CWH/dp/B00JK9NESW/ref=sr_1_17? These need a little more power from the USB port so check if this is suitable before going ahead. Happy to guide if it helps.

A Sky+ box normally has a 1Tb disc as a guide as it was designed for normal and 1920x1080/FHD. The new SkyQ box has 2Tb as it will need to store 4K/UHD/40962160 which has up to three/four times the storage per program/hour. If you want to go nerd-like and calculate it there are tools here https://www.videohelp.com/software/sections/bitrate-calculators

Any of these spring good/bad you want drilled into ?

I have a Digiclass Ma 85 digi box, about the size of a fag packet, receives over 1000 channels all free via the Internet and Smart TV. Receives all the Sky channels, Sport, Films, Eurosport, BT sport, news, porn channels, YouTube etc. from all satellites. Probably illegal (?) but most pleased with it. Costs about 85 quid.

Thanks Alistair. I will have to re-read what you have written in the morning when I might have a chance of understanding it.

The key thing is that I want rid of Sky because it costs. For that matter it goes against the grain to replace the existing TV when its still working.
I dont like paying. So I am happy for the most part watching BBC, ITV, C5 C5 and freeview. But none of the media streaming devices seem to mention these channels. What, for example, does the Amazon Fire allow you to watch? Presumably it feeds from my router via a cable and then to the TV. Correct?

Then what do I do about the TVs in the other rooms - kitchen, bedrooms etc? They have a feed from the terrestrial aerial so it would be handy if I were able to feed TV from the internet router into the cables built into the walls already, the router signal being wek in the bedrooms.