Laptop for student & to watch TV

lonestarfan

My nephew is going to uni in September and needs a new laptop. i also want to help him find a way of watching TV in his room without buying a TV licence. I'm finding it a bit confusing about tv licence. The current students we met on the open day said don't get a tv as you have to have a licence so get TV thru the Internet but I'm not sure what that means and how to do it. He has an xbox and we need to buy him a laptop for uni work. We have sky tv package including sky sports at home so he can get sky go. He wants to be able to watch sky sports and sky tv. The room has Internet connection. So what do we need to do with the Xbox or laptop so he can watch TV and sky tv/sky sports. How do you watch tv on an xbox - does it need a monitor or a tv? if it needs a tv doesn't that mean a tv licence? how do we watch tv through the laptop - i would prefer he has a screen larger than the laptop screen to protect his eyes and to get a good size picture if he's watching a football match - again do we need a large monitor or tv and doesn't that need a tv licence. Sorry about my repetition but I think you'll get the idea lol! Finally, I need advice on a suitable laptop specification and price - I think he'll want a laptop that can run football manager or Football manager 13 etc. He is planning to do some studying in between all this football, Xbox, gaming, honestly lol ��! Thanks a lot for any help.

reaprr

At my university they offered a streaming internet service for a price, but it was highly unreliable and a waste of money. I found tvcatchup.com very helpful to watch live TV (you can also watch live BBC programs on iPlayer), they stream it via the internet so you don't need an aerial or anything like that - just a laptop and an internet connection. Legally you do need a TV licence to watch live TV but you do not need to input any details before viewing.

You can connect laptops to TV or monitors very easily with a few cheap cables depending on what connections the laptop/tv/monitor has. These would allow the TV or monitor to display whatever is on the laptop. HDMI cables would be best as these transmit both video and audio over 1 cable and can display HD quality, however if the devices don't have the right sockets you can use an AUX cable for sound (connected to the headphones jack) and a VGA cable for video.

He should setup his xbox now with sky so he knows it works, it isn't too difficult. He will need it to have access to the internet and a Gold Xbox Live account. All he has to do is download the Sky application from the xbox marketplace (for free) and input your sky login details which should be on your sky viewing card. He will be able to watch live sky sports from the xbox. The same process is done by going onto the sky website if he wanted to watch it via his laptop. (You can have a max of I think 3 devices set up this way).

I believe Football manager 2013 needs quite a powerful machine to run. It would probably need to be around £400-£600.

S0litaire

If he still uses your home address I think their is a provision for him to be covered with your Home Licence while he's in Uni digs.

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/for-your-home/students-aud1/?WT.mc_id=r107

Basically he's covered using your licence if the laptop is powered using only the battery while watching TV.

Get him to check if the halls of residence has a licence! he's covered by that as well in some areas.

But if you decide to get him a licence then remember he can get a refund for the time he's NOT at Uni, which is around 1/5(?!?) of the cost i think.

lonestarfan

Reaprr. Thanks for that info as its very helpful. Have I understood your reply correctly in that all the methods you've described require a tv licence - whether its an x box he's using or tv via the Internet on his laptop he'll still need a tv licence?
Do you have a view on what you think the current students meant that there is a way to watch TV without a licence? Thnx.

lonestarfan

S0litaire wrote: »

If he still uses your home address I think their is a provision for him to be covered with your Home Licence while he's in Uni digs.

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/for-your-home/students-aud1/?WT.mc_id=r107

Basically he's covered using your licence if the laptop is powered using only the battery while watching TV.

Get him to check if the halls of residence has a licence! he's covered by that as well in some areas.

But if you decide to get him a licence then remember he can get a refund for the time he's NOT at Uni, which is around 1/5(?!?) of the cost i think.[/

Thnx. I'll have a read of that link. The uni have said the halls do not have a tv licence and students will need a individual licence.

S0litaire

If the laptop has Wifi then he can get internet catchup under your licence

Here's a thought... I'm not sure but it's a stretch that a cheap TV USB dongle might also be used and if the laptop is not plugged into the wall in any way what-so-ever then he might be covered by your license!

For consoles then it's a no-go since they need to be powered from the wall to work so he'd need a license for them...

closed

sep is a while away yet

live tv needs a licence, catchup tv doesn't

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/technology--devices-and-online-top8/

a usb dongle is exactly the same as having a tv with an aerial as far as the licence is concerned.

lonestarfan

That TV licence page is hurting my head! Why is it sooooo complicated? What's this thing about not being plugged into mains?! The way I've interpreted that page is that so long as he doesn't plug the laptop into an elctric mains but that he just uses it from its batteries and watches live television via the Internet then he is covered by his mothers TV licence that she's got for their home as he hasn't connected it to any aerial or any power socket. Have I interpreted that correctly?

closed

It's not complicated, live tv needs a licence, catchup tv doesn't, that's why you get a popup asking if you've got a licence when you watch iplayer live, but not if you watch something a few hours after transmission

The battery thing doesn't apply, because he will live elsewhere, that's to cover you when you are out and about

lonestarfan

closed wrote: »

It's not complicated, live tv needs a licence, catchup tv doesn't.

The battery thing doesn't apply, because he will live elsewhere.

It is complicated to me. You say live tv needs a licence but the tv licence page says this:- if your mobile device isn't plugged in you are covered by your parents licence.
So I interpret that as follows :- a laptop is a mobile device, so when he is in his own room at the university and the laptop is not plugged in and is running from batteries then he can watch live tv from the internet and is covered by the parents licence. Have I interpreted that correctly?
I think it could be possible that the laptop batteries would last long enough to watch some live tv on it.
I understand now from one of the previous posters that the x box has to be plugged in so that would require a tv licence .

wallbash

Far more important than watching the football on his laptop is the boring subject of laptop theft. One, insure it . Don't just think it will be covered on an existing policy , it won't.

And can I bring to your attention a favorite topic of mine .

http://preyproject.com/

This completely free piece of software can reunite the said laptop/ smart phone with its owner , if stolen.

My daughter , was able to give the location of her stolen laptop .........280 miles away , the IP address being used , name of thief ( via email address) and even a picture of him ( via web cam ) sitting using her laptop. Police knocked on his door 2 hours later.

Thief got fined , a criminal record and my daughter got her lap top back .

Preyproject , please spread the word to all , it costs nothing but might be the best bit of software hidden on your laptop.