Advice: ditching Sky and TV licence too

prowla

I have to say that the stuff on TV was a bit boring over the holiday, and I watched several repeats and some old movies.

This got me to thinking: what benefit am I getting from (a) paying for a Sky service, and (b) buying a TV licence every year?

As a result, I'm contemplating doing away with them, and just getting content via the Internet.

My main system is a plasma display (not TV), with a Sky+ HD box, a freeview box, and an Apple Mac connected, with the sound going via my hi-fi. If I lost the Sky box and the freeview, I would have no TV reception capability.

So my system would then be: plasma screen + computer + hi-fi, with the computer able to play DVDs, movie rips (on a wi-fi NAS drive), and access online content such as iPlayer.

Am I right in saying that a setup like the above, only accessing content over the Internet via a computer does not require a TV licence?

I've then got the question of where to get new content, and it would be great to get some thoughts on this:

• DVDs & rips are easy - I've got that sorted.
• iPlayer, ITV Player, and so-on should be straightforward (assuming no TV licence required).
• What are the options for subscription-free online content - Netflix, Amazon Prime, and so-on?
• The computer as a front-end is a bit clunky and needs to be booted and so-on, so would it be an idea to get an internet TV set-top box like an AppleTV, Chromecast, Roku, NowTV ?
• What are my options for downloading and storing things (eg. a series on iPlayer)?
• (NB. I'm only interested in legal content, so P2P/bittorrent aren't of interest here.)

I'm in no great rush to get this done; so I have time to have a play with some things over the year.

windup

provided it isn't live tv, you don't need one (currently - things may change soon)

145.50 is a bargain (running a computer 24/7 will probably use that in electricity), I don't understand why people moan about it, the collection system is archaic though, it should just be taken from general taxation. A pvr and tv licence enables you to avoid all the adverts and protected content errors you will probably encounter on non bbc channels, as well as all the additional benefits - series record is a great timesaver

System

prowla wrote: »

DVDs & rips are easy - I've got that sorted.

• iPlayer, ITV Player, and so-on should be straightforward (assuming no TV licence required).

Everything else is fine. If you watch any live contact on iplayer etc then a licence is required.

prowla

!!!!!! wrote: »

[/LIST]
Everything else is fine. If you watch any live contact on iplayer etc then a licence is required.

Ah, is iPlayer live?

windup

this is http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/live/bbcone

System

prowla wrote: »

Ah, is iPlayer live?

As windup shows, it can be iPlayer is just the BBC's name for their streaming service. It carries both live content and catch-up content as does ITV & Channel 4's offering. From what I can see, Channel 5 seems to be a catch-up service only

Nick_C

You can use a Roku stick instead of a dedicated PC, so long as your screen has an HDMI port.

http://www.tesco.com/direct/roku-streaming-stick/550-9178.prd

Ignore the blurb about all the free channels - they are carp - but it will give you iPlayer and the ITV and Channel 4 equivalents, plus access to Netflix. It doesn't give access to Amazon Prime currently.

There are cheaper Roku boxes, but this is very neat and small, like a USB memory stick. It does need a power supply though (included), unless you have a USB port on your monitor, in shich case you can power it from there (which plugging it into the HDMI port)