TV though broadband?

londonman81

I live in a flat with no external aerial.

I don't have Virgin Media in my area, a Sky dish in not allowed and BT TV requires an aerial to receive the Freeview channels.

Is there any way to receive TV channels (including Freeview) purely through a broadband connection?

Moneymaker

Yes, FilmOn.

Crystal Palace signal is really strong in much of Greater London so have you tried a "Group A" aerial indoors?

londonman81

I should clarify, I am looking for a service which connects broadband to a TV, not a computer.

VisionMan

Difficult one.

Virgin - no.
BT TV - no.
TT TV - no.
YouView - no.

Your only options are the on demand players offered by the BBC, ITV, CH4 & 5 plus on demand services such as Netflix ect.

Cornucopia

Youview yes- well kind of.

With YV you can get the on-demand players for various broadcasters. I have YV via Talktalk, and I get iPlayer, ITV player, 4OD, Demand 5, Quest OD and UKTV Player (includes Dave, Yesterday & Really). There are also pay options with Talktalk TV (incorporating various live Sky channels), Now TV Movies, Sky Store and Netflix.

IIUC, BT's YV service is similar.

An added advantage is that if you steer clear of the live channels, you don't need a TV licence.

There are various alternatives involving either a piece of kit that you connect to your TV, or a service you run on a PC and use a suitable cable or interface to connect.

I'd suggest Now TV, this is a bit of a bargain at £10 initial purchase price and £6.99 pm for a bundle of live and on-demand channels from Sky.

VisionMan

Cornucopia wrote: »

Youview yes- well kind of.

With YV you can get the on-demand players for various broadcasters. I have YV via Talktalk, and I get iPlayer, ITV player, 4OD, Demand 5, Quest OD and UKTV Player (includes Dave, Yesterday & Really). There are also pay options with Talktalk TV (incorporating various live Sky channels), Now TV Movies, Sky Store and Netflix.

IIUC, BT's YV service is similar.

An added advantage is that if you steer clear of the live channels, you don't need a TV licence.

There are various alternatives involving either a piece of kit that you connect to your TV, or a service you run on a PC and use a suitable cable or interface to connect.

I'd suggest Now TV, this is a bit of a bargain at £10 initial purchase price and £6.99 pm for a bundle of live and on-demand channels from Sky.

YouView - no!

One needs an aerial connection for the majority of the On Demand players to work. And the backwards EPG. No Aerial, no YouView.

Cornucopia

On my YV box, you need an aerial for the initial set up of ITV player and 4OD, but mine has been disconnected from an aerial for months (years?).

You could probably take the box to a location where an aerial connection was available to do this.

I don't use the backwards EPG, but the box does seem to populate the EPG over the internet, so maybe this would still work?

VisionMan

Sadly not. The EPG and on demand players use both the internet and over the air updates to function. If your box were to ever need rebooting, it wouldn't do it correctly without an aerial connection and you would lose most of the functionality of the box.

Cornucopia

Rebooting isn't a problem. I occasionally need to do that, and whilst it takes maybe 2 minutes to do the full cold start, all the VOD player functionality is there when it's done (this is all I use). It doesn't need an aerial connection for this.

Maybe my TT/Huawai box is different to the ones you are used to?

What we really need to know is what channels/types of content the OP is after.

If they have a smart phone, then Chromecast might be an option?

datlex

londonman81 wrote: »

I live in a flat with no external aerial.

I don't have Virgin Media in my area, a Sky dish in not allowed and BT TV requires an aerial to receive the Freeview channels.

Is there any way to receive TV channels (including Freeview) purely through a broadband connection?

Re aerial, what level of flat do you live in? Have you tried a portable aerial? I use one here as for me it works better than the external aerial- I'm in a ground floor flat- but only ground floor and first floor flats here. Signal can be impacted by the weather.


As for watching through a broadband connection. Use now tv entertainment pass (not free after trial period) to get sky1, sky atlantic, fox and a few others. Use a chromecast to cast the filmon app from a tablet, it definitely works from a hudl.

KxMx

Now TV won't give youfree view but all the catch up apps, for BBC, ITV C4 and Five.

In addition the Entertainment pass will give you access to Sky boxsets, catch up content and the 10 or 11 live channels.

Very small list of shows unavailable.

The box connects to a TV through HDMI cable and connects to your broadband via wireless.