Sky box

CardinalWolsey

But bear in mind that when connecting a harddrive to your TV, you can only have one "active" channel at any one time - so you can record BBC1 whilst watching ITV, for example.

We got rid of Sky a couple of years ago. We already had Prime (for shipping, but thank-you anyway for the video), and added Netflix. We now just live off those and using catchup - the channels we watched all have catchup facilities, and the addition of a Fire TV stick did us fine. I do have a hard-drive attached to one TV, but that is for recording MOTD as there is some delay in it coming to catchup!

System

Hi

Well I based it on the thread title.

EdwardB

Senseicads wrote: »

Hi everyone,

If we cancel our sky subscription, are we still able to get the freeview channels through our sky box? We pay a silly amount for sky and pretty much just watch the terrestrial channels alone, but we quite like being able to record stuff? Just wondering and hoping someone can help me out as I have found the internet to be a bit confusing. Some places say we may need a different viewing card?

thanks in advance.

I got rid of Sky many years ago, they actually did me a favour.

It is easy to get attached to your existing SkyBox because you have recordings but let it go, in fact go give it away on Freecycle.org.

Sure you used to be able to avoid the kill switch for a while but now they send it regularly. I saw on another forum even those that were modified were killed by code sent via second LNB. Not even worth trying. dump it, or take the hard disk out and dump it, you can stick HD in an enclosure and format it to work with Windows or Linux.

Now if you really want to do the same thing without being Murdock's bytch then a DVD recorder with Freesat is an option, you get a decent enough set of channels.

However, with that and Freeview or Freesat recorders you are still on a non standard format.

I decided to dump Sky and to dump live TV too, so I have not only saved Sky Subs but I no longer need a TV Licence (I do not watch iplayer either).

Now in that position you could still watch Netflix for half the price of a TV Licence and there is Amazon Prime too.

Instead of using these DVD recorders and Freeview recorders I have my own library based on a PC and I use Plex.tv to front end it all. I have a cheapish PC in living room that I used as a media centre, it serves any devices and if I had fibre it could stream to my mobile or to a friend.

I hardly watch much TV now, gone are the naff TV Programmes, Gone are the ads and my life balance is way better.

Congrats on dumping Sky!! Welcome to the revolution!!

nickcc

I got rid of Sky tv and changed to freesat buying two new humax HDR boxes. I also decided to buy the Sky Now tv boxes and thought what a great idea, reducing my Sky subscription from over £800 per year to £7.00 per month. Now regret buying the Now boxes as I have Amazon prime and two firesticks which give me as much as I will ever need to watch.

EdwardB

nickcc wrote: »

I got rid of Sky tv and changed to freesat buying two new humax HDR boxes. I also decided to buy the Sky Now tv boxes and thought what a great idea, reducing my Sky subscription from over £800 per year to £7.00 per month. Now regret buying the Now boxes as I have Amazon prime and two firesticks which give me as much as I will ever need to watch.

I would think your regret was buying the two new humax HDR boxes, I got started with a NowTV box bought with no subscription for £10, I sideloaded a Plex client which was a doddle (just add wifi and point to a file).

One thing that concerns me about the online services is that they can pull content when the license they paid for expires. That is why I feel having my own library is the best solution.

Paying Sly even £7 a month would turn my stomach!

nickcc

EdwardB wrote: »

I would think your regret was buying the two new humax HDR boxes, I got started with a NowTV box bought with no subscription for £10, I sideloaded a Plex client which was a doddle (just add wifi and point to a file).

One thing that concerns me about the online services is that they can pull content when the license they paid for expires. That is why I feel having my own library is the best solution.

Paying Sly even £7 a month would turn my stomach!

Don't regret buying the HDR boxes as saved on Sky charges after six months. I realise that my Knowledge would probably be far less than yours as I don't have a clue regards Plex client so chose the cheapest option that gave me everything I wanted.

Cornucopia

It depends on what content you are after. Sourcing TV channel content in a suitable format for storage on a PC or NAS and screening via Plex (or Chromecast/Amazon/Roku/Apple TV) is still not straightforward.

Therefore, if your main interest is TV channel content, then that will tend to draw you down a Freeview/Freesat recorder route.

Plex is great for music, though.

EdwardB

Cornucopia wrote: »

It depends on what content you are after. Sourcing TV channel content in a suitable format for storage on a PC or NAS and screening via Plex (or Chromecast/Amazon/Roku/Apple TV) is still not straightforward.

Therefore, if your main interest is TV channel content, then that will tend to draw you down a Freeview/Freesat recorder route.

Plex is great for music, though.

Funny, I was not going to use Plex for music.

I still need to bridge the gap between my aging hifi and modern solutions.

For me Plex just works and works well, never had a problem with it playing anything, installed it for friends and even got it working on an old Samsung DVD.BR player with free client.

I would advise against a NAS for running Plex, the spec required means you are looking at serious bucks. Also the running cost of a NAS is high with all those disks spinning, I do have some NAS units but use them to archive so are off and put away most of time.

Mine runs on a PC that costs less than £150 and is connected via HDMI to my TV.

I can't stand TV channels that broadcast live, I am alergic to drivel TV and ads, another benefit is no tv licence (your expert area) which paid for PC in first year.

I blocked Iplayer on Router and TV not capable of receiving live channels.

Cornucopia

My solution is not actually full NAS. I store my content on a 3TB hard drive connected directly into my router. That means that it's available in native format to all my devices, and under Plex to my Smart TV or NowTV box. My Plex server runs on my laptop, the disadvantage of which is that it needs to be on to support Plex streaming on the TV.

I would definitely recommend NowTV box + Plex as a money-saving solution for both video and audio.

EdwardB

Cornucopia wrote: »

My solution is not actually full NAS. I store my content on a 3TB hard drive connected directly into my router. That means that it's available in native format to all my devices, and under Plex to my Smart TV or NowTV box. My Plex server runs on my laptop, the disadvantage of which is that it needs to be on to support Plex streaming on the TV.

I would definitely recommend NowTV box + Plex as a money-saving solution for both video and audio.

Wow hard to imagine router has power to shift media. I think I have the lowest spec Plex server around, it does have quad core though and is in a thin living room friendly box.

I did have a NowTV Box but ugraded to Roku3 which has wired ethernet, also able to remove default installs like iPlayer. On Roku I have the native Plex client and Rarflix which I had on NowTV. The latter needs a bit of wallpaper change but has some nice extras.

You are right though, you can't beat NowTV for value and £10 is mega.

I have also installed for friends on Amazon firestick, Plex is good on it but their stupid licencing is crazy, Plex stupidly allowed them and Google to issue licences, but like if Microsoft allowed Dell and HP to do so.

I installed Plex for a friend on PC with USB3 hard disk, they have some other players and their content is also visible outside Plex for some reason. DNLA or something, but not as good as Plex.

I have 4tb Samsung getting full so need to prune some off to other disks and NAS.

Where it comes into it's own is shared libraries and streaming to a mobile on the train, but needs fibre.

When my BB runs out I will cancel contract and probably use neighbours Fibre, problem is I think they are on Plusnet which is not ideal as they traffic shape.