finally going to ditch sky what next

BikingBud

Coffeekup said:

barnaclebill said:

after 30 years of sky have decided to save money and ditch it, im on basic sky at £29 a month, its my dish and my sky hd box so the only thing thats theirs is the card, trying to think what to get, humax or manhattan. I have a firestick and can get amazon prime but rarely do. Dont watch sport, like discovery and history and dont watch many movies. My tv aerial on the roof need replacing as no signal but i can get the basic channels on the firestick.

any suggestions.

When I ditched sky 5-6 years ago, I kept the sky box and used it as a Freeview box and still do.
My TV is relatively new so it has a number of apps installed so I'm finding myself watching the I players/on demand instead of watching through the sky box.

Although nowadays I'm looking at alternatives to get rid of the sky box, as it uses 25-30w per hour, so I'm just looking at bringing my electricity usage down it's one of the 2 big consumption appliances I need to deal with.

Continue to use the sky box but as you only need it on when you are watching turn off at the wall, if it surges and blows something due to being switched on/off then consider what you may need.

Sea_Shell

Tweaked plan... for now?!

Buy a Firestick (in the BF sales?)
Give 31 days notice to Sky. 
Binge watch our current recordings😉
Continue to use hardware as a Freesat box for live TV.
If it doesn't work (or breaks) replace with another Freesat box (Manhattan?)
Subscribe to Prime/Now TV if/when we want.

Ignore the aerial 😉

HaroldWhistler

Sea_Shell said:

Tweaked plan... for now?!

Buy a Firestick (in the BF sales?)
Give 31 days notice to Sky. 
Binge watch our current recordings😉
Continue to use hardware as a Freesat box for live TV.
If it doesn't work (or breaks) replace with another Freesat box (Manhattan?)
Subscribe to Prime/Now TV if/when we want.

Ignore the aerial 😉

That sounds like a plan. The Amazon 4K Firestick can be used for multiple streaming services (e.g. Amazon Prime, Netflix, Disney Plus, Apple TV, Now TV, Discovery etc) as well as free apps like Youtube or the catch up players from the BBC, ITV, Channel 5 etc. 

Another thing. If for whatever reason there isn't a good reception for the BBC channels, you can just watch that channel (Live and in HD) via the iPlayer app on your Firestick. 

It's quite something that we can nowadays watch a lot of new programmes via streaming services in 4K (or Youtube videos for free in 4K) whilst most television channels are still broadcast in Standard Definition!

Sea_Shell

Our TV isn't 4k (only 1080hd) so we'll just be getting the basic Firestick.

I assume all the same channels and apps are available, and it's just the resolution that's the main difference?

Neil_Jones

Sea_Shell said:

Our TV isn't 4k (only 1080hd) so we'll just be getting the basic Firestick.

I assume all the same channels and apps are available, and it's just the resolution that's the main difference?

Why?  If the 4k is cheaper just get that.

If you do get a 4k TV afterwards the device will serve 4k content as appropriate, otherwise it'll just serve you HD content.

Sea_Shell

I'll bear that in mind.

Sea_Shell

In aerial news...

We tried a portable indoor aerial which works ok, but is a pain to position.

At least we know the (nonHD) tuner within the TV works.😉

wild666

Sea_Shell said:

Neil_Jones said:

No such thing as a "digital aerial".  An aerial is an aerial.  Even an unfolded coat hanger can be an aerial.

Maybe I've got my terminology wrong, but I seem to remember we had to "upgrade" our aerial as the analogue signal was being turned off and the old one wouldn't work.

My aerial is the one that was up when I moved in and I remember it being there in the 70's when my grandparents were in the area so the old type of aerial can get a digital picture from it. I moved into my place in early 2011 before the area was switched off and over to digital and got a picture up until I cancelled the licence in August 2016. 

Sea_Shell

As it's been bumped...

Notice given to Sky.
Signed up to Prime video

All going well so far.

No need for any aerial 😉

Sea_Shell

All going well....however

Is ITV X as rubbish for everyone else as it is us?

It freezes, then goes back to the beginning for no reason. 😡

It's not our BB as all the other channels (apps) are fine.   They have their little foibles, mind, especially with FFWD. 

Each app seems to do things differently.

Also, on some programs their is no rhyme or reason as to what ad breaks you get...or don't get. 😂. Strange   

UKTV
Channel 4 & 5


Not that I'm complaining 😉