Losing sky, looking for a cheap HTPC alternative

Gregfoster17

Gregfoster17

Gregfoster17

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16 Jun 2011
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The flat me and my girlfiend moved into last year already had a sky dish installed, and as we were unable to get a digital 'terestial' signal or fibre optics, we decided we would go with sky. So after 12 months use the council have decided to enforce their right to make us take it down, as it is on the front of a listed building and no permission had be suoght after by the previous occupant to have a sky dish installed. So not only do we now lose sky and TV :eek:, we have no way of recieving a standed tv signal.

So what I'm looking for is a cheap HTPC that cloud be used as a replacement for a sky plus HD box, obviously without most of the extra channels that sky offer, where the source of input will be broadband and a network HDD with some digital copy films.

I am open to using an open source OP (although there all new to me), but windows 7 would be my prefered choice of OP.

Any hints or thoughts would be greatfully appreciated.
 
Hi there, are you able to upgrade you aerial to one that can recieve freeview signals?

Surely upgrading/replacing the terrestrial aerial (which is already there) to a new one that allows you receive digital TV signals isn't against the law.

If you do that, you can get FreeviewHD+ box and preserve the PVR functionality that you enjoy with your Sky+ box. I believe you can also get "smart" FreeviewHD+ boxes that also allow you to access on-demand internet video services (like Iplayer and 4OD).

If you do go down the route of a HTPC then I would recommend an AMD Llano system since the onboard GPU is very powerful (so HD stuff looks lovely and doesn't have the intel onboard gpu issue of 24fps and 30fps video playback), they are relatively cheap and low power usage.
 
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good on ya, tv is lame, i watch all my stuff on xbmc, mainly documentaries.

TV licensing gives me a hard time though, they can't wrap their head around the fact that some people may not actually watch tv.
 
TigerUK said:
TV licensing gives me a hard time though, they can't wrap their head around the fact that some people may not actually watch tv.
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I've had that issue, the only thing plugged into my TV 99%of the time is an xbox 360 and they still didn't get the fact that i do not watch TV at all. :/
 
TV licensing gives me a hard time though, they can't wrap their head around the fact that some people may not actually watch tv.
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Have you actually written to them stating that yet tho'? Just ignoring the letters that come through the door wont do any good.
 
Thanks to the quick responses. Probably should I mentioned that our flat is on the bottom floor and surrounded by tall buildings, the side true building the dish is on is the only side we can get signal.

The AMD Llano does look good, I'll seen the 3870 model getting very god reviews, any suggestions on a good mobo to go with it?
 
 
The sky go on the xbox, was an option to begin with but we then found out that you only get a limited number of channels, most of which we don't watch.

Tha llano build does look very nice, but I would have to go for the mobo with the HDMI (FM1 A75), as she doesn't like using the external speakers.

What kind of features and channels could I expect to get through XBMC?
 
Gregfoster17 said:
Thanks to the quick responses. Probably should I mentioned that our flat is on the bottom floor and surrounded by tall buildings, the side true building the dish is on is the only side we can get signal.

The AMD Llano does look good, I'll seen the 3870 model getting very god reviews, any suggestions on a good mobo to go with it?
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Are you absolutely certain you can't do a terrestrial aerial upgrade, as IMHO the same restrictions which apply to satellite dishes on listed buildings don't apply to aerials. Plus, if you already have one installed (but it's old and doesn't receive freeview properly) then changing it for a new one which works shouldn't be a problem and give you access to proper TV. Though if you are renting, you will probably need to co-ordinate this with your landlord.

For XBMC, it is basically just a media centre that has plugins for the video on demand services (like iplayer, 4OD etc) as well as running video files you have stored (TV shows, movies) and it all very easy to navigate and look nice (see here). It won't give you any functionality windows 7 (+ a web browser and video player) won't give you, but it has a 10 foot user interface, is all in one place and looks nice (this page shows some screenshots of XBMC running the transparency skin).
 
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Gregfoster17 said:
Is there means of watching all of the digital channels legally through a pc or htpc?
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There's tvcatchup.com just sign up for a free account and you can stream most of the freeview channels live. You have to have tv licence for this and you'll have to tolerate adverts every time you switch channel. Video quality can be a bit rubbish sometimes but that's down to the speed of your internet connection. It's not a great way if you wana flick through the channels compared to a freeview box, you're best trying it out for yourself really.
 
I had though of catchuptv but wasn't sure of its legality!

Cheers for the help, ill be phoneing sky to see of thy can move the dish to where it can't be seen from the street, and if that fails looks like a new HTPC build is going to be the way to go.
 
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