Want to leave sky, which media player/streamer or htpc

Makavelli · 6 Jul 2015 at 22:54

Sky bill is usually in the region of £80 a month (phone, tv & broadband) so thinking of ditching sky and going down the Internet route. Am struggling to work out what's best amongst the oodles of info out there. Ideally I would like a box that can get the 4 catchup channels (I player, itv, 4od, 5od) Netflix, nowtv, skygo, btsport and prime. I'm not a fanboy so won't be needing 4k and to be honest probably wouldn't notice difference between 720 & 1080. Not an audio guru either and at the minute just use the tv speakers (maybe get a soundboard in future).

I may be missing something but as far as I can tell aftv, roku or nowtv don't offer all the channels I want, so what is the best (and cheapest) all in one solution?

FARGO · 6 Jul 2015 at 22:58

I too would be interested in opinions on this. I was thinking about some form of Freeview HD box but would consider something internet based if it exists.

Zefan · 6 Jul 2015 at 23:09

I'm no expert but from my reading, a raspberry pi 2 running Kodi should be able to do those catchup channels plus amazon prime.

Scam · 7 Jul 2015 at 13:09

Can a Pi really do all of those things? It may but it will be a huge hassle. Will it do NowTV?

I don't think there's anything that does everything out of the box. My FireTV does Prime (obviously), Netflix, iPlayer, 5od etc.. but not 4od or NowTV which does my head in.

I'm guessing NowTV does a lot of those things, but presumably not Prime. Roku seems to do everything, but not NowTV.

pecnarf · 7 Jul 2015 at 15:55

well I have, amazon fire, I I think it very good, for what it is, as for fire stick I heard that it doesn't play nice with plex.

I currently play on amazon fire , Netflix, plex, bbc iplayer, amazon prime etc

ps depends on what you want it to play. plex can play most file stream to it, if you into watching anime or files have multi audio/subtitle tracks then it can play them but it depending on how the file is encoded, as I had files that simple buffer every few minutes, delay in audio track to video, don't play at all no matter which method you use.

Kosmiche · 7 Jul 2015 at 19:03

I was thinking about this and came across USB sticks and PCI cards from companies like Hauppage, is something like amazon fire better?

pecnarf · 7 Jul 2015 at 19:12

Eames said:
I was thinking about this and came across USB sticks and PCI cards from companies like Hauppage, is something like amazon fire better?

no as it a tv adpater that let you plug an ariel into your pc so that you can watch tv on your pc, where amazon stick is a usb device that has build in wifi and hardware so that it will let you watch internet smart tv app's like amazon prime, netfilx, plex, now tv, bbc iplayer etc on your smart tv or non smart tv that has usb input on it.

dessimpson · 7 Jul 2015 at 19:22

Is there any way that you can get the Discovery channels without Sky?
These are the only real channels we watch and I'm sick of Sky upping their prices every year to subsidise the Sports channels that I don't watch.
I live right next to the BT infinity cab so I can get good broadband from any of the ISP's.

Makavelli · 8 Jul 2015 at 08:20

Discovered last night I can get netflix, prime, nowtv, iplayer, 4od and 5od on my xbox. You used to need an xbox live gold account for netflix but not anymore it would seem. Can also get the sky app but have to have Skygo extra which is £5/month or free if you have multiroom. Only thing can't get now is itvplayer and bespoke.