Sky has to go, what to replace it with and how to get films?

[MaximumJed]

While the PS3 is a very versatile media player now, please be aware that only BBC iPlayer is really watchable on it. LoveFilms offering has a combination of very poor software combined with an astonishingly low bit rate. It really is like watching a favourite movie re-recorded on an (old) mobile phone sometimes.

So far I haven't seen any streaming services worth signing up for in the UK, which is disappointing.

[Silver940]

Movie streaming it looks like the AppleTV box is ok with HD movies available to rent.

[goldblum]

RobDickinson said:

Ungarsee said:

Anyone with any other streaming / downloading options that havent been mentioned?

I typicaly download (via bittorents etc) media to my pc and watch it streamed to the xbox. Online streaming/vod stuff in NZ is quite limited and tv is pretty crap, sky is a lot less value too.

As Rob says,download BR torrent.

Copy to extHD,plug into PS3 and watch the raw movie file in HD.Couldn't be more simple.

HD torrents are coming in at 1 or 2 gb nowadays so you don't need a vast amount of space.

[Silver940]

I

goldblum said:

RobDickinson said:

Ungarsee said:

Anyone with any other streaming / downloading options that havent been mentioned?

I typicaly download (via bittorents etc) media to my pc and watch it streamed to the xbox. Online streaming/vod stuff in NZ is quite limited and tv is pretty crap, sky is a lot less value too.

As Rob says,download BR torrent.

Copy to extHD,plug into PS3 and watch the raw movie file in HD.Couldn't be more simple.

HD torrents are coming in at 1 or 2 gb nowadays so you don't need a vast amount of space.

Yeah but that's illegal...

[goldblum]

Silver940 said:

I

goldblum said:

RobDickinson said:

Ungarsee said:

Anyone with any other streaming / downloading options that havent been mentioned?

I typicaly download (via bittorents etc) media to my pc and watch it streamed to the xbox. Online streaming/vod stuff in NZ is quite limited and tv is pretty crap, sky is a lot less value too.

As Rob says,download BR torrent.

Copy to extHD,plug into PS3 and watch the raw movie file in HD.Couldn't be more simple.

HD torrents are coming in at 1 or 2 gb nowadays so you don't need a vast amount of space.

Yeah but that's illegal...

In New Zealand?

Didn't know that.

[ndg]

Our Sony BDP S370 will connect to love film, although we don't have a subscription. Only cost us £85.

N.

[hairyben]

Anyone tried the sky+ anytime yet?

It's the movies/TV-on-demand via broadband, I got a letter today telling to wap a ethernet cable from the router to the sky box, no extra costs.

[Silver940]

Yes, not very exciting, hope it's just a start

[Ungarsee]

A few people so far have said about apple tv, can anyone give a bit more info on the pros and cons?

[Andy_GSA]

Ungarsee said:

A few people so far have said about apple tv, can anyone give a bit more info on the pros and cons?

I got one a few weeks ago.

Pros - good range of film and tv shows available to buy or rent through itunes store. It's also a very small minimalist unit, doesn't have a fan or external power supply, it's very simple to operate and for a high geek factor can be controlled from an iphone or ipad as well as its own remote control.

Cons - the new £99 units have no hard drive. Therefore downloading films to watch at a later date directly to the unit doesn't work. You also cannot directly download tv programmes to the unit. If you've a PC or Mac running iTunes content can be permanently downloaded to that then streamed to the Apple TV. Output is HDMI only.

I tend to rent films and download them to my mac then stream to the apple tv as my internet connection isn't fast enough to stream full HD movies to the unit, as long as you decide what you want a little in advance to get the download going it's not a problem. I've not tried renting direct to the unit yet, so it's possible I may be able to stream non-HD content to the unit without any buffering.

Edited by Andy_GSA on Thursday 20th January 23:28

[Dibblington]

Have you got an old PC lying about?

£40 on a graphics card with HDMI out, wireless keyboard & mouse and you have BBC iplayer, 4OD, ITV player, Lovefilm, Youtube ... the whole world of internet content. You could always add a freeview tuner and use it as a PVR.

Know what you mean, I'd never pay £50 a month for Sky. My parents have got Virgin cable, we stayed over for Christmas and there's nothing extra worth paying for you can't find on the net

[Silver940]

Andy_GSA said:

Ungarsee said:

A few people so far have said about apple tv, can anyone give a bit more info on the pros and cons?

I got one a few weeks ago.

Pros - good range of film and tv shows available to buy or rent through itunes store. It's also a very small minimalist unit, doesn't have a fan or external power supply, it's very simple to operate and for a high geek factor can be controlled from an iphone or ipad as well as its own remote control.

Cons - the new £99 units have no hard drive. Therefore downloading films to watch at a later date directly to the unit doesn't work. You also cannot directly download tv programmes to the unit. If you've a PC or Mac running iTunes content can be permanently downloaded to that then streamed to the Apple TV. Output is HDMI only.

I tend to rent films and download them to my mac then stream to the apple tv as my internet connection isn't fast enough to stream full HD movies to the unit, as long as you decide what you want a little in advance to get the download going it's not a problem. I've not tried renting direct to the unit yet, so it's possible I may be able to stream non-HD content to the unit without any buffering.

Edited by Andy_GSA on Thursday 20th January 23:28

Hmm, interesting

http://xbmc.org/theuni/2011/01/20/you-asked-for-it...

Makes it very tempting, if I hadn't just bought a WDTV Live second hand

[Dibblington]

Been using XBMC on a PC under the tellybox for a while and it's brilliant. It dishes up all the music/ films/ recorded TV and handles loads of file formats: divx, mkv, DVD rips, flac, mp3 all play fine through a nice easy to use interface with nice big text and clear graphical layout. It downloads album art, artist, film covers, actor info automatically and I've had that PC set up with Windows and Linux, XMBC runs lovely on both.

Plus there's an app for Android (and probably iphone) to use your phone as a remote control. Nice bit of swankification when mates come over to control music on the hi-fi with visuals on the telly through the computer from the phone!

[bobthemonkey]

Silver940 said:

Andy_GSA said:

Ungarsee said:

A few people so far have said about apple tv, can anyone give a bit more info on the pros and cons?

I got one a few weeks ago.

Pros - good range of film and tv shows available to buy or rent through itunes store. It's also a very small minimalist unit, doesn't have a fan or external power supply, it's very simple to operate and for a high geek factor can be controlled from an iphone or ipad as well as its own remote control.

Cons - the new £99 units have no hard drive. Therefore downloading films to watch at a later date directly to the unit doesn't work. You also cannot directly download tv programmes to the unit. If you've a PC or Mac running iTunes content can be permanently downloaded to that then streamed to the Apple TV. Output is HDMI only.

I tend to rent films and download them to my mac then stream to the apple tv as my internet connection isn't fast enough to stream full HD movies to the unit, as long as you decide what you want a little in advance to get the download going it's not a problem. I've not tried renting direct to the unit yet, so it's possible I may be able to stream non-HD content to the unit without any buffering.

Edited by Andy_GSA on Thursday 20th January 23:28

Hmm, interesting

http://xbmc.org/theuni/2011/01/20/you-asked-for-it...

Makes it very tempting, if I hadn't just bought a WDTV Live second hand

I'd go out and buy a ATV today to mess around with this on, if it wasn't for the fact that they are ~40% more than they cost in the US.

Iplayer is now enabled n the Apple TV2 via XBMC; you need to comp the build yourself at the moment.

Edited by bobthemonkey on Wednesday 26th January 23:13