Moving house- replace Sky with Youview box/Netflix etc?

[DavidB1964]

Long term Sky customer, moving in 3 weeks to a property built in 1696, and whilst generally happy with Sky service (though expensive @ £82/mth) I don't particularly want to put a satellite disk on the front of the house. We currently get all services from Sky - phone,broadband,TV - HD/Movies, (no Sport channels), & would like to keep Sky Atlantic for boxsets if possible.

I'm considering buying a Humax Youview box for regular HD channels (through aerial) & recording etc. then separate broadban deal (say £20) + Netflix (£7) + SkyNow (£17 for Entertainment + movies). So not much more than half of monthly amount I pay now, for a broadly similar set of channels/options, excluding cost of the box (c.£170).

However, broadband speed for the new property is showing as 3-4Mbps (and no fibre in the village) so not sure it will support what I'm thinking of. Also not sure but I think the SkyNow services are in SD rather than HD

Thoughts & advice very welcome... does what I've suggesting make sense? Any other options I should consider? Part of me is thinking that staying with Sky is actually a whole lot simpler and I should just accept needing a dish..

[Bullett]

NowTV is 720 or SD depending on what you are playing it on.

http://help.nowtv.com/article/Streaming-Quality

Seems a bit ott to have NowTV and Netflix.

[a4cabrio]

I'm moving in a few weeks too and am also thinking of getting rid of sky, £114 a month is a Liberty imo and then another £15 a month on BT sport, I love my football too much and know I'll end up getting it again, I'm determined to see how it goes without it though.

[DavidB1964]

Bullett said:

NowTV is 720 or SD depending on what you are playing it on.

http://help.nowtv.com/article/Streaming-Quality

Seems a bit ott to have NowTV and Netflix.

Thanks, so SD if I play through Youview box, not good on a 50" plasma.
Agree re NowTV & Netflix, but we like box sets and £7 extra doesn't seem extravagant - esp compared to what we pay Sky now

Edited by DavidB1964 on Wednesday 22 July 08:05

[bristolracer]

Bullett said:

NowTV is 720 or SD depending on what you are playing it on.

Sky is not that much better. Its 720p or 1080i which is nowhere near the 1080p of your blu ray

If you cannot live without sky get an independent installer in and put your dish on a patio mount tucked away in the garden, or lose it up in the roof gullies.
The BT youview system is ok, but sadly the murky murdoch product is well developed and I can see why people like it.

[vladcjelli]

DavidB1964 said:

Bullett said:

NowTV is 720 or SD depending on what you are playing it on.

http://help.nowtv.com/article/Streaming-Quality

Seems a bit ott to have NowTV and Netflix.

Thanks, so SD if I play through Youview box, not good on a 50" plasma ??.
Agree re NowTV & Netflix, but we like box sets and £7 extra doesn't seem extravagant - esp compared to what we pay Sky now

We weren't going to have netflix and Now TV when we got ride of sky, but have ended up keeping them after a trial period.

Now TV gives you a load of boxsets of series off sky, headliners like game of thrones.

Netflix seem to be coming out with some interesting original series which you don't get to see anywhere else. Also a selection of films, while not massive, is nice to have included. Unlike Now TV, which requires an extra payment.

As you said, compared to what we used to pay Sky, the choice is still really good.

[DavidB1964]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

not dissimilar - moved to sticks and Broadband speeds circa 3-4 MB.

I have an Apple TV I never use. Why ? Because when I moved I bought a Sony 50inch flat screen circa £500 that has 'Apps' and built in Netflixs.
It makes streaming so hassle free.

I have noticed the BBC Iplayer often struggles streaming without jumping an stuttering, but the Amazon Prime Instant Video and Netflixs just 'works'.

Thanks - does Netflix stream in SD or HD - 3-4Mb seems to be borderline from what I'm reading. (By the way I think from a previous post of yours I am moving somewhere close to you - Aislaby. I've been on here a long time - despite what the stats say - messed up by the PH login changes)

Edited by DavidB1964 on Wednesday 22 July 08:26

[Bullett]

Netflix say you need 5mb for HD and 25 for ultra.
So, no it doesn't look good for your setup.

We had Amazon prime, netflix and Now(entertainment) at one point. I opted not to keep Now as I had more content than I could watch with the other two and the only box content I was interested in was GoT. I might re-sub when the Walking dead is back on.

[bigdom]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

Its like Sky isn't it ? We all know its not as good as Virgin for speed and price

I'm not so sure on price, currently have both and have access to both fibre networks. Sky works out cheaper on like for like basis.

[Surfr]

Due to the Sky installers not being able to get a signal at the new house this weekend, I popped out and took a punt on a Humax DTR-T2000. It's a lot slicker than I'd imagined it would be, the seamless scrolling back into the past integration with on-demand services is great. No Amazon Prime available yet but I took the opportunity to try the 1 month free trial of Netflix seeing as we're saving 40 quid a month Sky bill. Wow, a great choice of box sets on demand plus a rack of films. All in all, for an initial outlay of 179 quid and a possible monthly fee of 7.99 for HD Netflix, it seems great. I'm just missing Eurosport for the cycling now but then ITV cover so many major races now I'll not miss too much.

[Murph7355]

My folks have one of these and it's quite nicely done.

I was tempted to nip out and buy one, but it's missing one feature - a Plex/XBMC like client (doesn't have to be those, as long as it could access home content the same way) for playing content stored at home. If it had that, I think I'd have my perfect media centre solution.

[Cactussed]

Just going through the annual rigmarole with this.
We were with BT and would have been happy to stay however they would only offer their £10 unlimited fibre deal online. By phone when renewing, they said sorry, tough luck. Daft.

We ended up switching to Sky (TV, movies, no sport), unlimited fibre broadband and phone line for £34 per month, 12 month contract.
Guess we'll have to switch back to BT again in 12 months time, but I now view it as being like the car annual insurance nonsense...