Chromecast, Firestick, Roku, Sky Now Box - or What?
Discussion
Well, that is the question.
Do I want or need Sky NOW Tv box, a Chromecast stick, a Firestick, a Roku stick, or what?
My TV is a few years old Panasonic, it's connected to the PC with those TP plug things. So I can get catch up, and I have a Humax PVR.
What would one of these sticks or boxes do for me? I don't want to pay a subscription.
Can you tell that I am not technical? Thank you in anticipation.
Do I want or need Sky NOW Tv box, a Chromecast stick, a Firestick, a Roku stick, or what?
My TV is a few years old Panasonic, it's connected to the PC with those TP plug things. So I can get catch up, and I have a Humax PVR.
What would one of these sticks or boxes do for me? I don't want to pay a subscription.
Can you tell that I am not technical? Thank you in anticipation.
I use Roku expresses in my bar and lounge as they were the only devices that had Now TV, Amazon and Netflix on plus all the other bits such as Spotify and iplayer, ITV Hub, C4 and C5 etc.
Really good gadgets and the app. Is good too as when I'm on my noisy turbo trainer, I plug my headphones into my phone for the sound rather than have the telly turned up loud.
Really good gadgets and the app. Is good too as when I'm on my noisy turbo trainer, I plug my headphones into my phone for the sound rather than have the telly turned up loud.
If you're already signed up to Amazon Prime then there are literally hundreds of movies you can watch using the Amazon Fire TV stick.
I purchased a Fire TV stick last month for £19.99 and am well chuffed, and the fact that it was bundled with a TV remote made it even better.
There are loads of apps that you can download for viewing but some are subscription based though this is shown before you download them, in our case it was YouTube which we wanted and it works a treat except that when I come to watch anything it remembers the last viewed stuff which in my case would be hundreds of guinea pig videos thanks to the kids, it is possible to avoid this if you sign in to your YouTube account but I can't be bothered.
Amazon Prime also allows you to view by user so you can set up the kids account and the wife's account so I assume it will remember their viewing habits and present more accurate content.
As far as I can tell it's not possible to download the NowTV app which is a shame and we only have one HDMI socket on the back of our old Panasonic TV so can't plug in another dongle.
For info I purchased a Google Chromecast thingy last year to allow us to watch YouTube videos but I never really got on with it because you have to use your phone or iPad to change the videos and I really don't want my kids messing with any of my phones or iPads, the wife let them use her phone for a while and over half of the icons disappeared and/or moved. Never again!
We are currently signed up to SKY satellite TV but it's reached the point where we are getting a bit fed up with the monthly subscription charges and are getting close to knocking it on the head, if NowTV were available for viewing on the Fire TV Stick we would probably close the account. Now that we've watched the channels on the Fire stick for about a month the thing that I miss is being able to trawl through the TV listings as per the Sky box, and I do like the Film4 and the Discovery channels and these aren't available on the Fire Stick at the moment but I 'think' they are available on NowTV.
Did I mention you can also search for Amazon Prime movies and YouTube videos by speaking into the remote instead of having to type in the search terms, am a bit of a dinosaur in that respect but nevertheless have used the facility a few times.
Like I said to start with, if you're already subscribed to Amazon Prime for free parcel deliveries then there are loads of movies you can watch for free, and the ability to search and watch YouTube videos on the TV is brilliant, keep an eye out for the discounted price for the Fire TV stick because for only £19.99 it's a damn good buy. Bottom line is that I'm thoroughly impressed with it.
I purchased a Fire TV stick last month for £19.99 and am well chuffed, and the fact that it was bundled with a TV remote made it even better.
There are loads of apps that you can download for viewing but some are subscription based though this is shown before you download them, in our case it was YouTube which we wanted and it works a treat except that when I come to watch anything it remembers the last viewed stuff which in my case would be hundreds of guinea pig videos thanks to the kids, it is possible to avoid this if you sign in to your YouTube account but I can't be bothered.
Amazon Prime also allows you to view by user so you can set up the kids account and the wife's account so I assume it will remember their viewing habits and present more accurate content.
As far as I can tell it's not possible to download the NowTV app which is a shame and we only have one HDMI socket on the back of our old Panasonic TV so can't plug in another dongle.
For info I purchased a Google Chromecast thingy last year to allow us to watch YouTube videos but I never really got on with it because you have to use your phone or iPad to change the videos and I really don't want my kids messing with any of my phones or iPads, the wife let them use her phone for a while and over half of the icons disappeared and/or moved. Never again!
We are currently signed up to SKY satellite TV but it's reached the point where we are getting a bit fed up with the monthly subscription charges and are getting close to knocking it on the head, if NowTV were available for viewing on the Fire TV Stick we would probably close the account. Now that we've watched the channels on the Fire stick for about a month the thing that I miss is being able to trawl through the TV listings as per the Sky box, and I do like the Film4 and the Discovery channels and these aren't available on the Fire Stick at the moment but I 'think' they are available on NowTV.
Did I mention you can also search for Amazon Prime movies and YouTube videos by speaking into the remote instead of having to type in the search terms, am a bit of a dinosaur in that respect but nevertheless have used the facility a few times.
Like I said to start with, if you're already subscribed to Amazon Prime for free parcel deliveries then there are loads of movies you can watch for free, and the ability to search and watch YouTube videos on the TV is brilliant, keep an eye out for the discounted price for the Fire TV stick because for only £19.99 it's a damn good buy. Bottom line is that I'm thoroughly impressed with it.
rich888 said:
If you're already signed up to Amazon Prime then there are literally hundreds of movies you can watch using the Amazon Fire TV stick.
.........
Like I said to start with, if you're already subscribed to Amazon Prime for free parcel deliveries then there are loads of movies you can watch for free, and the ability to search and watch YouTube videos on the TV is brilliant, keep an eye out for the discounted price for the Fire TV stick because for only £19.99 it's a damn good buy. Bottom line is that I'm thoroughly impressed with it.
I am not signed up to anything. i have a fairly old Panasonic TV which is connected to my PC by TP plug things. I thought I could watch some extra stuff If I got one of these sticks - but I don't want a subscription. If the answer is - no you can't watch stuff free of charge then so be it. .........
Like I said to start with, if you're already subscribed to Amazon Prime for free parcel deliveries then there are loads of movies you can watch for free, and the ability to search and watch YouTube videos on the TV is brilliant, keep an eye out for the discounted price for the Fire TV stick because for only £19.99 it's a damn good buy. Bottom line is that I'm thoroughly impressed with it.
I’ve tried a few IPTV services, all subscription based but very very cheap (£3-9mth) and none of them were very good at all (running on a 4K AppleTV)
Yes you get a lot of content but finding one that didn’t buffer a lot, had a good EPG and wasn’t a pain to maintain was non-existent.
Daily refreshes taking 2-3mins
Lots of channels not available
Huge gaps in the EPG
Buffering and interlaced images
When contacted to resolve they either acknowledged and weren’t interested or they tried to blame my broadband connection but we have FTTP with a very low ping and a constant 900mb dl / 250mb ul
I’ve gone back to sky - at least it’s consistent and seamless - I value my time too much to piss about with IPTV again.
Yes you get a lot of content but finding one that didn’t buffer a lot, had a good EPG and wasn’t a pain to maintain was non-existent.
Daily refreshes taking 2-3mins
Lots of channels not available
Huge gaps in the EPG
Buffering and interlaced images
When contacted to resolve they either acknowledged and weren’t interested or they tried to blame my broadband connection but we have FTTP with a very low ping and a constant 900mb dl / 250mb ul
I’ve gone back to sky - at least it’s consistent and seamless - I value my time too much to piss about with IPTV again.
The Firestick your gardener has will be illegal so he will be getting all the channels on it for free, you can buy set top boxes that do this as well.
If you buy any of the sticks/boxes from legit places they will all be subscription based, for which you can legally purchase content outside of Freeview stuff, although you can download stuff like Kodi on this but may be a faff for less technical minded folk.
If you wanna go the illegal route ask your gardener and he should be able to tell you where he got his from as they aren't advertised publically.
A few years ago you could buy satellite/cable boxes that were 'chipped' and will let you have all the channels for a one off price although think Sky etc cracked down on these and they don't work anymore.
Up to you really which route you wanna take.
If you buy any of the sticks/boxes from legit places they will all be subscription based, for which you can legally purchase content outside of Freeview stuff, although you can download stuff like Kodi on this but may be a faff for less technical minded folk.
If you wanna go the illegal route ask your gardener and he should be able to tell you where he got his from as they aren't advertised publically.
A few years ago you could buy satellite/cable boxes that were 'chipped' and will let you have all the channels for a one off price although think Sky etc cracked down on these and they don't work anymore.
Up to you really which route you wanna take.
The Mad Monk said:
rich888 said:
If you're already signed up to Amazon Prime then there are literally hundreds of movies you can watch using the Amazon Fire TV stick.
.........
Like I said to start with, if you're already subscribed to Amazon Prime for free parcel deliveries then there are loads of movies you can watch for free, and the ability to search and watch YouTube videos on the TV is brilliant, keep an eye out for the discounted price for the Fire TV stick because for only £19.99 it's a damn good buy. Bottom line is that I'm thoroughly impressed with it.
I am not signed up to anything. i have a fairly old Panasonic TV which is connected to my PC by TP plug things. I thought I could watch some extra stuff If I got one of these sticks - but I don't want a subscription. If the answer is - no you can't watch stuff free of charge then so be it. .........
Like I said to start with, if you're already subscribed to Amazon Prime for free parcel deliveries then there are loads of movies you can watch for free, and the ability to search and watch YouTube videos on the TV is brilliant, keep an eye out for the discounted price for the Fire TV stick because for only £19.99 it's a damn good buy. Bottom line is that I'm thoroughly impressed with it.
We rarely have any issues with buffering movies or YouTube videos though I guess this will depend upon how fast your broadband connection is. Is your Panasonic an LCD TV in which case it may well have an HDMI port round the back somewhere. Ours is quite old so I was most surprised to find it had one.
I do rate the Amazon Fire Stick higher than the Chromecast in terms of ease of use mainly due it being supplied with it's own remote control, and it's certainly very easy to set up, well I managed to do it so it must be easy!
As other users have mentioned, you may well need to subscribe to legally watch all the channels, and at that point perhaps something like NowTV might be a better option for you to consider... and make sure you can plug the dongle into your TV because the both the Chromecast and the Fire TV stick I purchased were fitted with HDMI plugs.
rich888 said:
I do rate the Amazon Fire Stick higher than the Chromecast in terms of ease of use mainly due it being supplied with it's own remote control, and it's certainly very easy to set up, well I managed to do it so it must be easy!
That's true, though the downside is that it's very under-powered. So in a race you'll always get YouTube open and playing on a Chromecast from your over-powered phone miles before Amazon are ready for you. My experience is that the Fire TV takes ages to come out of sleep, it then needs to download all the menu items, which are heavily geared towards you watching Amazon content, then you need to navigate to the YouTube App and wait a minute while that opens, then find what you want...... The Chromecast very occasionally crashes, but I find it so much easier to just find what I want on my phone and bounce it to the TV, it even turns the TV on for me.The best part about CC is that when I'm sat at work I hear the kids go and ask my wife to put something on TV and I can get it running from my PC in a few seconds, that and it's largely source agnostic - even Amazon have given up trying to make it a hassle to Cast their content, so you know it'll work with just about anything. In fact the Amazon Android App is far better playing to a Chromecast than a Fire Stick because the Fire Stick goes missing and just doesn't respond to cast commands, presumably because it's stuck doing something else due to being underpowered.
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