Best alternative to SkyTV

Trampilot said:
It depends on what you watch but I use ROKU.
www.roku.com

Roku

Roku provides the simplest way to stream entertainment to your TV. On your terms. With thousands of available channels to choose from.
www.roku.com

I've got Roku 2 and 3 I think which aren't made anymore. Both work off wireless but also Roku 3 can accept and ethernet cable. Never had any issues with it and I sometimes take it on holiday as it plugs straight into the HDMI socket on the tv.

Very simple to use and no ongoing fees unless you have subscriptions.
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I agree..roku is what’s installed in all london luxury collections hotels and works flawlessly
 
We too ditched sky after year & years of seeing costs rocket as well as having Netflix and Disney+ .. Have a look at NowTV its effectively Streaming Sky but on a monthly agreement .. you literally can sub a month, then online desub (no need to speak to a Sky employee who will try and keep you) if you decide to take some time off

Numerous packages allow you to pick choose - There are also prepaid cards which you can get online every so often for less than face value

Now Entertainment - £9.99 a month which is all the "shows" ie the Sky Max, Atlantic, One etc
Now Cinema - £9.99 a month - all the movies - we don't bother as we have Disney and Netflix
Now Sports - £35 quid a month :eek:

Then add the Now Boost package for £5 a month which allows Full HD, ad-free streaming and Surround Sound on up to 3 devices at once.

We just went with Entertainment and boost and dropped a sky bill which was close to £130 plus a month to £14.99

Also suggest grab an App called "Just Watch" which allows you to search for shows and movies you want to see and it will give you who has it, is it streaming or is it rent / buy etc and any costs
 
gdavison said:
We too ditched sky after year & years of seeing costs rocket as well as having Netflix and Disney+ .. Have a look at NowTV its effectively Streaming Sky but on a monthly agreement .. you literally can sub a month, then online desub (no need to speak to a Sky employee who will try and keep you) if you decide to take some time off

Numerous packages allow you to pick choose - There are also prepaid cards which you can get online every so often for less than face value

Now Entertainment - £9.99 a month which is all the "shows" ie the Sky Max, Atlantic, One etc
Now Cinema - £9.99 a month - all the movies - we don't bother as we have Disney and Netflix
Now Sports - £35 quid a month :eek:

Then add the Now Boost package for £5 a month which allows Full HD, ad-free streaming and Surround Sound on up to 3 devices at once.

We just went with Entertainment and boost and dropped a sky bill which was close to £130 plus a month to £14.99

Also suggest grab an App called "Just Watch" which allows you to search for shows and movies you want to see and it will give you who has it, is it streaming or is it rent / buy etc and any costs
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So who do you have your broadband with and what does it cost on top of now tv ? Cheers john.
 
I use freeview, netflix and prime. ;) All free as the last 2 are on my sons account, :( Wont be able to do that with Netflix soon without a long trip to sign the dongle in at my son's place every month but not sure if that would work out. I have a prime account anyway as use amazon but for purchases could just sign up when needed and then ditch it.

Sport - F1 for me only so could manage with channel 4. We have my son's sky account which I think includes some sort of phone deal but now he has left this needs sorting out, It comes via a Virgin box. LOL Also have a talk talk connection. More to sort out, Overpriced so probably switch to Virgin or get talk talk to charge less.

We did watch F1 live on netflix some years ago. Reduced resolution. Not sure how that was done. NowTv offer a months sport for use on a mobile - leaves me wondering if that can be diverted to a TV from the phone. If it can be done details may be on the web. I have watched Netfix movies via a phone using 5g. Ok with some delay to get it set up but done in an area where the mobile coverage isn't too good. Not a 4k smart TV either. Just has a connection for a dongle which was signed in to the phone's wifi.
 
Bladesmith said:
So who do you have your broadband with and what does it cost on top of now tv ? Cheers john.
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BT .. we have a pretty slow (these days) 24M/3M service .. price is silly as its a "business account" (static IP / VoIP service etc) left over from when I worked at home .. was going to cancel it / downgrade to a residential, just never got around to it and it rolled to another 2 year contract .. hopefully sometime in that next 2 years we get FTTH installed in the village (pigs may fly too)
 
I went through the same thing with Virgin media so got rid of everything apart from Internet connection.
My monthly bill went from £90 to £33 .
Already had a 4k firestick, which I now have a IPTV service which has all the channels including sports , movies and the pay to view events such as live boxing all for £35 A YEAR ! ding dong
 
Eastmids-HD said:
As I've stated I have a firestick and I'm in touch with someone that can get me a years sub for iptv for £45 which is good but the issue I'm currently trying to work out is to find a box to allow me to record the streaming programmes, currently ZGemma are popping up and seem possible and I think the firecube is a possibility? Problem is though that the recording is done manually and literally records even the motions on screen as you're going through them and you can't set a time to record a programme, you literally have to do it at that moment.
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If you need to record something, then I would respectfully suggest you’re doing it wrong, unless it’s highly niche. In an ideal world, whatever service you use should have the content you want available ‘on demand’ whenever you want to watch it. Over the years I have provided technical support for a number of services and projects, there are several ways of achieving what you want, but generally you’ll end up spending a chunk of time/money to achieve what you want, or know someone who has.
 
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Avalon said:
Although we have

If you need to record something, then I would respectfully suggest you’re doing it wrong, unless it’s highly niche. In an ideal world, whatever service you use should have the content you want available ‘on demand’ whenever you want to watch it. Over the years I have provided technical support for a number of services and projects, there are several ways of achieving what you want, but generally you’ll end up spending a chunk of time/money to achieve what you want, or know someone who has.
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Apparently Amazon fire cube has the option as you just plug a USB drive into the port and away you go.

I've bit the bullet and bought 12 months subscription for iptv... So looks like for now I'm settled.?
 
Eastmids-HD said:
Apparently Amazon fire cube has the option as you just plug a USB drive into the port and away you go.

I've bit the bullet and bought 12 months subscription for iptv... So looks like for now I'm settled.?
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Which IPTV service ?
 
I wouldn’t personally throw a 12 month sub at any IPTV provider, many come and go within that time and I have watched the same providers come back under a new brand and then take customers for another 12 month or ‘lifetime’ sub only to do the same again after getting a load of subscribers. It’s a significant issue sadly.
 
Been on a firestick for years,and got mine hard wired with a ethenet cable(good one) as this is in my brick built bar which is 30m away from the ruter in the house and i have no trouble at all,were has the firestick in the house running from wifi does have it's issues
 
Avalon said:
I wouldn’t personally throw a 12 month sub at any IPTV provider, many come and go within that time and I have watched the same providers come back under a new brand and then take customers for another 12 month or ‘lifetime’ sub only to do the same again after getting a load of subscribers. It’s a significant issue sadly.
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My mate put me on to this one and he's been using the same chap for 3 years or so, no issues.
 
Junked Sky years ago and never looked back.

Went freesat with Netflix/Prime, broadband is full fibre with Vodafone currently as they had a deal on towards the end of last year which was ridiculously cheap.....much less per month and 50% faster.

World Superbikes and BSB were on Discovery+ which I used for a while. I've also added Disney and Paramount on and off when super deals came out....... Generally I only sub a year, can it for a few months, they fall over themselves to get you back, get a great deal and binge on the months you've missed 😂
 
Just dumped virgin after them putting the price up by £9 a month and in future it goes up by rpi plus 3.9% I had the very basic package with wifi and it was getting on to £75 a month, when I phoned to pack it in they offered a deal of £38 for me to stay as I had been a customer for 21 years, I told them to stick it as they should have offered me a better deal or even froze my payments in the 1st place instead of seeing how much they can get away with, anyway I have a fire stick with Amazon prime my phone has unlimited data so I use the phone as a hotspot and I have Internet whenever I need it at home and most films and tv that are on the sky and virgin can be got on free apps that you put onto the firestick not missed the virgin box once, should have done it years ago.
Cheers
 
Had firestick for a couple of years and found a good iptv provider and it was good 99% of the time.

Then the big IP providers made it nearly impossible to view without a VPN so I didn't bother, I miss a few things but by the time I'd paid fir IPTV and VPN , you do need a good one the free ones are hit and miss, it wasn't worth it.
 
I cancelled Sky recently due to ever increasing costs and am switching to Now TV.
They currently have an offer of Sky sports channels for £21 for 12 months (and can cancel any time).
With this and the entertainment pack it is basically £40 a month less for the same channels I had with Sky.
 
With the amount of adverts its them who should be paying us to watch their rubbish, cancel you're TV licence (Tax) and watch free programs and films online. Why anyone pays more for watching TV these days is beyond me, Almost everyone has broadband these days so that should be enough to pay per month.
 
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