I trust the members of this board to reveal all the necessary knowledge, as always.

My Sky went down the pan in the high winds a couple of weeks ago. I have been using Freeview and switching to my laptop plugged into TV to use Sportsmania. All great but cumbersome.

I have a Sky Q box coming on 6th. (but not Sky Q channel)
However, given the alternatives, I am not sure it is worth the money for thre sky platform.

The one thing that does grip me is the loss of true HD clarity. That is why I have not yet cancelled the Skyman.

So the question is:

What do I need to return my normal watching to very good HD, without Sky or Virgin?

Many thanks

IanMcL

The free to air HD channels through your sky box are still HD. Or can be added through "Other Channels".
The listings for other channels can be found here: http://en.kingofsat.net/pos-28.2E.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

How important is it for you to have HD?

For example, I pay £5 a year and get every single sky channel including sports, movies and PPV.

However, HD is not possible on paid channels such as sky sports but is available on freeview such as BBC, you would need to put up with very good quality but standard quality TV. The £5 makes that very easy to put up with

Check out this thread.

http://www.uptheclarets.com/messageboar ... =2&t=12580" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The problem is that my sky has gone down and so I have not got those frr HD channels any more, except normal Freeview 101-105 channels. The HH does make a huge difference, so I am keen to get it somehow. The football via Sportsmania I can put up with, just about.

Just checked the link above. searched Firebox but this took my eye:
http://www.argos.co.uk/product/4487708 Amazon Fire TV with 4K Ultra HD. That looks like it might do the trick or am I wrong?

Amazon Fire TV, now 4K Ultra HD compatible. Discover thousands of movies and TV episodes, plus sports, news, music and games from Amazon, Netflix, Demand 5, Spotify, Youtube. Com and more. Enjoy movies and TV episodes in HD or stunning 4K Ultra HD with your 4K UHD TV with content from Amazon, Netflix, and more.

Say it and watch it with voice search, simply say the name of the title, actor, director or category into the remote control and start enjoying movies, tv shows, and games from amazon.

No more waiting for your movies and shows to buffer. Asap learns what amazon movies and tv episodes you'll want to watch and buffers them for playback before you hit play. With a quad-core processor and dual-band wi-fi, streaming is fast and fluid.

The Amazon Stick will give you all the catchup for BBC, ITV, C4 etc. If you want to watch movies and tv shows you need to have a pay subscription service to Netflix or Amazon. You can however sideload another app called Kodi which you can then use to access SM and other video adds on directly on your TV which is a benefit.

SkyQ looks the part, but unless you do loads of recording, want mutil-room or watch loads of the Sky only stuff in HD then I wouldn't bother.

If you wanted the cheap route then fix your dish and cancel sky sub and use the Freesat channels (without record) on your skybox and then a Firestick for catchup and SM.

If you do want record then fix your dish, pick up a FreesatHD PVR with a hard drive (bout 200) with catchup stuff and netflix and just plug your laptop to the TV for SM.

Horses for courses really. Unless its docos or sports, I have no need for a SkyHD package because I can view Freetoair HD.

Main question regarding the 4K box is, do you have a 4K tv?

If the answer is no, then rule it out straight away no matter what perks it has

Why?

My blu-ray player plays 3D discs, but I don't have a 3D TV. Makes no odds whether the Fire TV has 4k capability, it still does a job as a very good box for someone with a normal HD TV.

Walton wrote:Why?

My blu-ray player plays 3D discs, but I don't have a 3D TV. Makes no odds whether the Fire TV has 4k capability, it still does a job as a very good box for someone with a normal HD TV.

Because you pay extra for the 4K functionality that is rendered completely useless to you.

The only difference between the 4k Fire TV box (£79) and the Fire TV stick (£34.99) is one is 4k and one is 1080p. Why pay twice as much when the highest your TV will benefit is 1080p?

Because the processor is significantly better, and in general it's a much, much better piece of technology.

MarkGreen wrote:Because you pay extra for the 4K functionality that is rendered completely useless to you.

The only difference between the 4k Fire TV box (£79) and the Fire TV stick (£34.99) is one is 4k and one is 1080p. Why pay twice as much when the highest your TV will benefit is 1080p?

That isn't the only difference. As said it's a better all round piece if kit and has a better processor which means better streaming. Also has more memory and is faster

What channels do you want to watch Ian? To watch in good HD quality legally its likely impossible without sky/virgin.

People talk about Kodi add-ons for watching films and tv series and whatnot but in my experience they're a bit hit and miss in terms of quality. You can end up with SD quality, chinese subitiles embedded, poor compression, no surround sound, etc. Not always the case but when I looked at them it was the case more often than not. Some people may be fine with that but I prefer to watch in high quality, even if I have to wait a bit longer until it's available, so very quickly ditched all of the various add-ons.

All very interesting stuff. Thanks folks.

The idea of getting my dish fixed sounds promising. In the meantime, I am off to check on the Amazon 4k box in Curry's. I think sky have had it.
Cheers all.

Did you ever manage to mirror that football game to your TV, Ian?

Ha!


That was a lot of years ago now. Surprising how that is remembered. There was a lad called Rob who was our expert. He used to keep us in the prem singlehandedly, before the rest of us even knew it existed. He had been away or something and came on the other place asking for help, as we were in danger of relegation. lots went on and kicked a few in and saved the season. All I did was harness the board members to have a go at winning the thing. Not knowing just how serious it was to the likes of Glasgow Rangers fans! Anyway, we did win it! We had a hundred players at peak and did well in the Euros too, until the French and Germans united against the rest of Europe. Fun for a time and Burnley did really well, so who can grumble!

Wonder if Rob is still about?

aggi wrote:People talk about Kodi add-ons for watching films and tv series and whatnot but in my experience they're a bit hit and miss in terms of quality. You can end up with SD quality, chinese subitiles embedded, poor compression, no surround sound, etc. Not always the case but when I looked at them it was the case more often than not. Some people may be fine with that but I prefer to watch in high quality, even if I have to wait a bit longer until it's available, so very quickly ditched all of the various add-ons.

Thats because you havent bothered it seems to learn about kodi. Exodus has most films and tv in 1080p,and even more links if you take a subscription with real debrid. Also links in 5.1 but can be problematic with fire tv. The films with korean not chinese subtitles are there because they are early region 5 releases, so you wait for a full release if that bothers you. Put it this way the only things i watch through kodi in less than hd is dvd screeners if i really want to see the film there and then. Phoenix and salts are also good addons with most material in hd.
Sportsmania the same, all matches available in 720p.

https://popcorntime-online.io/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

How do you put the popcorn thing on fire tv, if it's possible?

PaintYorkClaretnBlue wrote:How do you put the popcorn thing on fire tv, if it's possible?

There's an android app https://popcorn-time.to/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

To install on fire tv: http://www.aftvnews.com/sideload/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cheers SD

Clarinetclaret wrote:Thats because you havent bothered it seems to learn about kodi. Exodus has most films and tv in 1080p,and even more links if you take a subscription with real debrid. Also links in 5.1 but can be problematic with fire tv. The films with korean not chinese subtitles are there because they are early region 5 releases, so you wait for a full release if that bothers you. Put it this way the only things i watch through kodi in less than hd is dvd screeners if i really want to see the film there and then. Phoenix and salts are also good addons with most material in hd.
Sportsmania the same, all matches available in 720p.

There's absolutely no way that you get the same quality picture through kodi as you do through Sky HD.

I've just downloaded it and I can see the movies but can't scroll to any of them, do you know why?

Rileybobs wrote:There's absolutely no way that you get the same quality picture through kodi as you do through Sky HD.

The 1080p streams are quality, can't tell any difference.

You don't get as good quality, just like you don't get as good quality watching a movie on TV vs a Blu-Ray.

Whoever adopts HEVC so widely first will win though. My bet is the broadcast industry is going to fail. Look at Sky only just introducing UHD when there is already HDR tech available. So stupid since HDR doesn't even require any more bandwidth and for UHD you need to sit twice as close to see a quality benefit anyway. They could sell Sky HD to pubs, but not Sky UHD. Bad mistake imo.

I now have a Fire TV box and it was easy to set up. However, I am struggling to find how to get Kodi on it, so I can watch my Sportsmania on the TV, without resorting to my laptop again. Just downloaded something called ES File Explorer and FireDL which has a quote from a user, "Easiest way to install Kodi on Fire TV". So here's hoping!

IanMcL wrote:Ha!


That was a lot of years ago now. Surprising how that is remembered. There was a lad called Rob who was our expert. He used to keep us in the prem singlehandedly, before the rest of us even knew it existed. He had been away or something and came on the other place asking for help, as we were in danger of relegation. lots went on and kicked a few in and saved the season. All I did was harness the board members to have a go at winning the thing. Not knowing just how serious it was to the likes of Glasgow Rangers fans! Anyway, we did win it! We had a hundred players at peak and did well in the Euros too, until the French and Germans united against the rest of Europe. Fun for a time and Burnley did really well, so who can grumble!

Wonder if Rob is still about?

I contributed a few myself.

IanMcL wrote:I now have a Fire TV box and it was easy to set up. However, I am struggling to find how to get Kodi on it, so I can watch my Sportsmania on the TV, without resorting to my laptop again. Just downloaded something called ES File Explorer and FireDL which has a quote from a user, "Easiest way to install Kodi on Fire TV". So here's hoping!

Ian, I can't remember how I did it, I just googled it and watched a YouTube video. Was all very easy, you won't regret doing it!

Good luck!

Rileybobs wrote:There's absolutely no way that you get the same quality picture through kodi as you do through Sky HD.

What a load of ********. If you look they are there.

superdimitri wrote:You don't get as good quality, just like you don't get as good quality watching a movie on TV vs a Blu-Ray.

Whoever adopts HEVC so widely first will win though. My bet is the broadcast industry is going to fail. Look at Sky only just introducing UHD when there is already HDR tech available. So stupid since HDR doesn't even require any more bandwidth and for UHD you need to sit twice as close to see a quality benefit anyway. They could sell Sky HD to pubs, but not Sky UHD. Bad mistake imo.

The quality is only as good as the stream you find and the bandwidth you have. A good 1080p stream is as good as any sky broadcast. Even side by side with a blu ray a good stream would be very comparable to the viewer.

Clarinetclaret wrote:Thats because you havent bothered it seems to learn about kodi. Exodus has most films and tv in 1080p,and even more links if you take a subscription with real debrid. Also links in 5.1 but can be problematic with fire tv. The films with korean not chinese subtitles are there because they are early region 5 releases, so you wait for a full release if that bothers you. Put it this way the only things i watch through kodi in less than hd is dvd screeners if i really want to see the film there and then. Phoenix and salts are also good addons with most material in hd.
Sportsmania the same, all matches available in 720p.

I tried Exodus and that was my experience, often with films that were out on bluray/dvd so you'd expect decent quality.

Anyone recommend EE's Broadband and TV? (up to 38Mb/s)
£28.50 for unlimited Fibre inc £18.50 line rental.
Im currently paying BT £51 a month for broadband, anytime calls and no Telly.

Clarinetclaret wrote:What a load of ********. If you look they are there.

There's a difference in picture quality between streamed content and what you get through a satellite, without a doubt. Even when something is labelled as 1080p and the clarity is very good, there is often a difference in frame rate and the streams have a more digital appearance.

As good as Kodi is, you're in denial if you think the overall picture and sound quality is on a par with Sky HD.

mikeS wrote:Anyone recommend EE's Broadband and TV? (up to 38Mb/s)
£28.50 for unlimited Fibre inc £18.50 line rental.
Im currently paying BT £51 a month for broadband, anytime calls and no Telly.

Mike, I changed from BT Fibre to EE fibre that you have described above. No issues at all, I haven't noticed a difference. For the money I'd definitely recommend it. I also paid my line rental up front saving a few more quid. I only pay £10 per month now.

Rileybobs wrote:There's a difference in picture quality between streamed content and what you get through a satellite, without a doubt. Even when something is labelled as 1080p and the clarity is very good, there is often a difference in frame rate and the streams have a more digital appearance.

As good as Kodi is, you're in denial if you think the overall picture and sound quality is on a par with Sky HD.

I pay for sky because it's convenient for recording and I only pay £38 for the whole package including multiroom.

I also have exodus on kodi and the quality is amazing on the 1080p films, there probably is a slight difference between that and a satellite picture but I really can't tell the difference on my 55" TV. Certainly not enough to put me off! It's the best thing since sliced bread!!

MarkGreen wrote:How important is it for you to have HD?

For example, I pay £5 a year and get every single sky channel including sports, movies and PPV.

However, HD is not possible on paid channels such as sky sports but is available on freeview such as BBC, you would need to put up with very good quality but standard quality TV. The £5 makes that very easy to put up with

I thought I had a bargain at £20 a year! You'll have to let me know who you're using.

I'd love to tell Sky to do one, my issue is that I live in a rural location with broadband speed of 1.5Mb/s

Does anyone have an idea on what options I have available where I could ditch Sky, but still have access to decent TV?

Thanks in advance!

Barry_Chuckle wrote:I'd love to tell Sky to do one, my issue is that I live in a rural location with broadband speed of 1.5Mb/s

Does anyone have an idea on what options I have available where I could ditch Sky, but still have access to decent TV?

Thanks in advance!

Can you not get fibre to bump the speed up a bit?

No fibre on the top of the pennines Mate, that's the problem.

Barry_Chuckle wrote:No fibre on the top of the pennines Mate, that's the problem.

That's a bugger, sorry mate, I can't help you. Sky seems to be the best option.

Bertiebeehead wrote:I thought I had a bargain at £20 a year! You'll have to let me know who you're using.

Myself

Rileybobs wrote:There's a difference in picture quality between streamed content and what you get through a satellite, without a doubt. Even when something is labelled as 1080p and the clarity is very good, there is often a difference in frame rate and the streams have a more digital appearance.

As good as Kodi is, you're in denial if you think the overall picture and sound quality is on a par with Sky HD.

Ive had sky hd, virgin hd and the good quality 1080p streams in kodi are as good as both broadcasts. Good cable along with wired lan and real debrid links equals anything sky can put out below 4k. Maybe you need to do more research into what kodi can actually do if you bother to take the time to explore. I can find a crap stream easily enough, i can also find a great quality stream if i bother to look. Blu ray has the edge on both as youd expect, but watching on a 55inch from 8-10 feet you'd have to be anal to notice the difference.
Amazon broadcasts are as good quality as sky hd and thats streamed, you cant just say say streaming isnt as good as satellite fed content. Plenty of complaints out there about sky picture quality.

The streams aren't as good quality. Just because you can't notice a difference doesn't mean they are as good quality.

I would love to see a kodi h264 stream that is almost 20mbps average bit rate.

Streams will likely be 720p when labelled hd quality and they use far more compression than tv channels. Even if a stream is 1080p the stream is heavily compressed.The quality of a stream is more comparable to a good dvd. It's not in the same league as broadcast quality.

But like I said, just because you don't notice a difference doesn't mean it's the same quality. Most people sit too far from their tv's to distinguish between hd and fhd. Let alone notice a difference in the compression.

No fibre here either and I'm in a new build (why it wasn't installed at the time I've no idea) so only get 3-3.5mbs which is ok on the hd films via firestick but struggle with the live events like the football.

Thankfully we found out today that fibre should be available by April (so we need to stay in Premier League so I can get full benefit next season)

That's the Spurs game on sportsmania via kodi. Great picture!

And this was the none hd starstream of our game, via kodi with 3.5mbs

Barry_Chuckle wrote:No fibre on the top of the pennines Mate, that's the problem.

Surely you can almost touch the satellite itself, up there?!

Back home now from the match. Will have to explore my new box and see if I can master these terms.

Barry_Chuckle wrote:I'd love to tell Sky to do one, my issue is that I live in a rural location with broadband speed of 1.5Mb/s

Does anyone have an idea on what options I have available where I could ditch Sky, but still have access to decent TV?

Thanks in advance!

I have the same rural broadband issues and just cancelled Sky TV mainly because we don't watch there channels.
Going onto freesat with recordable box, pause ,rewind etc.....
As for internet I have looked a several options, and was put into these guys from Preston.
VirAir Internet Services
info@virair.co.uk
They are coming out late next week to do a survey to see if our house can receive there broadband signal.
20 download 10 upload for £30 a month.

Overthehill wrote:I have the same rural broadband issues and just cancelled Sky TV mainly because we don't watch there channels.
Going onto freesat with recordable box, pause ,rewind etc.....
As for internet I have looked a several options, and was put into these guys from Preston.
VirAir Internet Services
info@virair.co.uk
They are coming out late next week to do a survey to see if our house can receive there broadband signal.
20 download 10 upload for £30 a month.

I'd be interested to hear how you get on if you don't mind Overthehill.