Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Off Topic Streaming HD TV channels (UK)

I live in Southampton and currently receive “free to air” HD channels from the Isle of Wight Rowridge transmitter.

Some of these channels, the ones we predominantly watch, are soon to be cut off to make way for 5G telecoms.

My alternative is to stream them. I find the streaming capabilities of devices such as the TV set, the pvr or the Oppo painfully slow to get going. Have good internet connect (100Mb/s +).

Advice on the best TV streaming devices would be appreciated.

Thanks.

I am down-sizing my home theatre and, fingers crossed, my new Samsung (2019 flagship) QLED will do everything I need app-wise for streaming (iPlayer, ITV hub, C4, Netflix, Prime Video, NowTV, Disney, etc.).

Failing that, my fallback is the Apple TV 4k (available now) or the Playstation 5 (available in the Autumn).

Not sure if it helps for the channels you really want but I have several Amazon Firesticks running on WiFi which seem to be quite robust, have similar internet speed to yourself. I also use the iPlayer and Netflix apps on the Sony AG8 in the main room and that is pretty good, it’s clunky but bearable and pretty quick to boot.

I could be completely wrong, is streaming the only option or could going satellite TV be an option?

Yeah, the FireTV stick and NowTV boxes do work well and are a lot cheaper, but slow and clunky: you get what you pay for.

Satellite is not ruled out. Always thought it was a bit subject to the weather. Could be wrong. Not interested in a subscription service. Is there kit options with satellite? No experience of it.

Not sure what you mean by kit options, however, maybe Freesat might be of interest?

I've had Sky before but did not want to pay the money as just could not make time to watch enough content. At that point I don't recall having any weather issues.

Thanks for the info on Freesat. Will look into it. At first glance most catch-up appears to be via internet, as currently so.

Are there opinions as to which are the good, the bad and the ugly of the Freesat, PVR box’?

I rarely use my Freesat recorder. Better to buy a dedicated video network streamer for catch-up services.

Via my AppleTV4K, I subscribe to...

NowTV,
Amazon Prime,
Netflix,
Disney+,
BlinkBox.

I share the monthly subscription fees with my Daughter - who lives 50 miles away.

BlinkBox is free for 6 months with an EE account.

This is in addition to the usual free to use iPlayer, ITV Hub, 5 on Demand, and 4oD.

SD terrestrial broadcast programmes are better viewed via catch-up, where they are streamed at higher quality.

The AppleTv4k appears a simple way to go.

One question, are the download applications (for iPlayer, etc) preloaded on the Apple or do they load afresh each time you go to use the service? My gripe with my current set up is the time the applications take to start. Once up and running, no problem.

I’ve seen how fast the Virgin box takes to load. Virtually instant. But their service for what we want is ludicrously expensive.

All the catch-up apps I mentioned appear as standard on the AppleTV4K in the UK.

Plus, there are numerous apps that you can also download, such as ‘ABC News’, for example.

Buy the AppleTV4K on the RefurbStore and save £30. You won’t be able to tell the difference in buying brand-new.

Also, when you buy an AppleTV4K, new or refurbished, it comes with a free 12 month subscription to AppleTV+.

Many thanks for the contributions above. One final question about the AppleTV - they offer two levels of memory - 32Gb and 64Gb. What is the memory used for? Cannot see any mention on it in the promotional literature.

The AppleTV4K is capable of playing video games, if that’s what you’re into: so the flash memory capacity reflects your games storage requirements.

For the rest of us, the flash memory capacity isn’t an issue.

The caveat is that future TVoS developments may or may not take advantage of this flash memory capacity.