Thetownend.com

80% => Computer & Technology => Topic started by: THE FLASH on Wednesday, November 30, 2016, 10:19:31



Title: SKY TV
Post by: THE FLASH on Wednesday, November 30, 2016, 10:19:31
No doubt there is a thread somewhere.

Bombed out Sky yesterday.....so on 31 days.

£70 per month....no football or movies....too much!

What alternatives are you all using??


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: DarloSTFC84 on Wednesday, November 30, 2016, 10:25:21
No doubt there is a thread somewhere.

Bombed out Sky yesterday.....so on 31 days.

£70 per month....no football or movies....too much!

What alternatives are you all using??

BT TV, I prefer BT Sport to Sky Sports.. College Football, NBA, MLB, Speedway plus FA Cup & Champions League/Europa Leage and some Premier League.

We have a kids bundle on it too. It's not that bad, to be fair.


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: Gethimout on Wednesday, November 30, 2016, 10:26:32
Amazon fire stick with kodi. Live streams aren't always great - passable at best.

Any films or boxsets are perfect.


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: horlock07 on Wednesday, November 30, 2016, 10:32:12
BT TV and also just bought a Firestick as it was cheap on Black Friday, things like Netflix etc run so much quicker through the Firestick rather than the BT Box!


Title: SKY TV
Post by: Batch on Wednesday, November 30, 2016, 12:03:44
or just wait until sky offer you discounts o return...

depends if you want legal alternatives or other methods


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: Chubbs on Wednesday, November 30, 2016, 12:07:31
just purchased a fire-stick with plans to put kodi on (or ask someone very nicely to do it for me)


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: Bewster on Wednesday, November 30, 2016, 12:26:08
I've just moved over to BT from Sky, although I'm tied in with Sky until Jan 2017.

BT is fine but it isn't as intuitive or has as many functions as Sky. It relies on your aerial so unless you have a good signal picture quality can be a bit erratic.

I was paying £40 for basic Sky HD and £50 for BT & Broadband - I will be just paying £55 for BT from Jan 2017 - this includes HD and Kids programs.

I also have a Fire stick with Kodi so the includes Netflix and Amazon Prime stuff. Sportsmania on Kodi which gives you all sports channel from BT & Sky is about £50 per year.


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: chalkies_shorts on Wednesday, November 30, 2016, 12:50:48
just purchased a fire-stick with plans to put kodi on (or ask someone very nicely to do it for me)
Chubbs, I did this last week and I'm an imbecile. There are plenty of Google sites. Took me about 10 minutes to download kodi and load up a number of sites. You should be ok.


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: kaufman on Wednesday, November 30, 2016, 14:54:35
BT were great for me for a while but then started upping the prices massively and made sure the broadband and Phone line contracts ended up finishing at different times.
Have been paying through the nose for the past few months, and not getting the speeds either they promised
Virgin is in our area and offered to compensate to get out of BT
Being put in tomorrow.
BT was £60, Virgin £29 for a year
If you're wanting the sports though as a new customer I would have thought BT would be your best bet.


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: Chubbs on Wednesday, November 30, 2016, 15:59:50
Chubbs, I did this last week and I'm an imbecile. There are plenty of Google sites. Took me about 10 minutes to download kodi and load up a number of sites. You should be ok.
Its more of a time thing to be honest, i just don't get the time to tinker with things like this any more.


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: Simon Pieman on Thursday, December 1, 2016, 12:38:35
Live TV:
Zgemma box.
Everything for £60 a year (circa £180 up front with the hardware) through my active Virgin line.

Movies and TV catchup: Kodi


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: Peter Venkman on Thursday, December 1, 2016, 13:22:23
Live TV:
Zgemma box.
Everything for £60 a year (circa £180 up front with the hardware) through my active Virgin line.

Movies and TV catchup: Kodi
I have looked at the ZGemma 4k but am not sure what 4k content they have at the moment as even a lot of genuine 1080i content yet.

Not a lot of outlay (£45 inc postage) for a 4k box so it might be worth a punt anyway for little outlay.



Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: Simon Pieman on Thursday, December 1, 2016, 13:38:13
I have looked at the ZGemma 4k but am not sure what 4k content they have at the moment as even a lot of genuine 1080i content yet.

Not a lot of outlay (£45 inc postage) for a 4k box so it might be worth a punt anyway for little outlay.



If you know what you're doing to set it up (not too hard just need to ftp to add in a line) and pay for a line then it's worth it.
Virgin is full HD, Sky isn't due to encryption. Virgin doesn't broadcast 4k so not really sure what the point is at the moment.

Not sure on overseas broadcasting but you'd need a motorised dish.


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: Peter Venkman on Thursday, December 1, 2016, 13:51:53
We have been looking at SkyQ but its still a costly set up initially as well as about £10 extra a month for what is already a vastly overpriced product. I don't think I can justify the cost, would rather pay Netflix and Prime for 4k HDR content I think.



Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: Don Rogers Sock on Thursday, December 1, 2016, 18:19:53
Amazon fire stick with kodi. Live streams aren't always great - passable at best.

Any films or boxsets are perfect.
Get sportsmania. 20 quid for  3 months but the quality of streams are superb


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: magicroundabout on Thursday, December 1, 2016, 20:55:03
If you know what you're doing to set it up (not too hard just need to ftp to add in a line) and pay for a line then it's worth it.
Virgin is full HD, Sky isn't due to encryption. Virgin doesn't broadcast 4k so not really sure what the point is at the moment.

Not sure on overseas broadcasting but you'd need a motorised dish.

yet for some reason Sky has the better picture quality between the two


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: Simon Pieman on Friday, December 2, 2016, 11:55:44
yet for some reason Sky has the better picture quality between the two

If you're referring to their own proprietary equipment, that's down to the boxes themselves.


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: Arriba on Friday, December 2, 2016, 14:01:50
Freesat recordable box. Now tv box with entertainment pack £36 a year. Plex subscription £60 a year (sky, bt sports, 3pm premier league matches etc all in hd) which is also added to the nowtv box.  I haven't needed the recordable function on the freesat box as everything is available on demand anyway.


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: THE FLASH on Friday, December 2, 2016, 15:23:37
Freesat recordable box. Now tv box with entertainment pack £36 a year. Plex subscription £60 a year (sky, bt sports, 3pm premier league matches etc all in hd) which is also added to the nowtv box.  I haven't needed the recordable function on the freesat box as everything is available on demand anyway.

This sound up my street.

How do you get this Plex installed? Easy to do?


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: Arriba on Friday, December 2, 2016, 15:47:08
The fella I got it from will sell you a now TV box for £100 with it pre installed and set up to their server. As long as you have a reasonable internet download speed 6mb + it will work nicely.
The now TV entertainment passes are available on eBay and you just top them up every few month as they expire.
If you're on Facebook the Plex guys have a page. I'm not on there so until I get home and see the Mrs I can't link it to you unfortunately. If si pie sees this he maybe able to send it to you before I get home. Otherwise I will do it later. If you're interested of course.
I've had it since April and I am happy with it. Sky is better as the picture clarity is slightly better but for the money though this is great value


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: THE FLASH on Friday, December 2, 2016, 15:57:43
Message me later and we can set something up.

Many thanks.


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: Batch on Friday, December 2, 2016, 16:02:51
I hope 'set up to server' = included £60 sub's.

only takes 10 minutes + PC to wang  Plex onto a nowTv box. use mine to access my local server,  not investigated the remote server side, may have to look into this..


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: stfcinbmth on Friday, December 2, 2016, 19:06:55
Not sure on overseas broadcasting but you'd need a motorised dish.

Ah, how I miss mine, especially as I've just got a Dreambox out of retirement


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: Arriba on Friday, December 2, 2016, 19:35:09
I hope 'set up to server' = included £60 sub's.

only takes 10 minutes + PC to wang  Plex onto a nowTv box. use mine to access my local server,  not investigated the remote server side, may have to look into this..

Of course. The annual subs is for the server contents- ie all the channels. Not the adding of the Plex app itself


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: Batch on Friday, December 2, 2016, 21:13:32
Of course. The annual subs is for the server contents- ie all the channels. Not the adding of the Plex app itself

Cool, I see people on FB selling Amaon firesticks + skinned kodi for £55 and get a bit annoyed they profit off others (kodi devs) hard work . Silly really.


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: Arriba on Saturday, December 3, 2016, 11:44:44
Cool, I see people on FB selling Amaon firesticks + skinned kodi for £55 and get a bit annoyed they profit off others (kodi devs) hard work . Silly really.

Yeah I know what you're on about. When people steal kodi builds-interfaces and flog boxes on eBay etc.


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: Batch on Saturday, December 3, 2016, 12:25:07
exactly that


Title: SKY TV
Post by: Batch on Monday, December 26, 2016, 10:41:34
thanks people leaving sky, for those of us staying it's getting easier to get discounts!

this year, 60% off for 12 months... so yeah, £26.50 ish  for (non hd) sports + box sets. marvelous. I did however have to recontract for another 12 months..

if anyone else wants to try this year remember:

1. you need to phone up to cancel before any offers appear. then you will enter into a game of cancellation chicken. you can back out and cancel the cancellation if no offer comes up, or wait it out after it's gone for the very best offer..

2. they eventually offered my 10 month/50% off on phone after trying to reduce costs in reducing package and worse discounts.. I declined. do not take phone offer

3. the offer was right there on 'mysky' on the web as soon as I hung up. this year there was a 'take offer' button which took the misery of using live chat/phoning back up away.

4. no guarantees, but if you are on full price what's to lose..


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: THE FLASH on Monday, December 26, 2016, 11:14:36
Update..

I was paying £80 pm... Variety bundle, HD, multi room..

Served notice and they offered £9 discount....Fuck off.

A week before cut off they called back...60% off...Plus altered the HD charge.... I dumped one multiroom and even got sports...Now £36 odd a month.....That's a charge I can accept.

My advice...Cancel and stick to your guns...You never know.


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: Batch on Monday, December 26, 2016, 11:20:38
My advice...Cancel and stick to your guns...You never know.

You do know. Its not a case of if you get an offer, its a case of when and how much. In fact, to prove the point they'll offer 15% just by clicking through the "leave sky" and "still want to cancel we might be able to help...." link - obviously don't take this though!!!

   www.sky.com/Cancel‎

Some are getting 70% + £100 account credit to return - but only after a month or three after switchoff.

Think I've had 1 year at full price sky in about 15 years. Anywhere between 20 and 60% off.


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: Arriba on Monday, December 26, 2016, 11:47:36
I get a letter almost every week asking me to return. Also regular phone calls. I get offered cash and huge discounts like batch has mentioned.
If you have sky, cancel and you'll be made offers. You may have to let it be cut off first, but a week or two on freesat to save hundreds of pounds won't hurt you.
That said I still won't go back myself.


Title: Re: SKY TV
Post by: The Grim Reaper on Monday, December 26, 2016, 13:18:29
My Openbox was £36 off Amazon and the gift code was £20 for 24 months. This provides me with all the channels for £2.29 a month. Ok it's not hd and does not have recording capabilities but I still have the basic package on Virgin for that, mainly for their excellent broadband. When I look back to when I was subscribing to sports and movie channels it was costing me over £1,000 a year. That's sheer lunacy!