Goodbye Sky

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BlueShift

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#1556297 20-May-2016 14:49

geekIT:

Thanks, guys. OK, from your replies I see a one-word term that pretty much sums up what I've largely ignored about recent technology - 'streaming'.

I'm an ex-IT guy so I understand the origin of the term.

(In fact, my WD Media Player has the capability of picking up streaming data from my PC if I plug a USB wireless connector into it. As it is, I download data to the PC then transfer it to a cased 2.5" hard drive that's connected to the media player via USB)

But I've never bothered to investigate streaming with respect to TV.

So, do I understand that we're talking about data (movies etc) that are coming into the house via broadband modem, rather than satellite, as with Sky?

With that data then being watched and\or handled on one's computer? And\or being watched on TV?

If so, it must bump up the data usage of anyone who doesn't have a no-limit broadband plan.

I have this plan. Sounds like I'm not actually missing anything, then.

We're not a Sky household, but from where I sit there's only two reasons for subscribing to Sky:

1) You're a sports nut, you watch at least a few sports a week and really enjoy it. Currently you can't legitimately get that volume of sports anywhere else for less money. Fanpass is an option if you only watch it occasionally, but not for the dedicated fan.

2) You're not particularly worried about the money, and are willing to pay the premium for the convenience (if not the quality).

We have unlimited broadband on UFB, subscribe to Netflix and Spark gives us free Lightbox, Chromecast puts it on the TV for us. Between that, our Tivo for recording Freeview content, YouTube for all sorts of other bits and pieces, and the occasional "recording from my auntie overseas" my family and I have more content than we can keep up with. We don't watch much sport, the occasional Chiefs game on Prime and some AFL or NBA on Duke if the mood takes us.

So considering that we'd have the broadband anyway (2 teenagers in house), the only extra cost to us is $13 a month for Netflix. Compared to roughly $100 a month for Sky with MySky, HD and SoHo, I'm happy.

Rikkitic

Awrrr
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#1556300 20-May-2016 14:56

Yes, streaming is essentially the same as downloading, except the data isn't saved and the speed has to be sufficient to view in real time. You can view on a computer or TV, but the TV is better if you have the quality, especially large screen. Audio is always better through an external amp.

And yes, it increases your data usage, but you are getting a great deal in return for that. Unless you have a ridiculously tiny cap, it is still worthwhile. But whether you stream or download, you will still be using that data.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

Hammerer

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#1556321 20-May-2016 15:47

Technically, streaming is the playing of media on a device that is different to the device it is stored on. In practice, the difference from a download is much more blurred

Streaming data is often saved to disk in temporary files, e.g. YouTube, so in that respect it is much like downloading.

Hammerer

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#1556345 20-May-2016 16:05

BlueShift:

We're not a Sky household, but from where I sit there's only two reasons for subscribing to Sky:

1) You're a sports nut, you watch at least a few sports a week and really enjoy it. Currently you can't legitimately get that volume of sports anywhere else for less money. Fanpass is an option if you only watch it occasionally, but not for the dedicated fan.

2) You're not particularly worried about the money, and are willing to pay the premium for the convenience (if not the quality).

We have unlimited broadband on UFB, subscribe to Netflix and Spark gives us free Lightbox, Chromecast puts it on the TV for us. Between that, our Tivo for recording Freeview content, YouTube for all sorts of other bits and pieces, and the occasional "recording from my auntie overseas" my family and I have more content than we can keep up with. We don't watch much sport, the occasional Chiefs game on Prime and some AFL or NBA on Duke if the mood takes us.

So considering that we'd have the broadband anyway (2 teenagers in house), the only extra cost to us is $13 a month for Netflix. Compared to roughly $100 a month for Sky with MySky, HD and SoHo, I'm happy.

That's probably four reasons you mention. They are much the same attributes that I use to evaluate any of these video suppliers:

1. Content - Sky has a lot of content but it is highly seasonal; Netflix has a lot less content but it is available for a longer season - it is still seasonal because Netflix constantly refines and renegotiates its catalog. Both have exclusive content for our geographical region.

2. Quality - Sky and Netflix have heavily compressed video which often counts against the quality even in HD or FullHD resolution. But Netflix video quality is almost entirely better.

3. Cost - Sky is way more expensive but the biggest expense for many people is the capital cost of the viewing devices, e.g. TVs, digital recorders, computers, rather than the content.

4. Convenience - Sky (like other programmed broadcasters e.g. Freeview) is convenient provided you have recorder otherwise it would be terribly inconvenient.

Legality and equity are two other attributes I'm personally interested in supporting.

Skot323

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#1556443 20-May-2016 17:37

ludez: Haven't had sky for about four years now, only ever used it for rugby

What do you do now? If it wasn't for the Chiefs I would have dropped sky yeas ago

tukapa1

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#1556915 21-May-2016 17:29

Skot323:
ludez: Haven't had sky for about four years now, only ever used it for rugby

What do you do now? If it wasn't for the Chiefs I would have dropped sky yeas ago

I use rugbypass.com and DNS4me. About $24 month. Super rugby, English rugby, Mitre 10 Cup, NRL, State of O and rugby internationals, plus a couple of second tier comps from overseas.

I stream on ADSL and get 720 quality on my 50" TV.

Saving about $80 month after ditching Sky 6 weeks or so ago.

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Hammerer

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#1556922 21-May-2016 17:49

tukapa1:

Skot323:
ludez: Haven't had sky for about four years now, only ever used it for rugby

What do you do now? If it wasn't for the Chiefs I would have dropped sky yeas ago

I use rugbypass.com and DNS4me. About $24 month. Super rugby, English rugby, Mitre 10 Cup, NRL, State of O and rugby internationals, plus a couple of second tier comps from overseas.

I stream on ADSL and get 720 quality on my 50" TV.

Saving about $80 month after ditching Sky 6 weeks or so ago.

Now we're into the same territory as the topic on bypassing geographic restrictions for Netflix.

tukapa1

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#1556924 21-May-2016 17:53

Hammerer:

tukapa1:

Skot323:
ludez: Haven't had sky for about four years now, only ever used it for rugby

What do you do now? If it wasn't for the Chiefs I would have dropped sky yeas ago

I use rugbypass.com and DNS4me. About $24 month. Super rugby, English rugby, Mitre 10 Cup, NRL, State of O and rugby internationals, plus a couple of second tier comps from overseas.

I stream on ADSL and get 720 quality on my 50" TV.

Saving about $80 month after ditching Sky 6 weeks or so ago.

Now we're into the same territory as the topic on bypassing geographic restrictions for Netflix.

Yep - and I'd be happy to pay the Sky the same amount if I could just get the rugby and league....

littleheaven

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#1557200 22-May-2016 11:51

I jumped ship after the 2015 world cup, at which time I was paying Sky in excess of $100 a month for the MySky HDI box, HD ticket, basic package and sports. I had only added sports to watch the cricket but other than that I realised all the content I watched was on the free to air channels. I was basically paying to have Living Channel on in the background.

Now I have a Panasonic PVR which, while not as good as the Sky box, does the job and doesn't cost me $15 every month. It's already paid for itself in non-spent Sky subs. I also have an AppleTV4 on which I have apps for Lightbox (free with my Spark broadband plan), Netflix, TV3 OnDemand and YouTube (I watch a lot of gamers and vloggers). The extra cost for this is $13 a month for Netflix. Oh, it also has the Plex app for streaming stored media from my main computer.

I also geo-unblock (about $70 a year) and with that I have apps for Hulu Plus (normally around $12 a month but I got a gift card which lasts until the end of this year), Australian channels 7 and 10 on demand and live, and BBC on demand and live. I have an app called TV Streams via which I can also stream those channels plus Australian channel 9, and UK's ITV and Channel 4, and those channels have iPad apps that I can airplay the on demand stuff to the TV with. To be honest there's not much I watch on Hulu Plus that can't be obtained via local on demand services, but it has fewer commercials and streams in very nice HD. Just finished The 100 and Brooklyn Nine Nine for this season.

For sport I use Fanpass when the content I want to watch (Black Caps) is on. I just subscribe to that as needed, and cancel it when there's no cricket. I used it most of the summer and it was excellent. Rock solid about 98% of the time.

I have a little $220 Minix Neo Z64 windows PC (looks similar in size and shape to an AppleTV) which sits just behind the TV, and I use that for anything that doesn't have an app (I'm looking at you, TVNZ OnDemand). I also have a Chromecast which duplicates the Airplay function of the AppleTV, but allows me to stream from a device while using it for something else, which you can't do with Airplay, so it's a convenience thing.

I control everything from a Harmony One remote (bar the mini-pc which I hardly use anyway), so while there are quite a few devices involved, it's no different than if I was using one thing - I've programmed it so that if I press "Play AppleTV" it'll turn on the TV, Home Theatre System and AppleTV and set everything to the right inputs, and then it will control the AppleTV to select the content. My overall outlay is about half what I was spending on Sky and I get about double the content. Even if I had to get rid of the monthly subscriptions I pay for Netflix and Hulu, I could still get by on the geo-unblocked free to air stuff and the odd month of Fanpass, and not really be missing out on anything.

To go back to Sky, they'd have to offer me the basic plan, streaming (so no box hire) at a rate comparable to the other services out there, at a minimum resolution of 720p.

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.

MarkX

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#1558606 24-May-2016 13:06

Hammerer:

BlueShift:

We're not a Sky household, but from where I sit there's only two reasons for subscribing to Sky:

1) You're a sports nut, you watch at least a few sports a week and really enjoy it. Currently you can't legitimately get that volume of sports anywhere else for less money. Fanpass is an option if you only watch it occasionally, but not for the dedicated fan.

2) You're not particularly worried about the money, and are willing to pay the premium for the convenience (if not the quality).

We have unlimited broadband on UFB, subscribe to Netflix and Spark gives us free Lightbox, Chromecast puts it on the TV for us. Between that, our Tivo for recording Freeview content, YouTube for all sorts of other bits and pieces, and the occasional "recording from my auntie overseas" my family and I have more content than we can keep up with. We don't watch much sport, the occasional Chiefs game on Prime and some AFL or NBA on Duke if the mood takes us.

So considering that we'd have the broadband anyway (2 teenagers in house), the only extra cost to us is $13 a month for Netflix. Compared to roughly $100 a month for Sky with MySky, HD and SoHo, I'm happy.

That's probably four reasons you mention. They are much the same attributes that I use to evaluate any of these video suppliers:

1. Content - Sky has a lot of content but it is highly seasonal; Netflix has a lot less content but it is available for a longer season - it is still seasonal because Netflix constantly refines and renegotiates its catalog. Both have exclusive content for our geographical region.

2. Quality - Sky and Netflix have heavily compressed video which often counts against the quality even in HD or FullHD resolution. But Netflix video quality is almost entirely better.

3. Cost - Sky is way more expensive but the biggest expense for many people is the capital cost of the viewing devices, e.g. TVs, digital recorders, computers, rather than the content.

4. Convenience - Sky (like other programmed broadcasters e.g. Freeview) is convenient provided you have recorder otherwise it would be terribly inconvenient.

Legality and equity are two other attributes I'm personally interested in supporting.

I think that Sky HD quality is very good. Not as good as blu ray quality though. Mind you I have one of the best TV's around. Panasonic VT 55"

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