Sky vs. Apple TV

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slan043

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#133672 30-Oct-2013 11:30

Hey All,

Time for my first post :-)

I've gotten my first TV (yes, first). I've watched everything online via streaming up to now.

I'm keen to setup the TV for easy viewing of tv shows and movies etc.

My wife and I originally talked about getting Sky. But my friend has an Apple TV setup with Hulu and Netflicks (and an unblocking service).

QUESTION:
SKY TV Vs. APPLE TV

Opinions?

Cheers

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6434 posts

Uber Geek

#924091 30-Oct-2013 11:32

well, it depends what you want to watch.

if you want to watch live sports like rugby, then sky is your only realistic option.

If you want to watch good TV and movies, then go for NEtflix and other similar service

vexxxboy

4243 posts

Uber Geek

#924093 30-Oct-2013 11:34

you only really need Sky if you love watching live sports , if its just for a few TV show and movies then you are better off with Netflix and hulu .

Common sense is not as common as you think.

gehenna

8495 posts

Uber Geek

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Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#924110 30-Oct-2013 11:53

How about both? We have both... Sky for sports and live TV, Apple TV for it's content, XBMC for our own content.
That's why TV's have multiple HDMI ports these days :)

DickDastardly

227 posts

Master Geek

#924114 30-Oct-2013 11:58

I have 2 apple TV's and 1 MySky box.

Apple TV is fantastic if you have a massive collection of movies or TV shows perhaps sitting on hard drives? You can link it all into itunes and stream to your hearts content. It also plays all of your music, photo's etc - i love my Apple TV and wouldnt be without. Renting movies/shows from the istore can be quite expensive - so personally i dont do that - and as others have said there are cheaper alternatives...

Sky is great for real time instant access stuff - so there is definately a space in everyones lives for both!

I don't want no sugar in it - thank you very much

Handsomedan

7281 posts

Uber Geek

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Subscriber

#924117 30-Oct-2013 12:06

I have both.

ATV for iTunes and Airplay from my multitude of Apple devices and Sky for ...well...everything else.

Handsome Dan Has Spoken.
Handsome Dan needs to stop adding three dots to every sentence...

Handsome Dan does not currently have a side hustle as the mascot for Yale

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steve98

1395 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#924141 30-Oct-2013 12:35

Until recently we had both MySky HDi and Apple TV with unblock-us and Netflix. We knocked Sky on the head a couple of weeks ago as found ourselves hardly ever watching it, and even when we did it was generally the freeview channels...

Signed up to HuluPlus a couple of weeks ago and now even more convinced I made the right choice. Practically everything we watch is on there and bang up-to-date... even down to Coronation Street! Great watching the American 2013 Fall premieres in realtime and full HD too... some great new shows that probably won't make it here for another year or so yet.

Between unblock-us, Netflix and HuluPlus we are only spending around $30 a month versus $43(ish?) for Sky basic package and the choice is vastly superior.

Jas777

838 posts

Ultimate Geek

#924553 31-Oct-2013 08:36

Like said above it depends on what you watch. As I watch a lot of sport I have SKY. Also have SOHO channel but not movies.

I can't be bothered with NETFLIX or HULU as I know I probably wont use them enough to make it viable and also the fact that I would want HD quality and my location doesn't help with always being able to retain a HD signal.

One question I do have for others here, do you watch a lot of new shows from US and realise after 2-3 episodes that they are not that good or nothing better than what is currently on. Case in point is 'Under the dome', it was hyped up but I didn't think it was that great at all.

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steve98

1395 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#924565 31-Oct-2013 09:00

Jas777: One question I do have for others here, do you watch a lot of new shows from US and realise after 2-3 episodes that they are not that good or nothing better than what is currently on. Case in point is 'Under the dome', it was hyped up but I didn't think it was that great at all.

That will always happen, some shows will always disappoint. But I'd rather be able to join in with the global buzz of what's new and decide for myself alongside everybody else rather than wait a year for it to show up here, by which time it's an old topic.

I'm really enjoying Sleepy Hollow, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and The Goldbergs right now -- all new shows streaming on HuluPlus. By the way, Hulu lets you adjust the bitrate of the stream to accomodate for slower speeds. Even the highest quality is only something like 3.2Mbps.

timbosan

2159 posts

Uber Geek

#924569 31-Oct-2013 09:04

I am loving "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D"! But what's the bet it's just this kind of show that will never make it to Sky (or even NZ)? I have Hulu+ and the kids never really watch live TV, 99.9% of their viewing is online, and mine in steadily increasing.

I got rid of Sky about 4 months ago and don't miss it at all.

geekiegeek

2513 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#924586 31-Oct-2013 09:25

I cut the cord years ago and used torrents for most of my viewing until I got an apple TV and started using Netflix, Hulu+ and itunes movies (the TV series on itunes are way to expensive IMO) apart from showtime and HBO shows that I still need to torrent, the streaming services provide pretty much everything I need.

Last night I added the plexconnect hack to my apple tv and can now stream all of my local downloaded content as well so apart from freeview I have a one box solution which to me is the ultimate home theatre experience.

old3eyes

9119 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#924587 31-Oct-2013 09:26

Hi Guys.
I bought an Apple TV this week from the NZ Apple Store for $120. One thing. To get the Netflix app to show up do I also other than set my region to US I also have to have a unblockus DNS address working??

Regards,

Old3eyes

timbosan

2159 posts

Uber Geek

#924594 31-Oct-2013 09:31

geekiegeek: I cut the cord years ago and used torrents for most of my viewing until I got an apple TV and started using Netflix, Hulu+ and itunes movies (the TV series on itunes are way to expensive IMO) apart from showtime and HBO shows that I still need to torrent, the streaming services provide pretty much everything I need.

Last night I added the plexconnect hack to my apple tv and can now stream all of my local downloaded content as well so apart from freeview I have a one box solution which to me is the ultimate home theatre experience.

geekiegeek - I have tried this previously with my Apple TV (I have a V2) but the performance of any decent rips (i.e. large bit rates or 1080p files) was always poor (I have a managed Gigabit Ethernet switch and hardwired connections to most devices, so not a network issue).

Do you have a link to the steps you used? I assume you have a plex server somewhere on the LAN?

(Sorry for taking this a bit-OT).

geekiegeek

2513 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#924602 31-Oct-2013 09:53

I also had issues with an ATV2 but I now have an ATV3 which can handle high bit rate with no transcoding and no picture issues. I think the ATV2 is just to under powered for anything but 720p rips.

I was watching 1080p content last night and my server had no CPU usage so its just unpacking the .mkv and direct streaming the x.264 content along with AC3 5.1 audio.

slan043

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#924650 31-Oct-2013 10:42

Thanks All. I decided to go get an ATV last night. I'm happy with the hulu (only 1 day in obviously).

I have a second question now. I wasn't intending to play movies from my computer on through my ATV, I didn't think it was possible.

Question: Is there a way to play movies from my computer through ATV?

The two ways I could potentially think of doing it is to either play it on my ipad/iphone then AirPlaying it to ATV, or I could convert my movie files to a ATV friendly format and put them in my itunes library.

Any better ideas?

geekiegeek

2513 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#924662 31-Oct-2013 11:14

Check out Plex and Plexconnect, it allows you to change the movie trailers app on ATV to a Plex clint that can play files from your PC.

https://github.com/iBaa/PlexConnect

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