Geekzone: technology news, blogs, forums
Guest
Welcome Guest.
You haven't logged in yet. If you don't have an account you can register now.


raki

9 posts

Wannabe Geek


#204902 22-Oct-2016 07:54
Send private message

Hi all,

 

I'm wanting to ditch my New Zeakand Sky TV subscription, and buy the Streamsmart Pro for $650 on Trade me. Is it worth it please, our family watches alot of sport, rugby, cricket etc. Has anyone purchased one of these, how impressive are they, it's alot of money so it better work as stated.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

 

 


Filter this topic showing only the reply marked as answer View this topic in a long page with up to 500 replies per page Create new topic
 1 | 2
michaelmurfy
meow
13240 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator
ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #1656071 22-Oct-2016 08:28
Send private message

They're a scam - look at this thread.

 

Basically a $60 Android streaming box imported from Aliexpress rebadged with dodgy firmware.





Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
Referral Links: Quic Broadband (use R122101E7CV7Q for free setup)

Are you happy with what you get from Geekzone? Please consider supporting us by subscribing.
Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.




reven
3743 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #1656076 22-Oct-2016 08:35
Send private message

totally illegal.  I reported both listings to trademe.

 

 

 

if you want to do it yourself, thats your business, i'm not bothered by it.  but if someone is selling this as "their service/product" then yeah I'll report them and do what I can to stop it.


Lias
5589 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #1656088 22-Oct-2016 09:06
Send private message

Also reported..

 

+1 to what Reven said. I have no moral objection to individuals settings things up themselves and doing it, but piracy for profit crosses my moral line in the sand.





I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup.




Apsattv
2388 posts

Uber Geek


  #1656402 23-Oct-2016 02:00
Send private message

Some of these devices are sold via dealers as affiliates with year long paid subscriptions to a 3rd party iptv provider included hence the inflated pricing.

 

Anyone who uses Kodi will know that  the so called big name sports channels in the free addons usually crap themselves as soon as any major events are on they overload and no amount of mbits at the users end will make any difference.

 

 

 

 

 

 


Rikkitic
Awrrr
18657 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

  #1656435 23-Oct-2016 08:06
Send private message

Agree with all the above. Even if this works as advertised initially, which is doubtful, it is not a viable long-term solution. 

 

 





Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

 


 


Apsattv
2388 posts

Uber Geek


  #1656743 23-Oct-2016 23:01
Send private message

latest from the u.k

 


Another man in court for selling 'Kodi' boxes that illegally show Sky and BT Sports
 
From http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/another-man-court-selling-kodi-12061662

 

Anthony Ayre, 32, had advertised the TV boxes on Facebook with 'all channels for £100'

 

TV 'Kodi' boxes were among the items offered for sale by Anthony Ayre

 

Another man has been before the courts for selling TV boxes which allow viewers to illegally watch Sky and BT Sports.

 

Anthony Ayre, 32, advertised the devices on Facebook - and also sold fake football shirts and designer handbags, clothing and jewellery.

 

Ayre received a six week sentence, suspended for six months, at Peterlee Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

 

It is the latest case of people being hauled before the courts after trying to get round subscription TV rules.

 

Earlier this month, the firm which owns the Navigation pub near the Riverside Stadium were fined £8,000 for showing a Boro game on a ‘Kodi’ box, instead of paying for a Sky Sports subscription.

 

Navigation court case prompts warning that Kodi box users could face UNLIMITED fines

 

And last month Kodi box dealer Brian Thompson denied selling the boxes ‘pre-loaded’ at Teesside Magistrates’ Court in what was thought to be the first prosecution of its kind.

 

The TV boxes stream content - including sports and movies - from the internet, and are attractive as they are much cheaper than a Sky subscription.

 

In the latest case Ayre, of Dene Road, Blackhall, near Hartlepool , was taken to court by Durham County Council for ten counts of breaching trademark and copyright laws.

 

The court heard how Ayre had been using Facebook to sell the TV devices, which were found to contain the illegal software which allows access to subscription channels without having to sign up.

 

Investigations revealed that Ayre said he had TV boxes with all channels for £100 and could supply items including trademark handbags, purses, jewellery and make-up sets.

 

A search warrant was executed at the defendant’s home in November last year and around 40 TV devices were seized, as well as a number of suspected counterfeit items.

 

The defendant voluntarily attended an interview and replied “no comment” to most questions.

 

The TV boxes seized from Ayre’s home were examined by the regional trading standards Scambusters Team before being forwarded to the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) for further assessment.

 

FACT found that the TV devices had the ability to access copyright infringing content from providers such as Sky and BT.

 

Nike trainers, MAC make-up sets, Michael Kors merchandise and a Sunderland football shirt were also discovered to be fakes.

 

In court, Ayre pleaded guilty to the charges with the court hearing he is of previous good character.

 

He was also ordered to pay £200 costs and a £115 victim surcharge.

 

 

 

 


Normanbykid
23 posts

Geek


  #1656783 24-Oct-2016 07:59
Send private message

Sounds very dodgy to me 

 

 


 
 
 

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.
reven
3743 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #1656784 24-Oct-2016 08:04
Send private message

gez he's been selling those on trademe for over a year.  TM doesnt seem to care.


Dratsab
3946 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #1656815 24-Oct-2016 10:15
Send private message

reven: gez he's been selling those on trademe for over a year.  TM doesnt seem to care. 

 

Sky NZ obviously don't either.


robjg63
4096 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

  #1656836 24-Oct-2016 11:22
Send private message

No wonder the kodi team are getting annoyed with this sort of thing.
The problem being that they have allowed very flexible access to their system via add-ons that users can code/build.
Used to be quite innocent features that were being written.
But the add-ons are now being used for accessing illegal content and the whole thing lends itself very nicely to being wrapped up in an 'attractive' package.
There is already a locked down version of kodi called mrmc that is officially allowed in the Amazon store. They allow it because the add-ons part of kodi is disabled. It costs a few dollars to buy.

Kodi is, in itself, a really great media player. It will be a huge shame if opportunistic sharks kill it...




Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler


tripp
3848 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #1656873 24-Oct-2016 11:36
Send private message

I wonder if it will get to the point of where Kodi has to approve the add-ons before they can be installed.

 

If i was them i would be looking very hard at this as it's their name that gets linked to it all.

 

Even that bye bye sky group in NZ has one of their screens showing "kodi" when you are looking at latest movies etc.


reven
3743 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #1656874 24-Oct-2016 11:40
Send private message

tripp:

 

I wonder if it will get to the point of where Kodi has to approve the add-ons before they can be installed.

 

If i was them i would be looking very hard at this as it's their name that gets linked to it all.

 

Even that bye bye sky group in NZ has one of their screens showing "kodi" when you are looking at latest movies etc.

 

 

i doubt they will.   they trademarked the name "kodi" so can send take down orders to places that advertise it.  but if they couldnt make it so only approved addons could be used (how would you develop a plugin then?? it wouldnt be approved, so it wouldnt load, so you have to have a way to have one installed that isnt approved, so any can be installed that way).  also there are addons loke PlexKodiConnect that cant be put into the kodi repo due to the fact it alters the kodi database, but its perfectly fine, just alters your db so you can connect to Plex.


robjg63
4096 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

  #1656877 24-Oct-2016 11:55
Send private message

Kodi is free/donate.
They dont have the funds or resources to set up their own market site (like Apple/google play).
Short of locking off add-ons completely I am not sure what they can really do.
There are many really good and useful (and perfectly legal) add-ons. The user's of those would not want to be penalised.




Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler


littleheaven
2130 posts

Uber Geek


  #1657438 25-Oct-2016 13:34
Send private message

For almost half that amount you could get an Apple TV4 - that's been my Sky killer. I can use it as a Plex client, stream free to air live TV from around the world using the TVStreams app (about $5), watch Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Fanpass, TVNZ, lightbox, Aussie channels, BBC (either via a native app or Airplay) and I haven't missed Sky one bit. Or you can get a Raspberry Pi pre-loaded with Kodi even cheaper than that. If you pop on over to the HTPC thread there's lots of info about different devices.





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


sofistek
95 posts

Master Geek


  #1663492 3-Nov-2016 21:47
Send private message

michaelmurfy:

 

They're a scam - look at this thread.

 

Basically a $60 Android streaming box imported from Aliexpress rebadged with dodgy firmware.

 

 

That thread seems to be about a box from Streaming Boxes NZ but the OP is about a box from StreamSmart. StreamSmart do mention the other company but just in a comparison page. The Stream Smart box claims to have a one-off subscription included for premium add-ons included in the price. Two boxes, one $480, the other $650. The latter seems to have a faster processor and more memory.

 

So I'm not clear, are we being warned off the Streaming Boxes NZ offering, the StreamSmart offerings or both? The only other similar box I can find is this one.

 

Are there any recommendations for a box or solution for viewing TV programmes (in my case, this needs to include many of the NZ produced TV programmes) over the Net? I'm having trouble with my old Magic TV box and thought IPTV would be a good solution.


 1 | 2
Filter this topic showing only the reply marked as answer View this topic in a long page with up to 500 replies per page Create new topic





News and reviews »

Air New Zealand Starts AI adoption with OpenAI
Posted 24-Jul-2025 16:00


eero Pro 7 Review
Posted 23-Jul-2025 12:07


BeeStation Plus Review
Posted 21-Jul-2025 14:21


eero Unveils New Wi-Fi 7 Products in New Zealand
Posted 21-Jul-2025 00:01


WiZ Introduces HDMI Sync Box and other Light Devices
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:32


RedShield Enhances DDoS and Bot Attack Protection
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:26


Seagate Ships 30TB Drives
Posted 17-Jul-2025 11:24


Oclean AirPump A10 Water Flosser Review
Posted 13-Jul-2025 11:05


Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7: Raising the Bar for Smartphones
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Brings New Edge-To-Edge FlexWindow
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Epson Launches New AM-C550Z WorkForce Enterprise printer
Posted 9-Jul-2025 18:22


Samsung Releases Smart Monitor M9
Posted 9-Jul-2025 17:46


Nearly Half of Older Kiwis Still Write their Passwords on Paper
Posted 9-Jul-2025 08:42


D-Link 4G+ Cat6 Wi-Fi 6 DWR-933M Mobile Hotspot Review
Posted 1-Jul-2025 11:34


Oppo A5 Series Launches With New Levels of Durability
Posted 30-Jun-2025 10:15









Geekzone Live »

Try automatic live updates from Geekzone directly in your browser, without refreshing the page, with Geekzone Live now.



Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.