Hi, I am new to this, and would appreciate ANY advice you'd like to give me.

I have ditched sky (too expensive) and currently have a laptop with bluetooth stereo hooked up to my non-smart TV. (Why ditch a perfectly good TV just because it's not smart I figure? But do feel free to put me right there...) So sky has been replaced with on demand, Netflix (cheaper) and YouTube. We have a rarely used DVD attached too.

I had an accident with the laptop (shoved a ruler into my bag holding it and lifted off several keys and damaged the TouchPad left/right click buttons). Still fine with wireless mouse and wireless keyboard, but not good for traveling with and working with all this extra paraphernalia. But seems to be good for various viewing options on the TV.

The things I miss about sky is recording, series link and watching or recording more than one channel at a time.

The other thing the original sky installer did for me was put a wee plug in box thing that made sky available on every TV in the house (not fully functional, no channel changing etc, just replicated audio visual) ... but a second sky installer had a huge grump at me about it (when he installed a second decoder in a different room) so it has crossed my mind that it may not have been 110% above board. But it was certainly a happy thing at our place so I kept my mouth shut when grilled by the second sky installer. Lol. We also had two strange triangle boxes that we could make the channels change with between rooms if they were all lined up right (IR?) But I suspect that there are now far far better options available?

But where I am going with that train of thought is that we have multiple TV sets and although budget is certainly a constraint, it would be good to be able to watch everything on more than one TV set in the home.

We have also have a very basic sleep out which is not connected to the house TV circuit and has no TV connection in it. (I am guessing on demand / Netflix etc is going to be the only affordable option there? But again, all comments appreciated.)

We have unlimited broadband, if it is relevant.

I have been looking at box top sets for satellite - I am not in a main centre so presumably satellite is my best option?

Most Freeview box top sets seem pretty average looking and pretty poor review wise here in the nz market.

It would seem the vu+ series might be good, but I am rather bamboozled by it. I have been leaning towards the Solo 2, but don't really understand it all.

I am a frequent online shopper, including from overseas. Would buying something from overseas cause me issues (aside from an international power plug adapter)?

I am aware of the vu+ clones/copies coming out of China so will stay clear of those.

What I especially don't understand about the vu+ range is:
- do they connect to to WiFi without a dongle?
- do they need an "operating system" and software to be purchased in addition to the unit, like a computer does?
- Are they relatively easy for a newbie (although an intelligent newbie) to set up?
- would a vu+ replace the need for my laptop to be connected?
And there are probably a whole raft of other questions that I haven't even thought of.

Then we've got the whole "what shows can we watch" thing. By this I mean can I watch BBC on demand if I get something that keeps my location secret?

And I was looking at a snazzy Panasonic Blu-ray Recorder with Freeview, but presume that is for terrestrial only, so no good for me?

I would be so appreciative of any comments, a advice or help you are able to give me. I find it really hard to get unbiased local advice as the retailers just want to sell you what they stock (you can't blame them for that) and I don't know anyone techy enough to ask.

Thanks ever so much!
:)