Watching TV without Satellite Dish or Antenna

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zenjah

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#288706 17-Jul-2021 19:49

Our TV is getting no signals from our satellite dish and after playing around with the cables, TVs and settings, we think there might be something wrong with our satellite dish (or worse, internal wiring)

Rather than getting another satellite dish, I am wondering if I am able to buy something that would allow us to receive signals without having a satellite dish or an antenna? I used to own a USB stick thing that I can plug into my computer to receive TV signals and wonder if something similar exists that I can plug into my (Smart) TV?

I've done some google search and the only thing I can see is the smartvu dongle which seems to be accessing TV via freeview app and not TV signals... Our Smart TV is a bit old and the apps we have on it don't seem to be working anymore so I am not sure if that would prevent us from using the dongle properly... Also we are only really just interested in watching live news so if there are any alternatives, I would be grateful for any advice as well

thanks in advance for your help

CYaBro

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#2745950 17-Jul-2021 20:01

If you have unlimited vdsl or fibre internet then a Vodafone tv box would do the job.

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robjg63

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#2745951 17-Jul-2021 20:02

Something like this:
https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/TVNDTV2011/DishTV-SmartVu-V11-4K-Android-10-TV-Streaming-Dong

A device that streams the freeview tv channels via the internet. You have good internet at your place?
You can install other google apps (sky/nepn/tvnz on demand/freeview) and it plugs into an hdmi port on your tv. Gives you a smart tv.

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zenjah

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#2745967 17-Jul-2021 20:36

Thanks for both of your suggestions - I will check them out. We don't have fibre but given we are only really going to use it to watch news, I hope it won't be too bad

My only concern is that our TV is a bit old and sometimes doesn't respond to commands well. The apps we have in our Smart TV are either slow or unusable... would that affect our ability to use the smartvu dish tv or vodafone tv? And do we need to connect to the app each time (which for our TV can take awhile to respond) or can we turn on the tv and go straight to watching something straight away?

thanks

davidcole

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#2745988 17-Jul-2021 21:17

No an external device lime the smart Vu or Vodafone tv ( or Apple TV) is not using the “smarts” of you tv, so won’t be affected by aging hardware and/or when the vendor of the tv stops supporting said apps.

my 2008 tv with an Apple TV 4K it quite happily playing any streaming content, the tv is just a panel, it has no smarts. And when I replace it, if I can get one with no smarts then I’ll try to do that.

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#2745990 17-Jul-2021 21:19

VodafoneTV works fine over ADSL2+ and VDSL

freitasm

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#2746067 18-Jul-2021 06:23

Just make sure you have an unlimited plan as if you leave the streaming device on - even if the TV is off - it will continue to stream at a rate of a terabyte or so a month.

Bung

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#2746072 18-Jul-2021 07:41

How old is the dish? If you want to get rid of it anyway that's fine but it may be a simple fix. LNBs aren't that expensive, it might be worth getting someone equipped to do more than play around.

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zenjah

15 posts

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#2746249 18-Jul-2021 14:37

Thanks all for your advice - really good to know streaming will continue to eat into data even when the TV is off! much appreciated

@Bung, not sure how old the dish is as that was installed by the previous owner but it is at least 6 years old now - we thought about getting someone to come and repair it but thought it would probably be cheaper to get a new satellite dish or these TV boxes / dongles instead...

thanks