Freeview + box / Freesat Hd

[Carlvtr88]

Anybody experienced with these boxes?

Currently have sky plus but its like £33.50 a month plus the £9.50 insurance which seems a rip off. It's also the standard 20gb box.

I want to save my mother a few quid cause she pays all this money and just watches ITV 1 and the odd sky movie. We have the dish, so if we cancel sky, are set to go straight to free sat.


I guess I just want to know whether its worth forking out 150 quid for a recordable freesat box. Does anyone have freesat is it good etc.

The channels you get are fine although I would like the option to be able to pay for a movie service should it become available. Sky is just really overpriced considering they run the same shit movies day by day.

Any ideas what I should do?

[McGuire86]

You can watch movies free online

[potatopete]

You can watch movies free online

This is true. Try a site called www.letmewatchthis.ch and plug your laptop into your TV.

Freesat is a pretty good service, although the music channels are a bit rubbish, but you get a decent choice of channels. I've got Freesat, and its much better value than Sky.

[Carlvtr88]

This is true. Try a site called www.letmewatchthis.ch and plug your laptop into your TV.

Freesat is a pretty good service, although the music channels are a bit rubbish, but you get a decent choice of channels. I've got Freesat, and its much better value than Sky.

I know you can stream or aquire movies online. but I dont want to have to hook a laptop up to the tv everytime mum says she fancies a film.

I want it in one neat little set top box without the fukin rip off price of sky.

I could do her loads of DVDs but for £5.99 or wat ever netflix is, that would be kool. streaming them thru the box. As opposed to 40+ quid for sky, which is effectively free sat with movies, porn and teleshopping lol.

[Penn]

I use freesat HD but a non recording one as I've had it ages. Not many HD channels to choose from but has way more channels than you'd ever need as TV is utter shit.

Can't fault the quality although there are no dedicated good movie channels. For movies i just use lovefilm as the netflix library is utter shite (I subscribe to netflix for TV) however I don't think many boxes have good support for streaming HD content via netflix or lovefilm.

If you're dead set on netflix, a freesat HD box and an apple TV are probably the best and most cost effective ways of getting what you want.

PS3 could also be an option for all of the on demand stuff (iplayer, itv player, 4od, 5od etc), plays blurays and streams netflix and lovefilm and then get a cheaper freesat box for live TV?

[Manu]

plus the £9.50 insurance which seems a rip off.

Lol insuring you from what, zee germans :P


You can get a freeview box for that price.

[Manu]

I know you can stream or aquire movies online. but I dont want to have to hook a laptop up to the tv everytime mum says she fancies a film.


I have a BR media player that connects to the internet and also handle flash drives, cost me 60 quid: that's less than two months worth of your sky subscription.

Still won't touch netflix with a barge pole as their choice of films is even worse than skys tbh, not to mention their HD is not HD. I buy loads of films on disc as I can find them for £ 1-2 each then shift them for the same price...

[Penn]

not to mention their HD is not HD

1080P is not HD?

[cyne]

1080P is not HD?

1080p movies uncompressed (audio and video) are roughly 10-30GB in size. I'm not even going to look it up, I'm 99% sure they won't stream that kind of data.

[Penn]

1080p movies uncompressed (audio and video) are roughly 10-30GB in size. I'm not even going to look it up, I'm 99% sure they won't stream that kind of data.

Sorry, what?

Are you saying that that a video streaming service doesn't offer the same bit rate as a blu-ray?

[cyne]

Sorry, what?

Are you saying that that a video streaming service doesn't offer the same bit rate as a blu-ray?

I'm saying netflix compresses movies which reduces the quality of them, hence they aren't actual HD.

They may look fine, I've never used netflix so I don't know, but they aren't full HD so to speak.

[Psycho18]

they don't use 1080p but rather 1080i.

[Carlvtr88]

tbh, I'm not arsed about the quality if the downloadable content. I just would love that option, to have free sat and love film accessible through the menus. but I dont know which boxes have this functionality.

[Penn]

This 'full HD' speak cracks me up, people don't have a fucking clue.

Netflix streams in 1080 (interlaced or progressive it doesn't make a difference as the resolution is the same) therefore it is HD.

It also streams dolby 5.1 along with the HD video. Quality of course is not the same as a blu ray but it's not far off it and perfectly acceptable in a living room on a 40 inch display. It uses about 3GB an hour streaming in HD.

Carlvtr88 - I amazed that no one has a freesat HD box with lovefilm. Netflix definitely seems to have the commercial upper hand.

[Carlvtr88]

Carlvtr88 - I amazed that no one has a freesat HD box with lovefilm. Netflix definitely seems to have the commercial upper hand.

Does this mean they dont actually do such thing.

Tbh I dont care if it's love film or netflix. as long as there is the standard free sat channels and access to a internet streamed movie services that would be super.

I just can't seem to fathom out on each boxs review, whether they have love film, filmflex or neither. Fucking irritating tbh. All of them say " on demand tv " or Internet support but they're crafty fuckers and I dont want to spend 150 quid on a box, get it home and find out that It doesn't support netflix or lovefilm.

So I'm looking for a recordable free sat or Freeview box, with the option to add a internet movie subscription for the 5 quid or what ever it costs.

Does the above exist ?

[Rogue_Shadow]

HD Ready = 720p (minimum)
FULL HD = Marketing term used for 1080p HDTV's

IMO Bluray discs are still the best format for High definition playback.
But if you've not got a decent sound setup and a decent HDTV to take advantage, you wont really see a huge difference between downloads / streams / Blurays and other upscaled content.

In other words, dont buy into the lame marketing crap :y:
Any HD content will look better than standard definition.

[cyne]

This 'full HD' speak cracks me up, people don't have a fucking clue.

Netflix streams in 1080 (interlaced or progressive it doesn't make a difference as the resolution is the same) therefore it is HD.

It also streams dolby 5.1 along with the HD video. Quality of course is not the same as a blu ray but it's not far off it and perfectly acceptable in a living room on a 40 inch display. It uses about 3GB an hour streaming in HD.

Carlvtr88 - I amazed that no one has a freesat HD box with lovefilm. Netflix definitely seems to have the commercial upper hand.

By 'Full HD' I meant raw data.

Basically for the movie to be streamed to you it will have to be compressed. This means there is less pixels in each frame than originally intended. Furthermore eventually the movie gets compressed so much that it has to be displayed on a scaled down resolution otherwise you just get blocks of pixels on the screen. I'm going to guess its actual resolution is 1280x544. That's not even 720p. However you have to lose a fair bit of data before you notice a difference; I don't doubt they look good, but please don't call me clueless.

The quality will also depend on your connection speed, faster speed, better quality for self explanatory reasons. I doubt anyone has the speed to get uncompressed movies from them.

I have just gone out of a limb here though. I'm not sure if you can run your player in some sort of diag mode so you can actually see the resolution and framerate of the movie. If you could I would like to see the results. Though I'm not sure if you would get the same quality as everyone else as you must either work for netflix or somehow have managed to avoid their cap to be getting 3GB/hour?

HD Ready = 720p (minimum)
FULL HD = Marketing term used for 1080p HDTV's

IMO Bluray discs are still the best format for High definition playback.
But if you've not got a decent sound setup and a decent HDTV to take advantage, you wont really see a huge difference between downloads / streams / Blurays and other upscaled content.

In other words, dont buy into the lame marketing crap :y:
Any HD content will look better than standard definition.

Lets say I compressed a 2hour 720p movie into 400mb. Would it still look better than standard definition?

[Rogue_Shadow]

Lets say I compressed a 2hour 720p movie into 400mb. Would it still look better than standard definition?

Why would you do that? :geek:

[cyne]

Why would you do that? :geek:

Any reason you like. Though for a real world example to put it on a USB pen, or to send it to someone. Oh and it will look like shit, will have to be scaled down to 640x480 or less I would guess. Lets say the compressed file is from a 720p (1280x720) blu ray, the file would still be classed as a HD film as its sourced from a 720p file. As you can imagine it is far from it.

[Carlvtr88]

To add to your debate. I have downloaded a couple of well encoded avi's that are within the range of 700 mb to 1.4 gb. They are very good quality. On par with 720 p. so it is possible to compress and not lose as much quality sos that you notice the difference.

look at jpeg. That is a lossy format for photo, but do you really notice it with your naked eye unless you zoom right in.

Any way.... free sat box with netflix or love film yay or nay ?

[Rogue_Shadow]

Any reason you like. Though for a real world example to put it on a USB pen, or to send it to someone. Oh and it will look like shit, will have to be scaled down to 640x480 or less I would guess. Lets say the compressed file is from a 720p (1280x720) blu ray, the file would still be classed as a HD film as its sourced from a 720p file. As you can imagine it is far from it.

But a tiny sized file titled as "HD" is obviously going to be utter Karp.
Bit of common scene, besides the new resolution would class it as SD.
As for compressing a HD video for transfer ... Don't!
There is literal no need in the modern world, with cloud services like dropbox, small but large capacity hard drives. Not to mention the fact that you could likely choose a file type to suit you when you "obtained" the content in the first place.
If its for home use, Bluray / HD
Transport, AVI
Quick clips, youtube.

The only reason I would EVER compress a video, would be to upload it to a website that doesn't offer support ... Or I ended up having limited bandwidth (Sorry Narnia).

Back on topic

Freesat should work with your Sky Dish, so if you wanted to go down that route it would be simple setup. However from a friends experience, if the dish isn't aligned you can have awful signal.
The HD is likely why it's s popular, but you can now get a Freeview+HD boxes now that do the same without the need for a dish.
+ Youview is near release, which is basically a freeview box that uses iplayer/4oD/demand 5 to allow you to watch days of TV you missed.

Your call :y:
:geek:

http://www.home-entertainment.toshiba.co.uk/3dassets/figures/stunning-high-definition-on-freeview-hd.jpg

http://www.homecinemasussex.com/image_library/library/h/hom/homecinemasussex.com/orig_Freesat_Logo_with_Bullit.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7z8RjsfC7tY/TaIfeyQPo4I/AAAAAAAACGY/Ht50UuGTngw/s1600/youview-accessibleTV.jpg

[Penn]

By 'Full HD' I meant raw data.

Basically for the movie to be streamed to you it will have to be compressed. This means there is less pixels in each frame than originally intended. Furthermore eventually the movie gets compressed so much that it has to be displayed on a scaled down resolution otherwise you just get blocks of pixels on the screen. I'm going to guess its actual resolution is 1280x544. That's not even 720p. However you have to lose a fair bit of data before you notice a difference; I don't doubt they look good, but please don't call me clueless.

The quality will also depend on your connection speed, faster speed, better quality for self explanatory reasons. I doubt anyone has the speed to get uncompressed movies from them.

I have just gone out of a limb here though. I'm not sure if you can run your player in some sort of diag mode so you can actually see the resolution and framerate of the movie. If you could I would like to see the results. Though I'm not sure if you would get the same quality as everyone else as you must either work for netflix or somehow have managed to avoid their cap to be getting 3GB/hour?



Lets say I compressed a 2hour 720p movie into 400mb. Would it still look better than standard definition?

Glad you took the bait, it was a rhetorical question with added sarcasm.

The PS3 and 360 support 1080P dolby digital 5.1 streaming over netflix. Press select on the PS3 and it will tell you all of the information of the stream. X-High (HD) is 1080P and looks fantastic, but of course it's not blu ray quality.

If you've had a bad experience with netflix, your internet either sucks donkey balls or you haven't changed you video preferences. login to your netflix account and change the video quality to highest, otherwise you will not get streams in 1080P.

I don't work for netflix or lovefilm, just happen to have an interest in the technology and use every piece/type of technology discussed in this thread.



Back on topic, I've done some more research and found this - http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/09/freesats-taking-sky-and-youview-head-on-with-the-help-of-netflix/

I would wait until this new box is launched as it seems to do everything you want. Cannot find any dates of release though.

[Penn]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7z8RjsfC7tY/TaIfeyQPo4I/AAAAAAAACGY/Ht50UuGTngw/s1600/youview-accessibleTV.jpg

Just a quick one to add, YouView is a fucking rip off and most freesat HD boxes provide the same services already and have done for a while now.

[Rogue_Shadow]

Just a quick one to add, YouView is a fucking rip off and most freesat HD boxes provide the same services already and have done for a while now.

Agreed!
Freeview box + a Laptop does the job :fcuk:

[Carlvtr88]

Glad you took the bait, it was a rhetorical question with added sarcasm.

The PS3 and 360 support 1080P dolby digital 5.1 streaming over netflix. Press select on the PS3 and it will tell you all of the information of the stream. X-High (HD) is 1080P and looks fantastic, but of course it's not blu ray quality.

If you've had a bad experience with netflix, your internet either sucks donkey balls or you haven't changed you video preferences. login to your netflix account and change the video quality to highest, otherwise you will not get streams in 1080P.

I don't work for netflix or lovefilm, just happen to have an interest in the technology and use every piece/type of technology discussed in this thread.



Back on topic, I've done some more research and found this - http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/09/freesats-taking-sky-and-youview-head-on-with-the-help-of-netflix/

I would wait until this new box is launched as it seems to do everything you want. Cannot find any dates of release though.

yeah I may well do. Thanks for answering my question. If this said box was available now I'd buy one. Fuck sky subscription it's too expensive.

[cyne]

But a tiny sized file titled as "HD" is obviously going to be utter Karp.
Bit of common scene, besides the new resolution would class it as SD.
As for compressing a HD video for transfer ... Don't!
There is literal no need in the modern world, with cloud services like dropbox, small but large capacity hard drives. Not to mention the fact that you could likely choose a file type to suit you when you "obtained" the content in the first place.
If its for home use, Bluray / HD
Transport, AVI
Quick clips, youtube.


I know, as you pointed out there isn't really any. Well not to the extent to where quality becomes an issue. I was just saying that by compressing a file too much you are going to lose quality which is what we where originally talking about, 'Netflix's HD isn't actually HD'. I'm not really arguing nor do I agree with whoever said that (cba looking through the thread) just pointing out that he could have a point.

Glad you took the bait, it was a rhetorical question with added sarcasm.

The PS3 and 360 support 1080P dolby digital 5.1 streaming over netflix. Press select on the PS3 and it will tell you all of the information of the stream. X-High (HD) is 1080P and looks fantastic, but of course it's not blu ray quality.

If you've had a bad experience with netflix, your internet either sucks donkey balls or you haven't changed you video preferences. login to your netflix account and change the video quality to highest, otherwise you will not get streams in 1080P.

I don't work for netflix or lovefilm, just happen to have an interest in the technology and use every piece/type of technology discussed in this thread.



Glad you studied English. :y:

I've never used netflix, so I don't know the settings etc. Their site states that speeds up to 2.3GB/hour is maximum. Might I add that the site is also the hardest thing I've ever navigated lol.

Anyway if you are happy thats all that matters. As said I don't doubt that the quality is good providing your connection is sufficient.

Back to the original topic I have fucking no idea, I haven't watched TV in my own home in about 5 years. Though my parents keep canceling SKY every so often then get 50% offers so then use them, it gets used for pretty much the same thing though, occasional movie etc.

[Rogue_Shadow]

I realise after posting Cyne, that my post was completely irrelevant to what you were trying to say :oops: Sorwii for the mini rant

I completely agree with you, BT Infinity, Virgin Superfast and all high speed broadband services are all completely useless without a service that support the speed you have available.
Netflix, iplayer, 4oD and youtube, get to a point where download speed wont make a difference to buffer speed or video quality.