CyprusLiving

The renewal payment for my sky tv is due at the end of the month. Is it worth paying it? Half the time we cannot get the channels,half the sky sports channels have gone off! Films come and go and often break up. What have other sky users done?

We have given up on Sky altogether now, and use the internet 100% of the time. We only had a 'free to view' card anyway.
We use a laptop and then a HDMI lead to the TV. Admittedly the quality of the picture is not as good as Sky, but there is very little that we cannot watch. We have just signed up to a VPN at less than €40 for the year. This enables us to have a VPN on 5 devices.

But there are free VPN and even a free Catchup service.

Trev..

If you get in touch with the moderator, Sensible Satellites, whose services I can certainly recommend, he might well be able to suggest some alternatives which will not force you to abandon your satellite dish in favour of the internet completely

how much is sky say for sports news channels etc without sky movies

My wife keeps nagging me to ask this question on CL:

We can now no longer receive Sky Arts (at any time of the day), though a few months ago we could. We are on London region with Sky. Our daughter, who lives just a few kms away, can still receive Sky Arts. She is on Anglia region. Is our inability to receive Sky Arts, when she can, because our Sky regions differ? Or might a tune-up bring it back?

I can still get Sky Arts 1 & 2 but a little break up on 2 occasionally. Our Sky subscription is from SE England (not London)

Looks like,if your daughter is getting it,you should be able to add Anglia to other channels

Anglia frequency is 10994 h 2200/5/6,you could try adding that,but it is on Astra 2f

Will try that, thank you

Sorry,sorry,sorry......was sleeping...sky arts1hd is on 12460 h 29500 3/4

Jim, I agree with you. Today in England I joined up with Now.tv which is run by Sky, and bought a 24 hour pass to watch Sky sports for £9.99. On a 14mg internet connection watching football was acceptable, but much less than SD quality, a liittle buffering and internet doesn't cope well with speed. Watching golf now, picture much better, close to HD but not quite.

deegee wrote:Sorry,sorry,sorry......was sleeping...sky arts1hd is on 12460 h 29500 3/4

Think you mean 27500? Don't have the 29500 option on mine. Anyway, it's didn't show up using those numbers.

We've been Sky fans for so long now, but even we're starting to think the unthinkable and ditch Sky. For the first time ever my wife queried what we get for our monthly Sky payment and the annual "maintenance" fee of £75. We can no longer get Ch4 on "Other Channels"; and now that we can no longer get Sky Arts, all we're left with is a number of Discovery Channels - but even with those, most or all of the HD Discovery Channels have now disappeared.

It's the Discovery channels that have kept us with Sky this far...and now really don't know what to do. Flicking through "Cyprus Living" mag today saw Holitec (impressive service and reputation, but very limited number of channels), iptv, cyprusinternet.com.cy and triotech. Sports channels and movies are not of interest.

When we watch UK terrestrial channels it's usually Filmon via. the iPad, atv, vpn and so on, but it's just so much faffing about just to get to the Channel you want. Can't understand how Jim can get Sky Arts 1 and 2 when we can't. But then again, how long before those channels disappear as well?


Really, really, don't know what to do or where to go from here

Lloyd morning nobody I know can tell you this, but I seem to remember last Christmas many members here who knew said the king is dead long live the King, not so he is alive and very well... Jim

I've just taken the plunge and bought the Sony Google TV from Amazon at a price of £73.99. I know it won't get me Sky subscription channels, but you can use DNS on it, which should mean that I should be able to get lots of channels without too much faffing about. Can't wait for it to arrive so I can start experimenting.

Sky Arts 1 & 2 are still coming through loud and clear for me on channels 129 and 130

There is an item in the Sun today saying that people in parts of Europe will lose the Sky signal in October as their turning off one of the satellites!
Looks like it may effect here in Cyprus, just wait and see.

Paul they said the same ten years ago and even stronger terms last year, guess what it still broadcasting Sky just as before, long may it be so too, as I feel IPTV poor in direct comparison...Jim

keving wrote:I've just taken the plunge and bought the Sony Google TV from Amazon at a price of £73.99.

Is it this item: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-NSZ-GS7-Internet-Player-Google/dp/B0087Y7E5K/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

If so, it's got appalling reviews. I never buy anything from Amazon with less than 4.5 to 5 star reviews. As many people gave it a one star review as a five star - which is pretty damning.

Agree Paul, this could be the final straw which causes Sky customers to cancel their subscriptions. Clearly they won't miss our business

Hi Lloyd, thats the one. It's got 37 4 or 5 star reviews, out of a total of 72 reviews - and bear in mind that a lot of these reviews will be based on a price of £149.00 or higher, in fact it was launched in the UK in June 2012 with an opening price of £199.

The price now is much more competitive with apple tv or roku. But neither of these are perfect for me - I have an android phone; I don't have any apple devices; I have a sony blu-ray/home cinema system; the dns on the roku can't be changed as it can on the sony product.

More recently, in line with the lower price, it is interesting to see that 7 out of the last 10 reviewers have rated it 4 stars or higher.

A lot of people seem disappointed that there isn't a bigger selection of apps available, hence their reviews. But it has been announced that in the next few months there will be an update to Jellybean which should lead to more apps being available. I think the new £73.99 price is great, considering that Argos is selling it for £139 and on amazon.com the price is currently $164.91. Money well spent? We'll see. If nothing else, I'm sure there will be some use for it in a spare bedroom.

Hi,

I hope you have better luck with the Sony Player than I did.

I bought one recently hoping it would be a cheaper alternative to a an ipad to watch UK TV. How wrong I was !! It was awful. Nothing would load and the navigation was clunky and diificult to use. The browser is a cut down version of the one on a PC and laptop.

Despite having 5.8Meg connection even with a UK VPN configured, it was absolutely useless. I returned it to Amazon and bought a mini ipad instead. Mine is one of the poor/negative reviews on Amazon.

Despite not been a fan of Apple, I think their products are over priced, the ipad does everything the Sony player did not. I would keep the packaging for when you need to return it.

Yorkie

My needs, and therefore my expectations, from the Sony google TV are really quite simple. I want to get rid of the trailing HDMI cable from my laptop to the tv. I just want to watch live or catchup tv and netflix. Happy to surf the internet, do emails etc on the laptop or my android mobile phone, google TV not needed for this. I have no desire to watch tv in other rooms in the house, although obviously I could so so I if wished on the laptop.

For my simple needs, I think spending over £330 on an iPad mini and an apple tv would be overkill.

Hi,

All I wanted to do was watch either live or catch up TV and Netflix. Problem was it just did not work. I never managed to get the Netflix or Filmon Apps to work. The BBC and Itv apps worked initially, but were very difficult and slow to load. I tried using the browser instead to access all the above, but the pages would just not load. We tested against my partners iPad and all the above loaded in seconds. I did not want to buy an iPad myself, but had to admit defeat in the end. It just did not work. If you read the reviews, you either love or hate it. I fell in to the hate camp despite being a fan of Sony and disliking Apple. I hope you have better luck than I did. It would be interesting to know your opinion once you have tried it. My Amazon review was in May this year.

Yorkie

Reviews with Amazon are rarely based on price, though some customers may typically deduct one star for perceived poor value. Rather, reviews are usually based on the build quality of the product and how well it does the job it was intended for. I can only re-iterate that I add the 4* and 5* ratings together and I expect them to amount to 90%-95% of the total ratings - otherwise I move on to the next product.

Anyway, I digress. What we will be looking for in the short to medium term is to ditch Sky completely and look for a set-top box which not only performs well and is drop-dead easy to use, but in addition gives us the widest array of channels. Not interested is Sports, Movies or Arabic channels. So, keen to hear feedback from other members.

EDIT: Since posting, just seen Daz n Mandie's IPTV thread. Looks very interesting.

I think what most of us are looking for is a simple "one box" solution . For me sky is no longer in the running because you can not get BBC or ITV.

The one I use is the apple tv with XBMC loaded.

I look forward to hearing how Kev gets on with the Sony box , if you can get xbmc into it , do it. A demo video , sorry it's got annoying (to me) music on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBRNq6iN ... ata_player

Hi Sinbad.
I too have the option to use Xbmc on my laptop and then onto the TV. The quality is really good, but it does seem to take up more bandwidth than say the ordinary Filmon signal.
I am watching BBC on it right now but when my FIL puts his computer on and tunes into a television program then I fear we will both struggle.

Although we are on up to 6mb, it is sometimes problematical running two TV systems at the same time.

But Xbmc is good.

Trev..

VPN is not needed using the fairly new Catch up service which is free (at the moment) and covers ALL UK programmes for the last 7 days. Service is BritTV and is as easy to use as FilmOn.

Hi Jim. I used to think like you about Sky. When you can get it it is brilliant. But channels are dropping off like dead flies. Can only imaging the process will continue, as Sky had said nothing to the contrary. Like it or not - and I don't - we're facing up to a future without Sky. I now want an easy-to-use set-top box that doesn't require the user to be a geek. It has to pass 'the wife test', and only a set-top box will do that. Wife would be the first to agree. We no longer want to access TV through computer/laptop/iPad/atv/VPN's and associated paraphenalia.

Well, Jim, can no longer receive any BBC channels,(Lloyd BBC and some ITV channels have not been available on the Sky system for over two years, but there are other was to watch, but honestly if you like your TV in HD and good quality there is nothing around to this day that is better than Sky TV...Jim***) ITV1, Ch4, Ch5; nor virtually all Sky HD channels and now even the ordinary Discovery channels are falling out one after the other. How much longer should we pay £35 a month + £70 a year maintenance fee? Sky is dying on it's feet so far as ex-pat viewing is concerned. If not already a 'dead parrot', it's heading that way. The writing is on the wall, writ large and clear. Sky no longer want/need to service viewers overseas, if they ever did.

*** As I said you are welcome to see what Sky should look like on my set up's Jim

Hi Jim. We just cannot get a lot of those channels. Tweaking the dish is not easy, as different engineers have told us that because of it's base structure it is almost impossible to significantly re-align the dish. I accept this may be part of the problem, but as Sky put up newer satellites, it is clear that the footprint is more focussed on the UK and less on Europe.

2 points for hic
1.....could be that old chestnut,a spider in the lnb. if not sounds like only a small realignment is needed
2 keep your sky sub and you can watch everything on sky go(vpn needed)

Sony Google tv arrived today.

Out of the box, a lovely bit of kit, as you would expect from Sony.

Very easy to set up, with HDMI cable from Sony to A/V receiver and then HDMI cable to tv.

Sound and vision is far superior to using a laptop connected by HDMI to A/V receiver.

My biggest criticism, given that I basically want one click access to tv channels and netflix, is that the home screen only allows you a maximum of 9 apps or short cuts, and 2 of these are predefined. This is what is on my home screen:

1. messages (further splits into notifications and a list of recent apps that you have used). Predefined. I would have preferred one click to get to recent apps used (ie I have more than 7 "favourites")

2. all apps that have been installed (including pre-installed, ones that you have downloaded from google play, and ones that you have created yourself by creating a short cut to a url)

3. bbc iplayer (there is no bbc iplayer app to download from google play. You have to go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/bigscreen/ (it has to be big screen) and make your own app, and it works perfectly)

4. brit.tv (works great)

5. netflix

6. Redux TV (top quality and free)

7. Youtube

8. Google

9. Classy fireplace (downloaded from google play, you must really see this, it is fantastic)

All in all the Sony internet player has exceeded my expectations. I can wait for large screen optimised apps to come out for ITV, Ch4 and Ch5, in the meantime BritTV works just fine.

Beyond exceeding my tv watching experience the Sony has astounded me in other ways. I downloaded Plex, and the sound that gets transmitted from my CDs stored on my laptop (stored under itunes library) to my A/V system is stunning, both in terms of the sound quality and the visuals that are presented in the TV screen.

Not only that, but I down loaded an app which would allow my HTC Desire to control the Sony. Why would I do that when the Sony remote is an incredible piece of kit, worth £50 in itself? Because it steams music and photos beautifully from my mobile.

On top of that, the biggest surprise of the evening was, whilst watching google tv, a message came on screen saying incoming text message from (phone number). Next second, I heard my mobile ring. How good is that?

Well done Kev , sounds like you are happy.

Where are you located ? I just tried to order one on amazon and it told me would not deliver to Cyprus .

Hi Keving,

Glad to see you managed to get the Sony Player to work. It seems to be a product that is very hit and miss and either works very well or not at all. The reviews on Amazon fall into these two camps. I unfortunately fell into the "it does not work" category though your experience has been the complete opposite.

Yorkie

Sinbad wrote:Well done Kev , sounds like you are happy.

Where are you located ? I just tried to order one on amazon and it told me would not deliver to Cyprus .

Hi Sinbad, i got the Sony delivered to my house in England, I will be bringing in out to Cyprus in a few weeks.

Since posting, I joined up with Netflix for one month free trail. Picture is very good, SD I would say, despite their claims to be HD, or even "super HD" (whatever that is) on some films. Most important thing ... absolutely no buffering at all. This is on a 16mg connection in England, remains to be seen what this like with 8mg Primetel.

Have now got 41 apps/short cuts loaded up, including the pre-installed ones. No effect on performance. I am still very happy. But I would say do your research (on google etc) and only download apps that have been designed for google tv, otherwise you will be disappointed. Like me, with experimenting, you will find that a bookmark (stored in your home screen) to the FilmOn website works far better than the FilmOn app on google play.

Only two gripes so far ...

One is Plex kept freezing, so I have to refresh this before I am able to stream music from my lap top. Have removed and downloaded again, appears to work ok now.

Biggest gripe ... the Sony allows you to "go under the bonnet" to change IP and DNS settings, changing from DHCP to static, etc. So following unblock-us instructions I did so ... and this lost internet connection. I am in contact with unblock-us to try and resolve this. If DNS cant be changed, this will obviously have an impact on whether some of the apps, eg bbc iplayer, will work in Cyprus. Not a deal beaker, just resort to BritTV.

Hi Kev , Thanks for that information .

While searching around Amazon I came across this blu ray player that has smart tv function built in sounds interesting ...so many choices out there .

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00B ... ROKL5A1OLE

No I have not tried to get Netflix , I have no desire to at the moment , there are so many other ways to get films , I am sure you will agree.

I do not think the thread is off track , the op asked for alternatives and that is what we are discussing .

Sinbad wrote:No I have not tried to get Netflix , I have no desire to at the moment , there are so many other ways to get films , I am sure you will agree.

I do not think the thread is off track , the op asked for alternatives and that is what we are discussing .

Hi again Sinbad,

latest update.

I have successfully changed DNS settings on my Sony internet player (Sony NSZGS7B) and it is now working perfectly with un-block-us (4.99 Canadian $ per month, about £3.25 pm, no contract, can stop and restart at any time). Unblock-us were really helpful in sorting (my) problem out.

But best of all, if you know unblock-us, once you join them, their home page which shows your status, allows you to chose your Netflix region, eg UK, USA, etc.

So easy to change from UK to USA and vice versa using unblock-us (which is now an app on my Sony internet player, but you could use your laptop etc to make changes). The Sony internet player picks up this change straight away, so that the Netflix app on the player takes me straight to the USA version of Netflix, rather than the UK version.

So what, you might say? Well. the USA version of Netflix is far superior to the UK version, with much much more content. And with unblock-us, you can get all versions of Netflix for one price of £5.99pm. Bargain!

At £73.99, less than the cost of two two meals out, the Sony is a bargain! Works great! Have no worries about buying one.

Hi Kev , Thanks for the update , I am with unblock us already , have been for about 3 months ....no complaints .

The latest device I am looking at is the Minix Neo X7 . ....I have the apple tv at present which works great in my eyes but the wife finds it complicated ..."to much faffing about" ..hence my search for something else.

Hi Sinbad,

the MiniX NEO X7 looks interesting and its already on Android 4.2. Price I've seen is £119.99, but I am not sure what more you might expect to get at this price over the £40 cheaper Sony? The Sony is promised a firmware download to upgrade to 4.2 in the next few months, but without this upgrade it works great.

Listen, I am now in England and I have finished setting it up. In England I give it 5 stars with no hesitation.

Like your wife I want simplicity and no faffing about. And there isn't with this device. it is fecking brilliant!

But the proof of the pudding is how it operates in Cyprus (with unblock-us and Netflix, if you want either). Once I have connected it up in Paphos, I am happy to invite you and your wife over to see how it works.

Kev