So I don't know what TV is like in America, but basically for like 20 years we've had:
TERRESTRIAL
BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel4, Five (since 97)
And then either Sky (Sattelite), or Cable Digital which has gone through hundreds of owners over the years and different forms etc (NTL, Telewest, Virgin Media; now all together as Virgin Media).
AND THEN CAME THE DIGITAL AGE.
Freeview is our free digital service which is replacing terrestrial. Around 70 channels, most of them advertising or news or religion, probably around 15 useful channels.
AND THEN CAME FREE SATTELITE.
A sattelite receiver that uses a standard Sky sattelite but gets free channels. Around 160 channels, most of them shit, again, probably like 30 useful ones. Different channels to Freeview however.
AND THEN CAME SKY+
Sky released a box which can pause, rewind, record, live TV onto a hard drive.
AND THEN CAME FREEVIEW+, FREESAT+
Basically they jumped on the bandwagon and made boxes that do the same thing... but for free.
I had Sky for a year or two back in the days before Sky+, after having just terrestrial for like 10 years. We moved to Telewest, which was utter shit, which then became NTL:Telewest through a merger, and was still shit. Then that became Virgin Media, which was absolutely shit.
So we moved to freeview for a while, with a Freeview+ box. We were so impressed that we... moved back to Sky and got a Sky+ box.
Now after a year of that we've discovered Freesat, and come to the revelation that we can easily combine Freesat and Freeview to get all the channels we would have got with Sky. We lose a few - Sky One, etc, but they're awful channels nowadays to be honest, all you get are repeats with a few runs of new American content like Lost, etc. But, in my opinion, since Lost and Stargate and Buffy and Angel there... hasn't been anything worthwhile on Sky One. I haven't watched the channel since moving to Sky again!
Well, basically now we have this set up:
- 40'' HD TV
- Built in Freeview tuner (70 channels)
- Freesat+ HD box (160 channels, a few HD, a few shared with Freeview)
- 500 GB hard drive on the Freesat+ box
- 2 TB hard drive connected via USB
And that's the fantastic part: USB connections.
Unlike Sky+, with the Freesat+ HD box we can connect additional media via USB. So we've ordered a 2 TB external hard drive.
It gets better. If we ever fill out now 2.5 TB of space, (which we won't as Sky+ only had 250 GB to begin with) we can buy a USB hub and then connect 10 TB of hard drives to it.
And all this would cost less than Sky+
We're saving £20 a month by having Freesat instead of Sky. (We were on the basic package on Sky)
My Dad, instead of buying insurance on the Sky+ box, saved that amount per month in the bank. Eventually he had £250 saved up, so we left sky and that covered the cost of the Freesat+ box (so it was basically free).
It's £62 for a 2 TB external hard drive.
Basically what I'm saying is British TV is currently quite good, and now that we've got a Freeview and Freesat box, the whole thing is going to cost absolutely nothing (bar the cost of the TV license which is something we'd have to pay anyway).
And podcasts, downloaded movies, and music can all be transfered onto the box via FTP.
Oh, that's not all, we also get iPlayer and ITV Player. :D I mean we already got iPlayer through the Wii, but the resolution was shit and some programs didn't get added due to copyrighted music (i.e. Top Gear). Now we have HD iPlayer with the full library.
Basically it's awesome.
So, what is TV like in your country? Do you have a, uh, TiVo box or whatever? What's your setup?
We're going to spend the £20 a month we save on DVD boxsets for anything we happen to miss on Sky One... but it's unlikely. Hasn't been anything good from America in a while, on Sky One at least. (Desperate Housewives and other shows have finished now anyway but they weren't on Sky One).
TERRESTRIAL
BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel4, Five (since 97)
And then either Sky (Sattelite), or Cable Digital which has gone through hundreds of owners over the years and different forms etc (NTL, Telewest, Virgin Media; now all together as Virgin Media).
AND THEN CAME THE DIGITAL AGE.
Freeview is our free digital service which is replacing terrestrial. Around 70 channels, most of them advertising or news or religion, probably around 15 useful channels.
AND THEN CAME FREE SATTELITE.
A sattelite receiver that uses a standard Sky sattelite but gets free channels. Around 160 channels, most of them shit, again, probably like 30 useful ones. Different channels to Freeview however.
AND THEN CAME SKY+
Sky released a box which can pause, rewind, record, live TV onto a hard drive.
AND THEN CAME FREEVIEW+, FREESAT+
Basically they jumped on the bandwagon and made boxes that do the same thing... but for free.
I had Sky for a year or two back in the days before Sky+, after having just terrestrial for like 10 years. We moved to Telewest, which was utter shit, which then became NTL:Telewest through a merger, and was still shit. Then that became Virgin Media, which was absolutely shit.
So we moved to freeview for a while, with a Freeview+ box. We were so impressed that we... moved back to Sky and got a Sky+ box.
Now after a year of that we've discovered Freesat, and come to the revelation that we can easily combine Freesat and Freeview to get all the channels we would have got with Sky. We lose a few - Sky One, etc, but they're awful channels nowadays to be honest, all you get are repeats with a few runs of new American content like Lost, etc. But, in my opinion, since Lost and Stargate and Buffy and Angel there... hasn't been anything worthwhile on Sky One. I haven't watched the channel since moving to Sky again!
Well, basically now we have this set up:
- 40'' HD TV
- Built in Freeview tuner (70 channels)
- Freesat+ HD box (160 channels, a few HD, a few shared with Freeview)
- 500 GB hard drive on the Freesat+ box
- 2 TB hard drive connected via USB
And that's the fantastic part: USB connections.
Unlike Sky+, with the Freesat+ HD box we can connect additional media via USB. So we've ordered a 2 TB external hard drive.
It gets better. If we ever fill out now 2.5 TB of space, (which we won't as Sky+ only had 250 GB to begin with) we can buy a USB hub and then connect 10 TB of hard drives to it.
And all this would cost less than Sky+
We're saving £20 a month by having Freesat instead of Sky. (We were on the basic package on Sky)
My Dad, instead of buying insurance on the Sky+ box, saved that amount per month in the bank. Eventually he had £250 saved up, so we left sky and that covered the cost of the Freesat+ box (so it was basically free).
It's £62 for a 2 TB external hard drive.
Basically what I'm saying is British TV is currently quite good, and now that we've got a Freeview and Freesat box, the whole thing is going to cost absolutely nothing (bar the cost of the TV license which is something we'd have to pay anyway).
And podcasts, downloaded movies, and music can all be transfered onto the box via FTP.
Oh, that's not all, we also get iPlayer and ITV Player. :D I mean we already got iPlayer through the Wii, but the resolution was shit and some programs didn't get added due to copyrighted music (i.e. Top Gear). Now we have HD iPlayer with the full library.
Basically it's awesome.
So, what is TV like in your country? Do you have a, uh, TiVo box or whatever? What's your setup?
We're going to spend the £20 a month we save on DVD boxsets for anything we happen to miss on Sky One... but it's unlikely. Hasn't been anything good from America in a while, on Sky One at least. (Desperate Housewives and other shows have finished now anyway but they weren't on Sky One).