I was thinking of getting my parents a device for their TV so they can use Iplayer and ITV etc on the event they forget to record something on their PVR or it fails.
I went into Richersounds before looking at the Blu-Ray players with catch up installed. The Sales man told me they were call crap and very unreliable unless I spend like £150+. He suggested I use a Raspberry Pi or a mini or an old computer.
This got me thinking of building a mini ITX system based on Linux and running of an SD card, kind of like a Pi but more powerful and running on an x86 architecture far more flexible.
I have seen a nice silent ITX case for about £35, I can get an AMD itx motherboard with a build in CPU for £40 and then it is just a stick of DDR3 RAM I then just need to find some remote way of operating it. Would this be a better solution than the off the shelf stuff which the sales person was advising me against?
Sorry just released this in the wrong section, should be either in general or computing, I am not sure which.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Sat 14 Dec 13 at 17:10
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LG BluRay players have excellent Smart TV features. Or a Now Tv box. Or a YouView box. Various degrees of expensiveness.
Don't go down the micro PC route. It'll cost more than you think, be a bit of a pig to set up and use, and the various catch up services will stop working over time unless you keep it updated.
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Thanks, looked at the TV Now, it seems very very cheap but I am worried it will be too limited without paying for some sort of Sky service.
Really all this box needs to do is offer BBC Iplayer and ITV and 4OD.
They rarely watch DVDs so it doesn't have to be a BlueRay machine.
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>> I went into Richersounds before looking at the Blu-Ray players with catch up installed. The
>> Sales man told me they were call crap and very unreliable unless I spend like
>> £150+. He suggested I use a Raspberry Pi or a mini or an old computer.
He is talking She-ite. My Sony Blue Ray player has all the catch up services I need and they work very well indeed. Building a computer for catch-up is overkill.
The salesman at RS needs his cobblers kicked,
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I was more surprised he talked himself out of a sale! Mind you I was very good at that when I worked for Currys. Don't bother with a new TV sir, keep your Baird ex Radio Rentals till it dies.
Don't upgrade to Blue-Ray sir, keep your money and keep your Betamax.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Sat 14 Dec 13 at 20:12
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If you went down the mini PC route, you'd need a nice friendly front end (with remote) and you'd probably use something like Boxee or similar. So better to get something more consumer oriented in the first place. If you hack it, an Apple TV would do what you want. Or maybe a Boxee box from D-Link or the Roku.
www.amazon.co.uk/D-Link-Boxee-Digital-Media-Player/dp/B0043EV3MS
www.mediastreamingmarket.com
Boxee and a few other PVR interfaces can be installed on an Apple TV too.
The Roku 2 is on offer at the same price as the Roku 1.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Sat 14 Dec 13 at 21:26
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what about an android stick that you plug into a TV ?
I have one on order from amazon for only £20
if its naff I haven't lost much
I only mention as there is Netflix, love film and various catch up TV apps on there
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I don't think that WD TV does iPlayer and other catchup TV. When Google brings their Chromecast over here I'll probably consider one.
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As a techie have you looked at the Intel Next Unit of Computing stuff? Probably not for parents but I was interested when looking for a media PC a short time ago. I ended up with a more orthodox machine though, eBay. Would probably come out more expensive than other options.
Here's one tinyurl.com/ops7asq
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If you're looking for low cost of entry, I'm very impressed with our BT Vision+ unit, which cost us £49 upfront and £5 a month on top of our existing BT charges. That requires wired Ethernet - not a problem for a man of Rats's talents - and gives us all the catchup services plus BT Sport for the odd bit of rugby, at the cost of a fourth remote on the coffee table.
Ours isn't even the latest model. That, I understand, has an idiot-proof EPG that shows all programmes within the window of accessibility. Click on a programme and if it's on now, up it pops; if it's on tomorrow, the machine offers to record that episode or the whole series; and if it was on yesterday, up comes the relevant catchup service so you can watch it now. Could be perfect for aged Rs.
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I would second that advice on the BT Vision Box useability. My 93 yr old father seems to have taken to it adequately. The only downside? is that you need a BT Broadband service to make it work fully.
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And of course as I did in the thread below you can just buy a mint used Humax on Ebay for under £100 with all the required BT box features but no monthly subscription.
www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?t=15402&v=f
As I said then...
Bought a mint boxed Humax DTR1000 on Ebay... a steal at £70 compared with £200+ new. Everything is perfect and no longer tied to BT. All the catch up players, roll back TV for 7 days, 500GB recording (compared with 160GB of the old BT Vision box)... and we've got HD for the first time.
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