I rarely watch TV as after a days graft because when my backside hits a comfy chair I nod off then awake to excruciating backache and a nagging wife!
However, on the rare occasion when I do I only want to watch things of a factual nature. Fiction, odd folk from the East end, Mankchester, Emmerdale and the likes of such rubbish don't do it for me and I would willingly have them all shot!
Now we have access to seemingly 2 million channels can any TV aficionado point me to a simple website that covers all channels - or from your own experiences just give me a list of those that produce decent content. Advert free would of course be a humungous bonus.
Here's hoping. Thanks.
Last edited by: VxFan on Fri 30 Jun 17 at 01:46
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What are you looking for? Documentaries? Current affairs? Or some suggestions of drama series which are significantly superior to those you mention?
I only ask as I have had a sniffy attitude towards the soaps too, and also a lot of other TV, but there have been some outstanding drama series (mostly crime, and often the "Scandi noir" ones)
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Advert free? Factual? There's only BBC4 and a bit of BBC2 really then.
If you can live with the ads after all, Discovery, and all its variants, PBS, NHK, and perhaps to a lesser extent, History, National Geographic. If you get those.
That's a start anyway. Record it, skip the ads as you get to them. Hint - most of the ad breaks are exactly five minutes, so learn how many presses of fast forward or whatever you need, and it's a cinch.
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"Hint - most of the ad breaks are exactly five minutes"
Up to eleven minutes in Poland. I timed it.
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>> "Hint - most of the ad breaks are exactly five minutes"
>>
Only enough for Two pints then?
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Anything of real interest from History to WW2 facts. UK Countryside issues. UK travel, Historic Buildings. Interesting possibly little known people who have made a difference. Anything really of quality that has some 'Meat' about it. I can't be doing with presenters that aren't concise either. Similarly radio options too I guess.
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Have you tried youtube? If you've a smart tv it's easy to watch on it. I often just type in the type of show i want and there's plenty of choice.
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With a broadband speed of perhaps 0.4 it is impossible. We used to be able to watch live streams a year ago when the speed was not much more than that. Hopefully and if they are true to their word, we should have full fat BB sometime in September.
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They are videos on YouTube, some of the ones that crankcase mention are on there. It shouldn't matter if your bb speed is slow. Might take a bit to stop buffering/load up. We've slow bb and its fine.
What about books or is it just tv and radio?
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TV and wireless. Books abound here, but as before, 3-4 pages and generally zzzzzzzzz.
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>> With a broadband speed of perhaps 0.4 it is impossible.
Ah, someone else who has been forgotten in the push for high-speed broadband. I get really annoyed when I hear people complaining about abysmal speeds of "only" 10 Mbs. If only!
Ours is theoretically 0.5, but on good day we are lucky with 0.3, and often much slower or non-existent. But we still get charged the full line rental and provider charges.
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Same here. The regional government says we will definitely get high speed broadband by 2030.
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>>Ours is theoretically 0.5, but on good day we are lucky with 0.3, and often much slower or non-existent. But we still get charged the full line rental and provider charges.
You must be living in a very remote area. In my densely populated area I just got 61.60 according to the Which? checker and 56.20 according to Speedtest.net. [one immediately after the other; why should they differ?]. I don't use the BT checker as I find it very cumbersome.
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>>Ah, someone else who has been forgotten in the push for high-speed broadband. I get really annoyed when I hear people complaining about abysmal speeds of "only" 10 Mbs. If only!
I live in a remote isolated area with just a phew! farms nearby for neighbs, but manage to get 6 Mbps up here.
BT installed fibre cables just outside my 5 bar gate last year, so I could get ultra fast BB if I wanted it but,
6 meg does all I it to do and, I'm in the process of switching to Sky unlimited BB + eve & weekend calls + landline all for £19 pm on a 12 month con-tract.
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Programmes of any meat and substance have mostly gone in the UK. Some remain, but not much.
So yes, use YouTube and search for shows from days gone by, or use the BBC archives on the web. Or buy the DVDs of The Ascent of Man and Civilisation, the original Connections and perhaps Summoned By Bells if to taste, and you're sorted for weeks.
Or maybe that's just me.
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The Radio Times website is as comprehensive as most and more than others:
www.radiotimes.com/tv/tv-listings/
Also gives each TV channel's number if you don't know it.
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How could I have forgotten The Shock of the New, by Robert Hughes, as well?
I see at least episode 1 of most of the ones I mention are on YouTube too, buffering or no.
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That thing with the fat women screaming at each other that comes on in the afternoon is quite good.
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More advert time on the way:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/25/more-adverts-in-prime-time-shows-under-eu-rules-change-after-bro/
I got the impression from a recording of the latest episode of "Fargo" that there was at least as much advert time as programme material. One click of Fast Forward is usually not enough to by-pass the adverts; two, too many and involving time-wasting shuffling.
The OP could try recording documentaries then storing them under a separate folder. We have four of these, labelled Documentary, Music, Dance and Film.
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I have access to YouTube via an app on my new, smart TV.
I have an 8-year-old, non-smart TV in another room. I there any way I can stream YouTube to it as well? I already use it with an Amazon Fire stick.
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>> I already use it with an Amazon Fire stick.
You've already answered your own question on how to get YouTube on a non-smart TV. Use your Amazon Fire stick. Or am I missing something?
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No, I am! Found it now, thanks.
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Using the Amazon Fire stick, it turns an old TV into a Smart TV.
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Television - smokie
