Kodi boxes/sat receivers

[mondo]

This subject was touched on in the 'alternatives to sky/virgin' thread but I'm looking for a bit more advice on what's best.

 

I have an android box, loaded with kodi and although in the first few weeks I thought it was great, it is absolutely doing my nut in now.  Exodus is good for films and also watched a few box sets through it.  they were all good quality and very rarely had any trouble with buffering.

 

The thing is I bought it mainly for sports after getting sick off the size of the SKY bills and I haven't found a descent stream yet.  All stuttering, freezing or just garbage quality.  (I know it's free so wasn't expecting 4K quality or anything) but it just isn't worth the hassle I find.  Phoenix, zem, Halow, sportsdevil and none of them have really worked for me. 

 

Exodus has packed in altogether now and still wont work after a factory reset.  I have unplugged it and really cant be arsed with it anymore.

 

Someone mentioned openbox sat receivers on the other thread and have been looking in to them.  The zgemma star 2S seems like a good choice - £75 and says it comes pre-loaded with SKY and BT channels.  Anyone got this?

 

Is this the best idea or would it be another waste of money?  Can you get kodi through the sat receivers?  Should I try my android box again to see if I can figure it out or 3 times round the heed and let go?

 

I know there is some tech-savvy folk on here so any advice would be grand.

 

 

[RicoS321]

I gave up on kodi too, was a pain in the hoop and only really installed it because I was getting Amazon anyway, so I just got the TV box instead of the fire stick. I couldn't even get films to work on mine though, pish, but my internet is horrendous. I've heard good thing about openbox. My old man uses something similar in Spain, and the worst part is the lack of TV guide, resulting in the channel-flicking phenomenon which I forgot how annoying it could be.

[mondo]

I gave up on kodi too, was a pain in the hoop and only really installed it because I was getting Amazon anyway, so I just got the TV box instead of the fire stick. I couldn't even get films to work on mine though, pish, but my internet is horrendous. I've heard good thing about openbox. My old man uses something similar in Spain, and the worst part is the lack of TV guide, resulting in the channel-flicking phenomenon which I forgot how annoying it could be.

 

Seemingly the zgemma star unit is a lot better with the electronic program guide.  It's more expensive than the openbox but seemingly you can get it setup just like the sky tv guide.  I'm a ball hair away from ordering one but would rather hear from someone who knows a bit more about it than me first.

[Stupie82]

I use the Android TV Box M8 Quad Core. Installed Wookie on it and havent had any problems as yet.  Like yourself, Im using Exodus or SALTS addon for movies/TV, but im not having any issues with them. I have various other addons for the sports etc. Sometimes its a pain finding a stream, but I usually find what im looking for.

 

The trouble with Kodi is that its a fast moving world and its difficult to keep up to date with all the new addons etc. Some addons can all of sudden just stop working if  they have been shut down, but they are usually replaced with someone as goof or better. I persevere only because i refuse to pay for SKY. Them robbing bastards have had about 10K off of me in the last ten years... but no more.

[RicoS321]

Seemingly the zgemma star unit is a lot better with the electronic program guide.  It's more expensive than the openbox but seemingly you can get it setup just like the sky tv guide.  I'm a ball hair away from ordering one but would rather hear from someone who knows a bit more about it than me first.

 

You've already got a sky dish, and given it's only two months subs for Sky, it's a no-brainer. I'm sure you can sell the box on if you're not happy.

 

Once you shell out yer cash, let us know how you get on!

[mondo]

I use the Android TV Box M8 Quad Core. Installed Wookie on it and havent had any problems as yet.  Like yourself, Im using Exodus or SALTS addon for movies/TV, but im not having any issues with them. I have various other addons for the sports etc. Sometimes its a pain finding a stream, but I usually find what im looking for.

 

The trouble with Kodi is that its a fast moving world and its difficult to keep up to date with all the new addons etc. Some addons can all of sudden just stop working if  they have been shut down, but they are usually replaced with someone as goof or better. I persevere only because i refuse to pay for SKY. Them robbing bastards have had about 10K off of me in the last ten years... but no more.

 

I must admit I did enjoy my sky.  It's the best system out there and I like Go, sky+ etc but when my bills started creeping up to £75 a month I had to get rid.  Maybe I chose the wrong android box (think I went for the Qbox).  Never had problems with my fibre broadband before so don't think it's that.  It was driving me crazy though, even the little keypad was annoying as hell. 

 

Fair play to sky they did let me keep sky+, variety and sky atlantic for £16 per month but if I go for this sat receiver and I like it, I will be getting rid of sky altogether.

[cupidstunt]

Few mates have signed up to one called sports mania on kodi. Costs them £50 or so a year but they say the streams are HD quality because the numbers are limited.

[mondo]

Few mates have signed up to one called sports mania on kodi. Costs them £50 or so a year but they say the streams are HD quality because the numbers are limited.

 

Had a quick google of it and seems ok, looks like you can pay for one or 2 days as well so you can try it and if it's any use subscribe for a year.  Might be a plan 

[mondo]

Well before I shelled out on the sat receiver I thought I would give kodi one last try.  Fired it up and installed wookie as recommended by stupie. 

 

Seems to be working a lot better and I am currently sitting down watching scientologys resident hollywood actor play Jack Reacher. 

[rocket_scientist]

Can someone please answer my stupid question but I know nothing about this stuff.

 

Got a new "digital" TV. I'd heard the term but never knew that it meant it connects to the wifi. Amazed that we can get YouTube and the internet on it. But my dilemma is this...

 

It's being played through Sky just now and I've started the laborious process of binning Sky. Well, it won't be too difficult in 3 weeks time when I cancel the direct debit.

 

My dumb question is this; Should I install an aerial?

 

We've got a Sky dish obviously and we're connected to the broadband but what does the Durris transmitter do? Are aerials old hat? Do we even need one? We've got one in the loft somewhere but it won't have been modernised or upgraded for decades and isn't connecting with the new TV properly.

 

Thanks in advance. My need is to be ready for the day in November Rupert gets fucked off.

[Slim]

The TV aerial will give you access to all of the Digital Freeview channels. Just by connecting the aerial to your TV, you'll get 50+ channels and all the radio stations. You'll even get the regular (BBC1/2, ITV, C4, C5, etc) in HD if you've got a decent signal and a newish TV.

[cupidstunt]

Can someone please answer my stupid question but I know nothing about this stuff.

 

Got a new "digital" TV. I'd heard the term but never knew that it meant it connects to the wifi. Amazed that we can get YouTube and the internet on it. But my dilemma is this...

 

It's being played through Sky just now and I've started the laborious process of binning Sky. Well, it won't be too difficult in 3 weeks time when I cancel the direct debit.

 

My dumb question is this; Should I install an aerial?

 

We've got a Sky dish obviously and we're connected to the broadband but what does the Durris transmitter do? Are aerials old hat? Do we even need one? We've got one in the loft somewhere but it won't have been modernised or upgraded for decades and isn't connecting with the new TV properly.

 

Thanks in advance. My need is to be ready for the day in November Rupert gets fucked off.

 

I did this a few months ago, binned Sky.

 

You have 2 choices;

 

Install an aerial and points into the rooms the TV's are in.

Doing it yourself will cost you about £150-200 depending on the size of the house (so how much cable you need) and the size of aerial you'll need (depending on line of sight for the aerial and distance from transmitter)

There's a handy website that shows the coverage and channels you'll get.

 

https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Durris

 

If you are getting BT in (as I did) they'll also install an aerial for you. £250 + a tenner a metre for additional cables.

BT were the cheapest I found for install, the local companies were wanting £700+.

 

You can ask Sky for a freeview card for your box when you cancel. I think it costs £10.

You dont get all the freeview channels you would get from your freeview TV, there isnt half as much HD channels and your box always shows the Sky channels as well, a way of showing you what you're missing.

You can have favourites marked that are all the free to air channels but when looking through the menu it only has them marked, you cant only show those.

 

Depends how cheap you're feeling...

 

I recommend BT, you'll get BT sports free for a year, fibre broadband, phone, about 150 channels, loads of HD all for about £60 a month. I thought I'd miss Sky, I dont really. The couple of programs I cant get on BT can be streamed online and I get more for my £60 than I did for my £80 with Sky (sports, BBC player, ITV player etc, catch up and a few box sets).

[RicoS321]

That seems whooring expensive for putting in an aerial (£250). You say you've got an aerial anyway, but it's unused or whatever, that suggests you have existing cabling/infrastructure. Aerial cabling hasn't exactly change much over the last 20 years or so, so I suspect the cabling will be fine (if not, just buy some aerial cable - probably get 100m pretty cheap - and replace like for like yersel, tape it tightly to existing cable and pull it back through from yer loft), so just get yersel a decent new aerial from Screwfix or somewhere for about £40 (if yer getting cable too, I'd use Screwfix - good service and cheap). Are your old aerial points in a decent location in yer house (or close to decent)? If so, you'll be sorted. Alternatively, you could use yer sky cabling once yer dish is removed (perhaps replacing the sky cabling with aerial cabling by pulling the cable back through from yer sky dish, and either continue the Sky cabling up to a roof aerial. This depends if yer happy with a cable going up yer wa' and an outside aerial. I'm reasonably apt at these sorts of things, however it's nae that hard, and all you need is a sharp stanley knife to fit the aerial connectors and some electrical tape to attach any existing wires igether to pull back up to yer loft. There's probably a hunner videos on youtube on how to do it if yer unsure. I sure as fuck wouldn't pay someone unless you had no existing aerial or cabling at all.

[cupidstunt]

That seems whooring expensive for putting in an aerial (£250).

 

Thats what i thought until I started shopping around and realised compared local installers its really cheap.

 

Didnt see the bit about having an aerial already... Doing it yourself by just changing the aerial will be pretty easy.

 

I had to fix mine to the roof outside and on a 2m pole. I'm just on the edge of getting a signal from Durris so I couldnt put mine in the loft.

[Sand dan Glokta]

Just recently acquired a Zgemma h2s and planning on binning Sky thereafter – apparently telling them there is no money in the account and to cancel it didn’t work…and I'm still tied in until July.

 

Only issue I have is that the skybox is in the loft, so I need to buy a Wifi boost plug with an Ethernet cable to connect the internet into the box, plus an additional receiver to get my magic eye working from the old sky box. A bit of cash and hassle for hopefully a lot less dosh in the long run!

 

Did you take the plunge Mondo? - I've seen one up and running and you'd never know any different from Sky; except you lose anytime, but you record onto a USB in the back so you wouldn't know much of a difference.

 

[mondo]

 

Did you take the plunge Mondo? - I've seen one up and running and you'd never know any different from Sky; except you lose anytime, but you record onto a USB in the back so you wouldn't know much of a difference.

 

I haven't went for anything else, I still use the kodi box now and again but for football I feel it is easier and get better quality streams by using my laptop then casting it to my TV with chromecast.  Please let me know how you get on with you sat box when you get it set up, may change my mind yet.

[cupidstunt]

I've been looking into those Zgamma boxes, anyone have any info?

 

I was down visiting the step daughter and they had one. All the channels, good quality picture and easy to use, looked the business.

[Edinburghdon]

Our discounted sky deal is up in a couple of months or so and looking into alternatives, does anyone have a decent summary of what zgemma receivers or kodi boxes give you? Had a quick google search but it's a bit of a mind fuck with all the different opinions.

 

Am I right in thinking zgemma mirrors the sky system/planner but you can only get SD channels through the planner etc and any HD  or subscription services need to be played through an app? Can you still pause/rewind/record/get on demand on it?

 

What's the story with Kodi? How does it compare to the functionality of sky+?

 

I know that neither will probably do everything sky+ does but wanting to get as close as possible if we do bin sky.

[cupidstunt]

Our discounted sky deal is up in a couple of months or so and looking into alternatives, does anyone have a decent summary of what zgemma receivers or kodi boxes give you? Had a quick google search but it's a bit of a mind fuck with all the different opinions.

 

Am I right in thinking zgemma mirrors the sky system/planner but you can only get SD channels through the planner etc and any HD  or subscription services need to be played through an app? Can you still pause/rewind/record/get on demand on it?

 

What's the story with Kodi? How does it compare to the functionality of sky+?

 

I know that neither will probably do everything sky+ does but wanting to get as close as possible if we do bin sky.

 

Picked up a Zgemma box last week, bought the H2S box for the bedroom to see what it was like.

 

Paid £150 for it, came with 1 year subscription for all the channel (all sky channels + BT sport)

 

Not a lot of HD channels but you get used to that.

 

Its plug and use. All I did was plug the powerline adapter into the plug in the walls, 1 next to the router and one in the bedroom next to the box (this is what the internet comes through to your box, they use the electricity cables in your house to send the internet signal - BT and Talk Talk do the same for a 2nd box) and hooked it up to the Sky dish.

 

That was it, Sky TV for £150 for the year and it comes with a Kodi build already in it. I'm a bigger fan of zgemma than kodi, it works just like Sky and the channels are all easy to find. Kodi is a prick about in my opinion. You have to search through loads of stuff to find what you want but then it is good for films. 

[mondo]

Picked up a Zgemma box last week, bought the H2S box for the bedroom to see what it was like.

 

Paid £150 for it, came with 1 year subscription for all the channel (all sky channels + BT sport)

 

Not a lot of HD channels but you get used to that.

 

Its plug and use. All I did was plug the powerline adapter into the plug in the walls, 1 next to the router and one in the bedroom next to the box (this is what the internet comes through to your box, they use the electricity cables in your house to send the internet signal - BT and Talk Talk do the same for a 2nd box) and hooked it up to the Sky dish.

 

That was it, Sky TV for £150 for the year and it comes with a Kodi build already in it. I'm a bigger fan of zgemma than kodi, it works just like Sky and the channels are all easy to find. Kodi is a prick about in my opinion. You have to search through loads of stuff to find what you want but then it is good for films.

 

Well I'm sold. Don't suppose you've got a link for one similar to the one you bought?

[cupidstunt]

The ebay shop I bought mine from has sold out for the moment.

 

Very similar to this though

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ZGEMMA-H-2S-DUAL-SAT-TUNER-32GB-USB-SETUP-WITH-SLYK-SKIN-12-Month-Gift-/222279906404?hash=item33c0ea3464:g:3lsAAOSwMVdYF8yc

 

Same box, set up etc. Looks like a slightly different skin (program guide and channel chooser) but think it's the same. If in doubt ask them first. They dont need nor want complaints so will be entirely straight with you. Selling Sky on ebay isnt legal, they 'gift' you the channels

[mondo]

Just got my sat box set up.  Very impressed with it.  Spoke to the boy to get it updated and he talked me through it. It's the future.