[Phil Owens]

I was telling a work mate about the demand players on my Youview box, Foxsat Freesat and Xbox.

He said he would love to watch on demand stuff on his TV rather than his PC, but him being watertight with his wallet super glued shut wants it on the cheap .

He doesn't want to connect his PC to the TV ,
So I was thinking of suggesting something like Apple TV or am I barking up the wrong tree?

[linea]

You won't be able to get any catch-up services on a default Apple TV, not unless you jailbreak it.
Once you have a jailbroken Apple TV you can install XBMC which will allow to you install add-ons for all the UK catch-up services like BBC iPlayer, ITV player, 4OD and Demand 5. XBMC also has tons of add-ons for other content, some legal like Crackle, USTV Now, Youtube, Hulu, etc... and others illegal like 1Channel, Watchseries and Icemovies.

If you just want an off the shelf machine, I have a feeling that Boxee supports all the UK catch-up services as well as other free content.

Another alternative, (which is what I did), is buy a second hand SFF PC and connect that to the TV. I got an ex-corporate Dell Optiplex 760 SFF Dual core PC with a 500Gb hard drive and 4Gb ram off ebay for £65. I've got both XBMC and Boxee installed on it and it's fast, virtually silent and you have the added benefit of being able to surf the net and email via the TV. I had to buy a remote control to go with it, but I got a new MCE remote control and USB receiver for £11 of ebay.

[mikeoscar]

Boxee doesn't support UK Netflix if that makes any difference.

[Phil Owens]

Boxee could be what he's looking for although I'm not sure it supports ITV player, 4OD and Demand 5, but he's a tight git and wants everything for nowt...
Thanks for the info, I'll pass it on.

[1andrew1]

The current version of Apple TV, Apple TV3 can't be jailbroken so the players can't be installed on it. Apple TV2 as a result is getting pricey as it can be jailbroken.

1. If he subscribes to the right broadband package on TalkTalk or BT he should be able top get a YouView box with the players on it for £50 installation.

2. Similarly, if he's with Sky he should be getting the catch-up services soon. VM already offers them.

That accounts for about 90% of the broadband market and if he's with another company presumably he can move to TalkTalk or BT.

Otherwise...

3. A second hand PS3 can be had for less than £100 on EBay and I believe has all four players on.

4. He could make an Apple-like computer with XBMC media centre on it based on the Raspberry Pi!

5. Roku is cheap at £50, definitely has BBC I-Player built in and I believe may have some other less official apps with access that may or may not deliver the other catch-up services but I'm not familiar with it. In March 2012 Roku said they were talking to the other broadcasters but nothing has materialised yet.
http://www.roku.com/uk

[Phil Owens]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

The current version of Apple TV, Apple TV3 can't be jailbroken so the players can't be installed on it. Apple TV2 as a result is getting pricey as it can be jailbroken.

1. If he subscribes to the right broadband package on TalkTalk or BT he should be able top get a YouView box with the players on it for £50 installation.

2. Similarly, if he's with Sky he should be getting the catch-up services soon. VM already offers them.

That accounts for about 90% of the broadband market and if he's with another company presumably he can move to TalkTalk or BT.

Otherwise...

3. A second hand PS3 can be had for less than £100 on EBay and I believe has all four players on.

4. He could make an Apple-like computer with XBMC media centre on it based on the Raspberry Pi!

5. Roku is cheap at £50, definitely has BBC I-Player built in and I believe may have some other less official apps with access that may or may not deliver the other catch-up services but I'm not familiar with it. In March 2012 Roku said they were talking to the other broadcasters but nothing has materialised yet.
http://www.roku.com/uk

Thanks..

Just been looking at Western Digital TV Live Streaming Media Player

It has BBC iPlayer but not the other three demand players but has loads of other stuff.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digi...8240749&sr=8-2
I'll check out roka, second hand PS3 might suit him better..

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Phil Owens

Thanks..

Just been looking at Western Digital TV Live Streaming Media Player

It has BBC iPlayer but not the other three demand players but has loads of other stuff.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digi...8240749&sr=8-2
I'll check out roka, second hand PS3 might suit him better..

So many devices just have iPlayer and no more. Just checked, the PS3 has iPlayer, ITV Player and 4OD but no longer has Demand 5. An almost free YouView box from TalkTalk or BT may well be the best way to go to get all four catch-up players.

[finbaar]

I had a ATV2, jail broken with xbmc installed. It was rubbish. I sold it for a profit. I do not recommend it.

[JasonWatkins]

I wouldn't mind a netflix capable device actually. got an email from them inviting me to try another month's free trial

[Phil Owens]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

So many devices just have iPlayer and no more. Just checked, the PS3 has iPlayer, ITV Player and 4OD but no longer has Demand 5. An almost free YouView box from TalkTalk or BT may well be the best way to go to get all four catch-up players.

Glad I have my Youview, XBox and Foxsat Freesat.
Youview and Xbox have all four players and the Foxsat should have 4OD and Demand 5 later this year, already has BBC iPlayer and ITV Player.

[Matt D]

I didn't think that the Xbox had ITV Player yet?

[Phil Owens]

Originally Posted by Matt D

I didn't think that the Xbox had ITV Player yet?

My mistake sorry

[bladeds]

Originally Posted by finbaar

I had a ATV2, jail broken with xbmc installed. It was rubbish. I sold it for a profit. I do not recommend it.

Why did you think the atv2 with xbmc was rubbish ? , i have similar setup using iPad and think it is really good, did you have latest librtmp and xbmc version. I hope your not some noob slating the atv 2 , it really annoys me, like the person earlier mentioning the strict abilities of the atv2 without jailbreak, it is not hard to jailbreak the atv 2, grrrr.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by bladeds

Why did you think the atv2 with xbmc was rubbish ? , i have similar setup using iPad and think it is really good, did you have latest librtmp and xbmc version. I hope your not some noob slating the atv 2 , it really annoys me, like the person earlier mentioning the strict abilities of the atv2 without jailbreak, it is not hard to jailbreak the atv 2, grrrr.

A friiend of mine has a jailbroken Apple TV2 and it seems a compact and easy-to-use device. However, the unofficial access to catch-up tv services means they don't have the graphical front-ends and ease of navigation that official players on other devices have. Also as they're unofficial there is limited support for them and currently his ITV Player is not working. No great loss there though!

[Greyowl]

Apparently HMV are selling the Sony BDP-S185 Blu ray player for £40 in store at the moment.
It has BBC iPlayer, Demand 5, Youtube & Lovefilm...and it's a bluray player of course.

Don't you need to pay the Gold subscription to get the catch-up services on Xbox ?

[Matt D]

Originally Posted by Greyowl

Don't you need to pay the Gold subscription to get the catch-up services on Xbox ?

You need Gold for everything other than iPlayer.

[ovbg]

Originally Posted by linea

If you just want an off the shelf machine, I have a feeling that Boxee supports all the UK catch-up services as well as other free content.

This sounds interesting. Does it offer this "out of the box", or are there complicated installations required like XBMC with unofficial plugins.

If it's the official services right out of the box, I'll buy one tomorrow.

[ovbg]

If your friend has a later model iPhone already, an Apple TV with Airplay will get him all but 4oD.

*iPlayer works with mirroring for average quality fullscreen Airplay to an ATV
*ITV works with mirroring also for average quality fullscreen Airplay. In this case though, unlike the iPlayer which has full HD on other devices, ITV seems to be average everywhere
*5 on Demand has Airplay via mirroring, but doesn't include the fullscreen hack as above (even on their recent update a couple of days ago). So the picture is smaller than your TV screen with black borders on all sides - it also tends to skip quite a bit.

4oD used to have fullscreen Airplay, but pulled it a month or so ago. It is now one of the few TV apps to have no Airplay support on the iPad or iPhone.

So, it was there before (besides 5 not having fullscreen) until channel4 decided to go backwards.

Airplay can work incredibly if done the way Apple intended (and I don't mean that as an annoying fanboy would). If you use an Airplay app that doesn't have DRM, it works perfectly at fullscreen with full HD, smoothly and also in the background (so you can do other tasks on the iPhone/iPad or even switch it off). But many TV companies either have DRM that stops many of the good features, or use their own video players that doesn't follow the rules properly.

Pity though, as the iPad especially makes the perfect on-demand interface. It is so easy to search and find shows that you want to watch in often complicated and large libraries and then watch on the TV at the tap of a screen.

[davisa]

Originally Posted by finbaar

I had a ATV2, jail broken with xbmc installed. It was rubbish. I sold it for a profit. I do not recommend it.

I have that setup - and it's wonderful! BBC iPlayer works great, as does AirPlay and Netflix. XBMC streams from my NAS box (over wireless) 1080p to my 86" screen. Fantastic.

A simple, neat and elegant solution. I highly recommend it.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by ovbg

If your friend has a later model iPhone already, an Apple TV with Airplay will get him all but 4oD.

Thanks ovbg, given him this info.

[ovbg]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Thanks ovbg, given him this info.

no worries. Another thing he can do if he went this path is to add a "SmartDNS" service from say Overplay for around £3 a month (which is really not that bad)

It will give him access to more services that he can Airplay to his TV from his iPhone or iPad. They may sound a bit foreign at first, but it does add a whole new collection of TV for him if he is interested.

ABC iView (This is Australia's version of the BBC, and has an excellent range of shows that beautifully Airplay across to the TV)
SBS (From Australia as well, this is a multicultural station. It's probably the best selection of international cinema and TV, so expect the best French, German, Italian, Chinese etc shows in original language and dubbed.
RTE: (Obviously from Ireland, but has a great selection of shows and Airplay's perfectly like the ABC)
TV3 (From Ireland as well, but not as good as RTE)
ABC, FOX, NBC and the likes from the US (Their free on-demand stuff is really quite limited as they like to charge through services such as Hulu, but there are still plenty of episodes to choose from)

Well, this list goes on, so he would get quite a selection for £3