Lucas_Dad

Anyone who has seen my recent posts will know I'm in the process of getting onto the nbn. I was looking at packages that include Telstra TV, Foxtel Now or Fetch TV. Reviews for all three are pretty horrible, and I've not had satellite TV for 6 years so I don't suppose I'll miss it.

What about a Freeview+ box? Any good?

I know recording stuff is a bit old hat, but we'd still like that facility. If possible, we'd like to press REC at any point and record only the bits of TV we want to watch later, or keep (e.g. Masterchef masterclasses, that short segment on BHG that might be useful, etc. etc.)

Cheers

ozzieeagle

I've had Fetch TV for years and the latest model is brilliant as far as I'm concerned. Not sure why some people on product review are having such issues. I've never had one. I'd give it 5/5 like the people at Tech Radar etc. Totally craps all over every other box I've connected to my TV and I've tried lots of different ones in my time.


It does catch up TV plus all the 3rd Party broadcasters, like Stan, Netflix, Hayu etc etc and bonus it also acts as a media hub for my HTPC.

Personally I'd say the Fetch box is head and shoulders above all other options. One of the people on Product review complains about the Remote control being too big, which is total bull..... It's the best remote I've used and worked as a universal remote on my TV's, which was very easy to set up.

Amazulu

The remote for then Nvidia Shield - with Google search microphone - is better!

Lucas_Dad

Thanks for that ozzie. I do take these reviews with a bit of a pinch of salt, but they seemed so overwhelmingly negative that it really put me off. Just as I thought I'd discounted the nbn packages that include Fetch, I'm re-considering them again... again...

ozzieeagle

I've got an Amazon Fire box with a microphone remote. Kodi kept crashing on the fire box, so after investing too many hours into mucking around with it, I shelved the box.

ozzieeagle

I'd definitely recommend going with a package than buying one, that way the ISP takes the responsibilty of replacing the box if there are any issues. Plus you get a discount for time without the box if that ever eventuates.

Lucas_Dad

So I thought I'd best hit the Freeview+ site and check coverage. Catch-up services offered for my region (2640) are ... ABC iview and SBS ondemand. That's it. I was rather hoping for more.

GarryP

Why would it be limited, since it's online?

Seems weird

Lucas_Dad

This is what the website tells me:

Amazulu

Fire Box is okay but the NVidia Shield is the bomb - especially after the latest update. It's not the cheapest though and not available in Australia

GarryP

Weird. They seem to be saying that because you can't get freeview, you can't access the catchup services too.

Screw that, I can pick them up on my kodi box.

spouse of scouse

Love these threads. I'm back in Perth for good on Tuesday and will be starting the house hunting (gearing up for pushy real estate agents).

First job in the new place will be to sort out TV/internet/phone, and thanks to these threads I've finally got my head around VOIP instead of a landline. It's a start...

Lucas_Dad

That's interesting too. I have Kodi running on an old Raspberry Pi (an old Pi 1, but upgrading to the latest Pi is definitely an option). What do I need to add to get all that going? Maybe I don't need any telstra/fetch/amazon/whatever box at all.

GarryP

Well I've got a rasp pi which sits on the old TV and serves up access to the content on the server, the OZ catchup TV services (7,9,10,ABC,SBS), and iPlayer via the SmartDNS service. I think some of the catchup addons have subsequently been deleted, but still seems to work for me.

Amazulu

Get this:
https://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini...ml?wid=1349303

You can't go wrong. Shop around on all the usual Chinese sellers