Bongoman2

I see a few folk have mentioned the WDTV or internet TV and I am considering getting rid of my OSN package that never gets watched.

I'm pretty tech savvy, but havent used one yet, so I have no idea how easy it is to operate, and how much content is available (and where is that content located?)

all advice gratefully accepted

hnd

We ditched OSN years ago, one of the best things we ever did and for around 15% of the cost we now watch pretty much what we want when we want and we don't have to sit through any adverts. Haven't used WDTV, but if it's like other WD products it's likely very straight forward.

We have gone a slightly different route and just download stuff then put it on an external hard drive and watch it from there. There are some things that we can't get but there are a ton of things we never new existed in different countries around the world. Have accumulated around 2TB of programs to watch, which is ridiculous!!

Is this the kind of thing that you are thinking about? The way we have it set up it's real easy (it has to be as we are not that tech savvy). The service we use is full of US programmes, quite a few UK and some from other English speaking countries. It also has a facility where you can go back some 6 months to look for something, so if you go away you can always look for stuff when you get back. We have taken looking for stuff a stage further and have set up RSS feeds to check automatically for latest episodes of what we want to watch, so you always know when a new series starts, that is of course assuming that it has been uploaded by someone. We do NOT use torrent feeds, so we do not show someone else our IP address. We have a big ADSL and it takes around 2 mins (most of the time) to download a 45 min programme.

NorthernLad

We used to use a WD box, but moved to Mac Mini connected to our TV. We use that frowned upon (here) secure service to watch UK shows then everything else download via torrent and watch through Mac Mini.

We don't watch anything on OSN now, still have sport but going to ditch that as can walk to Bidis for any main events that aren't on BBC/ITV.

Bongoman2

What is a mac mini? do you mean an ipad mini?

hnd

We use a Mac Mini as well. It lives attached to our TV.
Mac Mini is a computer without a screen or keyboard. You have to buy a separate keyboard and mouse. It's quite a powerful machine.

http://store.apple.com/ae/browse/hom...amily/mac_mini

csdf

I've just set up a Raspberry Pi to do the same thing, but the level of technical nous required is considerably higher than with an Apple TV or Mac Mini.

Bongoman2

Thats awesome you are using the Rasperry Pi to do that.

Do you know if there are any stockists in UAE for the Pi? I'd like to have a tinker.

As for the Mac mini, I am staying well away from that. Me and Apple dont see eye to eye.

the_red_sheep

I recently got the WD TV live Hub, with the intention of ditching OSN. At the moment I’ve primarily used it to play downloaded content from a net worked hard drive. When this works it works well, although it’s has required the occasional reset after freezing whilst playing. What I may do is start to fill up the WD’s internal 1TB HD and see if that helps. I think there was a software update being blamed for the freezing, so since the last reset I’ve not updated the drivers etc.

What I haven’t yet done it explored internet TV with it or set up a VPN up on it. If/when I get that working and can watch BBC iPlayer/SkyGo etc then OSN is most definitely getting the elbow!

csdf

I bought mine in the UK and picked it up when I was over for Christmas. If you have an Aramex Shop & Ship address (or know someone who does) you can get one shipped over easy enough.

Bob

We've a older WD TV Live, do much as you do....though to lazy to stick a drive on the media box, I use Serviio as a media streamer on the laptop once content is acquired and the WD just picks up and on the tele it is.

The online stuff on the box ain't bad either, though the newer ones have far more content.

There are a lot of decent firmware hacks out there too that add a lot more features or online content services, but I haven't played around with them, but easy enough to install by the look of it.

Well worth the money.

The Apple TV, unless you've got a string of Mac products already, isn't very good, unless it's the older ones which you can jailbreak to make it more useful. It is very simple to use though.

Patsy Stoned

I am a complete divvy when it comes to 'techie' stuff ....... I have a multi media player that plugs into my TV. I d/l stuff from several torrent sites to my computer, then I either watch on my computer...short episodes of series... or transfer to my media player and watch on my tv. I have a 54" HD thing tv so the quality is great.
I haven't had a TV package for about 5 years. Between the different sites I can find everything I want to watch

frequentflyer1234

Another vote for the WD Live Hub, so easy to setup and use. Never had any problems with mine.