Fresh Plastic

Ditch the dish! Sky Movies 'NOW' practically given away on the internet.

There was a time, not long ago, when one had no choice but to subscribe to a gazillion entertainment channels one did not desire just to see a handful of few film channels one did. A time when subscribers were denied said channels in HD unless they stumped up an additional £10 fee.

Well friends, that time is over.  Now NOW TV is here Sky Movies is as cheap as it was in the 80s. NOW, the Sky-by-broadband service has seriously undercut the Sky-by-satellite service. And, the oddest thing about all this is, they're both the same company!

So, how much cheaper is Sky Movies on NOW? Glad you asked! Here ya go...

Sky Movies, per month, in HD on one TV:

• On Sky, £53
• On NOW, £9 

Sky Movies, per month, in HD on two TVs:

• On Sky, £65
• On NOW, £9

I've rounded prices to the nearest pound and haven't taken into account any special offers. For further savings, if you only watch on demand programming and no broadcasts, you can stop paying £145 a year to TV Licensing. And, if you're watching Sky Movies on NOW TV's dinky box, you can expect lower electric bills than those using a Sky+HD box.

At the moment, retailers such as Argos are offering the NOW TV set-top-box - bundled with 3 months Sky Movies - for £25. And additional boxes can be bought for £10 direct from the NOW TV site. More on the box and what other goodies it delivers in my next post.

At a glance, pros and cons...

Pros:

• Content is in 720p HD. On Sky's satellite service there's a £10 HD fee on top of the subscription cost
• Content can be viewed on any two of four registered devices at the same time. On Sky's satellite service there's an £11.25 'multiscreen' fee, again, on top of the subscription cost
• NOW TV remembers where you stopped watching and lets you continue where you left off on any one of those four devices

Cons:

• No subtitles
• No audio description for the visually impaired
• Netflix offers better quality pictures and apparently allows limitless registered devices

Sky 1 without Simpsons? No thanks NOW TV!

Sky's Sky-without-Sky internet TV service, NOW TV, is now offering entertainment channels along with the Sports and Movies packs that were already available on the service.

Each month, for five of your Earth Pounds, you can now delight in the following ten channels: Sky 1, Sky Living, Sky Atlantic, Sky Arts 1, Fox, Comedy Central, Disney Channel, Discovery, GOLD and the MTV channel that doesn't show music. And, for those not in the know, 'Atlantic' has the exclusive UK rights to HBO's shows.

So, what's not to like? Well, there's a bunch of shows missing from those channels - and they may very well be the ones you're wanting to subscribe to the service for. The most notably of which is The Simpsons. And, really, what's Sky 1 without that, huh?

Unfortunately, the likes of the Daily Star didn't get the memo...

Rather kindly, NOW TV provide a daily list of what's not on - so you can gauge how disappointed you will, or will not be, before you sign up.

In my next post I'll tell you why it's a good idea to sign up to NOW and get that dinky set-top-box of theirs. (Spolier Alert: Sky Movies HD is a fraction of the price via broadband than via a dish, plus free US TV!)

FYI: The box the box comes in is a tad bit bigger than the box itself.

No TV Licence required for radio on Freeview, Freesat or Sky. Keep your aerial. Keep your dish.

Despite what you may have heard, it is perfectly legal to listen to radio via Freeview, Freesat or a Sky set-top-box without a TV licence.

So, if you're ditching "live" TV to save some money, perhaps making do with just 'catch up' instead, you don't need to get rid of any of your existing televisions, cut any cables or remove your dish or aerial. Nor do you have to de-tune anything (a Sky box, for instance, can't be detuned).

There's a lot of misinformation about this on and off-line, so I understand you might not want to simply take my word for it. So, here it is from the horse's mouth:

Yes, that's right, no TV Licence is required to listen to radio, no matter how you listen to it. And yes, it's also right that the chaps at TV Licensing don't proofread what they publish on the web.

What radio is available via TV that isn't available via, y'know, radio radio?

Glad you asked! Via Sky, or what is know as a 'free-to-air receiver', there's around a hundred. Give or take (skip to the bottom of this regularly updated page here). There's not quite as much via Freesat, and Freeview is probably on a par with what a regular radio would pick up in many cities.

Freesat:

Freeview:

If you're feeling more adventurous, a free-to-air satellite receiver - like I mentioned above, can also pick up something like a thousand radio stations that are aimed at our continental cousins.

Anyway, back to TV Licensing and the law...

If you aren't paying for a TV Licence, and you do use a televisual device to listen to radio, you'll have to be very careful how you use it to remain within the law.

• Never watch a TV broadcast on it
• Don't accidentally watch a TV broadcast on it
• Never record a TV broadcast on it
• Don't accidentally record a TV broadcast on it

Now, this is where it gets interesting. Most TVs or set-top-boxes automatically tune into the first channel stored on it when it's first turned on, tuned or retuned. Usually there's no way of disabling this or forcing it to go to a channel of your choosing.

So, if your device does this, but you quickly tune away to a radio station, are you still breaking the law? Honestly, I have no idea. And I have a feeling TV Licensing wouldn't be too forthcoming with a clear answer to that question. Just remember,  the onus is on them to prove you're watching TV without a licence*. If you're not watching TV without a licence they can't "catch" you.

*They do this not with a detector van, for what it's worth. They prefer the use of glorified salesmen that go by the scary title of 'enforcement officers'. These guys actually work for the 'business process outsourcing company' Capita and work on commission (hence 'glorified salesnen'). They rely on 'evaders,' who don't know their legal rights, self-incriminating themselves. Even if you're legally licence-free, I feel it's best not to talk to them at all. Which is your legal right.

How to legally avoid paying the TV Licence whilst still watching lots of TV

If you're in the UK and you like and/or need to do a spot of money saving, a great way is to stop buying a TV licence. In this blog post I'll tell you how you go about doing this whilst staying legal. As you'll find out, not only will you be able to keep any televisions you have, you'll be able to continue using them too!

So now you can put the £145.50 you've saved to better use!

I have a TV and I want to watch TV on it, how can I legally do so without a TV licence?

The TV Licence isn't a licence for owning or using a TV. It's for viewing (or recording) received TV broadcasts.

You can watch catch-up TV services such as BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4OD and Demand 5 on any device you have - including your TV - all without a TV Licence. Most of Britain's favourite shows appear on such services within an hour of airing on broadcast TV.

As long as you stay away from any option to watch/stream a TV channel live, you're completely legal. In other words, it's forbidden for you to tune into any TV channel at any time, but everything else you do is a-ok!

In theory you could even subscribe to the likes of Sky Go or Now TV and just watch the on demand content, not the streaming channels.

It is for TV Licensing to prove you are watching TV broadcasts unlicensed. If you are not, they can't prove that you are. It really is that simple. Sure, they'll send threatening letters if you live at an unlicensed address, but completely TV-less people get those too. They're just designed to scare people into getting a licence (even those who aren't legally required to have one).

But they'll raid my house, fine me £1,000 and I'll have a criminal record, right?

Fret not. You're not breaking the law. Like I said, a TV licence is only required if you watch (or record) TV as it's being broadcast. Watching on demand content, no matter where it's from, is completely okay. Despite what TV Licensing may say, or imply, you aren't legally required to prove your innocence. So simply ignore all their correspondence whether it be by letter, phone or if they come to your door. You won't get fined, you won't get a criminal record.

I like watching live TV but wish to stop paying for a TV Licence, can I?

Legally, no - you cannot. And, legally, I can't encourage anyone to break the law no matter how nonsensical the law may be. So, say you're Pole residing in the UK, and you only ever watch Polish TV by satellite or via IPTV, and you never tune into the BBC, it's my sad duty to inform you that, legally, you still have to cough up even if there's almost no chance of getting caught "evading" or of receiving a £1,000 fine.

All I can say on the matter is that you aren't legally obliged to answer any questions from 'officials' from TV Licensing who are on your doorstep. Nor do you have to let them in to your home, not unless they have a search warrant.

So, what do you recommend I watch catch-up TV and other on-demand services on?

Many newer TVs have 'smart' features that already include the main catch-up and VOD services. If yours doesn't, there's games consoles Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (Xbox requires a subscription to go online). You can also use your laptop or Android tablet if they have an HDMI out socket. I wouldn't recommend Google TV at this moment in time, but I would thoroughly recommend a Raspberry Pi (although you'll have to be a bit of a tinkerer to get it working, or pester a tech friend).

UK catch-up TV is great and everything, but what about my US shows?

Don't worry, you can use the likes of Netflix, LOVEFiLM or BlinkBox for box-sets-aplenty. Better yet, you can use the US and Canadian equivalents of iPlayer or 4OD (such as Hulu and CTV.ca) as long as you use a service such as Smart DNS or Unblock Us to get around those pesky IP geolocation blocks. Google is your friend.

Now go and enjoy that £145.50!

Live TV's Topless Darts and News Bunny sell for £14k on eBay

Live TV, that most infamous of short-lived 90s cable TV channels, has just sold for £14,100 on eBay. Or rather, its back catalogue of programmes has. Still, that's a pretty tidy sum for topical programming as old as Justin Bieber. And as awful.

 

Actually, that's not entirely fair - topless darts and the news bunny were both highlights of British television in the 20th Century. 

Sky Movies HD 'NOW' *£50* cheaper per month. No dish. No cable.

Like films, but neither LOVEFiLM nor Netflix whet your appetite, with their lack of recent movies? Sky too expensive? I hear ya. But wait! Sky's own internet TV service - NOW TV - is currently undercutting their satellite service, offering Sky Movies for a whopping £50 less per month.

Yes folks you read that right. Fifty pounds less! Sure you don't get hundreds of extra channels or a Sky+HD box, but if you don't want nor need all that then this is an incredible saving.

Here's the skinny...

Sky Movies HD via Sky TV: £52.75 per month (12 months contract)

Sky Movies HD via Now TV: £2.50 per month (6 months contract)

I'm no financial expert, but this would appear to be quite a substantial saving. But it gets better! If you sign up for NOW TV via cashback site Quidco you may well get £15 back*, making that half a year of Sky Movies for absolutely zero cost.

The price goes up to £15 per month after month six, so you may want to set yourself a reminder to cancel. And you'll need some kind of gadget to watch this on. Unlike Netflix, NOW TV isn't available for many Android phones and tablets. It's not available on Google TV either. But iThingies, PS3s and Xbox 360s** are supported.

Offer ends on the 27th of May. Which is just days away - but I'm sure they'll be another one when this one's over.

*Never rely on cashback from Quidco. Treat it as a bonus if you get

**Xbox Live Gold is also required, at additional cost, if you don't already have it.

Hey Microsoft, the 90s called, they want their interactive CD player back!

Today Microsoft unveiled the not-in-the-least-bit-confusingly-named successor to the Xbox 360, the Xbox One. And the uninspiringly named gaming console/home entertainment system has a fittingly uninspired design to go with it.

It's oddly reminiscent of a Philips CD-i player, circa 1991.

If you think that's a little unfair, Swedish gamers are comparing the boxy One to a VCR. And if anyone knows about boxy products, it's the Volvo-making Swedes.

So, I got rid of a Sky+, replaced it with a Pi plus...

Who needs an insanely expensive Sky subscription for hundreds of channels filled with rubbish? Not me, that's not who! (Storage Wars on the History channel, seriously? Just one of my many gripes...)

So I got rid of my Sky+ and replaced it, in part*, with Raspberry Pi. That's a £28** computer, for those not in the know.  Then bung something called XBMC on it. This is something I could show you how to do, but if you search the interwebs, you'll find plenty of people who'll lead you through the installation far better than I ever could.

What's XBMC?

It's a cross-platform media player with a tonne of plugins, that can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. Google's your friend.

So what exactly can this do? I hear you ask...

Well, I have mine set up to give me easy access to the likes of BBC iPlayer and 4OD from the UK, Canada on Demand (from Canada!) and Hulu (from the States). I also use 'USTV Now' if I can't sleep. That's live US TV, in high definition, receiveable over here in England. I caught the lastest episode of The Simpsons Sunday night as it was 1am UK time and I couldn't sleep.

To use either Canada on Demand or Hulu, I use a service called Unblock-Us which makes it appear I'm over there.

Why would you want to watch Canadian TV?

Good question! I actually use Canada on Demand to watch US shows such as Comedy Central's The Colbert Report (which no longer airs in the UK).

How do you control the thing?

If your TV supports HDMI-CEC, like my Samsung does (they call it Anynet+,) you can use your TV remote to control XBMC on Pi.

Or, failing that, if you have an Android phone or tablet you can use a free app called Yatse, which is pretty amazeballs!

Now how about some pictures?

Okay, but they're blurry! Plus my Samsung has a very glossy screen...

The clear case costs extra. I paid £3 for mine. The little blue and white box you see is my WiFi repeater that doubles as a wired ethernet access point.

*I also use a great little Humax set-top-box the good folks at Freesat gave me a couple of years back.

**Although you can't exactly get it working for that amount. A charger, an HDMI cable and an SD card are 100% essential extras. However, they only add a few quid if you shop around.