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Thread: Trying to get rid of Foxtel, any other options for WD box?

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    Default Trying to get rid of Foxtel, any other options for WD box?

    I'm trying to get rid of the foxtel bill.
    ATM the kids watch Nickelodeon & Disney, and the grown up's watch renovation shows.
    I have a WD Live TV box and have it set up for Netflix, which I watch when I remember it's there.
    I tried Hulu plus, but couldn't seem to find anything on it so let the subscription die.
    That was late last year, so my question is, has anything changed?
    Is there a cheap way to get Disney, Nick, + the home style shows?
    Are there other options to Netflix & Hulu



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    Check out Amazon Prime.

    It has Dora the Explorer, Spongebob, Blues Clues, Curious George and others. It has a lot of History and Discover Channel type stuff and movies as well. Not sure about the lifestyle stuff though.

    I think it's under $100 for the year and you get a bunch of free stuff, with the better stuff (like new release movies) pay-per-view.

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    Add Playon to a server, play thru your WDTV. load the freebies, including Hulu(-tv genres), that has your Home Shows covered ( my wife was watching them today) There is PBS Kids, Disney, Nick, Cartoon Network. As to the quality of programs i can't answer as my kids are now into their 20s. $50 per year?
    Last edited by allover; 29-05-13 at 06:46 PM.
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    I agree Playon Server is a good solution. I'd also recommend XBMC with the Navi-X plugin. What I'd suggest is that you install XBMC on your computer, install the Navi-X plugin and have a look at what is available. If you like it it runs well on a Raspberry Pi.

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    Try this one if you are into sports.

    I watch this on my 40cm Panasonic LED and most of the time it is pretty good.

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    Quote Originally Posted by allover View Post
    Add Playon to a server, play thru your WDTV. load the freebies, including Hulu(-tv genres), that has your Home Shows covered ( my wife was watching them today) There is PBS Kids, Disney, Nick, Cartoon Network. As to the quality of programs i can't answer as my kids are now into their 20s. $50 per year?
    Thanks to all of you for the advice.
    I had a look at the playon site and it reads pretty good.
    I'll give it a try.
    I am running Mac's but have a old PC laptop that I could use just for this.
    When you say add to a "server" is this any different to the playon site advising to run on a windows PC?
    Any benefit to running on server environment?

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    Quote Originally Posted by paul911 View Post
    Thanks to all of you for the advice.
    I had a look at the playon site and it reads pretty good.
    I'll give it a try.
    I am running Mac's but have a old PC laptop that I could use just for this.
    When you say add to a "server" is this any different to the playon site advising to run on a windows PC?
    Any benefit to running on server environment?
    you can run it on any PC ...... (I think there are minimum requirements)

    Playon is the Media Server ....

    (the PC Playon is installed on, needs to be running whenever you want to watch the Playon supported channels .... )
    Last edited by OSIRUS; 30-05-13 at 10:39 AM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by OSIRUS View Post
    you can run it on any PC ...... (I think there are minimum requirements)

    Playon is the Media Server ....

    (the PC Playon is installed on, needs to be running whenever you want to watch the Playon supported channels .... )
    Thanks, I'll give it a shot. Is the WD box the best interface or is there a better option out there?

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    Quote Originally Posted by paul911 View Post
    I'm trying to get rid of the foxtel bill.
    ATM the kids watch Nickelodeon & Disney, and the grown up's watch renovation shows.
    I have a WD Live TV box and have it set up for Netflix, which I watch when I remember it's there.
    I tried Hulu plus, but couldn't seem to find anything on it so let the subscription die.
    That was late last year, so my question is, has anything changed?
    Is there a cheap way to get Disney, Nick, + the home style shows?
    Are there other options to Netflix & Hulu
    I think the one thing that most people struggle with when trying to ditch Foxtel for decent internet TV is the fact that you choose what you want to watch, you dont just select a channel and be bound by what the channel plays.

    Unfortunately these days most of us (myself included when I first went to Internet TV) are brainwashed in to accepting that we have to watch a channel and whatever is on it.

    There is a ton of kids stuff on Netflix if you have a look, but no, there is not really any specific channels. My 3 month old grand daughter watches cartoons on Netflix everyday, my daughter doesnt have any problem finding kids shows for her (though she would watch anything...absolute square head). From memory on the WD (I have one, but its up the end of the house my daughter is in) when you go in to Netflix there is a choice of Netflix or Netflix for kids or similar ?

    As to Reno type shows, I cant say I have looked recently but I would be very surprised if you couldnt find any on Hulu.

    I find the Roku has bit more easy to find content, for example, when I get shitted off and want a change I subscribe to ustvnow.com and watch US channels. Another good channel available on the Roku at a bargain price is the Wealth Channel. I initially didnt think there would be much of interest on it for me, but I was pleasantly surprised. Cars, travel, lots of great stuff all in 1080i looks fantastic and its only 99 cents a month.

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    If your willing to buy an untethered appletv 2 from ebay with xbmc you can watch live channels with addons like mash up
    from superrepo repository and plus get plugins for iplayer itv player, hulu (free) but those need a Unotelly or similar service to work Also Navi-x is good
    That's if you want free live streams without needing to run a server.
    Be careful though there is some stuff unsuitable for kids.
    Last edited by pheggie; 31-05-13 at 12:51 AM.

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    Default Re: Trying to get rid of Foxtel, any other options for WD box?

    +1 for the Roku.

    I just got one from Amazon (paid $118aud incl shipping). Got it to ditch fuxtel too.
    It does take a little while to get your head around "on demand viewing" but I actually prefer it. No more settling for an old repeat when nothing is good on TV.

    I got mine running with Netflix US (decent back catalogue of TV/movies), Hulu+ (new episodes and movies), iPlayer (all BBC channels including kids channels live), USTV (can get A&E, ComedyChannel, Animal Planet, Cartoon network, etc) and a heap of other free speciality channels.
    Just need to have a reasonable internet connection speed (>5mbps), and be able to part with about 1gb per hour viewing.

    All much cheaper (about $50 for the works), more geared towards what we actually like to watch, and FTA still exists for anything not covered by the Roku setup.
    Last edited by pvandenh; 31-05-13 at 09:27 AM.

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    I've got playon working and installed.
    The amount of content is good but I can't get it streaming well enough.
    The WD box takes forever to load and the picture freezes too much.
    I tried it on the WII, it's better streaming (still freezes every now and then), but the quality is crap.
    Look like it's Foxtel for a bit longer.
    Thanks for all the input.

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    What sort of internet connection do you have mate ?

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    Quote Originally Posted by admin View Post
    What sort of internet connection do you have mate ?
    Optus broadband, ADSL 2
    The admin panel test of playon says the internet line is good, but says the pc performance is medium, so may the PC is slow. I've been using mac for a while so i installed playon on a old laptop.
    Tried again today and it's still chugging along.

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    Quote Originally Posted by paul911 View Post
    Optus broadband, ADSL 2
    The admin panel test of playon says the internet line is good, but says the pc performance is medium, so may the PC is slow. I've been using mac for a while so i installed playon on a old laptop.
    Tried again today and it's still chugging along.
    What sort of speeds do you get ? In general (well with Netflix as an example), you need absolute min 1.5 gig up to 4.5 minimum for HD. Though you did mention an old PC which could be the cause.

    I dont use PlayOn so I am probably not much help

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    Default Re: Trying to get rid of Foxtel, any other options for WD box?

    Quote Originally Posted by paul911 View Post
    I've got playon working and installed.
    The amount of content is good but I can't get it streaming well enough.
    The WD box takes forever to load and the picture freezes too much.
    I have a WD Live too which I still use for local streaming of my stored movies/tv. The Roku runs a LOT better on both local and online content.
    Eg: I have a full HD movie on my NAS which the WD box struggles to play over WiFi without buffering. Wired it plays fine though. The Roku has zero issues playing the same file over WiFi in all of its HD glory.

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    Netflix streams OK via the WD box using the suggested work around (unblock-us. etc).
    The more i think, it might be the PC. I Don't want the hassle of upgrading a pc just for this, so might try the roku.

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    Quote Originally Posted by paul911 View Post
    so might try the roku.
    There has been a few in the BST section recently, might be worth a look.

    For what its worth, I agree with pvandenh in regards to the Roku all round being a better performer. I have 2 Rokus and a WD, I only use the Roku's.

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    I trialed Playon, all I really ever got was "The file is currently unavailable" so I cancelled my trial.
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    I tried Playon on a slower PC some time ago now, and performance is simply not acceptable. Playon is a fantastic product. I would also prefer Roku to WD's as a client, though I would also point out that Playon connects via UPNP, so any UPNP capable TV, Media Player or other device can be used. Works surprisingly well on at least three different models of Samsung LED TV's.

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