Author Topic: Small screen entertainment at home - how do you get yours?  (Read 2103 times)

Small screen entertainment at home - how do you get yours?
« on: 29 December, 2017, 05:53:49 pm »
Having spent time with family this holiday we were treated to a showing of La La Land via Netflix on the big projector and pull down screen in a room festooned with speakers.   It was mightily impressive and way way beyond what we would even consider.

How do you get your small large screen entertainment and what sort of kit do you have?

Am I right in thinking that Netflix or similar is not subject to TV Licensing requirements?

Re: Small screen entertainment at home - how do you get yours?
« Reply #1 on: 29 December, 2017, 06:07:15 pm »
You are correct (about licensing)

We have netflix. We've dabbled with other subscription services but found them poor value for money. Occasionally rent a film direct from Amazon - it is simple - go to site, rent, watch.

We have a 'smart' TV that is compatible with most things. Sometimes the rental via amazon doesn't work; usually we 'chromecast' to the TV from a phone.

It is also possible to plug an external hard drive into the TV or computer and play from that.
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Kim

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Re: Small screen entertainment at home - how do you get yours?
« Reply #2 on: 29 December, 2017, 06:15:49 pm »
Barakta and I gave up on a telly when our telly broke, and used the space to fit more bikes in.  The programmes are generally better on those, anyway.

Barakta finds it easier to watch video in a small window on a close-up screen because of her vision, and I'm not particularly fussed either way, so we just watch stuff on our computers with our respective headphones and Borg implants for audio.  (I'm of the opinion that you need quite an expensive speaker system to out-perform a half-decent pair of headphones.)

AIUI you only need a TV licence to watch broadcast television.  Netflix isn't.  Big Clive isn't.  The Critter Room's kitten-cam live stream isn't.  Neither is a DVD or a pirate[1] mpeg from one of the murkier corners of the internet.  NASA TV, on the other hand *is* broadcast television, even if you're watching it as an online stream and couldn't receive the broadcasts from the UK anyway, so you'd need a TV licence to watch astronauts take 6 hours to do up some bolts.  iPlayer now has a special exemption to the usual rules and requires a TV licence.

You can buy a lot of DVDs for the cost of a TV licence.

Most of the streaming services are prohibitively shit at subtitles, though the likes of the BBC are somewhat less shit than Netflix et al.  If you want decent subtitles, you're usually better off with physical media, or pirating (there being a global community of people breaking the law by translating popular content into unpopular languages).  Pirate subtitles are generally more versatile for font accessibility, too.


[1] Copyright infringement being a completely separate animal to TV licence evasion.

Re: Small screen entertainment at home - how do you get yours?
« Reply #3 on: 29 December, 2017, 07:00:54 pm »
It is bizarre that Netflix for two is cheaper than a TV license yet apparently far far better value.  So too though is a bunch of DVD's from the charity shops.

As for Big Clive and Kryten, I'm hooked!   :thumbsup:

To mis-quote Kryten:

Well, each person's viewing habits are unique but we could well encounter, say, a TV Licensing bod personified as some kind of slobbering, rampaging beast.

redshift

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Re: Small screen entertainment at home - how do you get yours?
« Reply #4 on: 29 December, 2017, 07:06:52 pm »
Big Clive isn't.

Neither is ClickSpring, Doubleboost, AvE, This Old Tony, Physics Anonymous, Mr Pete (Tubal Cain), OxToolCo, Cody's Lab or Abom79.

...and people wonder why I watch so little broadcast stuff.  ::-)
L
:)
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The all-round entertainer gets quite arsey,
They won't translate his lame shit into Farsi
Somehow to let it go would be more classy…

Kim

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Re: Small screen entertainment at home - how do you get yours?
« Reply #5 on: 29 December, 2017, 07:19:35 pm »
Big Clive isn't.

Neither is ClickSpring, Doubleboost, AvE, This Old Tony, Physics Anonymous, Mr Pete (Tubal Cain), OxToolCo, Cody's Lab or Abom79.

...and people wonder why I watch so little broadcast stuff.  ::-)

This post seems worth filing away for future reference...

Re: Small screen entertainment at home - how do you get yours?
« Reply #6 on: 29 December, 2017, 07:30:02 pm »
For xmas was given a Firestick.  Woss that all about??!
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mattc

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Re: Small screen entertainment at home - how do you get yours?
« Reply #7 on: 29 December, 2017, 07:31:47 pm »
[Assuming the OP means "not-cinema-sized screen"]

We've been on Freeview for years. It's perfectly fine. We listen to a lot of radio (almost entirely BBC - who wants ads on the radio??), so I'm happy to support that service. Although I do listen to quite a few podcasts, none of them are as good as similar R4 output.

I do note a few things on Netflix/Sky that I'd like to watch, but honestly even just the BBC provides enough good stuff to exceed what is a healthy time in front of the haunted fish-tank per week. C4/E4 provides almost all our non-Beeb viewing.
Films? Freeview provides loads (there's a Craig bond movie on every week!), which we record a lot of. Just occasionally we have an urge for something specific, so we can rent/buy DVDs - or grab an old favourite off the shelf.

Years ago I stayed at my dad's for a couple of months convalescence, he had some flavour of cable - I remember watching Sky1 (The Siiiiimpsons! How amazing that was at the time :) ), a few movies and the cycling on Eurosport. All nice to have, but I wouldn't pay more than a couple-of-quid a month for (until I win the lottery).

We have very poor broadband (cos we're in a new housing estate ... I'm sure this makes sense to someone ...), so the catchup services aren't really worth the hassle. Again, if better BB was just a few quid, I'd have it. But ...
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redshift

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Re: Small screen entertainment at home - how do you get yours?
« Reply #8 on: 29 December, 2017, 07:34:24 pm »
Big Clive isn't.

Neither is ClickSpring, Doubleboost, AvE, This Old Tony, Physics Anonymous, Mr Pete (Tubal Cain), OxToolCo, Cody's Lab or Abom79.

...and people wonder why I watch so little broadcast stuff.  ::-)

This post seems worth filing away for future reference...

You could add Emmas Spareroom Machineshop, too.
L
:)
Windcheetah No. 176
The all-round entertainer gets quite arsey,
They won't translate his lame shit into Farsi
Somehow to let it go would be more classy…

Jaded

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Re: Small screen entertainment at home - how do you get yours?
« Reply #9 on: 29 December, 2017, 11:12:17 pm »
Satellite dish, disks, ripped files, streamed files.

Currently watching the cricket streamed from a guests iPhone to our 120” screen. With surround sound.
It is simpler than it looks.

Re: Small screen entertainment at home - how do you get yours?
« Reply #10 on: 30 December, 2017, 08:51:11 am »
You can buy a lot of DVDs for the cost of a TV licence.

I pay £10/month for a Cinema Paradiso subscription, which gets me 3-4 DVDs a week. This is not far off the cost of a TV licence for about 180 films a year, but virtually all films are available, unlike the rather poor selection on Netflix or Amazon Prime.
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Re: Small screen entertainment at home - how do you get yours?
« Reply #11 on: 30 December, 2017, 07:37:17 pm »
As per MattC we have freeview TV via a Humax. So yes we pay a licence fee. It’s not a lot and we dont mind. YMMV. Luckily our BB is ok for catch up TV and Channel 4’s Walter Presents is pretty good.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

ian

Re: Small screen entertainment at home - how do you get yours?
« Reply #12 on: 31 December, 2017, 06:04:41 pm »
We never connected up the aerial to avoid the Licence Fairies, so it's Netflix and Amazon here. Netflix has got a lot better in the last few years, it used to be pretty dire, but there's a good selection of TV series now and it's more comparable with, say, the selection in the US. I've certainly got a long backlog of TV I want to watch (and there's no loss if you start watching something and a couple of episodes in, you bail because it's not very good). Movie-wise, it's a bit hit and miss, a lot of straight-to-streaming dross, but a couple of big hitters. I sense the big studios probably aren't especially keen to feed Netflix, hence Netflix producing a lot more of its own content.

Amazon Prime is a bit meh, occasional shows and movies. I'd probably drop it if the price goes up and it didn't include perks like fast delivery. I'm not sure I'd sign up today. Availability can be annoying, quite a lot of movies aren't available or are purchase only, which is pointlessly frustrating.

We also rent movies to stream. I think they're often a bit pricey given you can often buy them sub £10 after a couple of weeks, but it's convenient after-pub fayre.

I confess though that we don't seem to get through nearly the same amount of TV as our peers, I honestly couldn't sit there all evening. I can watch a movie or a episode or two, after that my mind begins to wander.

Woofage

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Re: Small screen entertainment at home - how do you get yours?
« Reply #13 on: 31 December, 2017, 09:37:43 pm »
BBC iPlayer or Netflix, a phone/tablet and a Chromecast. Due to annoying bug in our TV that kills the signal when the BluRay player surround sound box is turned on we even stream "live" TV this way although, apart from news, we watch very little live tv.

I did have a simple computer for recording tv (TV Headend) but I don't bother any more.
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Chris S

Re: Small screen entertainment at home - how do you get yours?
« Reply #14 on: 01 January, 2018, 01:37:28 am »
You do need a TV license for iPlayer now.

T42

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Re: Small screen entertainment at home - how do you get yours?
« Reply #15 on: 01 January, 2018, 08:28:28 am »
Netflix for us. The Inlaw Paw's satellite dishes still work but we never use them. We did have French TV but never watched it because the Inlaw Paw & Maw couldn't speak French, then the transmitter was moved elsewhere and now the aerial points to nowhere. Most of the progs were rubbish anyway. Radio puts across in two minutes what a TV report will spend 20 minutes on without adding anything.
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