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xymox

Android Boxes

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I like to get to a couple of away matches a season but generally watch them unfold on here or twitter. I tried streaming when we were in the PL last time but just got bored of it as they just weren''t worth the effort. Didn''t bother last year as expected Championship streams to be even worse.

Decided to give them another go on Saturday and it seemes they haven''t got any better, perhaps being over 25 I am missing something but am pretty OK with technology normally.

Have seen mentioned on here android boxes, does anyone have a view on them? Are they better than the streams? Match choice on Sky is great now we are back in the prem but doesn''t beat watching the match live and of course nothing beats being there and respect to the faithful that get to all the away games.

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You don''t need an Android box. Just install the software ''Kodi'' on any android tablet or a Windows PC. You will need the machine to have a way to get it on your TV so an HDMI port or I''ve heard chromecasts mentioned as what I think is a wireless transmitting device.

Just install Kodi, find a youtube video explaining how to configure the software and away you go. I only found this out yesterday but the streams I''ve looked at have been much better that your firstrow type stuff. You also get full match replays which I found was very good quality.

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Further to Capt''s post, Chromecast won''t work with live streaming, something to do with the language or something sonthe best way is by HDMI cable.

I have just downloaded TVMC which is a Kodi application but with a load of preloaded channels. Watched a bit of the L''pool game earlier, about a minute behind but not bad quality. I am in two minds whether to get a box myself as I think having played about with TVMC on my tablet it is as good for streaming purposes as a box seems to be. Try it out and see for yourself whether you want to get a box.

OTBC

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[quote user="xymox"]

Have seen mentioned on here android boxes, does anyone have a view on them? Are they better than the streams? Match choice on Sky is great now we are back in the prem but doesn''t beat watching the match live and of course nothing beats being there and respect to the faithful that get to all the away games.[/quote]I have a fire TV box, I love it.Had Liverpool on it tonight and only buffered once ( near the end of the game )I watch tv on it now as i have about 200 channels from all around the world. But remember its all from the internet. Was well worth the £79 !!

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I got an mxq off amazon for 35 quid. Normally I''m pretty tech savy but I have found this whole Kodi thing very very confusing. I have worked out how to get a load of (sport) video add ons which allow me to watch the game when it has been uploaded a few hours later (which actually works quite well for me as I work Saturdays Sundays and weekday evenings and can watch the games when I get home from work) but I cannot for the life of me work out how to get all the live sport channels. So if anyone has a decent link to a video explaining how to get some live sport (sky in particular) I would be extremely grateful.

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Kodi is no more the latest release is Isengard 15.0 if you know how to add repo''s try http://srp.nu and http://repo.husham.com . Those will add you enough channels to keep you amused for a year or two . The trouble with thee boxes is there are so many channels that do streams that by the time you find a good one the game could be over . Sport Devil had a very good stream of the Sunderland match .

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To guarantee a brilliant HD stream to your 50" TV subscribe to infusum.tv.

Has all be, sky and espn channels. Brill for football and golf

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Don''t subcribe to anything UK turk has good channels and money sports has CTH HD that shows all premiership games. I watch all sky pemiership matches on NBCSN HD with sky commentary. Also you can change your vpn and pick up NBC live extra which shows every 3pm premiership game but I haven''t done that not needed to yet. Failing that Bein sports HD has other sky coverage and p2p streams are excellent quality. No need to subscribe to anything.

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[quote user="CanaryOne"]Kodi is no more the latest release is Isengard 15.0 if you know how to add repo''s try http://srp.nu and http://repo.husham.com . Those will add you enough channels to keep you amused for a year or two . The trouble with thee boxes is there are so many channels that do streams that by the time you find a good one the game could be over . Sport Devil had a very good stream of the Sunderland match .[/quote]It''s 15.1

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Ron Manager wrote the following post at 17/08/2015 9:48 PM:

Further to Capt''s post, Chromecast won''t work with live streaming, something to do with the language or something sonthe best way is by HDMI cable.

I have just downloaded TVMC which is a Kodi application but with a load of preloaded channels. Watched a bit of the L''pool game earlier, about a minute behind but not bad quality. I am in two minds whether to get a box myself as I think having played about with TVMC on my tablet it is as good for streaming purposes as a box seems to be. Try it out and see for yourself whether you want to get a box.

Am using TVMC Ron and it''s pretty good, hope to get HS broadband shortly which hopefully will do away with buffering issues.

What''s the general view on Android boxes now, I am considering one just for the convenience and with HS broadband am expecting big things.

Any views?

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[quote user="Mr Jenkins"]Ron Manager wrote the following post at 17/08/2015 9:48 PM:

Further to Capt''s post, Chromecast won''t work with live streaming, something to do with the language or something sonthe best way is by HDMI cable.

I have just downloaded TVMC which is a Kodi application but with a load of preloaded channels. Watched a bit of the L''pool game earlier, about a minute behind but not bad quality. I am in two minds whether to get a box myself as I think having played about with TVMC on my tablet it is as good for streaming purposes as a box seems to be. Try it out and see for yourself whether you want to get a box.

Am using TVMC Ron and it''s pretty good, hope to get HS broadband shortly which hopefully will do away with buffering issues.

What''s the general view on Android boxes now, I am considering one just for the convenience and with HS broadband am expecting big things.

Any views?[/quote]http://services.pinkun.com/forums/pinkun-forums/cs/forums/3280142/ShowPost.aspx

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[quote user="Mr Jenkins"]Do you have high speed broadband Morty?[/quote]Yes, I have 80 Meg BT Infinity, but I don''t think you need anything near that for decent viewing, really anything about about 10 Meg is going to be fine.

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Get an account with sports???ia.eu - they are superb, cheapest around and you get iPad/mac/win/xbmc/kodi support.

They also have a VOD section so you can rewatch most of saturdays games that night when you''re home! :)

The VOD section also covers boxing, ufc, wwe etc.

Can''t praise them high enough.

??? = opposite of ''woman''

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[quote user="Mr Jenkins"]Ok thanks, im seriously considering cancelling Sky and going with android and cable HS broadband.[/quote]I have been working away a lot since I got my box, so haven''t had time enough to fully roadtest it, to see if its a genuine viable alternative to Sky.Looks good so far, but I have to admit, I''ll miss Sky+.

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I''m not an expert on these things, but I got a Mobie Dazzle media box from eBay about £45, and a mate installed some stuff on there (through Kodi).

Football streams are watchable without the annoying buffering and pop-ups I used to get with e.g Firstrow etc.

Genesis is also on there and gives you instant access to films and TV shows. Not so good for live TV though.

I now only have Sky for my broadband, ironic given what I do with it!

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And here comes Buzz Killington.....

I considered replacing pay-TV with a streaming box some time ago. First though I wanted to check the legality over ownership and, importantly, streaming content for free which I would otherwise have had to pay for (i.e. Sky) before going ahead with anything. I''m not a Goody Two-Shoes or anything, just didn''t want to run this risk of getting busted for something so trivial (I work in IT, so getting nicked for something IT related could, potentially, be career ending).

Anyway, turns out that streaming encrypted content is illegal (best source I could find quickly is a news article, URL at the bottom). Anyone watching encrypted content which they haven''t paid for could be prosecuted.

I''m not moralising in any way (I have some issues with software piracy, but that''s another story) but just thought I''d share what I''d found out previously.

In the short term I seriously doubt anyone would be prosecuted (an exception might be a pub/club charging entry and making a big song-and-dance about what they were showing), but who knows what the future will hold.

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/free-tv-boxes-streaming-legal-9427090

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Streaming legal or illegal content for an end user is legal. That is a law passed last year by the EUs highest court. If you want to view the final judgement from the court go to Nano TV of Sunderland site and check their privacy link, the EU Court judgement is there, albeit its typically in legalistic form so takes awhile to get into an average persons brain cells.I use my PC a lot for gaming, so an Android box for me is personally great. I can game on my PC but have sport or movies on my Android box hooked up to my main TV. The Kodi guys themselves go to great lengths to ensure all the apps and add ons on their site are legal. Google have given them their seal of approval to. Isengard 15.0 is the latest standard set up but Jarvis 16.0 version is already in Alpha stage.You pays your money and takes your choice. You can of course sub your 20 or 30 pounds a month to the Skys and BTs  or pay 35-80 pound for an Android and rely on internet streaming variability. I find, as a rough rule of thumb guide. the higher the quality graphically the more prone it can be to buffering. So watching a sport stream in 1080p may give you more buffer probs  than say 720 or lower. But its variable. I find NBCSN from America are great, they nearly always are better  for me and in HD to. But yes the stream can be up to a minute behind.I find the 3 best sport add ons are UK Turk, SportsDevil, and to a lesser degree, Phoenix. Many boxes will come with UK Turk and Phoenix already  added in. You may need to search online  for SportsDevil but should not be to hard to find. Android boxes can very easily fill its memory so be prudent with the amount of add ons you install. Just uninstall any you no longer watch etc.Anyone with a basic knowledge of PCs should  be able to get their boxes up n working, but for sure do need a bit of patience for a few days. Many useful Kodi set up guides on youtube.

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The issue of buffering is not necessarily related to your internet connect speed.

The ''free'' streams are usually put up with limited resources to start with, so a 720/1080p style stream seriously limits the amount of people who are able to pull from a shared source.

Also, some types of streaming rely on your internet connection to upload the file to somebody else further down the line as you watch.

Therefore if you have a 8m/s down, 0.5m/s connection and you''re streaming a 0.8m/s video then you''re ''taking'' more than you ''give''... When that happens, further down the line buffering will be commonplace. The same also occurs as users connect/disconnect.

That''s why the ''premium'' subscription services work best as they have more resources to serve their users, and don''t rely on users ''passing'' the feed on. (Which must affect the legality also?), also you tend to find they run SD and HD versions of each stream to help users on slower connections, or during busy periods.

Of course there''s other issues in that your isp will also choose to throttle/control certain types of data during peak times - For example, i know people who were unable to watch anything between 7-10pm at night, and at 10.01pm all becomes good again.

Also don''t forget that 720p/1080p is just frame size - it bares little relationship to the actual bandwidth requirements to stream. It''s how the source has been encoded and at what bitrate the audio and video channels are that''s most important.

There''s some incredibly clever methods out there that deliver near-HD quality at a fraction of bandwidth true HD would require, which is basically how most of this streaming lark works.

I would say that most streams are around 1.5-2.5 mbit/s with some of the higher quality ones hitting 5-6 - but these are rare as it takes so many resources to put them out for ''free''.

I''m actually a sky customer but take an android box with me in my caravan when we go away, Sky used to let you stream for free to multiple devices, but then decided to charge for the service and class it as a multi-room option. That really annoyed me hence why i got mine.

If needed to, i can watch most streams over a 3G connection with the android box paired to my phone.

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I think GB has about covered it, for an Android box 3 or 4 meg is supposedly around the minimum, so anything 10 meg or above (i have well over 10 meg)  is more than adequate. Its all the other variables GB mentioned that we  cannot control that can cause the buffering. But overall, technology forever improves things, i love my lil Android box. Just a side note, i can remember back in 2001, when Broadband was still a bit in the future, i was one of the people who ventured online with the first ever online gaming console, Sega Dreamcast. I regularly played a certain game with peoples from all over the globe, on a dial up telephone system that racked me up hundreds of pounds each quarter. The amazing thing is, the Dreamcast had a modem of 33k! Thats 33/1000 of 1 meg!. How times have changed, now i take for granted the things my Android box does for me...wonderful.

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hah, i remember those days well, i had to get an imported ''connection'' disk from the US which allowed you to specify your own isp dial-up details, otherwise you had to dial directly into Sega UK and pay per minute!

It really gave me the bug and i was desperate for xbox live to launch once hearing about it, the day it did launch i tried running it with a 56k modem, it was going ok, but by then most people had basic 500k broadband who were on the service, i think they advertised that 128/256k was a min so no surprise i was struggling.

So - I was sat there with my 56k modem, had a pc acting as a router bridged to the xbox, ended up annoyed as my voice would always be breaking up, gameplay was ok, but it was hard to chat to people.

Eventually spent a load of money and had BT come and fit me an ISDN line and that seemed massive at 64k/128k dual, but boy did it cost as i was paying per minute for two lines!

As ISDN was a digital connection i went from being the slowest to the quickest (in terms of latency) - good days, but expensive! :)

In fact, i ended up noting which games would run on single 64k and which needed 128k and i would have to reset my connection between games, just to save some money! :)

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As explained above (albeit in more detail) the basic principle is don''t get Fibre and expect live streaming across these services to no longer buffer. It''s unlikely the bottleneck is at your end.

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Which streams are we talking about her? For example if I''m watching Ford Super sunday, on an Acestream/bloodzeed etc streams, these are often in near HD quality and they never really buffer for me.

Is it the Norwich streams and games which are not on UK TV which are improved and better than firstrow etc by these android boxes?

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The android boxes, or rather Kodi/xbmc software which runs on it, just brings it all into one place with some exclusive add-ins on top of that, and wraps it in a useable skin of your choice.

Just try Kodi on your pc, and try some add-ins and you''ll see what it''s all about.

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Hi Guys,

Sorry to join in the conversation late but I was wondering if someone could help me please.....

I currently have a Amazon Fire TV Stick, is there any apps that I can download on this for streaming the live matches or would I need to buy an Android Box in order to watch? Getting a bit old now so not very good with all of this new technology these days!

Thanks for the help!

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