ITV Player, C4OD etc. and Apple TV.

[chebby]

A minor frustration in this household is that we cannot get ITV Player or 4OD (via our Sony BDP-S370) to the television. BBC iPlayer and Youtube and Demand 5 - yes - but not the others.

My wife likes quite a lot of ITV dramas and 'whodunnits' and I like some C4 documentaries and comedies, so we have to retire to our respective computers for those.

I can't find any PVRs/Blu-ray recorders (or similar) that do iPlayer, C4OD and ITV Player. (Some promise that they are 'enabled' for all of these services, but don't actually have them.)

So I got to thinking about 'mirroring' from my iPhone 4 to an Apple TV.

Has anyone done this succesfully?

Have I misunderstood this? (Would 'mirroring' only allow Apple provided content?)

I am also worried about the really bad feedback/user reviews for the 4OD and ITV Player apps.

Thanks.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Or you could just have a PVR and record the programmes (in better quality) when they're broadcast and watch them when you wanted, without worrying if they're about to disappear off the catch-up service....

 

[chebby]

Thanks Clare. There is that.

If Panasonic had iPlayer/4OD/ITV Player (etc.) on their Freeview HD Blu-ray recorders (or Humax popped a Blu-ray transport into their HDR Fox T2 and provided 4OD + ITV Player alongside iPlayer) then I could have a true 'one-box' solution. Alas.

I hate big boxes so Blu-ray player + PVR is not a happy option :-( (But I may have to do it.)

Also I was thinking about a Netbook with an HDMI connection instead of an Apple TV.

Hmmm. There'd be less cables.

 

[Paul.]

So I got to thinking about 'mirroring' from my iPhone 4 to an Apple TV.

I don't really watch terrestrial, but did try streaming iPlayer on the iPhone to my ATV2 to see what it was like. It was very poor quality, like watching youtube.

Have you looked at Netflix? May be worth having a look at a free trial as their is tones of whodunnits on there, including Cracker, Poirot, Prime Suspect and Morse.

I remember you have an iMac, but do you have a MacBook of some kind? Mountain Lion is bringing desktop streaming to the Apple TV

 

[Clare Newsome]

Thanks Clare. There is that.

If Panasonic had iPlayer/4OD/ITV Player (etc.) on their Freeview HD Blu-ray recorders (or Humax popped a Blu-ray transport into their HDR Fox T2 and provided 4OD + ITV Player alongside iPlayer) then I could have a true 'one-box' solution. Alas.

I still don't understand why you'd need access to the catch-up services if you have PVR to record the programmes you want to watch. The quality and convenience is so much greater.

And if it's archive stuff you're after, you can pick up used or even new DVD (even Blu-ray) boxsets on Amazon or eBay for a pittance - and you can often sell them on again with little loss. We've worked our ways through several series this way: think watching every episode of The X-Files cost us about £30 net for months of viewing! And again, better picture and sound quality than on-demand stuff...

 

[John Duncan]

I still don't understand why you'd need access to the catch-up services if you have PVR to record the programmes you want to watch. The quality and convenience is so much greater.

I'm too disorganised to record stuff. Or I find out about it after the fact. Or our PVR is in the kitchen.

 

[John Duncan]

Virgin has all three

Most netbooks/laptops don't do audio over HDMI*, though the picture's good.

*out-of-touch generalisation

 

[Clare Newsome]

I still don't understand why you'd need access to the catch-up services if you have PVR to record the programmes you want to watch. The quality and convenience is so much greater.

I'm too disorganised to record stuff. Or I find out about it after the fact. Or our PVR is in the kitchen.

Yeah, but that's you - Chebby's a grown-up ;-)

 

[chebby]

And if it's archive stuff you're after, you can pick up used or even new DVD (even Blu-ray) boxsets on Amazon or eBay for a pittance - and you can often sell them on again with little loss. We've worked our ways through several series this way: think watching every episode of The X-Files cost us about £30 net for months of viewing! And again, better picture and sound quality than on-demand stuff...

We do this too.... Luther, Hidden, Sherlock, Ashes to Ashes, Life on Mars, The Wire, Sopranos, Morse, Frasier, House, Doc Martin, Boardwalk Empire, The Avengers, GBH, House of Cards, Father Ted, Black Books and many, many more.

I understand the PVR 'RIY' approach, but I want everything, including 'catchup' services and the ability to record to HDD and play DVDs/BDs, all in one box ideally. (If not 'ideally' then the fewest and smallest boxes with the least cabling it's possible to have.)

The Apple TV is out.

It looks like a Humax HDR Fox T2 will have to happen. (I prepared for this eventuality last Saturday by price-matching and reserving a 1TB one at our local John Lewis to collect on the 15th.)

I was putting all this off until digital switchover (which for our area happens on the 21st) as there was less point in buying an HD capable recording device until we could get HD

I just wanted to exhaust the options first.

Thanks for the input everyone.

 

[professorhat]

The PS3 gives you access to all three services (iPlayer, ITV Player and C4OD) + a whole lot more. Only thing is, I think the ITV Player and C4OD services are limited i.e. it doesn't give you access to everything that's available on the internet players. For £190 (at Amazon), might be worth a look?

 

[pba_target]

Chebby,

Seconded for the PS3. At that kind of money, it's frankly a bargain as it's not a bad blu-ray player, does DLNA streaming decently (albeit with a few caveats for file support, but that's easily worked around) and does a "remote friendly" iplayer, plus ITV and C4OD. The web browser can also do youtube, which has www.youtube.com/shows which provides a sort of catchup for a lot of C4/5 stuff.

 

[John Duncan]

It looks like a Humax HDR Fox T2 will have to happen. (I prepared for this eventuality last Saturday by price-matching and reserving a 1TB one at our local John Lewis to collect on the 15th.)

Let me know how you get on as I am toying with the idea of getting rid of Virgin and using Freeview. We pay about 75 quid a month - inc broadband and phone, granted - for the privilege of watching sh-tty Disney Original Movies and Suite Life on Deck, and is a waste of money. We don't have PVR facility in the sitting room anyway but it's about time we did tbh, and the HD channels can look rather good when they make the effort to put HD content on them...

 

[chebby]

Let me know how you get on as I am toying with the idea of getting rid of Virgin and using Freeview. We pay about 75 quid a month - inc broadband and phone, granted - for the privilege of watching sh-tty Disney Original Movies and Suite Life on Deck, and is a waste of money. We don't have PVR facility in the sitting room anyway but it's about time we did tbh, and the HD channels can look rather good when they make the effort to put HD content on them...

Half-way through set-up/tune as I write this...

TBC

 

[John Duncan]

Breath/bated

 

[John Duncan]

One question. Why was Apple TV 'out'? I thought airplaying those catchup players via mirroring seemed like quite a good solution?

 

[chebby]

iPlayer is superb. (Crisper and smoother than iPlayer from S370)

Like picture in picture on menus.

All further investigation on hold whilst wife watches Hairy Bikers!

 

[John Duncan]

See Apple TV question while you're waiting then :-D

 

[chebby]

See Apple TV question while you're waiting then :-D

Because if I have to go out (with my iPhone) then ITV Player (or any other non iPlayer 'on demand' services) would go out the door with me.

This would have necessitated buying (at least) an iPod Touch to supplement the ATV.

 

[John Duncan]

Gotcha. So for a family with two iPhone 4 (or higher) and an iPad 2, this might still be a solution...(drums fingers on chin)

 

[chebby]

Gotcha. So for a family with two iPhone 4 (or higher) and an iPad 2, this might still be a solution...(drums fingers on chin)

Until you read the reviews/feedback of the ITV Player and 4OD apps.

(And as Clare - and others - pointed out, there is the 600 hours of recording capacity*.)

*DVD quality.

 

[John Duncan]

ITV players ok, quality-wise, once you actualy find theprograme you want to watch. 4OD I've only downloaded, haven't tried to watch anything yet...

 

[chebby]

I will need a coax digital lead (0.75m) as the optical cable has been swapped from the S370 to the Humax because the Humax only has optical digital out. M-CR603 has seperate optical and coax digital inputs thankfully.

(One of the connectivity 'must haves' that made me decide upon the M-CR603 a year ago.)

My 'Bag 'o cables' yielded only the old 0.5m Chord Crimsons (from my old Beresford) that are a bit too short.

 

[Anonymous]

JD, you can order an ATV3 from Apple store and return it no questions within 14 days if you don't like the results. The store site makes it all very easy to do. I had an ATV2 for a week but returned it. At the time I only had a 3GS so mirroring wasn't available. I've got a iPad 3 coming on Friday so will grab an ATV3 to work with it soon.

 

[Mr. Iceman]

Chebby, M-CR603 does not have coax digital input... Unless you add a coax to USB converter (though not sure if/how that would work).

 

[chebby]

Chebby, M-CR603 does not have coax digital input... Unless you add a coax to USB converter (though not sure if/how that would work).

Oops.

Never mind. I'll have to connect up a set of 0.75m RCAs for an analogue connection then.

I have got everything else sorted out now (including a test recording) and all seems well. Had to tweak a couple of TV picture settings that were still on default for the - as yet unused until today - HDMI2 input. So the TV picture (TV 'native' from internal tuner) and TV picture (via PVR tuner) were identical.

I am now 'migrating' from the 'Quick-Start Guide' (and the bleedin' obvious) to the full blown User's Manual to leave no stone unturned (hopefully).

The software level is 1.02.20 (Jun 2011) and - from a bit of Googling - that seems correct.