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How do you watch live TV on your ATV? [UK]

profmjh

profmjh

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 7, 2015
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UK
Giddy with excitement over the imminent release of an Amazon app for ATV, I’ve ordered myself an ATV in time for Christmas.

My naive hope is to have the ATV as my only access to television and video. In particular I want to ditch Sky TV.

I’ll get close to my goal with the Netflix, NowTV and (soon) the Amazon apps. And for regular TV, BBC iPlayer. But what about ITV, C4 and C5?

Is there a sensible way to do this, or am I doomed to use Freeview on my TV as well?
 
I put an antenna on my roof to capture local channels. It connects to a Tablo tuner\DVR which in turn has iOS and ATV apps. So, with the Tablo app on ATV, iOS, and Mac (browser), I see the guide for all of the local channels, can tune or records this content and all of the content streams to my ATVs over my network. Tablo can be used with WiFi or Ethernet connection to the network, and therefore can be placed wherever it is easiest to connect to the antenna.

So, if you can get over the air broadcasts from local stations, this is one way to go. There are others, but this is the only one I have used.
 
Hi, I'm using Channels (http://getchannels.com) paired with a couple of HomeRun tuners which sit on the network via ethernet. Channels then picks these up and provides not only a guide, but a fully functional DVR right on the Apple TV.
 
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As Techwarrior mentioned, Tablo (i have the 4 tuner) works well. Your availability and experience depend on broadcasting tower location from where you are located. If you go to Table's site you can see what broadcasts you may receive over the air.
 
Where did you get your homerun tuners from? They only seem to exist in America.

Thanks
 
I got mine from Amazon UK, but just did a quick search and they don't seem to be in stock any longer :-(
 
profmatt said:
Is there a sensible way to do this, or am I doomed to use Freeview on my TV as well?
Click to expand...
What is wrong with using Freeview on your TV for live programs? It should work perfectly fine and you already have it built into your TV.

I might be missing something obvious but it seems like you are looking to solve a problem that doesn't really exist.
 
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OllyW said:
What is wrong with using Freeview on your TV for live programs? It should work perfectly fine and you already have it built into your TV.

I might be missing something obvious but it seems like you are looking to solve a problem that doesn't really exist.
Click to expand...

My objective was to get everything through the same Apple TV interface including recordings from Freeview.
 
OllyW said:
What is wrong with using Freeview on your TV for live programs? It should work perfectly fine and you already have it built into your TV.

I might be missing something obvious but it seems like you are looking to solve a problem that doesn't really exist.
Click to expand...

Because then I need two remote controls and I keep having to change inputs.
 
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Hi ProfMatt!
A simple easy answer here in the UK. TV Player - This app does it all! I've never used it myself as i'm not interested in mainstream TV but from what i've read...
https://tvplayer.com/watch
Picture quality may not be brilliant on all of these channels - so try it - if not, just switch to your TV Freeview and when you turn your ATV on, it'll automatically switch on your TV. Like many people, you may find that you stop watching the conventional channels over time and go for the VOD approach.
If you ditch iPlayer and only watch VOD, then you'll save yourself £150 a year and you would not need a TV licence!
 
As mentioned above the TVPlayer app is ok for live tv, as well as the BBC, ITV and My5 apps for catch up. I wouldn't count on NowTV though, it's a god awful app that hasn't been updated since the ATV3. My hope is that they will integrate with the forthcoming TV App and mitigate this.

I'm in the same boat as you, wasting money on Sky each month, when I don't actually watch it
 
Hermes Monster said:
As mentioned above the TVPlayer app is ok for live tv, as well as the BBC, ITV and My5 apps for catch up. I wouldn't count on NowTV though, it's a god awful app that hasn't been updated since the ATV3. My hope is that they will integrate with the forthcoming TV App and mitigate this.

I'm in the same boat as you, wasting money on Sky each month, when I don't actually watch it
Click to expand...

Seems so wrong having the evil Murdoch SKY empire on something as classy and creative as an Apple product. I really hope the ATV does not become a mainstream device as that's never what ATV was about.
 
BODYBUILDERPAUL said:
Seems so wrong having the evil Murdoch SKY empire on something as classy and creative as an Apple product. I really hope the ATV does not become a mainstream device as that's never what ATV was about.
Click to expand...

Maybe it wasn't, but that's the direction Apple want to take it in
 
Hermes Monster said:
As mentioned above the TVPlayer app is ok for live tv, as well as the BBC, ITV and My5 apps for catch up.
Click to expand...


You can watch live channels through the iPlayer and ITV hub on ATV. Pretty sure the iPlayer is in HD too so much better than the TVPlayer app. Not sure about the ITV app yet.
 
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