Streaming TV, Is this too good to be true??

[ruthers]

So help out somebody still living in the dark ages here as far as tv goes. I fork out for Sky Sports through my Virgin tivo box, but am getting more and more fed up with the football but keep it going for the cricket. If I were to get one of these Kodi box thingummies, would I be able to get the cricket and watch it on my television?

Yes.

Amazon Firestick (£34.99) can be loaded up with Kodi app quite easily via many online tutorials, or eBay have plenty selling for around £45 pre-loaded with Kodi...

Hmm, that's what I hear anyway....

 

[8ace]

The people who sell these boxes are making money off what the kodi developers have done for free aren't they

 

[Bold Seagull]

Where do these Kodi streams buffer from? Is it peer-to-peer?

Kodi doesn't have any of its own streams, all it does is collate multimedia together as a sort of multimedia operating system. It evolved from XBMC which was basically a bit of software written for Xbox i.e. XB Media Centre (or Controller). So what you have is someone who writes an Add-On for Kodi that links the streams from elsewhere on the internet and Kodi acts is the user interface to all those streams making it all neat and tidy for the user.

The legal situation is this as I understand it, if you watch a live stream on the internet you are not breaking the law, only the person broadcasting the stream is. However as soon as you record that stream, you too would be breaking the law as a copyright infringement.

 

[John Bumlick]

Yes. Best way to imagine it is that you have every live channel running anywhere at your fingertips. Plus any film or TV series. Setup may take a while and getting used to navigating the system will take a while but after that you will be golden.

Well......

There are a few caveats to that though, right?

First, you're reliant on the streamers... people like you and me with some extra kit and a desire to illegally stream channels for free.

Second, whilst there are some very good quality streams out there, you'll often be watching something that is nowhere near HD quality especially if you're going to watch it on a large screen TV.

Third, it's illegal to stream these channels and people like Sky TV do everything in their power to protect their copyrights. They're not going to come after people watching the streams but they will try to 'take down' the streamers so be prepared for your favourite streams to disappear without notice.

Don't get me wrong, I haven't paid a penny for TV for years - I stream or download everything I watch - but if you think this Kodi lark is just like having Sky but for free, you might be somewhat disappointed.

 

[Bold Seagull]

So help out somebody still living in the dark ages here as far as tv goes. I fork out for Sky Sports through my Virgin tivo box, but am getting more and more fed up with the football but keep it going for the cricket. If I were to get one of these Kodi box thingummies, would I be able to get the cricket and watch it on my television?

It's not perfect. Though Kodi makes it very easy to find streams, you are still relying on streams - while you find a good stream most of the time, HD is not always guaranteed and you can experience a bit of buffering. I find that it can crash if you pause stuff on it, and some controls are unpredictable fast forward etc. So it's not something to go into thinking it is a like for like service, however if you want to save £50 per month or whatever, and can live with a few glitches, then it is well worth a look.

So yes, you'd be able to watch cricket, and not just Sky cricket, any cricket televised anywhere in the world!

 

[5ways]

Kodi doesn't have any of its own streams, all it does is collate multimedia together as a sort of multimedia operating system. It evolved from XBMC which was basically a bit of software written for Xbox i.e. XB Media Centre (or Controller). So what you have is someone who writes an Add-On for Kodi that links the streams from elsewhere on the internet and Kodi acts is the user interface to all those streams making it all neat and tidy for the user.

The legal situation is this as I understand it, if you watch a live stream on the internet you are not breaking the law, only the person broadcasting the stream is. However as soon as you record that stream, you too would be breaking the law as a copyright infringement.

But where is the stream from? Is it like an Acestream?

 

[Bold Seagull]

Well......

There are a few caveats to that though, right?

First, you're reliant on the streamers... people like you and me with some extra kit and a desire to illegally stream channels for free.

Second, whilst there are some very good quality streams out there, you'll often be watching something that is nowhere near HD quality especially if you're going to watch it on a large screen TV.

Third, it's illegal to stream these channels and people like Sky TV do everything in their power to protect their copyrights. They're not going to come after people watching the streams but they will try to 'take down' the streamers so be prepared for your favourite streams to disappear without notice.

Don't get me wrong, I haven't paid a penny for TV for years - I stream or download everything I watch - but if you think this Kodi lark is just like having Sky but for free, you might be somewhat disappointed.

I'd agree with this as posted above, but I did look into the legal side, and case law would suggest someone watching a stream is not breaking any law, and would only be doing so if they were to record the stream / broadcast. That said, you are right that those streaming the content are and the corporations will continue to do everything to stop them. So it is a pain when you go to your favourite link for a stream and it is there no longer, however a quick search usually delivers.

I've found live sport very hit and miss finding really good HD, but films are a lot easier.

 

[Triggaaar]

I pay £41 for all the sky channels, sports, movies, HD.

Free would be nicer, but I think £41 is decent for all the TV plus on tablet and PC.

 

[Bold Seagull]

But where is the stream from? Is it like an Acestream?

It is from wherever the programmer of the Add-On has linked to. It could be any stream anywhere on the internet. All Kodi does is enable the Add-On writers to create a neat and tidy library of it all on an easy to use interface.

 

[yxee]

Never heard of this before but it seems pretty dishonest...

 

[Bold Seagull]

I pay £41 for all the sky channels, sports, movies, HD.

Free would be nicer, but I think £41 is decent for all the TV plus on tablet and PC.

That is a deal most people can't get. The Complete Bundle is £80 pcm.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Never heard of this before but it seems pretty dishonest...

The Kodi boxes are dishonest, those that stream copyrighted material or share it are dishonest, those that download copyrighted material are dishonest, but watching a stream that is there on the internet - that is certainly up for debate. There is some case law that says that watching a stream is not illegal as long as you don't record or save it.

Kodi is an open source free bit of software - there is nothing dishonest about it, in fact the very opposite. Developed by programmers to enable a better use of media through an Xbox (see above it was originally called XBMC), it's been programmed by others to link to streams across the internet.

 

[Seagull58]

I stream kodi via my laptop to my TV and it costs nothing. I mainly use it for movies and football but you can literally watch anything you want on it.

How do you stream to the TV? Do you use an HDMI cable and just select the relevant HDMI socket on the TV control?

 

[Gabbafella]

How do you stream to the TV? Do you use an HDMI cable and just select the relevant HDMI socket on the TV control?

I've got mine set up that way, asking the laptop to wirelessly connect to the TV whilst streaming as well is a bit of an ask and causes me a few buffering issues, HDMI works well though.

 

[TotallyFreaked]

I think Kodi is great especially installed on one of the various TV boxes you can use ( I have 2 now) However I am not sure they are a replacement for your standard TV packages through sky or virgin. They take a certain amount of nursing and installation and various addons are not always reliable. It still confuses my wife to even get a TV show to stream so I think you have to invest a bit of time learning it.

I have found it is much better for TV shows than sport as sportsmix seems to crash and sportsdevil streams aren't always that great quality, Also quality of livetv is not always great.

I think there is something said for buying a box with a basic kodi install and learning how to manage the addons yourself so if things change or stop working you know what to do.

 

[Triggaaar]

That is a deal most people can't get. The Complete Bundle is £80 pcm.

Do they not do half price deals for new customers sometimes? They did a year ago, which used to get our deal then (although we weren't new).

 

[moggy]

I've been using Kodi for a while now on a firestick but I have a question:
There's plenty of live tv streaming so could you stream BBC live as it happens and not have to pay for your tv license?