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Scouse stick

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Farkmaster

Farkmaster

Part of the Furniture
Member
My dad is no longer capable of dealing with the rigamarole of casting from his tablet to the tv and on and on. I've actually told him to just wind down his life sending some money to sky but I think in many ways, principled but ineffectual pettiness is the only thing motivating him to take the stair lift downstairs.

Can someone pm me about these fire sticks and what I should be doing to give the old man a more Luddite friendly solution, or does it require too much babysitting to be practical? I just need a nudge in the right direction, but want to set it up while I'm here.

I've been even thinking of setting up a kvm here and a computer just so I can deal with it remotely, but that seems excessive.
 
Sky are now being cunts and pushing streaming devices rather than satellite dishes. Which means there are delays. I’d rather go down the stick route than that.

You need a newish firestick but not the newest because they’ve updated them and some suppliers have apps which can’t work on them. Yet.

You’ll need discord as many suppliers communicate through that.
 
Frogfish said:
Why not just an iPad and streaming? Many more uses, great screen and even my 94 yr old Dad loves his.
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He just prefers to watch on TV. That has involved using streams and then casting to the tv. My mum just about helps him manage that but streaming is nowhere near as idiot proof as it used to be nor is the quality as good. He has a tablet, but doesn't watch anything on it, or indeed use it, at all.
 
I'm not sure what the optimal solution is now cos I'm just riding out the last good advice anyone gave me, which still seems to work.

Involves an annual sub of about £35 I think. Buy via alibaba. Have to plug codes into an app on a firestick (or similar - my old Sony TV used to work but my LG doesn't).

I've no idea if the app still works on newer firesticks (you had to manually download it via a url which is a bit of a pain).

But basically once it's set up it's reasonably easy to use. No harder than something like Netflix.
 
peterhague said:
I'm not sure what the optimal solution is now cos I'm just riding out the last good advice anyone gave me, which still seems to work.

Involves an annual sub of about £35 I think. Buy via alibaba. Have to plug codes into an app on a firestick (or similar - my old Sony TV used to work but my LG doesn't).

I've no idea if the app still works on newer firesticks (you had to manually download it via a url which is a bit of a pain).

But basically once it's set up it's reasonably easy to use. No harder than something like Netflix.
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Ok, this is the sort of thing I need, because as soon as it doesn't work, I'll be troubleshooting it via telephone, as I am now.
 
It's not perfect, it'll buffer occasionally (especially on the higher quality streams - which is another issue cos every channel has 3 alternatives of bit rate etc). But you can curate it with a list of favourites which I'm assuming you could just direct your dad straight to.

@MomoWASright can you still download tivimate onto a firestick?
 
You can. Like you say, once it’s working it will be fine. It’s the initial setup which is downloader to get the app and updating the settings in the Firestick itself to allow the installation.
 
One thing you'll notice is ISPs throttle the line around 3pm kick offs (might be a UK only thing). And on bigger games. Doesn't matter your download speed, you are still in the lap of the gods whether you find a stream which works.
 
MomoWASright said:
You can. Like you say, once it’s working it will be fine. It’s the initial setup which is downloader to get the app and updating the settings in the Firestick itself to allow the installation.
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You doing basically the same thing as me then? Just paying for the codes for a year? I found a few years back that getting free streams was basically impossible. I think acestreams was the last reliable free source I had, would just take some address off RAWK and paste into ace player each game.

Even that was a hassle. I'd rather just pay.
 
peterhague said:
You doing basically the same thing as me then? Just paying for the codes for a year? I found a few years back that getting free streams was basically impossible. I think acestreams was the last reliable free source I had, would just take some address off RAWK and paste into ace player each game.

Even that was a hassle. I'd rather just pay.
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I am. I do also have a full sport package with Virgin because I’m happy with the offer they gave me. I use the stick for 3pm and PPV events.
 
My Dodge is £50 per year and there isn't a channel it doesn't get. Comes with every movie & boxset on demand too.

The guy who runs it is a highly strung prima donna though
 
Farkmaster said:
My dad is no longer capable of dealing with the rigamarole of casting from his tablet to the tv and on and on. I've actually told him to just wind down his life sending some money to sky but I think in many ways, principled but ineffectual pettiness is the only thing motivating him to take the stair lift downstairs.

Can someone pm me about these fire sticks and what I should be doing to give the old man a more Luddite friendly solution, or does it require too much babysitting to be practical? I just need a nudge in the right direction, but want to set it up while I'm here.

I've been even thinking of setting up a kvm here and a computer just so I can deal with it remotely, but that seems excessive.
Click to expand...
We've got several firesticks up and down stairs. Simple to set up and use. Comes with apps but you can add, upgrade and rearrange as required.

Insert stick into HDMI port on TV, use the TV's remote to navigate to the Fire Stick's settings, then go to Network to connect to the Wi-Fi. You will need the network name and password obviously. Follow on screen instructions.

Had these a few years, basically maintenance free apart from the odd updates that they initiate. During updates they tell you not to touch shit and let it do it's job, usually lasts 30 secs or so.

What additional apps, subscriptions etc - personal choice and pocket (willingness to spend more money than you want to).
 
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