Watching TV in your Motorhome

[63720]

A Firestick doesn't have to burn through your data. If you go through Settings to the menus and to Data Monitoring then turn it on you can select the quality, if you choose Good imo it will use about 500mb per hour. Even on this, the lowest setting, it hard to see the difference.

 

[kevenh]

For research, I watched 20 mins of TV recently using data and it consumed about 1gb.
This is why I use a sat dish.

When I bought my last van in 2019 I had an Oyster 5 fitted but did think at the time maybe I shouldn’t have bothered as you could buy a lot of data for £3k.

Not long bought my new van and we still have a Sat system.
Dishes will make a come back due to the data fair usage policy.

Sounds quite a high data rate.
If you didn’t already have the sat dish there’d be settings to optimise the picture quality v data consumption for streaming.

Edit: that I finally notice Sillious Sodus has described

 

[Ridgeway]

We’ve never watched TV in that van before but the new van has a large revolving salad bowl on the the roof, makes a nice noise when you ask to look for a ”stalactite”…. Did just have a Wi-Fi system installed and TBH i can’t see the salad bowl getting much if any use got a domestic SIM card installed and will buy a local one when abroad. Once the data has been used up by the nippers then the they can all bugger off out into the great outdoors and experience what life is all about

 

[suavecarve]

I download a series on Amazon Netflix BBC and 4od which I store on my phone's SD card.
I had trouble casting these TV programmes to the telly but from what I can understand I put my virgin hotspot (ooh er) on and cast my programme onto the firestick which is connected to hotspot on phone

Am I reading that right ?

Ps 8 weeks of holidays so far and watched one film !

 

[vzac]

Would anyone watch anything in 4K in a ‘van………?

Yes me but only for football. I have WiFi and vpn, data roaming so can get BBC I player, Netflix, YouTube etc. We have 50gig per month fair use and that's been more than fine for us while here in Norway/Finland/Sweden.
Guess it sort of depends on what and how you watch TV at home

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[Stealaway]

Back from the days of working for a living, one of my customers were kind enough to give me a "employee contract" (unlimited everything).
But yes, a Firestick will burn through data fairly quickly - even more so if watching anything in 4K

My son recons 1gb an hour watching TV or films.
3 hours a day for 30 days is 90 gb
How much would that be? -and in Europe -- plus the £2 per day data usage fee (£60)?
I cant afford that

I'm 73 now you know

 

[AndyPK]

Yes me but only for football. I have WiFi and vpn, data roaming so can get BBC I player, Netflix, YouTube etc. We have 50gig per month fair use and that's been more than fine for us while here in Norway/Finland/Sweden.
Guess it sort of depends on what and how you watch TV at home

I was really referring to tv size in this instance……..how big a tv do you have in the ‘van which is capable of doing justice to a 4K stream…..?
In my (limited) experience, with anything less than a 55” screen, it’s difficult to tell the difference between Full HD (1080p) and 4K - does anyone have a tv that big in their ‘van…..?

 

[goin roamin]

What do you have to get if you want to record programs???

 

[AndyPK]

Depends on the tv - with ours, I plug in a memory stick and record to that……

 

[vzac]

You could always get a projector, and screen on the side of the van outside that would make it about 80in screen. Worth 6 k quality at that size for a decent football match. Say England v Germany.

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[AndyPK]

Depends on the colour of your ‘van - wouldn’t look too good on a red one……..

 

[dunnah01]

You could always get a projector, and screen on the side of the van outside that would make it about 80in screen. Worth 6 k quality at that size for a decent football match. Say England v Germany.

You'd need deep pockets for a 6k projector

 

[vzac]

Depends on the colour of your ‘van - wouldn’t look too good on a red one……..

Hang a white bed sheet up. Does the trick. There's always a solution.

 

[Lenny HB]

What do you have to get if you want to record programs???

On the TV or sat receiver I just plug a USB memory stick in, for iPlayer, Prime Netflix downloads I have an Android TV Box with 64GB of memory it also takes USB sticks & SD cards.

 

[pappajohn]

Yes. If you don't already have a dish, it's probably better to just pay for data and stream video instead.

But once you have a dish it's there for good.
Buy a months data and when it's gone spend more money on more data.....and repeat for ever

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[sgl5gjr]

We've Firestick and Satellite....the Latter is used more frequently than the Firestick as mobile signal in the UK is appalling in remote spots... Even on the CAMC network locations....Bolton Abbey is one example.... Satellite for the win...none or very poor mobile signal, site wifi is Slooooowww and not built for streaming.... even other places like Burford site... mobile is hit and miss for data...that was O2 and EE which are 2 different frequency bands...... Whatever you choose there is no right or wrong answer.... Safe Travels

 

[TheMachMan]

Anyone tried getting Sky Go onto a Firestick recently?
I followed some earlier instructions and added the Downloader App and then located the Sky Go app. It seemed to download but kept crashing.

 

[BikerGraham]

A Firestick doesn't have to burn through your data. If you go through Settings to the menus and to Data Monitoring then turn it on you can select the quality, if you choose Good imo it will use about 500mb per hour. Even on this, the lowest setting, it hard to see the difference.

Thanks for this advice and glad I came across it.

In France and whilst don’t usually use a tv in the MH, for some reason I got one sorted and a firestick for this trip.

Well given the sad news of our monarchs death, I watched the procession today and it was burning through about 4 - 5 GB an about.

Changed the settings as you recommend thank you. So should have enough data left to watch the funeral on Monday.

 

[Fdhadi]

So I’m driving down through France, It’s 4.45pm. My football team KO at 5pm, It’s on Sky Sports.
If I put put my firestick or Roku thing on the roof will I pick up Sky Tv.

I only ever watch live football on the tv.

Now if I had one of those Satellite Dishes on the roof I would have a perfect picture in seconds and in HD using my Sky Q set up that I pay a ridiculous amount for each month.

Give me a manual Maxview Crank Up system every time.

 

[MisterB]

It's strange when you drive around the UK and see everyone taking their sat dishes off their house, because they can use their unlimited data instead ....

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[Reallyretired]

It's strange when you drive around the UK and see everyone taking their sat dishes off their house, because they can use their unlimited data instead ....

Yes we removed our satellite dish a few years ago.

 

[Casper46]

We have a sat dish because I am incapable of understanding how to get most things Internet to work. I have an absolute blind spot. I can follow instructions but I don't understand the jargon, it's gobblygook. We supposedly have an 'ordinary' aerial in the front windscreen in the motorhome. I have followed the set up details, searched and it says I have 60 plus programmes but I've not managed to get one to view. So thank heavens for the sat dish.

 

[rnb100]

Wifi and a smart TV (x2) for me.

 

[SpeedyDux]

It's strange when you drive around the UK and see everyone taking their sat dishes off their house, because they can use their unlimited data instead ....

The sat dish on my house just keeps on working whenever the interwebby goes down. That happens quite frequently. I ditched Sky but still get all the free channels. The only remaining "subscription" is the BBC's annoying TV tax.

 

[Marty Gilly and Pup]

Plain old tv aerial that gets about 160 channels in the UK. Firestick with all the apps for thousands of channels. 100gb on one phone and 50 on another. Sometimes one works and the other doesn’t. Same for all methods inc satellite if you can’t get a line of sight. We watch if it works and don’t if it doesn’t.

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[Liverpoollass]

Yes me but only for football. I have WiFi and vpn, data roaming so can get BBC I player, Netflix, YouTube etc. We have 50gig per month fair use and that's been more than fine for us while here in Norway/Finland/Sweden.
Guess it sort of depends on what and how you watch TV at home

Who is the 50gig with please

 

[vzac]

Who is the 50gig with please

Ee it's a 160 gig data deal @ £18 month, for UK use then £10 rolling per month while in Europe. ( Not necessarily calender month). We never used more than 50gig month while away. We are happy with it.

 

[MisterB]

eggs and baskets .....

 

[colyboy]

Carrying on from the above, if no satellite and you use a MiFi you will need a data sim. I am just setting up my MiFi and have been looking at a new company who have been advertising in the MMM. The company is Broadband Go. What they offer seems very good value. I would like other funsters comments on this company.
Colyboy

 

[vzac]

Carrying on from the above, if no satellite and you use a MiFi you will need a data sim. I am just setting up my MiFi and have been looking at a new company who have been advertising in the MMM. The company is Broadband Go. What they offer seems very good value. I would like other funsters comments on this company.
Colyboy

That's what our set up is. Not mifi, but different brand, with ee data sim

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