DStv pricing from 1 April 2015

Tweakd Out said:
yeah I can do this but the wife loves the convenience of DSTV...
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I had that problem too... the wife refused to let go of the E! channel. But after much negotiation (months)... i downgraded to the R29 option and have turned that off 2 months later since the R29 option is just about useless anyway. I am now owed R5 refund from dstv. The phone call to them will cost more - so i will rather leave it.

But if anyone has a reliable way of getting the E! channel - i would be really appreciative (and so would my SO!)
 
Ninja'd said:
I pay for my parents. You stand a better chance getting a rich man into heaven than teach my dad about streaming sports.
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Same Here. However showed my dad once how stream the Tennis. He switched that **** off because of the bad quality, that and the fact that my mother can't go a day without KykNet, that's all she watches.
 
Well as of the 1st of April, my Xplora will cost me R1 per month... I think thats pretty much a bargain really.
 
fruitbat said:
I had that problem too... the wife refused to let go of the E! channel. But after much negotiation (months)... i downgraded to the R29 option and have turned that off 2 months later since the R29 option is just about useless anyway. I am now owed R5 refund from dstv. The phone call to them will cost more - so i will rather leave it.

But if anyone has a reliable way of getting the E! channel - i would be really appreciative (and so would my SO!)
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XBMC/Kodi and then any one of Phoenix/AAAStream/Navi-X add-ons. It's not "reliable" in the sense that you will find one specific stream for the channel which always works, but it's pretty much 99% guaranteed that at any given moment you can get at least one working stream for E! Same goes for any of the Sky Sports channels.
 
Edwe said:
XBMC/Kodi and then any one of Phoenix/AAAStream/Navi-X add-ons. It's not "reliable" in the sense that you will find one specific stream for the channel which always works, but it's pretty much 99% guaranteed that at any given moment you can get at least one working stream for E! Same goes for any of the Sky Sports channels.
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Even that is too much effort for me. Ideally I'd like to have a STB with a remote (like a media player) that has a Sky Sports or similar app which shows the cricket and F1. Can do without the F1 though, but not the cricket...
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Even that is too much effort for me. Ideally I'd like to have a STB with a remote (like a media player) that has a Sky Sports or similar app which shows the cricket and F1. Can do without the F1 though, but not the cricket...
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Well, that is pretty much what I have. I switch the TV on and my Raspberry Pi comes on automatically and boots into OpenELEC in about 20 seconds. I am then presented with a menu which I can navigate with the remote. I just go to Video > Add-ons > Phoenix and choose Sky Sports 1 or whatever. Sometimes the first link doesn't work and I have to choose the second one. I feel that's little enough effort for nearly R700 saved.
 
Edwe said:
Well, that is pretty much what I have. I switch the TV on and my Raspberry Pi comes on automatically and boots into OpenELEC in about 20 seconds. I am then presented with a menu which I can navigate with the remote. I just go to Video > Add-ons > Phoenix and choose Sky Sports 1 or whatever. Sometimes the first link doesn't work and I have to choose the second one. I feel that's little enough effort for nearly R700 saved.
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Mind posting a few stats or pics or something of available channels.


I would rather go this route with my 40Mbps than pay additional monochoice
 
Thor187 said:
Mind posting a few stats or pics or something of available channels.


I would rather go this route with my 40Mbps than pay additional monochoice
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There are few screen caps of some of the available channels (2 pages out of ~10 pages snapped) in the first post of my thread here: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...onal-TV-on-Kodi-XMBC-OpenELEC-(Please-sticky) .

I'm not going to bother taking pictures of absolutely everything, but if you want to know whether any specific channel works, I can check it out for you tonight. It's easy enough to install Kodi on your PC and try it out though.

I watch a lot of Netflix and only occasionally use these streams (sport and the occasional documentary). My parents have DStv Premium. My opinion on how they compare:

Benefits of DStv Premium
- Convenient (no manual channel mapping; it takes around 2min to find a channel you haven't mapped yet in Phoenix)
- Local MNET content not available anywhere else (Binnelanders, Carte Blanche, SA Idols, and other stuff I can't be bothered to watch)
- PVR funcitonality "just works" instead of having to install a backend (not difficult to do; just an extra step)

Benefits of Netflix + Kodi + FTV Guide + Phoenix/AAAStream
- Significantly more and newer content from the USA and UK
- Much better "play on demand" functionality
- Very much cheaper

No significant difference:
- Sport (pretty much all the local sport I want to watch is somewhere on Phoenix, and the quality is often comparable to DStv SD, and occasionally better. For SA sport, it is usually Sky Sports rebroadcasting the Super Sport feed, so it's exactly the same feed
- Overall live TV experience; quality is good, and besides the MNET stuff, we don't "miss out" on any content we could get on DStv (you can get OpenviewHD or terrestrial antenna for free access to free-to-air channels, so you don't lose that).

Total cost breakdown for the current set-up:

Phone + ADSL line rental + 4meg line + uncapped plan: R500
Netflix + Unotelly: ~R150 (depending on exchange rate)

So the price is "comparable to DStv", but you would be comparing apples and oranges, because this includes TV, on-demand streams of content that won't show up on DStv for at least another 6 months, ADSL and phone, whereas DStv is only DStv.
 
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Edwe said:
There are few screen caps of some of the available channels (2 pages out of ~10 pages snapped) in the first post of my thread here: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...onal-TV-on-Kodi-XMBC-OpenELEC-(Please-sticky) .

I'm not going to bother taking pictures of absolutely everything, but if you want to know whether any specific channel works, I can check it out for you tonight. It's easy enough to install Kodi on your PC and try it out though.

I watch a lot of Netflix and only occasionally use these streams (sport and the occasional documentary). My parents have DStv Premium. My opinion on how they compare:

Benefits of DStv Premium
- Convenient (no manual channel mapping; it takes around 2min to find a channel you haven't mapped yet in Phoenix)
- Local MNET content not available anywhere else (Binnelanders, Carte Blanche, SA Idols, and other stuff I can't be bothered to watch)
- PVR funcitonality "just works" instead of having to install a backend (not difficult to do; just an extra step)

Benefits of Netflix + Kodi + FTV Guide + Phoenix/AAAStream
- Significantly more and newer content from the USA and UK
- Much better "play on demand" functionality
- Very much cheaper

No significant difference:
- Sport (pretty much all the local sport I want to watch is somewhere on Phoenix, and the quality is often comparable to DStv SD, and occasionally better. For SA sport, it is usually Sky Sports rebroadcasting the Super Sport feed, so it's exactly the same feed
- Overall live TV experience; quality is good, and besides the MNET stuff, we don't "miss out" on any content we could get on DStv (you can get OpenviewHD or terrestrial antenna for free access to free-to-air channels, so you don't lose that).

Total cost breakdown for the current set-up:

Phone + ADSL line rental + 4meg line + uncapped plan: R500
Netflix + Unotelly: ~R150 (depending on exchange rate)

So the price is "comparable to DStv", but you would be comparing apples and oranges, because this includes TV, on-demand streams of content that won't show up on DStv for at least another 6 months, ADSL and phone, whereas DStv is only DStv.
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And how do you get this to your TV?
 
Edwe said:
XBMC/Kodi and then any one of Phoenix/AAAStream/Navi-X add-ons. It's not "reliable" in the sense that you will find one specific stream for the channel which always works, but it's pretty much 99% guaranteed that at any given moment you can get at least one working stream for E! Same goes for any of the Sky Sports channels.
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Thanks - I saw your other thread. Can finally try that this eve - my daughter is sleeping out and i can "have" the tv for a bit:-)
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Got the same MMS. Will only subscribe as and when I need to watch a particular sporting event, like the ongoing cricket world cup. Otherwise they can f-off. I suspect that once they cross that R700 mark, more people will start asking themselves if spending close to R1,000 pm is really worth it...
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With some tough economic times ahead I can see a lot more people reconsiddering that R700... or even the R400

For R700 I can get an ADSL line with Netflix,Amazon AND Hulu
 
Drifter said:
And how do you get this to your TV?
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There are a lot of different options.

Me personally:

  • Netflix via the built-in Netflix app on my Samsung Smart TV (region changed via DNS service and TV config)
  • Everything else running on a Raspberry Pi Rev B with OpenELEC installed. Connected to my TV via HDMI and to my router with a USB WiFi adapter.
  • Control the Raspberry Pi with one of these


In general, the best (i.t.o. budget) option is probably to get an Android TV device (although I haven't used one) or the latest Raspberry Pi 2, selling for around R500. Depending on whether your TV supports HDMI-CEC (remote control commands over HDMI), you can either use your TV remote directly, or you need to buy a remote with USB infrared adapter or a wireless keyboard/mouse solution.
 
Does anyone know the usage limits of the DSTV Commercial packages? Also are all the channels available on there if it's DSTV Premium?
 
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