TV: Where's it going?
I ditched VM TV many moons ago and use Freeview via a rooftop aerial and a vintage Humax box plus apps (BBC, Now, Disney) on my 6 year old smart TV.
I admit to being behind the curve on where TV is going. My decade old aerial seems a bit knackered as the Humax signal strength now maxes at about 3/10. The Humax box has seen better days and takes a good minute to boot up. The Samsung TV is okay but is now 6 years old. My street is also imminently being upgraded to Xgs-pon (with OR probably 2 years off).
So what should I be looking at for the next 5-10 years? Just replace old with new? Consider streaming sticks like Amazon /VM? Are cloud TV boxes a thing? Just stick with premium TV apps?
Cheers.
Pay TV works for me as I watch the premium stuff, but if you're happy enough with Freeview (no UHD or HDR) and some apps then here's what I think. Get a decent recorder, it seems as if the Humax Aura ticks all the boxes. Should there be a problem with the aerial, which should show up with a new box, then get it fixed. If you've got the budget then upgrade to a UHD TV which has the apps you want but, even if it doesn't have all of them, then I can recommend the Fire TV Stick 4K Max which has all the apps you'd want and it supports all versions of HDR as well.
However if you want Pay TV again then VM should work well for you. A word of warning: XGS-PON means currently no TV and when it comes it will probably be like the limited Sky Stream, so get your 360 box now.