Clampdown on TV 'Dodgy Boxes'

When I took over managing my Dads bills I was shocked, shocked I say, at what he was paying for Sky. all these little add-ons he'd presumeably agreed to have added on at some point. Cutting it back to the basic packeage covered 98% of the channels he watched anyway and saved over 100 a month.

Shock horror… sky have been absolutely gouging long standing customers (like my parents) for decades. They now pay circa €120 for 2 subs per year and are only delighted 😝

That dodgy sounding legal advice from a few years ago must have been ignored in more recent times. The law allows for prosecution of users as well as suppliers.

https://globallawexperts.com/the-new-anti-piracy-law-and-the-penalty-for-users-of-pirated-audiovisual-content/#:~:text=Law%20No.,force%20from%208%20August%202023.

"The alarming consequences do not only concern the economic and industrial side, but also the security of the users of pirated services: many are the risks linked to cyber-attacks with breaches of personal and banking data, as well as dangers on devices through malware and viruses, given that piracy is often run by criminal organizations, including transnational ones.

Therefore, the lawmaker considered that the parasitic phenomenon should be hit on both fronts: the pirates’ one, by criminal offences punishing criminal conduct, and the user’s one by the infliction of the administrative penalty."

I was responding to a post which claimed that legal moves against individual users in Italy were not possible. My link has a paragraph about supranational legislation, and seeing as both countries are in the EU, it could have relevance in Ireland.

Supranational legislation

National acts of law have always adopted international treaties and numerous European directives in this area. Most recently, we may recall the European Recommendation of 4 May last year on fighting online piracy of audiovisual content, theatrical and live performances, including sporting events, in which the European Commission encouraged Member States, national authorities, rights holders and intermediary service providers to “take effective, balanced and appropriate measures to counter unauthorised retransmissions of illicit streaming”.

Heres whats connected to my tv box but I have 3 different sets (all tp-link) in the house for PC, console etc. They pair up together no problem. There are also newer 1000Mbps versions for a few quid more on Amazon.

EDIT: as pointed out below by Shoog these give the best results when all plugs are on the same electrical circuit.

EDIT2: newer houses with newer wiring also give better results.

Lads re the pausing oe buffering. Ensure the firstick is unobstructed. Use a hdmi extender and leave it clealry visible. The metal part of the back of some tvs kills rf.

I have also installed a speedtest app. Getting 170mb down compared to 10mb when it was plugged directly into the hdmi port.

Done this on a few tvs amd has worked wonders.

Try this before buying extenders or mesh systems.

I dont think you get your full speeds either with the home plugs, recently bought a set of the av1000s and i dont get full speeds. My router is on one side of the room and nvidia shield is on the other connected to tv. Get roughly half of my 500mbps. Wifi gives me a stronger signal in the room. Havent tried them over long distance as in would it give the same roughly half the speed say if one was up stairs.

My supplier went down Saturday, another reseller was caught on Facebook selling, now the service will be taken down for a few days while the whole thing is moved to another main server. I mentioned before the greedy people looking to make money will ruin it for everyone else.

Yeah would love some more info on this please

If that case ill stick to the wifi for upstairs too

For anyone not getting full speeds through their tp-link plugs this is the solution for me too. As another poster pointed out they were getting half speeds. This sometimes happens to me. Half speeds also. A quick reboot of the router fixes it. I get the full speed of my line everywhere in the house. Granted its a 3 bed semi all on the same electrical circuit.

Doesnt happen often as I usually flick the router off and on when I come down the stairs in the morning.

Really bad speeds through tp-link plugs is nearly always due to seperate circuits from what Ive read.

This is off topic, but if you want a reliable home network - I would not personally recommend the use of Powerline Adaptors (HomePlugs). They can have poor speeds, drop connections & need to be restarted often. Your milage may vary of course, and that's the problem with them.

Newer Wi-Fi standards make these pretty much obsolete in most scenarios. Run ethernet cable if you really want the best speeds. If you've coaxial cable running around the home, consider Moca 2.5 adapters as another alternative (very reliable).

They do. But they are tiny. I have a 1 meter extender which gives the firestick a full unobstructed path to the Wi-Fi.