Time for something a little different. If you’re like me you’re using a service similar to Galaxus TV. In the good old days when I was younger we had a satellite dish and that satellite dish had a tuner, and the tuner had a PVR. You could record series and more, rather than watch live TV, and we did.
We watched recorded programs rather than live television for a simple reason. WE could skip ads, but we could also shift programs to a time that didn’t dictate our evening.
In the past we had to watch live television, and ad breaks were snack and toilet breaks. We had no choice but to endure them. For every hour of TV we would watch three or four ad breaks. A 42 minute program took a one hour time slot, as it had ads. A one and a half hour movie lasted two hours, to fit ads at regular intervals.
I’m re-watching MASH at the moment and because it was broadcast during the world cup they keep saying “Mash of the Day” and “Don’t touch the remote” and other comments that are now archaic. I’m watching TV as VOD, rather than broadcast television.I set the streaming service that works as a PVR to record the programs I want to watch so I might touch the remote and stop watching but the series remains on the PVR, for me to resume when I want to.
If you use Jellyfin, you need to buy, and then transcode all your media. If you use Plex you need to pay a monthly, yearly, or other fee. If you pay for Netflix then you have accesss to content licensed by Netflix, and the same for Apple, and other streaming services.
What I like about Galaxus, in contrast, is that if you don’t need to see the newest content, as soon as it comes out, then you have access to everything that is available via freeview, on satellite, for 10 CHF per month.
I often saw BBC, ITV or other content being promoted to be watched via the BBC iPlayer app. It is geo-blocked so in Switzerland you see content promotion but don’t have access to it. With Galaxus you do. You see a program being promoted, and you set it to record, either as a one off, or as a series, and the next day you watch it.
With Apple TV, and Netflix, and Amazon Prime, and more, it is very easy to spend 100 CHF per month on streaming platforms to access their content. By using a streaming service such as Galaxus you spend 10 CHF per month, and your films and series are available when you have time, and once they’re watched you can release that slot for more content.
Is the video quality excellent? Not all the time. I also notice that there are signal issues when it rains, due to them using a small antenna that suffers from rain fade. Loss of Signal, LOS is usually a few seconds although recently I noticed that it might have lasted for longer with one show.
And finally, whilst plenty of people like streaming services I like stream services that provide me with access to satellite broadcasts. I often see promotions for BBC, Channel 4 and other content that I can’t watch. Via services like Galaxus I re-gain access to all this content at an excellent price.
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