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VIEWING HABITS
■ Give your box a box
Modern tellies have apps, but
don’t buy one on that basis.
If you’re not happy with the
smart features your TV has,
a better bet is to plug in a
streaming box. You can revel
in its feature set... and in the
fact that you’ll later be able to
switch or upgrade affordably.
See the sidebar opposite for
our top picks.■ Set up profiles
Living with someone who
has different tastes? In a
house with kids who probably
shouldn’t be watching The End
of the F**king World just yet?
Set up profiles for services
you subscribe to, so one
person’s viewing habits don’t
impact on others’. Consider
additional ‘adults’ and ‘family’
profiles for viewing together.THE BASICS
GO OLD-SCHOOL
■ Enjoy the ’view
Got a hankering to watch
some live TV? Grab Freeview
and relevant other apps to
gawp at what’s on right now...
and then, five minutes into Mrs
Brown’s Boys, remember why
you switched to on-demand
in the first place.■ Plex your muscles
Plex lets you stream from
a Plex Media Server (a PC
or NAS device with support),
but the app also adds access
to live shows and loads of films
you’ve never heard of. It’s like
someone tipped a DVD bargain
bin into your phone – and can
be quite entertaining.Want to get more from your telly? Then have tech make it
better, from tracking shows to streamlining subscriptions.
Craig Grannell makes his eyes suitably square to reveal all...■ Track habits
Streaming and on-demand
services don’t make it easy to
figure out what you want to
watch and what you’ve already
seen – and managing that can
be tricky if you use a bunch of
them. So instead use an app
to create a watchlist and track
where you’ve got to in any
given series. Freebie JustWatch
is a good bet and adds basic
thumbs-up/down ratings too.■ Take your time
You might grumble when a
series is drip-fed on a weekly
basis, but sometimes it can
be good to watch one episode
and then get the chance to
think and chat about it (yes,
like in the olden days). So don’t
always blaze through every
show at breakneck speed:
recognise when limiting intake
of a series might increase
your enjoyment.■ Dip into streams
We’re now at a point where
streaming services are the
only way to watch certain
series or films – some of
which are cultural events.
Unless you’ve deep pockets,
subscribing to everything
won’t be viable. So dip into
some services for a month
or two, burning through
their best bits – and set
up calendar alerts that’ll
remind you to cancel.BETA YOURSELF
Infuse yourself
Got an Apple TV and
cloud storage or a NAS?
Upload DRM-free video
to your storage and use the
Infuse app to fling it at the
Apple TV – no fancy
server required.