Live streaming quandry

[Dazmio]

I'm hoping for some help and advice. I am looking for a new laptop to stream live TV shows to my HD TV. I was thinking of getting a macbook air /pro but after looking on forums it seems apple isn't as smooth sailing as everyone suggests.
How happy are people with their macs for watching TV shows and day to day surfing? Should I save my money and get a windows device or apple? If I get a mac should it be air or mbpr ? How much ram is necessary? Thanks I'm completely stumped

 

[RadDave]

Hello and welcome to the forum! Let me 'get the ball rolling' by asking you to provide more information so we understand which specific recommendations might suit your needs the best: 1) Do you have another computer, whether a PC or iMac, and if so please provide information as to the brand/model and the OS installed; 2) Do you have a home Wi-Fi network which would impact heavily on my suggestions; 3) What other purposes would you be using your 'new' Apple laptop; and 4) What is your budget? Dave

 

[Dazmio]

I am using my Samsung Galaxy note 10.1 currently as my last windows 7 computer has just become ridiculously slow and streaming tv shows or football games meant I was in a continual state of buffering.
I have no problems with Internet speed 60 gb with etherent or 30 gb wifi.
My quandary is do I get a budget computer just to stay at home for purely streaming tv show's esp sports or a mac? I also look at Asus zenbook ux32la with i7 4510u 12gb ram 256 ssd and fhd screen for £750 or Macbook air 4gb Ram 128ssd not fhd screen at the same price. At home it'll be mainly be plugged into tv but as a teacher it may replace my Samsung tablet in class. I have had this dilemma for over a month now so thought I'd seek others thoughts. Macbook pro retina 13.3 seems overkill if I have it plugged into tv at £999 .
Thanks

 

[chas_m]

Depending on your specific needs, have you considered an Apple TV? Lots of live sports events available there, though some (MLB for example) require a subscription.

 

[Dazmio]

The things I stream are from the UK namely bbciplayer, skysports and other sports via wiziwig on acestream. My sister has apple tv with her MBP and to be honest there i
are no channels on apple tv she/we use, instead find using google chromecast and chrome browser or real players chromecast the best way to stream when not using an hdmi cable.

I was thinking of getting a mac bc in windows you keep need to update and overtime the computer gets slower but from reading macforum it seems you have the same problems or as you update it's worse as older macs seem to not work with latest systems.
All I want is a computer that will work and be kind of future proof for 4/5 years predominately for streaming live TV shows as picture quality improves every year that goes by .

 

[ashwell]

Greetings to the forum! You can buy macs for watching TV shows it's not bad at all.

 

[RadDave]

Depending on your specific needs, have you considered an Apple TV? Lots of live sports events available there, though some (MLB for example) require a subscription.

@ Dasmio - well, one of the reasons for my questions on whether you had a Wi-Fi network - you could watch whatever 'shows' are now being viewed on your current laptop, but w/ an Apple laptop & Apple TV, Apple's AirPlay technology would permit 'mirroring' to your HDTV - still a good solution IMO - Dave

 

[Dazmio]

Thanks all, I am now the proud owner of a 13.3 MBPR i5 128ssd
Just have to learn how to use this system to its best.

Just trying to work out if the apps on itunes work on MBPR or just iphone/ipad

 

[RadDave]

Thanks all, I am now the proud owner of a 13.3 MBPR i5 128ssd
Just have to learn how to use this system to its best.

Congrats - I see the specs in your signature; a 128 GB SSD is small for a laptop, so don't fill it up to capacity - most here recommend keeping 15% to 20% free, i.e. 20 GB or so.

Just trying to work out if the apps on itunes work on MBPR or just iphone/ipad

Keep in mind that your MBPro runs on OS X (current version is 10.10.1, i.e. Yosemite - what is installed on your laptop?) and iDevices run on iOS (currently at 8.1.2); SO, the apps on iOS are not compatible w/ OS X, although a number of developers make the same program for both operating systems, although the features are often much greater for OS X (an example is Apple's iWork Suite - Pages, Numbers, & Keynote). Dave

 

[Dazmio]

I will get an external harddrive and if required i'll upgrade in a year to a larger ssd, 512 probably. For now i also have cloud storage 50gb BOX, 50GB googledrive, 10GB dropbox, 5GB icloud

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro11,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.6 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Boot ROM Version: MBP111.0138.B11

 

[RadDave]

Depending on your specific needs, have you considered an Apple TV? Lots of live sports events available there, though some (MLB for example) require a subscription.

@ Dazmio - in your OP, your interest was 'streaming' video to your HDTV; below is a statement from one of your earlier posts - so to ask again, you seem to have Wi-Fi - correct? If so, speeds are measured in Mbps (i.e. megabits per second) and not GBs - check your new laptop's wireless speeds at Speed Test or a comparable web site.

Now as to the quote above, the Apple TV might still be a great choice for you because of AirPlay, i.e. you can play your content on the laptop but easily stream wirelessly to your HDTV. Dave

I have no problems with Internet speed 60 gb with etherent or 30 gb wifi.

 

[chas_m]

Yes, I'm not sure where the OP got the impression he couldn't use BBC iPlayer etc on an Apple TV from ...