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UK TV via the INTERNET. This could be of interest to ex-pats.
- Thread starter Waterhall Wizard
- Start date
acrossthepond
Active member
Waterhall Wizard
Only one PETER WARD
- Thread starter
- #23
Probably a good product for somebody who resides in the UK, travels a lot and is a TV addict.
Not much use to an ex-pat wanting to view UK TV, however. To take advantage of the device it needs to be to be based and connected to a television set in the UK, so an ex-pat would have to beg a favour from a relative or friend. I presume that initially the chosen lap top or computer to receive the TV programmes would need to be in close proximity to the Slingbox to start the system off. That would mean that the ex-pat would need to visit the UK at some time with the lap top or computer to take advantage of the service provided by the device.
I have set up the system that I am using here in my home in Tenerife.
To receive the channels that I receive on my lap top here in Tenerife would cost at least £45 per month in the UK. Somebody would have to pay that amount and keep the subscriptions up to date in the UK using a UK address. The only TV channels that an ex-pat would be able to view abroad would be determined by the channels that are available on the television that the Slingbox is plugged in to in the UK.
I have paid an annual fee of £213 for my eighteen terrestrial and nine sports (including Sky1, 2, 3 & Extra) streams. That works out at £17.75 per month, not £45 per month. On top of that I receive an extra two months of the eighteen terrestrial channels for opting for the annual subscription.
jmsc
New member
Google IS your friend
So, being an IT dunce, how does I do that then?
Please and thank you
SULLY COULDNT SHOOT
Loyal2Family+Albion!
Can you name them? We have BBC Prime here in Turkey which used to be just the BBC made programmes (most of them old) that they couldn' sell to international channels.
However, I found out, after they showed the first series of 'Afterlife' (An ITV production) that they are actually independent of BBC and can buy anything they like.
If this thing that Waterhall is suggestiıng is illegal then in many ways it means today it is worse than 15 years ago. 15 years ago you couldn't watch English TV abroad but you didn't care because you knew it was not technologically possible. Now it is technologically possible but you still can't see it because English channnels won't broadcast it abroad. Not in English anyway.
SULLY COULDNT SHOOT
Loyal2Family+Albion!
I went to google mate but the explanation of proxies was way too complicated. Isn't there an easier way?
johnhammond
Neither John, nor Hammond
Quick question (and yes I have tried google but found yes and no answers!).
Does the box in anyway stop people watching programs on the TV that it's attached to (assuming there are enough wires to stick in everywhere)? Some people seem to say it's fine but others say it needs to be one or the other.
Thanks
clapham_gull
Legacy Fan
- Aug 20, 2003
- 25,877
Quick question (and yes I have tried google but found yes and no answers!).
Does the box in anyway stop people watching programs on the TV that it's attached to (assuming there are enough wires to stick in everywhere)? Some people seem to say it's fine but others say it needs to be one or the other.
Thanks
Asumming you've got it connected to a Sky Box, you can only watch what currently being viewed on that Sky Box.
The slingbox isn't connected to the TV. It's connected to the Sky Box or a freeview box.
I presume the reaility of it is the signal comes out of either of the above - goes into the Slingbox, but there is an output on the Slingbox to connect to the TV. The signal "passes through it" if you like.
It's basically sending out the signal via the internet (your broadband connection). You can also (of course) watch the output on your own TV at home.
But as the slingbox now has an in built freeview connector, it can sit quite happily there on its own I presume.
johnhammond
Neither John, nor Hammond
Marvellous, thanks.
Waterhall Wizard
Only one PETER WARD
- Thread starter
- #30
Do I read you right cg? Are you saying that on the laptop/computer you only receive the programme that is currently being viewed on the television? So if you are abroad and you have taken the laptop with you that has been linked to the Slingbox connected to a Freeview or Sky box you can only watch whatever the host family in the UK is viewing? They are watching for instance Sky1 and you want to watch BBC1, that's tough. You can only receive Sky1?
Is it not the case that you can watch on your laptop abroad any programme from channels that the Freeview/Sky box is subscribed to regardless of what the host family in the UK are watching?
clapham_gull
Legacy Fan
- Aug 20, 2003
- 25,877
Nothing to do with the television - the receiver.
Only the case with Sky in reality - unless you've got Sky multiroom (which you pay more for)
You can only watch one Sky Channel at a time, irrespective of where you are watching it - slingbox or no slingbox, abroad or in the UK.
Not the case with freeview because a slingbox has it's own built in.
Last edited:
garyoke157
New member
- May 24, 2008
- 18
Sling Box v LiveUK Tv and a FREE alternative
Hi Guys,
This is my first post so please be gentle with me
I thought I'd start with giving you an explanation of what sling box actually is:
It's really a kind of internet relay of what is on your set top box at home. You can control your box via the free sling box software from anywhere in the world as long as you have a good internet connection.
Of course this means that if you change channel via your pc or laptop everyone at home has to watch what you're watching. The way around this is to, as someone previously suggested, is to have sky multi-room or a second set top box. While the initial set up of this may be expensive there is no further cost. However, there is a down side.....
The sling box needs a good high speed connection at both ends to get good quality transmissions on your remote computer. Remember upload speeds are almost always lower than download (unless you have 2 way satelite), so if your friend in the UK likes to play online games or they themselves do a lot of streaming you could have quality issues with the Sling Box. Similarly if you can't get a good high speed internet at your location and I would reccomend 1.5Mb plus, again you will have quality issues with Sling Box.
So what about LiveUk TV that a lot of people rave about?
I subscribed to it in it's early days and have taken the trials periodically since. There is no doubt that for what it is it is good. You can stream effectively with a 512Kb connection (1Mb is better if you want to do other things at the same time) but it is just too expensive.
Yes you get a lot of channels but you have to suscribe seperately for sports and movies. Last year the movies came with the normal subscription. As for the legality of it.....It operates in a grey area of the licencing laws, it is neither legal or illegal unless the laws change, that , however, is unlikely at the moment.
The fact that it streams all programmes and commercials in their entirety is to it's advantage in that sense. Let's face it, the advertisers don't mind their products being placed in different areas around the world.
So why don't the major TV companies already do it? The answer is simple....they do but not on the same scale because their actual licence agreements don't allow them to.
Would I subscribe to LiveUk TV again? Only if the cost came down significantly (and I'm talking maybe 50% to 60% here) because at the end of the day there are much cheaper ways to receive live UK premium channels outside the UK, and only then on a month to month basis in case things changed.
So here are the alternatives:
1. Use a proxy server to access the main UK TV web streams.
OK this will work (for a short time) if you are prepared to spend hours finding a proxy that will actually work, and of course there can be major security issues using free web based proxies. Also the major TV networks trawl the web for free proxies and block them as they find them.
You can set up your own proxy if you have a UK server as long as you know what you are doing. That way you can keep it private and all should be ok . or a better option is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). VPN's are much more secure and there is much less chance of the networks finding your actual ip address as ecerything is encrypted between you, the VPN and the network website.
So what would you get?
All four ITV channels (though major events/movies etc are not always broadcast online).
BBC News
BBC i Player (don't bother even trying this without a 1.5Mb plus connection, the latency through the proxy won't allow it to play smoothly, though you can download and watch later)
Pay Per View Content From Sky (usually around GBP 1.99 per show
2. The Best alternative as far as I'm concerned is a piece of FREE software called Zattoo.
This works like LiveUk TV except you get fewer channels and you still need a proxy or VPN, but here's what you get:
All 4 BBC channels
ITV 1
Channel 4
Five
CBBC
CBeebies
BBC News
plus a few of the other FreeView channels.
The quality is excellent, though it does occasionally have a few glitches, usually down to the latency between the stream and the VPN/proxy but nothing that spoils your viewing pleasure.
It also has an EPG and, something i personnaly appreciate, the option to fill a wide screen tv even with a 4:3 stream (anyone who use WMP with a large tv will know what I mean).
Of course, since you have a proxy or VPN you can still access the network websites aswell which gives you an almost complete FreeView package for eerm well...Free.
As for sport there is still PPMate, PPStream (great for movies), TVU (has good quality premiership streams plus a couple of the major US networks like CBS and SciFi) and TVAnts (personally I don't like this one but it's your choice)
Anyway, in conclusion, my advice is get a VPN, if you don't have a UK server and don't want to set up your own for nothing, do a google and find a paid one, a good wone will cost about $40 to $45 a quarter, less if you pay for a year.
Download Zatoo and start enjoying live UK TV.
This post is for info only and as such (without giving too much away lol) I'll give you my setup so you can decide for yourself. Please don't ask me for anything I don't list, it took me a long time to get where I am with this and I wouldn't like a network bod to block my method
Processor: 2.2 GHz Intel Dual Core
Video: NVidea GEForce 7300 LE
Sound: RealTek 8.1 High Def
Monitor: Philips 42" 1080i Plasma on DVI connection
2Mb adsl internet connection
Zattoo from Zattoo | TV meets PC
Hope this helps someone and sorry about the long post.
PS
If you use a proxy or VPN ALWAYS make sure you are not going through it when you post anything about receiving TV in this way. The networks look at blogs and forums etc and can pull your ip address, if it's your proxy/vpn address they will block it.
Hi Guys,
This is my first post so please be gentle with me
I thought I'd start with giving you an explanation of what sling box actually is:
It's really a kind of internet relay of what is on your set top box at home. You can control your box via the free sling box software from anywhere in the world as long as you have a good internet connection.
Of course this means that if you change channel via your pc or laptop everyone at home has to watch what you're watching. The way around this is to, as someone previously suggested, is to have sky multi-room or a second set top box. While the initial set up of this may be expensive there is no further cost. However, there is a down side.....
The sling box needs a good high speed connection at both ends to get good quality transmissions on your remote computer. Remember upload speeds are almost always lower than download (unless you have 2 way satelite), so if your friend in the UK likes to play online games or they themselves do a lot of streaming you could have quality issues with the Sling Box. Similarly if you can't get a good high speed internet at your location and I would reccomend 1.5Mb plus, again you will have quality issues with Sling Box.
So what about LiveUk TV that a lot of people rave about?
I subscribed to it in it's early days and have taken the trials periodically since. There is no doubt that for what it is it is good. You can stream effectively with a 512Kb connection (1Mb is better if you want to do other things at the same time) but it is just too expensive.
Yes you get a lot of channels but you have to suscribe seperately for sports and movies. Last year the movies came with the normal subscription. As for the legality of it.....It operates in a grey area of the licencing laws, it is neither legal or illegal unless the laws change, that , however, is unlikely at the moment.
The fact that it streams all programmes and commercials in their entirety is to it's advantage in that sense. Let's face it, the advertisers don't mind their products being placed in different areas around the world.
So why don't the major TV companies already do it? The answer is simple....they do but not on the same scale because their actual licence agreements don't allow them to.
Would I subscribe to LiveUk TV again? Only if the cost came down significantly (and I'm talking maybe 50% to 60% here) because at the end of the day there are much cheaper ways to receive live UK premium channels outside the UK, and only then on a month to month basis in case things changed.
So here are the alternatives:
1. Use a proxy server to access the main UK TV web streams.
OK this will work (for a short time) if you are prepared to spend hours finding a proxy that will actually work, and of course there can be major security issues using free web based proxies. Also the major TV networks trawl the web for free proxies and block them as they find them.
You can set up your own proxy if you have a UK server as long as you know what you are doing. That way you can keep it private and all should be ok . or a better option is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). VPN's are much more secure and there is much less chance of the networks finding your actual ip address as ecerything is encrypted between you, the VPN and the network website.
So what would you get?
All four ITV channels (though major events/movies etc are not always broadcast online).
BBC News
BBC i Player (don't bother even trying this without a 1.5Mb plus connection, the latency through the proxy won't allow it to play smoothly, though you can download and watch later)
Pay Per View Content From Sky (usually around GBP 1.99 per show
2. The Best alternative as far as I'm concerned is a piece of FREE software called Zattoo.
This works like LiveUk TV except you get fewer channels and you still need a proxy or VPN, but here's what you get:
All 4 BBC channels
ITV 1
Channel 4
Five
CBBC
CBeebies
BBC News
plus a few of the other FreeView channels.
The quality is excellent, though it does occasionally have a few glitches, usually down to the latency between the stream and the VPN/proxy but nothing that spoils your viewing pleasure.
It also has an EPG and, something i personnaly appreciate, the option to fill a wide screen tv even with a 4:3 stream (anyone who use WMP with a large tv will know what I mean).
Of course, since you have a proxy or VPN you can still access the network websites aswell which gives you an almost complete FreeView package for eerm well...Free.
As for sport there is still PPMate, PPStream (great for movies), TVU (has good quality premiership streams plus a couple of the major US networks like CBS and SciFi) and TVAnts (personally I don't like this one but it's your choice)
Anyway, in conclusion, my advice is get a VPN, if you don't have a UK server and don't want to set up your own for nothing, do a google and find a paid one, a good wone will cost about $40 to $45 a quarter, less if you pay for a year.
Download Zatoo and start enjoying live UK TV.
This post is for info only and as such (without giving too much away lol) I'll give you my setup so you can decide for yourself. Please don't ask me for anything I don't list, it took me a long time to get where I am with this and I wouldn't like a network bod to block my method
Processor: 2.2 GHz Intel Dual Core
Video: NVidea GEForce 7300 LE
Sound: RealTek 8.1 High Def
Monitor: Philips 42" 1080i Plasma on DVI connection
2Mb adsl internet connection
Zattoo from Zattoo | TV meets PC
Hope this helps someone and sorry about the long post.
PS
If you use a proxy or VPN ALWAYS make sure you are not going through it when you post anything about receiving TV in this way. The networks look at blogs and forums etc and can pull your ip address, if it's your proxy/vpn address they will block it.
Last edited: