How can I watch live British TV in America???
 

I know this topic must have cropped up in the past.

Surely there must be some computer geek out there that has soughted this out without it costing mega$$$$. A website with live free access maybe?

Anyone with knowledge of such services please respond...

Re: How can I watch live British TV in America???
 

yup, and you'll find plenty of threads searching the topic.

live streams online, uknova and other torrent sites etc....slingboxes...

Re: How can I watch live British TV in America???
 

Here's one, but you'll have to pay:-

http://www.liveuktv.com/


Anyone hosting live UK TV in the USA will have to charge you for the service and they'll have to be providing this service under contract.

Anyone providing an illegal live feed will face severe prosecution.

So in theory its very possible for someone to offer a service for free, but hardly worth the hassle WHEN they get caught and fined.


Darren

Re: How can I watch live British TV in America???
 

Yeah, I found the LiveUKTV site. Has anyone had any experience with this service?

Can I somehow redirect it to my bigscreen and still have a decent picture quality?

Re: How can I watch live British TV in America???
 

That all depends on what's on offer with your computers video card, ie outputs and what your tv can accept.

Its unlikely to be anything great though as the streaming will not be fast enough for sufficient detail at higher resolutions.

Your best bet is just to watch the stuff form torrent sites a day or so late. This is what most brits in the USA do.

http://www.uknova.com/wsgi/index
http://isohunt.com/



Darren

Re: How can I watch live British TV in America???
 

US digital Cable TV allocates about 6 Mbps (Megabits per second) to each channel, and a typical DVD also employs a bitrate of approx 5 Mbps (though it can go up to 9). So good quality video 'requires' about 5 Mbps (HD is a whole other story).

Typical Cable Data service gives you anything from 1 Mbps-5 Mbps, depending on where you live, how many neighbors are hooked up, etc. DSL service is more predictable but often does not go above 1 Mbps.

This site will measure your 'actual' bandwidth: http://www.speedtest.net/ . I just tested mine, and I got 15 Mbps download, which is way more than I usually get - but it is 2am!

The LiveUKTV site says they recommend a minimum of 512 kbps (0.5 Mbps); this suggests they are streaming at about that rate, which is about 1/10th the quality of broadcast TV and DVD. I would guess that 512 kbps should look 'ok' on a computer screen, but if you hook this up to your big-screen TV, it's not going to be as good as a DVD or broadcast TV. It may still be tolerable, and they offer samples prior to subscription, it seems.

In theory, you could have a friend in the UK capture and encode a signal (using a hauppauge capture card and some software such as videolan - http://www.videolan.org/), and upload it on the fly, but in practice, this is going to take a techie on both ends to setup and keep working. I struggled to get it working reliably from one room in my house to another, and I'm somewhat proficient at this stuff.

I would expect the 'liveUKTV' process to be a frustrating experience, with interruptions, dropouts, glitches, delays, etc - but you could always try it for a month. Even hooking up your laptop or desktop to the TV can be fun, depending on computer model, age, TV type, etc. The very latest computers and TVs make this a lot easier.

Re: How can I watch live British TV in America???
 

Hi,

They have a 7 day free trial, do that first and then make up your mind:) Having used for 3 months, we are fairly happy. Sometimes it can be frustrating with buffering or delays.

We are using another paid service for football, and choosing between the two (when footie has been shown on ITV), LiveUKTV is not the choice!

The best thing is the options of delayed streaming, as it means you can watch it when it best suits you.

HTH,

Tinky:)

Re: How can I watch live British TV in America???
 

thepiratebay.org downloads and other torrent sites is really the best for quality. If you absolutely have to watch something the moment is on in the UK then you can try some of the online sites or find someone to host a Slingbox.

For sports, you should check out the Sopcast and TVAnts threads. More football than you can imagine.

Re: How can I watch live British TV in America???
 

Be VERY careful about visiting sites that offer pirated media. You may get what you want, but you also may get a lot of sypware / adware / viruses, etc. I can't tell you the amount of time I've spent helping friends restore their computers after they went visiting sites looking for media, serial numbers, 'cracks', etc. You have no recourse against a site that is offering something that is gray market.

Set a system restore point before visiting, and/or backup important files, and/or make sure you are up-to-date with various virus scan/spyware/adware blockers. Think twice about installing any active-x components they claim you need.

Re: How can I watch live British TV in America???
 

I just wish there was something better then torrents...