Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

Hi
We are moving to the US in the summer and wondered if we can UK tv channels via satelite over there?
Will our current 240 volt TV's DVD players blu ray player work there?
Many thanks

Re: Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

In a word - no. Some are available via the internet (BBC iPlayer etc) but you will need a VPN to watch them as the connection will be recognized as coming from the US.

The electronics may work with transformers, but in reality its much cheaper to sell everything and buy new.

Re: Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

Oh that's a shame,what's VPN?
Thanks

Re: Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

It is essentially a 'host' for your internet connection that fools the website into thinking you are in the UK.

Re: Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

:lol:

You can watch what ever is shown on US satellites, PBS, BBC America etc.

Just have a read of all the previous threads to get your head around VPN's and other means of getting UK tele.

The DVD/Bluray, if they're multi voltage, with hdmi/component out, they they should work fine, but unless you can hack them to be regionless, they won't be much use for local stuff. Tele, don't bother with.

Re: Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

Flat earth society.

Re: Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

I used these guys during the olympics -

http://unblock-us.com/

service is reliable and easy to switch on and off. You can activate it for individual devices in your household, or for everything behind your home router.

Re: Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

oooh yeah it all works.

bring your car stereo too and be able to listen to the archers.

Re: Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

\

:thumbsup::rofl:

Re: Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

Satellites only have a limited coverage area and you have to be in line of sight, roughly speaking. They're too low in the atmosphere to "see" from even the east coast of the US.

If you can leave a Sky box and account with somebody then I believe there is this thing called a Slingbox which basically sends the signal via the Internet so you can watch from abroad. Just so you know, it may not be technically legal to do so, same for VPN.

Re: Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

Might as well use go.sky.com or whatever it is if going down that route and not bother with the slingbox.

Re: Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

Well someone on the Aus forum did think they'd be able to pick up Freeview.

Re: Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

They're close enough :D

Re: Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

I knew they had at least some programmes online but it now seems to be all the channels, so yeah it seems a better option.

For me there's not I miss really. I never watched Eastenders for fear of slashing my wrists, same for other soaps. I used to watch Discovery, Nat Geo etc which mostly seems to carry the same content (unsurprisingly!). And I can waste an entire hour channel hopping by which time it's time to go to bed!

Re: Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

Almost all the satellites in Europe are 'under the horizon' for the US. The curve of the Earth prevents you from being able to point your dish at them. There are one or two that are over Africa / the Atlantic but even with living on the East Coast of the US you'd have to have your dish pointed basically on the horizon and hope you could get a signal (I've never been able to get a hit, despite having a house on the water and trying for a few hours).

Nevertheless, VPNs to the rescue. Just get an old computer and hook it up to your TV. Get a VPN working and watch basically whatever you want on your television. Far easier.

Re: Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

TunnelBear is one. You can try it for free with a 500MB monthly download limit which won't last that long but it's enough to let you see how it works.

First, try watching something with BBC iPlayer (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/tv)
You'll get a message that you can only watch in the UK.
Download/install TunnelBear (http://www.tunnelbear.com/).
Start it up, turn on the VPN and set your location to UK.
Now go back and watch your BBC iPlayer programme.

You can also watch programmes with ITV Player (http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/)

Re: Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

Maybe you could try after dark, when the satellites are in the western hemisphere?;)

Re: Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

They still doing the thing where you tweet about them to get a gig free?

Anyway, with iPlayer and the others, as long as it isn't live, you can switch the VPN off after a couple of mins as it buffers up and the show will still continue to stream, that'll save your monthly bandwidth. That trick doesn't work very well for live events, which tend to cut out now and again and need rechecking and of course you need to switch it back on if you're changing shows, so it's not ideal, but good enough for occasional uses.

Re: Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

People call it "VPN" but it's not really a VPN, they use the VPN client built into Windows or whatever to connect to their proxy server but usually there is no encryption to speed it up, so really it is just a way of creating a connection.

Essentially they provide their IP address in the foreign country to your computer so that you can defeat the per country IP address restrictions.

However, because the network traffic from your computer goes through their server, usually there isn't enough bandwidth at peak times and you get choppy video or lots of buffering.

If you have someone in the UK who can help you, a better way to do it is for them to set up Internet Connection Sharing on their PC and you use that as a proxy. Because of the time difference it shouldn't be a major problem, they just have to leave their computer on.

Personally I think all the bandwidth issues make it tedious and pointless, plus the time difference also makes it stupid unless you're okay with using the BBC iPlayer.

Also another method of blocking connections is via network latency (i.e. how long the traffic takes to get from A to B), you can't defeat that using a proxy server (unless they use major buffering) and there's no way of speeding up the speed of light.

Re: Can we watch uk tv via satelite in the US?
 

Plus they use spot beams. One of my neighbours has DirecTV, it's a complete farce, he can't get the local spot beams so he has an aerial for local TV, and he can get about half the channels as DirecTV use five satellites.

It's just daft, especially as we have east coast American networks on cable and local satellite.

Makes a bit more sense if you live right on the border as you can get all the spot beams.