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How to Watch Decent UK TV live?

How to Watch Decent UK TV live?

Old Dec 8th 2009, 6:59 pm
  #16  
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Default Re: How to Watch Decent UK TV live?

Originally Posted by vegas
download vpn for free http://thefreevpn.com/ connect to uk server then you can watch all the free tv you want
That works a treat getting Spotify to work too, for anyone who likes music.

Also gets Pandora and Hulu working for those in the UK.
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Old Dec 8th 2009, 8:20 pm
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Default Re: How to Watch Decent UK TV live?

We have a premium sub for Spotify so we can download music and have access to it offline on our iphones. I find it much better than Pandora. Saves a fortune on what MrNYC would spend on music per month if allowed.

As for TV watching some nice person on here suggested myprivatenetwork. We pay them £5 per month for a UK ip. Now we can watch iPlayer, or catchuptv.com which streams live TV from the major channels in the UK. It also means Cbeebies for the little one who screams at the vast amount of adverts on Nickjr here.
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Old Dec 9th 2009, 2:43 pm
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Default Re: How to Watch Decent UK TV live?

Anyone here watch the Maury Povic show? Now that is decent TV!
I'm amazed one of the U.K channels hasn't bought this up instead of running crap like Rikki Lake and Judge Judy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIeU4m0jUac

I will definitely be trying the VPN solution when I move. Actually I have the opposite problem at the moment as I'm in the U.K and my missus wants to watch the odd U.S program (Patriots games for example). The best I have found is certain dodgy live streaming shites which work ok until a bunch of people watch them, upon which they get out of sync.
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Old Dec 10th 2009, 2:37 am
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Default Re: How to Watch Decent UK TV live?

Originally Posted by John Murray
I just downloaded Free VPN and it works a treat - I'm now able to get the BBC iplayer etc. Hopefully they don't force you to switch to the $60 version after a free trial etc.
we are using the bbciplayer but I have to download everything first and can't just click and play- is that what evryone does or don't we have enough bandwidth or whatever. Or is it likely to be due to the ancient computer? any thoughts?
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Old Dec 10th 2009, 3:08 am
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Default Re: How to Watch Decent UK TV live?

Originally Posted by nooj
we are using the bbciplayer but I have to download everything first and can't just click and play- is that what evryone does or don't we have enough bandwidth or whatever. Or is it likely to be due to the ancient computer? any thoughts?
I have simular bandwidth issues, anybody know of any good pay VPN services that give good bandwidth?
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Old Dec 10th 2009, 3:47 am
  #21  
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Default Re: How to Watch Decent UK TV live?

Originally Posted by NYCbound
We have a premium sub for Spotify so we can download music and have access to it offline on our iphones. I find it much better than Pandora. Saves a fortune on what MrNYC would spend on music per month if allowed.
One thing Spotify misses that is great about Pandora is the ratings and the way it finds similar tunes, just found Pandora doing a much better job of that
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Old Dec 10th 2009, 3:48 am
  #22  
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Default Re: How to Watch Decent UK TV live?

Originally Posted by HumphreyC

I will definitely be trying the VPN solution when I move. Actually I have the opposite problem at the moment as I'm in the U.K and my missus wants to watch the odd U.S program (Patriots games for example). The best I have found is certain dodgy live streaming shites which work ok until a bunch of people watch them, upon which they get out of sync.
Use the free VPN thingy posted above, select a US server and you'll be able to watch US tele, Hulu, Pandora etc.
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Old Dec 10th 2009, 3:50 am
  #23  
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Default Re: How to Watch Decent UK TV live?

Originally Posted by nooj
we are using the bbciplayer but I have to download everything first and can't just click and play- is that what evryone does or don't we have enough bandwidth or whatever. Or is it likely to be due to the ancient computer? any thoughts?
The free version posted above, that doesn't allow enough bandwidth for HD content, so you'd either have to download or use their paid service.

SD works a treat, though it's worth pausing once you've started a stream for a minute to let it buffer up a bit more.
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Old Dec 10th 2009, 8:30 am
  #24  
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Default Re: How to Watch Decent UK TV live?

Anyone know a free VPN thingy that works on Leopard?
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Old Dec 10th 2009, 12:02 pm
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Default Re: How to Watch Decent UK TV live?

First, lets clarify what "LiveTV" is these days. It's a "Live DVR". In other words, whilst I have my sling that gives me live TV, we rarely watch live unless it's UK news or some comedy on late at night that we just happen to find on. Otherwise most of our Live stuff is what we choose to record on the Sky+ DVR.

The downside of VPN is the limited bandwidth, especially as in the USA, the same servers are often being hit at the same time (7pm-1am (EST). However, it's useful for stuff you missed recording or torrents for stuff that's not on!

The advantage of your own sling is I get now, upwards of 1.8 Mbps. And since the people at the UK home it's placed (my nieces house) are asleep, I get most of that bandwidth just for me). I attach a screen grab of my UK sling (BBC weather) (1,5mbs) and US sling (CNBC) (2.7mbs).. Not bad quality and real time (from my "time shifted" DVR's)..
Attached Thumbnails How to Watch Decent UK TV live?-screen-shot-2009-12-10-7.58.33-am.png   How to Watch Decent UK TV live?-screen-shot-2009-12-10-7.47.32-am.png  
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Old Dec 10th 2009, 12:07 pm
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Default Re: How to Watch Decent UK TV live?

And of course, the other advantage of the sling, unlike the Iplayer, I can watch stuff 1 hour, 1 week or 3 months later. The SKY+ DVR keeps everything I record for as long as I don't delete it. The other advantage is that we share our sling players with other family members in other time zones (whom are so untechnical as to know not what a VPN is !).
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Old Dec 10th 2009, 12:17 pm
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Default Re: How to Watch Decent UK TV live?

Originally Posted by Bob
One thing Spotify misses that is great about Pandora is the ratings and the way it finds similar tunes, just found Pandora doing a much better job of that
True, I like it for randomising tunes to a set genre/artist similarity (a bit like Last FM though) Spotify would do well to have that feature, you're right.
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Old Dec 10th 2009, 4:41 pm
  #28  
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Default Re: How to Watch Decent UK TV live?

Originally Posted by tonrob
Anyone know a free VPN thingy that works on Leopard?
Originally Posted by tonrob
Anyone know a free VPN thingy that works on Leopard?
Sorry - was posting in my kitchen. A bit echoey in there...
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Old Dec 10th 2009, 5:29 pm
  #29  
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Default Re: How to Watch Decent UK TV live?

Heres what I would say. Yes Sling is the easiest and quickest solution for non techies, but make sure its coupled to a sky+ box otherwise, you would have to watch live vs play back sky+ over sling.

I have multiple solutions built at both sides of the pond to solve these issues:

1.) MythTV server, connected to both a DVB box and Sky+: The MythTV server schedules all the British programming I have selected via its web interface, records it in high quality, transcodes it down to divx format, and copies the resulting files over the pond to a server on my network, the files are the automatically copied to TiVo DVR's on the US side.

2.) Slingbox. Used mainly for live viewing, but its also connected to a Sky+ box, much lower quality then the Divx and harder to record on the US side (Although not impossible). (Because its a streamed source, I wouldnt use it for my primary programming, its good quality for what it is, but not excellent).

3.) BBC iPlayer: This is used as a backup in case there is a problem with the MythTV server, in that case, there is a *unencrypted* VPN between both UK/US networks, which gives the US end a NAT behind a British IP address, which allows unimpeaded access to BBC iPlayer.
NOTE: Its a private VPN tunnel, its not "rented" and thus my computers are the only clients which connect to these servers.

Combined, all these solutions give a good way of ensuring that we never miss anything, and has built in redudancy in case of an issue. This is a very simplified version of my solution, but admitelly you need a good tech background to make it work. Ideally you wouldnt want to stream as you primary method of content, as streams are prone to buffering, getting interupted or corrupted, and can not easily be archived.

Last edited by ldobson; Dec 10th 2009 at 5:36 pm.
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Old Dec 10th 2009, 8:41 pm
  #30  
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Default Re: How to Watch Decent UK TV live?

Originally Posted by tonrob
Anyone know a free VPN thingy that works on Leopard?
http://www.freemacware.com/hamachix/ ? dont' know where it's based though.

http://www.lobotomo.com/products/IPSecuritas/ same...

just run in parallels?
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