8737 britsabroad tv

[quote=elliven;81998]Getting UK TV abroad seems to be v important to some folk and whilst trawling the net came across websit [url=http://www.britsabroad.tv]TV for Brits abroad[/url] which offers to have a slingbox in their premises to which you can log on at anytime for UK TV on your PC and from there to your HDTV, costs 48 pounds/month. Better than a 2.5m dish (?)
Have not used their service, all I know is what I have read on the website and this does not in any sense constitute a recommendation and I have no connection with this company![/quote]

Seems a bit pricey, when there are enough peer to peer sites around that you could use.

[quote=deborahandricky;82007]Seems a bit pricey, when there are enough peer to peer sites around that you could use.[/quote]

Could you explain this means of getting TV as I am looking for a way? Apoligies but I am not very technical so a simple website would be a good place to point me.

[B]Pigro , another forum member posted this recently ( hope you dont mind the cut and paste Pigro )[/B]

there are also loads of other, non subscription sites out there that do the same thing (though not neccessarily with the same speed/reliability). They're all "peer to peer" or P2P software, where content is shared amongst millions of users wth no central storage point. The original BBC iPlayer used this technology - but installed a proprietary client on your PC over which you had no control & which stole your bandwidth.

P2P can be used to download lots of "pirated" stuff (including TV content, movies etc) but also for other legitimate purposes. probably the biggest tracker site on the web is Download music, movies, games, software! The Pirate Bay - The worlds largest BitTorrent tracker, but there are loads of others eg. Mininova : The ultimate BitTorrent source!. they are called "torrent" or "torrent tracker" sites, and to use them you need to have a BitTorrent client installed on your PC (loads of these, all free to download - eg. bitComet).

They work a bit like a specialised search engine - just type in the name of the music/video/software etc. you're looking for and they return links to the "tracker". You open that tracker in your bit torrent client and it tells the client where it can download bits of the media from - basically, lots of other users PC's, and you all end up sharing the bits you have with others until you've asembled a complete copy.

All I'd say is if you do use any form of P2P (outwith the iPlayer/4OD stuff, which is legal but restricted), remember that you could (if very unlucky) eventully get caught for copyright infringement, so it's worth taking as many precautions as you can. personally, I'd steer clear of any trackers that require you to register before you use them, as that makes it much easier for anyone who wished to prove that you'd downloaded content.

[COLOR="Red"][I][EDIT - D&R posted again while I was composing this, so there's some overlap (no probs on the cut & paste BTW Ricky) ... but I've tried to be more definitive in this post to nail down the pros/cons once & for all][/I][/COLOR]

I know this was aimed at D&R and regarding P2P only but I think you (and others to whom this is of interest) could maybe do with an independant view. It will be a bit lengthy, but hopefully useful.

Elliven's 'slingbox' idea is basically a consumer electronics box that you connect to the video out of your home theatre/TV system in your home country - so, gives access to Analogue/Freeview/Cable/Satellite/Pay-per-view, also PVR/DVD players/CCTV etc. - basically any available video source to which your home TV setup has local access.

Slingbox is intended to be sold to you personally for connection to your own kit in your own home. It connects on one side to your TV/Home Theatre output and on the other to your home broadband connection. You then connect to the slingbox over the internet from a PC wherever you are (you'd therefore need a fast/stable broadband connection both at home & in the remote location too). Once connected, the PC can then instruct your slingbox to "tune" to a particular channel or external video source, and it then streams the video over the web to your PC in real time. So, basically you can watch anything on your PC which you could have watched if you were at home.

Quite neat & nifty assuming you have a home with a TV/Slingbox and nobody therein who will hate you for remotely changing the channels from Italy while they are trying to watch something else. Drawbacks are (a) security risk of leaving your internet connection "open" to incoming requests from the internet - its all password protected, but still requires open port(s) on your home internet connection - so, less secure than not having ports open at all, if you are paranoid like me (b) the streaming video is a lot of data ... so if you're on a broadband package with a data limit or you are paying per megabyte, it will work out very costly if you get square eyed. (c) you're reliant on the internet & your ISP [B][I]at both ends[/I][/B] for the quality of the video link - so if your Italian broadband connection drops or your UK router throws a wobbly in the middle of the world cup final ... tough titty.

Elliven's commercial solution only makes sense if you don't have a house to put your own slingbox in - basically they are renting you a freeview box, a slingbox and an internet connection in their premises for £48/month (not sure about a TV licence ... they don't specify whether that's included). Up to you whether that sounds like good value or not ...

D&R's proposal of using "Peer to Peer" is a different kettle of fish. This is basically using the internet to download content which other peers (participating computer users) have on their PC's. Because everyone shares their content, there are loads of sources to download from and you can obtain a large file quite quickly as the software downloads bits from mulltiple peers simultaneously. Advantages are (a) it's totally free to set up & use (other than any data charges for downloading the data, should your broadband package dictate) (b) there is a wide & growing amount of content available (c) the content is world wide, so you get access to US shows that haven't even aired in Europe yet (d) the same system gives access to other content like movies which haven't yet been on TV at all, again including recent US box office releases. Disadvantages are (a) it's illegal (other than BBC/C4 sites which are legal within UK only). Up to now, it's been a bit like home taping in that you are v. unlikely to get caught or prosecuted. That's probably going to change soon in the UK as parliament are considering legislation to force ISP's to identify users (b) you can't guarantee to find the content you're looking for (c) you can't watch the stuff you find until its downloaded - speed is dependent on many factors, but assume at least an overnight delay as a minimum on average. (d) the quality is highly variable on publicly available content - anyone can upload it so it depends on how good their source and compression skills are. There are some fab DVD quality rips with 5.1 sound; there are also videocam'd jobs with shaky picture, peoples heads in the way & the sound of popcorn bing munched obscuring the dialogue. This doesn't affect TV shows, but the quality of the recording and the compression is still variable there. (e) setting it up properly can be non-trivial: you need to set limits on upload data bandwidth (i.e. the rate at which other peers can "suck" content from your own PC) and you'd be well advised to disguise your activity somewhat by changing default ports, encrypting your traffic etc. otherwise your ISP may limit or ban your P2P traffic; finally, there are many false peers out there who publicise content; if you connect to download it from them, they capture your IP address and may use it to prosecute you - there are lists of such bogus Peer IP addresses, it's sensible to install other software which checks your P2P applications connect attempts and prevents conections to known bogus IP's.

In summary - if you want real time access to UK free to view TV from Italy, the cheapest and most reliable method would be a satelite dish. You can search the forums, there's a wealth of info on the size of dish you'd need for your location and where you'd need to point it in order to get it working ... but assuming your location permits, it's cheap, easy, bullet proof and legal.

If you just want to watch the odd program like Lost, Casualty, etc., you have broadband with high/unlimited data allowance, and watching in real time isn't important, then Peer to Peer would be worth considering - but you need a bit of tech savvy to set it up well and be OK with the dodgy legality.

If you want full on-demand UK freeview and your location precludes you from putting up a satelite dish (or receiving a decent signal once you put it up) then the slingbox is worth considering subject to the cost/reliability issues above.

Thanks Pigro, I guess I am biased towards p2p, have used it for years and even the M.I.L ( Im 86 you know ) knows how to work it.
I may have been very, very lucky over the years and never been hit with a virus or breakins, mind you I do have some heavy armour so that helps.
as to the TV licence, if its anything like the yUK, if its a TV you have to pay, regardless of what you have, dish, sling or monitors/tvs.

Nice quote by the way........not sure what it means though.....grin

Brits Abroad god the names enough to put you off!

Thanks for all the interesting and thorough comments and I agree about the name, has anyone tried Britsabroad? does it work? As for P2P it all sounds a touch complicated and with my luck would end up with more viruses than the average hospital. I think I will stick with my freeview dish and cheap receiver for BBC 24 and Euronews via Hotbird( you thought britsabroad was a bad name!)