12237 UK TV for all...........

It sounds interesting - though hardly cheap! At least they are good enough to let you have a one month 'trial' (at £13.95), without any further committment: what I'd like first is a one day (free) trial to test ther assertion that '1MB adsl speed' is good enough.

I've had it for 3 days now on my standard Alice ADSL line (7 meg) and the quality is very good. The Catchup TV channel does freeeze for a second or two now and then, but the BBC,ITV 4 & 5 players all are fine with fullscreen option as well. Very happy with it so far, and you can always cancel it at any time, if you use PayPal.

You can also achieve a similar thing with a Slingbox (available from PC World) but without the monthly subscription.

Only snag is you need to connect it to a TV in the UK, so it's best for those with a home there as well, or an accommodating friend or relative. You can get your Sky subscription programmes through it too.

How well does it work? Don't know, as I haven't got around to doing it yet - I'm still grappling with Italian light entertainment. :yes:

Terry

It's raining and so I asked my husband to check out Gromit's post above so this is what he has written................(he is now watching the snooker on the BBC...until now no TV at all here....what have I done now?:wideeyed:

Having tried internet TV about a year ago, and given up in disgust, I remained sceptical about it's usefulness. However the post from Gromit prompted me to look again.

It seems that the BBC's iPlayer has been considerably improved, and it's also easier now to download and watch later, which means less problems with connection speed.

The BBC now broadcast at 4 different speeds, and the software should automatically select the appropriate one for your computer. The speeds are as follows (with my guess at what the quality would be like)

500 kbps
I don't think that this would be worth watching, tiny window etc
800 kbps
starting to be worthwhile ?
1.5 mbps
standard TV quality at a resolution of 832 x 648 pixels. But remember that the pixels on your PC screen are smaller than on a TV screen, so that 832 x 648 won't give you a full screen picture

3.2 mbps
HD quality at a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels
These speeds are what is needed to watch live TV of the appropriate quality, if you download and watch later, it will take longer to download on a slow connection, but you shouldn't lose any quality.

What do these speeds mean in practice? My internet connection is nominally 4 mbps. On a simple speed test (such as the one at [url=http://www.speedtest.net]Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test[/url]) I only usually get a result of about 1.8 mbps. But even this is better than you get in real life, as it only measures a simple file transfer to a server near you. The BBC have an excellent test page at [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/diagnostics]BBC iPlayer - Diagnostics[/url] which measures a more realistic transfer speed for data actually coming from their own servers. This test gives me a result of only just over 1 mbps (nominally 4 mbps remember). On top of this, relaying the broadcast through a proxy server (in order to get round the non-UK restriction) will probably slow things down even further. So it looks like I will only be able to use the 800 kbps service.

So my conclusion is don't set your expectations too high, but I have booked the one month trial option (at € 13.95) and am impressed so far.

Thank you. Let us know how you get on!

HE is getting on fine Marc...rain stopped play outside, useful stuff like strimming, so HE is enjoying, rather loudly, the re run of the fabulous, Bex Beiderbecke spoof!!! (James Bollam). Getting the most from the rental fee it seems. So yes good so far...........

Day Two ...he who sorted it out says to post this comment...

After my earlier scepticism, I have been very pleasantly surprised. I am getting good quality full-screen TV from BBC and ITV both live and on "catch-up".

The only problem now is finding something worth watching.

(Now the last line is a bit of a fib cos he wants to watch the Chelsea v Barcelona match tonight on his PC-TV but we have a previous engagement we can't break...but if you have fast internet and register as above,:yes: you could).

My first week with it and so far no problems. The BBC and ITV players are brill, plenty of Live TV and endless selections of things to catch up on. Cahnel 4 & 5 orgood 4 being better than 5. The Catch up TV gives naer as live coverage on 18 cahnels ( all the main ones + Dave etc,basically all freeview) prone to freezing occasionally depending on download speed. Overall fro all those who want an easy option I could recomend this. Slingbox does freeze, plus you have to have your box connected to Freeview box and internet at all times,and have that powered up and the IR selector connected; a bit of hassle if you don't have a tame goffer.
You pays your money etc etc.............

Pardon the spelling in the above post .....finger trouble and poor light....lol

Folks,

Can you let me know what your connection speeds are please?...............I have a 1.2mb connection....................anybody else USING this 'LIVE UK TV' at this speed or less?

Comments would be most grateful,

Thanks in advance,

S

I have just checked mine with the I Player diagnostics and currently running at 0.82mb.Still able to use it at this speed and quality still good.

My husband sank into depression when the system let him down the other evening Man U v Arsenal but says for me to post this update.:SLEEP:

With my 4 Mbps broadband connection (nominal speed), I get very good quality broadcasts from the BBC both live and "play-it-again". This involves using the "getconnected" link (as described in the original post) and the BBC's iPlayer (free download). Reliability so far has been very good.

ITV don't seem to have a live stream of their broadcasts. I can watch programmes via their "catch-up" service without a problem, but to watch live I have to go through another site, such as "tvcatchup" (again, as described in the original post). This is sometimes OK, but the coverage of the Manchester Utd - Arsenal european semi-final was unwatchable - perhaps it gets overloaded at times.

It's not all big sporting events that cause problems, because I was able to watch the Spanish Grand Prix OK on the BBC.

You could always try Peer-to-peer although it can be a a bit unreliable and/or poor quality. Has anyone set up their own proxy server to save the fee. I'm not a great TV watcher, in fact haven't had one for years, so I'd object to paying the fee mentioned, cheapskate that I am. It might be useful for teaching materials at times though.

Sue, My OH says he's thought about it but doesn't think it's practical. What you are paying for isn't a proxy service as such...I can't quite understand the explanation re what exactly is being done but HE says ...not worth the effort for him anyway.

[quote=Noble;120671]My husband sank into depression when the system let him down the other evening Man U v Arsenal but says for me to post this update.:SLEEP:

With my 4 Mbps broadband connection (nominal speed), I get very good quality broadcasts from the BBC both live and "play-it-again". This involves using the "getconnected" link (as described in the original post) and the BBC's iPlayer (free download). Reliability so far has been very good.

ITV don't seem to have a live stream of their broadcasts. I can watch programmes via their "catch-up" service without a problem, but to watch live I have to go through another site, such as "tvcatchup" (again, as described in the original post). This is sometimes OK, but the coverage of the Manchester Utd - Arsenal european semi-final was unwatchable - perhaps it gets overloaded at times.

It's not all big sporting events that cause problems, because I was able to watch the Spanish Grand Prix OK on the BBC.[/quote]

The ITV do have a Live (slight delay) feed, you just have to trawl around their web site a bit to find it. They have those feeds for ITV 1,2,3&4. Chanel 5 can be a bit of a trial at times; no change there then.......:laughs:
Footy has always been a problem, either due to the demand or TV rights upload speed, but most of the Sports are good.:bigergrin:

[quote=Noble;120688]Sue, My OH says he's thought about it but doesn't think it's practical. What you are paying for isn't a proxy service as such...I can't quite understand the explanation re what exactly is being done but HE says ...not worth the effort for him anyway.[/quote]

Ta for that. It's the same vague impression I got when I last had a superficial nose.

[quote=Gromit;117896]I have just found a great way for all of you to get LIVE UK TV on your computers, providing you have ADSL (Broadband). This site [URL="http://www.getconnected.com.cy/"]Watch Live UK TV with Get Connected UKTV[/URL] allows you for a monthly fee of £12.95 to recieve UK TV on your PC. I have no axe to grind on this, I got it recomended by a friend. It works by routing you through a UK ISP on your network giving you a UK IP address, so you can get all the live players from the UK channels (BBC I player and also ITV, 4 and 5) plus Catch up TV all the details are in the confirmation email sent to you, and you just follow the instructions plus the picture is Brill. If admin take out the Link please PM me and I will send you details. Back to watching Eastenders LOL......:laughs:[/quote]

May I take this opportunity to remind you of a reply you made to a post of mine about watching UK tv in Italy. :tongue::bigergrin:

[quote=Gromit;107911]Just tell me WHY do you need to watch UK TV?[/quote]

Is there an Elephant in the room...........? :wideeyed:
Actually it's mainly to benefit our Italian visitors to help them learn English. Oh and to see what a rich cultural diversity UK TV programs bring...........honest.

Just means your settling in, thats all. :winki: