Swap cable for a box.

[Briggsy]

I am afraid I don't know much here so take it easy with me, guys.

 

I live in a condo. There is one cable provider to the condo apparently. The cost is 350 Baht a month, which is not much. The package includes numerous channels I have no interest in, 5 or 6 news channels in English (which seem to change regularly) and some sports channels in a variety of languages.

 

I watch Eurosport a lot. Often my Eurosport freezes. Usually it comes back in around 45 seconds (although I have missed 45 seconds). If not, I phone up the cable channel and sometimes they do something that looks like reloading or rebooting some software and after 20 minutes Eurosport is back on. Sometimes they don't do this till the following day or after the weekend. Suffice to say, their transmission of Eurosport is woeful. This problem has been ongoing for 3 years at least.

 

I understand that by buying an Android box or something similar, I will be able to receive Eurosport on my tv.

 

So, I have some questions.

 

1. What is going wrong at my cable provider?

2. Can an Android box or something similar solve my problem and get me reliable Eurosport?

3. Will I also need a special TV? I currently have a Toshiba 32 PU 200 T

4. What kind of approximate cost for a Android box or similar?

5. Are they available in Thailand? (I do travel to the UK regularly)

6. Will I need to subscribe to a service provider to access Eurosport?

7. What kind of approximate cost for subscription?

 

I hope someone can help as I am not sure where to start with this.

Cheers

[Jai Dee]

Yes, an Android box connected to the internet and to your TV can be set up to play Eurosport.

 

Need a little bit more information from you before making some suggestions/recommendations.

 

If you're looking to "cut the cord" and start streaming video feeds, we need to know what kind of internet package you are on.

 

Your download speed results will determine if it's possible to stream satisfactorily.

 

Go to a speed testing website such as http://testmy.net/ and perform Download Tests from test servers in London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, and Singapore, then advise us of the results.

 

You can change the test server by selecting Test Servers at the top right of the page (in blue).

 

[Briggsy]

Thanks for the reply.

 

I have 3BB Broadband 10 Mbps (Download) / 512 Kbps (Upload) when I signed on with them 3 years ago.

 

I will do the speed tests now.

[Briggsy]

Download Tests Results :

London 8.9 Mbps

Frankfurt 8.5 Mbps

Tokyo 16.6 Mbps

Singapore 16.7 Mbps

 

[Jai Dee]

Excellent results and will be more than sufficient to stream video content from the internet.

 

For an HD live stream (720p) a 5 Mb international connection is sufficient, whilst for a Full HD stream (1080p) 7-8 Mb should be fine to stream without buffering.

Having an Ethernet port is a definite advantage over Wifi for uninterrupted streaming so it would be best to hard-wire your Android box to your router/modem with ethernet cable then connect to your TV via HDMI.

 

I will now try to answer your questions where I can... other members can and will have differing views and opinions but that is what makes a discussion forum interesting.

 

1. What is going wrong at my cable provider?

Sorry... I cannot help you there. However as with most internet-based streams (as would your cable provider be using) sometimes hardware (computers, modems, routers etc) needs to be re-booted. As it is your cable TV provider there is not much you can do about it except call them and complain.

 

2. Can an Android box or something similar solve my problem and get me reliable Eurosport?

Yes. There are several options for you there... both legal and illegal. Of course I am not going to recommend any illegal options for you but there are live sports video addons for Kodi that would probably provide access to Eurosport.

You can get a Eurosport Player 12 month pass which provides access but you will need a VPN as it will be geo-locked to the UK.

You cannot get it in Thailand without a VPN.

There do seem to be legal Kodi Eurosport addons available too but I cannot comment on their reliability.

If you want to know more about Kodi have a look at the Kodi® for Dummies thread and the Best Kodi builds thread for a better understanding of what is available and possible.

 

3. Will I also need a special TV? I currently have a Toshiba 32 PU 200 T.

According to online specifications your TV has a resolution of 1366x768 so is HD capable.

HD is 1280x720 resolution and Full HD is 1920x1080 resolution.

On a 32" screen HD resolution should be fine.

Your TV also has an HDMI port so best to connect with your new Android box.

 

4. What kind of approximate cost for a Android box or similar?

Android boxes vary greatly wrt specifications. You could get something as simple as an Amazon Fire Stick up to the top of the range Nvidia Shield.

Suffice to say that you should be looking for a box that has a Quad Core processor, Bluetooth 4.0, 2GB RAM or more, 16GB ROM or more, 2.4GHz / 5.8GHz WiFi, 1000Mbps LAN, and HDMI 2.0 Connectivity as a minimum. It should also be running Android 5.x or later.

A Fire Stick will cost you about 2,400 baht and an Nvidia Shield will cost you about 11,000 baht.

 

5. Are they available in Thailand? (I do travel to the UK regularly)

Yes. Have a look at streaming media players on Lazada for example.

 

6. Will I need to subscribe to a service provider to access Eurosport?

See answer to Q2.

 

7. What kind of approximate cost for subscription?

See answer to Q2.

 

I hope that this provides you with some food for further thought.

I'm sure that other members will also be able to provide further positive information.

[Jai Dee]

Just a thought... if you have your laptop or PC in the same room as your TV in your apartment, you could try connecting it via HDMI cable to the TV then installing and running Kodi.

 

You could try some different addons to see if you get good content with no buffering, and it won't cost you a single satang (apart from buying an HDMI cable of course).

 

If it works OK then you can decide if you want to proceed down the Android box route or not.

 

By the way, there are Android Applications (apk's) that also provide links to streaming content. Search on Youtube for "eurosport live" and check out the results.

 

Worth a shot?

[Briggsy]

Many thanks for taking the time and effort to post all that. I won't pretend I understand all the terminology at present. But I am working my way through it.

 

You have given me a great deal to work on and I will plod through it trying to understand and engineer as I go.

 

I will come back when I have made progress.

[Jai Dee]

No problem at all.

 

If you need further help or clarification, feel free to either discuss it on the Forum or privately via PM if you wish.

 

I'm happy to help you if I can.

[Briggsy]

I got to Step 14 on the Kodi for Dummies thread (setting up a repository) but got stuck at that point as the Ares Wizard repository was not offered. I will come back later and have another look.

[Jeffrey346]

Jai Dee gave you some great advise.

 

You may want to look at the One Alliance Build. IMO it's the best. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/OneAllianceMedia/

 

Build updates are very important. 1Alliance updates frequently.

 

If you need any assistance, give me a shout

[Briggsy]

On 26/10/2017 at 12:35 PM, Briggsy said:

I got to Step 14 on the Kodi for Dummies thread (setting up a repository) but got stuck at that point as the Ares Wizard repository was not offered. I will come back later and have another look.

Ok, with regard to Ares Wizard, I get a message "Couldn't connect to network server." So I don't think I can proceed beyond step 14.

[Jai Dee]

13 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

Ok, with regard to Ares Wizard, I get a message "Couldn't connect to network server." So I don't think I can proceed beyond step 14.

 

 

I have just updated the Kodi For Dummies topic with the new address of the Ares Repo.

[Briggsy]

Thanks, Jai Dee. I made it to Step 24 eventually and will move on to the next steps in the near future.

[Briggsy]

Thanks again Jai Dee. I got to the end of your dummies thread and downloaded a random build. Then cleared it. Downloaded another random build. And then cleared that. I found a lot of content which I was able to play on my laptop but the HDMI cable link to my tv was not recognised by my laptop. This is not the end of the world. I can watch stuff on my laptop.

 

I will continue to set myself objectives and try to improve my ability to use this bit by bit.

[Jai Dee]

Good on you @Briggsy

Full marks for perseverance... it's not so difficult is it?

 

You could also try out some of the builds mentioned in the Best Kodi Builds topic... there's some good stuff in there.

 

Have you got your laptop configured for duplicate screen mode so that your HDMI port is sending the video and audio feed to your TV?

I am by no means an expert on this so maybe some other members can advise?