Internet Tv / Streaming News / Streaming Pbs

[pumper]

with a "full ticket programing' dish satellite package in the US I am entirely spoiled.

I have looked at / investigated streaming video only out of interest in the technology ..

I have only been exposed to Thai hotel / serviced apartment TV programing packages. & The english viewing choices are so very limited .. reruns of a few BBC news programs all day ..

on a 2 week trip I would seldom turn the TV on, so no problem

even on a 5 week visit, i am so busy, excited, caught up .. little time is spent watching TV.

however, as an retiree with my own satellite dish, are there programing packages that have more of the US programing?

mostly interested in news (MSNBC is my fav)

& PBS type programing .. the UCTV (U of California) PBS type network is wonderful, 100% university lectures...

yesterday I TIVOed 3 lectures: 1.5 hour on infection, 1 hour on sea level rise & 1 hour on climate change from the "Dish network" university channels.

lub it tu mutt.

movie channels are of little interest ..

yesterday I clicked on an "internet ad" that advertised for 1000 streaming channels. The site that had the ad yesterday does not have the same ad today & I did not bookmark.

my impression of the ad was that for $29. their software provided access / links to 1000 streaming video channels.

comments on streaming?

on streaming as a valid viewing option?

software suggestions to access streams & possible schedule recording the streams?

hopefully I will not spend as much time in isolation viewing TV in LOS as I do as a 60 YO single guy in rural America ..

but I do want to keep abreast of current events & do enjoy TV.

[monty]

Hi Pumper,

First, don't invest in any program promising 1000's of streaming television channels!

The channels are there alright, only they are free! The only thing the software does is give links to them...

Check out http://wwitv.com/portal.htm and see if you can find some interesting stuff.

Also google a bit on "internet television" or "streaming television".

Second, internet television is of very low quality. For reasonable decent full screen image/sound quality you'd need at least a bitrate of 700-1000kbps. Because not a whole lot of people have access to internet that fast, most streaming channels choose to reduce the quality, to allow uninterrupted streaming on slower links.

Third, the good quality streaming channels will probably be very hard to watch in Thailand because of the notorious slow internet access here. You might subscribe to a 1024 kbps package, but actual speeds probably will be between 100 and 700 kbps, with the higher number only achieved at hours hardly anybody is using the net.

Which fortunately is late afternoon US time, (early am Thai time) so you might get some good shows coming through at those hours!

If it is worth a bit of cash then you can pay for good quality (better anyway ) internet speeds by subscribing to a business package, Maxnet (my ISP) for example has a 2048 kbps business package for 5600 Baht/month (160 US$/month) which will most probably be able to give you decent access to streaming television...

Unfortunately, because of the USA being almost on the opposite side of the globe, not much American content is to be found on the satellites you can see from here. Sportswise the best would be the Philipine based DreamTV network, since their sport coverage is more American orientated...

Fox, CNN, CNBC and bloomberg are widely available, not sure about msnbc though...

Cheers,

Monty