Based On Tv Demand Reported Here .. Why Is There Not A Reasonable Satellite Service

[pumper]

several threads are full of english speakers crying for english TV programing.

why is there not a simple solution?

I read of poster with all known devices & mostly no good news.

based on this forum there is demand & blokes seem to be willing to go to great extremes.

& cost does not seem to be an objection.

as I read the multiple threads:

1. no Thai satellite service, at any cost, provides reasonable western/english programing

2. internet TV is hit & miss

3. no Thai provider has a TIVO device.

I guess I am finding out what retiring in the 3rd world means... or, why it's called the 3rd world.

could the violence in Pattaya be because of lack of decent TV programing?

[lamphun]

You're labouring under a misconception here. Thai business does not operate under the laws of supply and demand. That's a foreign concept unsuited to hot countries.

What you have here is what's called a concession. Also called a monopoly.

[pumper]

i was thinking about the monopoly factor as I checked for responses.

decent TV would cut down on beer sales also .. bad for the economy.

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

i was thinking about the monopoly factor as I checked for responses.

decent TV would cut down on beer sales also .. bad for the economy.

This is all going to change with the Internet. The choices are just beginning.

slingbox's

http://www.tvunetworks.com/dlsite.htm?id=rdb (currently free to watch)

Joost.com

download from broadcasters direct..NBC, Fox etc.

If only thailand had bandwidth that rated above the bottom 10% worldwide.

BTW.. here is a good speed measurement site

http://www.speedtest.net/

[astral]

There are some "western" style satellite services available,

BUT if you want to see the good programmes you need a Smart card

and that has to be paid for on a monthly basis.

[cdnvic]

Many farangs overestimate their significance in the overall market. Until Thais are asking for lots of english language programing, there won't be alot of incentive for improvement.

Edited February 27, 2007 by cdnvic

[MarkBKK]

This is all going to change with the Internet.

If only thailand had bandwidth that rated above the bottom 10% worldwide.

Er ... I think I can see the problem here ...

[topfield]

As a resident here of many years whose great interest and passion is sat tv...especially tv we can all understand, there is in fact an amazing choice. Internet tv has been mentioned already and the service quoted is indeed good but restricted. They had a fabulous new US channel last week called Spike tv ( belongs to MTV group) but it lasted only a couple of days.

New progs are put on all the time. I can recommend "tvants" which has BBC NEWS...not BBC World freely available here....look it up on google and download.

The best free UK tv is of course Freeview and as I posted a week or so back if you have broadband in UK and Thailand you can watch this if you buy a box costing around 200 pounds called a slingbox. Yes freeview in your Pattay house or condo is indeed quite feasible now.

Finally satellite tv...the answer is a box called a Dreambox which will get almost everything available in the region with the right dish and a very small subscription but this forum does not permit any further details to be given.

Ask your sat dealer about it. !

ps No....no Sky Digital here...at least not on satellite. Only a Jodrell Bank sized dish could pick up the signal !

[sumrit]

ps No....no Sky Digital here...at least not on satellite. Only a Jodrell Bank sized dish could pick up the signal !

Not even a 'Jodrell Bank' sized dish could pick up Sky Digital from here....the satelite is over the horizon from here in Thailand.

[topfield]

ps No....no Sky Digital here...at least not on satellite. Only a Jodrell Bank sized dish could pick up the signal !

Not even a 'Jodrell Bank' sized dish could pick up Sky Digital from here....the satelite is over the horizon from here in Thailand.

Oh no...not again !! No it is NOT over the horizon ! You can watch Bloomberg on Panamsat 2 at 169 degrees East easily here with a ten foot dish and with the dish elevation of around 14 degrees..

Bangkok is 100 degrees East.

It follows therefore that if you can with ease watch a channel seventy degrees to the East you can in theory watch a channel seventy degrees to the West.

Sky Digital is 28 degrees East on Astra 2

This is theory. As the beam is not directed towards Thailand only the faintest of signal is possible which only a Jodrell Bank size dish could possibly pick up .

[sumrit]

ps No....no Sky Digital here...at least not on satellite. Only a Jodrell Bank sized dish could pick up the signal !

Not even a 'Jodrell Bank' sized dish could pick up Sky Digital from here....the satelite is over the horizon from here in Thailand.

Oh no...not again !! No it is NOT over the horizon ! You can watch Bloomberg on Panamsat 2 at 169 degrees East easily here with a ten foot dish and with the dish elevation of around 14 degrees..

Bangkok is 100 degrees East.

It follows therefore that if you can with ease watch a channel seventy degrees to the East you can in theory watch a channel seventy degrees to the West.

Sky Digital is 28 degrees East on Astra 2

This is theory. As the beam is not directed towards Thailand only the faintest of signal is possible which only a Jodrell Bank size dish could possibly pick up .

Topfield,

A year or two ago when things were quiet in our workshop I sat down with a work colleague (who originates from India) to calculate what size dishes we would need to watch Sky when we retired to India and Thailand respectively. We worked out that the dish in India would have to be massive and that Thailand was just over the horizon. Now this was a year or two ago and we might have been using the co-ordinates for the astra satllites at 19.2degrees east but I don't think so. Of course the other point is that the astra satellites send the signals down in a 'directional beam' to create a footprint on the earths surface where signals can be picked up. The signal is not transmitted in all directions. The very edge of the footprint for astra at 28.2degrees east goes across north Africa to eastern Turkey. No signals are transmitted further east than that so theory or otherwise it doesn't matter what dish you have here in Thailand you won't pick up a signal from astra.

[StrongView]

Slingbox seems like the easiest solution. All you need is a laptop and watch live TV (depending on where the base Slingbox is located). Not to sound like a walking advertizement, but I've got 3 slingboxes available for monthly renting. PM me or email me if you're interested ([email protected]).

[astral]

The Slingbox only appears to be a solution where you have a cable service.

SKY in the UK is a satellite service and requires channel changing on the satellite box as well.

[topfield]

ps No....no Sky Digital here...at least not on satellite. Only a Jodrell Bank sized dish could pick up the signal !

Not even a 'Jodrell Bank' sized dish could pick up Sky Digital from here....the satelite is over the horizon from here in Thailand.

Oh no...not again !! No it is NOT over the horizon ! You can watch Bloomberg on Panamsat 2 at 169 degrees East easily here with a ten foot dish and with the dish elevation of around 14 degrees..

Bangkok is 100 degrees East.

It follows therefore that if you can with ease watch a channel seventy degrees to the East you can in theory watch a channel seventy degrees to the West.

Sky Digital is 28 degrees East on Astra 2

This is theory. As the beam is not directed towards Thailand only the faintest of signal is possible which only a Jodrell Bank size dish could possibly pick up .

Topfield,

A year or two ago when things were quiet in our workshop I sat down with a work colleague (who originates from India) to calculate what size dishes we would need to watch Sky when we retired to India and Thailand respectively. We worked out that the dish in India would have to be massive and that Thailand was just over the horizon. Now this was a year or two ago and we might have been using the co-ordinates for the astra satllites at 19.2degrees east but I don't think so. Of course the other point is that the astra satellites send the signals down in a 'directional beam' to create a footprint on the earths surface where signals can be picked up. The signal is not transmitted in all directions. The very edge of the footprint for astra at 28.2degrees east goes across north Africa to eastern Turkey. No signals are transmitted further east than that so theory or otherwise it doesn't matter what dish you have here in Thailand you won't pick up a signal from astra.

Brilliant well written reply by a truly educated TV member. You are of course 100 percent correct that Astra 2 is not available for the reasons you gave. However.....

1. Astra 2 is not over the horizen...another reader on this forum worked out last month that 25 degrees East is where all direct signals must stop

2. Jodrell Bank and similar sized dishes pick up the faintest of signals from stars hundreds of light years away..it follows they could without the slightest doubt pick up signals from Sky Digital UK on Planet Earth !!

[cdnvic]

Considering Thailand's logitude, wouldn't satellites aimed at Australia be the ones to aim for? Many of them carry a great deal of UK programming. Just a matter of getting a subscription in Oz if you can swing it. I know of people who winter in Mexico that use their Canadian satellite service down there, and some people use American satellite services up here and it all seems to work.

I'm not an expert on this area at all but I'd love it if I could get AFL while in Thailand

Edited March 3, 2007 by cdnvic

[solo siam]

Internet TV or Slingbox isn't really an option here, to get even a normal TV resolution picture requires 3mbps+ constantly, it may be fine for watching it on your laptop but on a family TV it would look poor at the speeds available here.

[StrongView]

Ben, I appreciate your opinion, but as a person actually using a Slingbox connection for the past 9 months here (BKK on a 2.5Mbps True ADSL connection), I can say your wrong about the quality. My picture comes across at about 300 - 700 kbps and it looks excellent. Also, my experience is the exact opposite of what you mention (computer screen looking better than televison screen). I understand that on a laptop screen, there are more pixels and they are square shaped, where as on a television (at least the tube based ones) the pixels are non-square shaped. This, somehow..as I've been explained (I'm not a TV tech, I'm a computer tech), makes the television picture look better than the laptop. In my case, on the laptop the picture looks fine, but I watch my Slingplayer on my television (tv connected to tv-out on laptop) and use a presentation remote control to control the entire experience from my sofa (just like I'm at home). I, right now, am watching the Today show and the picture is very clear. Sure, I know I'm not watching digital television (the picture isn't THAT great)...but it's completely 100% watchable. Have you actually used a Slingbox here? If not, I'd be happy to let you demo one of my connections so you can see for yourself, just PM me or email me @ [email protected] and I'll give you the connection details.

Edited March 3, 2007 by StrongView

[solo siam]

300kbps, Sorry but excellent picture quality at that speed is almost impossible, unless you think an 840x480 pixel picture and accompanyin sound takes up 1.5kilobytes (it doesn't).

Just to put that 300kbs speed into place, most DVD's use around 4-6 mbps, so unless the slingbox is magic you are looking at 20% quality of a DVD and thats being generous with the codecs (assuming its MPEG4). The DVD also feeds a constant speed whereas internet speed will go up and down, packets lost etc...

Yes I have seen a slingbox here, the resolution was terrible and the dropouts where also pretty bad. I quite like the technology but its really not viable for Thailand unless you have a very small TV or don't like quality.

[astral]

300kb/s was OK for a good signal on the Slingbox,

but I do have to admit my adsl link has been working well lately.

On the "dial up" speed days you could forget it.

[ignis]

Err what is it your looking for ??

I have a Dreambox with a MOVE setup, and get well over 100 English channels.. in total I get 1,366 channels from around the world… there are 34 Satellites with a good footprint over Thailand…. There are channels in just about every language here FREE to view, with the right satellite setup.

[targaman]

1. no Thai satellite service, at any cost, provides reasonable western/english programing

2. internet TV is hit & miss

3. no Thai provider has a TIVO device.

I guess I am finding out what retiring in the 3rd world means... or, why it's called the 3rd world.

could the violence in Pattaya be because of lack of decent TV programing?

I came to Thailand to live in Thailand. Not to recreate the Western world I left.

As for English TV programs here are my solutions:

1. If its a big game "Live" I go my local pub/bar cafe and watch it there on wide screen in the company of fellow sports enthusiasts.

2. If its a Movie I watch it on HBO or Start Movies (Free in my apt or I watch a pirate DVD.

3. If its a soap or other popular Western TV program like "Idol", I don't watch it anyway.

4. If its News I get it live on the internet 24/7 from multiple sources.

5. If its a special interest channel like Golf, Sailing, Skiing, Tennis or whatever, I play it rather than watch it. If I can't play I am seldom content to be an arm chair enthusiast/expert.

6. If its shopping channel I buy/sell everything i want on ebay

7. If its music channel I buy the collected works of whatever artist I like (Pirate MP3 of course) and listen at my leisure on my MP3/Mp4 player

.

8. If its educational channel, I do a course or self study from the internet or DVD (Like learning to speak Thai).

9. If its any of the 999 other cable/SAT channels available in the West I don't! watch them.

10. If I am invalided or sick in hospital I want to learn something new or read/have read to me a book

so I can get the hel_l out of this place of un-wellness and heal. of course if I am terminally ill I won't be watching TV in the great beyond. Well I hope not lol.

As you can probably guess I am not a big TV fan, English or any other language. I find I hardly have enough time for life of the real kind let alone reality TV.

So why am i subscribed to this forum?

I am a shit stirrer, that why

No English TV programs in Thailand? Wonderful for this Joker!