American tv in los

[NathanV23]

I'd like to be able to watch live TV directly from the US, mostly for the sports that UBC doesn't show. Does anyone know if this is possible by sattelite here and if so through who and at what kind of prices?

[Ajarn]

We are simply in the wrong place on the planet to receive any (non-gov) satelite from the US....Contact Samart in Bkk and check to see what STAR has on offer....I've heard of another subscriber system out of Europe, but I don't know any details.

Get your friends to tape the game and burn a DVD for you...Your own slow-mo for those great football hits!

[NathanV23]

I think I remember seeing ads for the large sattelite dishes saying 250 channels or something. Do you think this is probably all Russian and Indian stuff etc?

[Ajarn]

I think I remember seeing ads for the large sattelite dishes saying 250 channels or something. Do you think this is probably all Russian and Indian stuff etc?

Mostly Indian, Chinese, Malay, Indonesia, Korea, Laos, Vietnam, Burma, Pakistan, Middle East, a little from Europe... BBC RAI TV5...german channel...

In reality, around 150 channels, 10 of which might have something interesting...Not much in English....

[NathanV23]

Thanks. I figured as such. If you ever do hear of a system that allows you to watch US TV let me know. Thanks.

[dougrobinson2024]

Here are three ways you can do it, but each one isn't very easy to implement:

1) Have someone back in the U.S. tape it and send you the tape.  You'd have to have a NTSC VCR to watch it and it wouldn't be live, (and it would come in weeks later) but it would probably be the easiest.

2) Same as above, but you could have them record it to DVD or to a VCD (do a search on eBay for a "VCD recorder", a "Terapin").  Here's an example of that search, as of tonight:

Search done on eBay

From there, they could either send you the VCD or DVD, OR--or, if you have broadband on both ends, you could download it to your PC in Thailand and watch it right away (as an MPEG file, for example).  Slick, huh?

3) Leave a PC with a TV tuner card installed (like an ATI All-in-Wonder), connected to a cable TV system and broadband.  Install PC Anywhere (which lets you control the PC as if you were actually sitting in front of the computer, right at the keyboard) and you could manually turn on the record-to-MPEG file feature of the card.  Then, again, you could download it back on to your PC in Thailand, assuming your connection is fast enough.  Estimated file size would be about 650 MB per hour of video.  Your mileage may vary, depending on the resolution you use to record.

Cool, huh?  I've thought about all this too... I'll be moving to Thailand sometime in the next few months and those are the only solutions I've come up with so far, that I could even remotely use in my situation.

Maybe not the best solutions, but you're also wanting to pull in TV from the other side of the planet!  

Good luck.  Tell me what you wind up with, if anything.

Doug

[NathanV23]

Thanks for the ideas. Number 3 looks like you could basiclaly call up TV on demand. Maybe just delayed a few hours. Unfortuantely I'm up North and can only dream about broadband. I'll see if any of my firends would be interested in recording DVD's/Videos. Someone in the US should set it up as a service for farangs missing their sports and other TV. Might get into all kinds of regualtions, but I bet their would be a market for it. And for those in BKK with broadband, they could just download the program from their supplier. So the only expense for the supplier would be the time spent monitoring requests for programs and then the time spent sending them.

If you're not familiar already, UBC, the main provider here has less than comprehensive sports coverage and most of the shows on Discovery Channel, History Channel etc. are from 2 or 3 years ago.

Its kind of funny that by satellite we can get 150 channels of programming from around the world, excluding what we really want to see. Thanks for the ideas.

[NathanV23]

In reference to no. 3 above, assuming you had broadband on this end, how exactly would you set up the computer in America so that it could be controlled by your computer here?

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea. You would need a safe place to leave your computer of course. Somewhere that didn't mind you tying up bandwidth also. But it is a good idea. If only I had broadband. 256k is available. Any idea what kind of download times we're talking for an hour of TV via 256k?

[singa-traz]

Estimated file size would be about 650 MB per hour of video.  Your mileage may vary, depending on the resolution you use to record.

Any idea what kind of download times we're talking for an hour of TV via 256k?

No prior experience of  Broadband in Thailand, but you could expect between 12 to 24 hours of download time for a full CD (650 MB) ... or more.

Anyone with Practical experience ... in Thailand.

Best, as suggested, is to remotely do the recording, and get a nice friend/family member to burn them on CD/DVD and send it to you.

You can't beat the postal service in term of Bandwidth, if you send a few CDs, once a week. :cool:

[Bob Chittie]

Yeah, having them sent would be easier, but it would be cool to be able to call up programming on demand. In the states I used to download an episode of Seinfeld or what not in 2 or 3 hours.

[SeaVisionBurma]

With 256k satellite I get a full movie (dvd rip) down in less than 4 hours, 6 if slow.  Thats 700 mb.

256 IS broadband.

Its not too bad.

[dougrobinson2024]

how exactly would you set up the computer in America so that it could be controlled by your computer here?

Symantec PC Anywhere is software that lets you control another PC, just like you were sitting in front of that keyboard and mouse.  You run the host software on the PC in the U.S. and you run the client (or remote) software on the PC in Thailand.  

By the way, PC Anywhere usually costs around $180 or so USD, but I was able to find it on eBay for about $20, for a brand new, registerable copy!  If you do that, make sure you get version 10.5 (the latest version) if you have XP.

I'm leaving for Thailand this Sunday 07/20, and I'm actually going to try out option #3, i.e., using PC Anywhere from my laptop to control my desktop back home.  I'll do some quick test clips and see how it goes.  Of course, I'm going to have to find a very fast net cafe (and that's one of the reasons for my previous post, looking for the fastest net cafes in Bangkok and Pattaya).

Should be interesting to see how it turns out!

Doug

[wolf5370]

How about Real Player One etc. Can you not get news/spots channels on these and logon on from LOS? Low res I know, but designed for streaming.

[Bob Chittie]

i don't think real player let's you watch TV channels apart from some clips. Maybe CNN with the pay package. But I don't think much else.

Doug, if possible post the results of your experiment when you have a chance.

[dougrobinson2024]

i don't think real player let's you watch TV channels

Yeah, I don't think it does either.  You could take the video that you recorded and encode it as a RealVideo file though, and that might make it smaller (maybe) than an MPEG file.

Doug

[dougrobinson2024]

Another similar idea I had a while back was you could stream the video signal coming from your TV tuner card to a web page.  I remember running across a web site that sells the necessary software to do that  I thought I had bookmarked it, but now I can't find it.  

That would have been sweet though, because then you could use PC Anywhere to "click" the channels on your TV tuner card and simultaneously watch the streaming output on a web page!  Voila--your favorite stations from back home, privately transmitted to you in Thailand!  Low res--but real-time!

Doug

[Roger13]

Doug,

Please excuse my ignorance

But what is the significance of 26 Nov 1985 ?

Just Curious

Thanks

Roger

[dougrobinson2024]

But what is the significance of 26 Nov 1985 ?

??  I don't know what you're talking about?

Doug

[Bob Chittie]

The bar code you're using

[dougrobinson2024]

Oh!  ..No significance!  Just one of the avatars they offer here.  

Doug

[simon43]

I use a program called Remote Administrator (www.famatech.com), to remotely access and control my London-based servers when I'm in BKK. This works abit like PC Anywhere and gives you full remote control of your computers.  It does not need high bandwidth and I have even controlled a server (eg opened programs, rebooted etc etc) using a palm-pilot and 9.6kb mobile phone link!

[dougrobinson2024]

I use a program called Remote Administrator (www.famatech.com), to remotely access and control my London-based servers when I'm in BKK. This works abit like PC Anywhere and gives you full remote control of your computers.  It does not need high bandwidth and I have even controlled a server (eg opened programs, rebooted etc etc) using a palm-pilot and 9.6kb mobile phone link!

I have even controlled a server (eg opened programs, rebooted etc etc) using a palm-pilot and 9.6kb mobile phone link!

Ha!  God, I love this technology!  Fantastic stuff--I love this shit!

I took a look at Remote Administrator before settling on PC Anywhere.  You can use both from either a low or high-bandwidth connection, they are about the same.  I just felt *maybe* Symantec had a little more power to their program than the RA, since they are a bigger company and could probably through more programming dollars at it.  That and Symantec's Tech Support is probably bigger and more responsive.  Plus, if you can get PCA on eBay for $20 -  $25, then you save $10 over RA!

But either one would probably be fine...  It's all good!

Doug

[NathanV23]

Doug,

Let us know how your experiment goes and also let us know if you find any info about live streaming TV to a website. If the resolution was just decent, this would be awesome. You would have your own American TV here! If its not possibel right now, I would imagine it will only be a matter of time.

[Trev]

Nathan, what sports in specific are not on offer through UBC that you want to see?

[NathanV23]

Not offered at all: College basketball, college football

Offered, but once in a blue moon: baseball, football, basketball

I would also like to be able to see some current programming! Don't get me wrong. I'm not obsessed with TV or anything, but it would be nice to see some current documentaries (half the stuff on UBC is from 3 years ago). Would also be fun to check in on the late night talk shows, comedy channel etc.

[PattayaSteve]

We used to get Armed Forces Television in the Philippines.  It was all the Network stuff.  Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Baseball, Tom Brokaw.  I think the Expat Club should look into that.

[LPCustom69]

Armed Forces Television would be a welcome addition if available, even for a small fee. The live streaming if it works, would be great because you could watch what you want when you want. I wonder what kind of television channels the embassies get?There are a lot of potential customers in LOS and SE Asia in general, so it's surprising that no one has made any type of deal to bounce US programs off west coast or Hawaii satellites to the area. I think even the thais would like to see some of the current programs.

[NathanV23]

Is armed forces TV available to the general public or is it actually only available to US armed forces? I always figured there must be some legal reasons that half the stuff we see on UBC from the states is three years old. Legal, or maybe the current stuff costs more and the different stations on UBC know that most of Asia doesn't really care. Kind of like during the NBA playoffs when instead of hearing comentators sitting courtside, we got to listen to two guys sitting in a studio watching it on TV just like us. I'm assuming that was the cheaper way out for either ESPN or UBC. Is there anywhere in the world where US TV is readily available? (Besides the US of course). If so, we should look into why it can be done there and not here.

There's not much I miss in the US, but you've got to admit, they do TV better than just about anywhere else.

[dougrobinson2024]

OK, I'm here in Pattaya now and have a 28.8 kbps connection (which was way better than the 9 to 12 kbps connection I got in Bangkok)!  

28.8 is still too slow to download large 650+ MB files, but fast enough to connect back into my home via PC Anywhere and start the video recording on my ATI TV tuner card--which I've done several times now--all successfully.  I've done quite a few 5 or 10 second clips and they all work fine, although it can take 15 or 20 minutes to download them, on this slow connection.

I've set the tuner to record a 30 minute show and later today I hope to take my laptop down to one of the "high speed" (256K) net cafes and download it to my laptop and from there, burn it to a VCD and try it out on my VCD player.

Will post the results of the test here on this thread later.

Doug

[dougrobinson2024]

OK.  Just got back from taking my laptop down to Royal Garden area in Pattaya.  To make a long story short, I couldn't find a fast enough connection that made it feasible to download the 570 MB file I needed to download.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd like to hear them.  But basically the bottom line is: I was able to successfully use PC Anywhere to set the timer on the TV tuner on my video card back home on my desktop PC and record a show that--if I could find a fast enough connection, I could then either watch on my laptop or burn to a CD as a VCD.

So success!  ...sort of...

Doug