Streaming Video In Samui

[OriginalPoster]

I'm thinking of hanging out in Samui for a month or so and would like to be able to watch some sports in the mornings over streaming video. The particular service that I use seems to be very reliable and to have acceptable video quality if I can get a connection continuously capable of supplying 800 kbps download speeds from US web sites. However if the connection fluctuates in its speed, for instance is 2 Mbps one moment and 400 kpbs the next, the service becomes too unstable to use. I there any chance of getting a suffiecnt connection in Samui during a shorttem visit?

Edited May 3, 2009 by OriginalPoster

[livinthailandos]

800 kbps download speeds from US web sites.

i'll try to make this as easy as possible, for this topic although it should be in the computer forum, nobody that i am aware of even has this speed. As a home user Im lucky enough if I can get 100kbps, I've even been to the IT complex in lamai and the speed there was just fast enough to watch some video. But still had to be buffering all the time. Depending on what website your watching video from, most networks in the US won't allow a user to watch video outside the US, your only choice would be to use VPN, or someway of making the external IP address match a US IP address.

The reason for the lack of this speed is

1. Quality of internet infrastructure here is ok, but not really fast enough to watching or streaming live tv at least in my opinion

2. The fastest connection I've ever managed to get was downloading a 800 mb file at IT complex and it only took 40 mins

3. Samui has no fiber optics to the home or hotel or anywhere else

4. I am aware that it is possible to get this speed but you would need to pay about 10,000 baht a month probably though just to obtain speeds.

good luck finding a place that would get those speeds, if you find a place like that please post it.

[OriginalPoster]

800 kbps download speeds from US web sites.

i'll try to make this as easy as possible, for this topic although it should be in the computer forum, nobody that i am aware of even has this speed. As a home user Im lucky enough if I can get 100kbps, I've even been to the IT complex in lamai and the speed there was just fast enough to watch some video. But still had to be buffering all the time. Depending on what website your watching video from, most networks in the US won't allow a user to watch video outside the US, your only choice would be to use VPN, or someway of making the external IP address match a US IP address.

The reason for the lack of this speed is

1. Quality of internet infrastructure here is ok, but not really fast enough to watching or streaming live tv at least in my opinion

2. The fastest connection I've ever managed to get was downloading a 800 mb file at IT complex and it only took 40 mins

3. Samui has no fiber optics to the home or hotel or anywhere else

4. I am aware that it is possible to get this speed but you would need to pay about 10,000 baht a month probably though just to obtain speeds.

good luck finding a place that would get those speeds, if you find a place like that please post it.

Christ, that's bleak. I'm not entirely surprised though.

Access to the video streams from outside the US isn't a problem in this case though, quite the opposite. Because of television rights negotiated between the leagues and broadcasting companies, more internet broadcasts of games are blacked-out for people inside the US than outside. I watch the games from Singapore, with no issues except for an occasional stuttering feed. But people who buy the same service in the US are always complaining about being blacked-out from their home team's games though. In Massachusetts , for instance, every Boston game is blacked-out if you live inside the state, but watch it from Asia and it works fine. And on Saturday afternoons and Sunday nights (local time), they black out every game in the country if you are in the US but none if you are abroad.

Edited May 3, 2009 by OriginalPoster

[marcus]

If you could tell us what exactly you want to watch, we could easily try it out and tell you

800 kbps is no problem on my line, but might be too much on shared hotel lines.

[OriginalPoster]

If you could tell us what exactly you want to watch, we could easily try it out and tell you

800 kbps is no problem on my line, but might be too much on shared hotel lines.

It's major league baseball that I want to watch. The service that offers it is at http://www.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index...teId=mediaguide

They have a demo video there, but it's not the same as what is shown during a real game, it's just a low resolution clip reciting the features of their service. They do have a rudimentary speed tester on their service though, which might give some indication of whether it would work at http://mlb.mlb.com/tools/bandwidthdetect/index.html . I wouldn't be surprised if that test is a bit biased towards making things look more favorable than they they can sell more subscriptions. For one thing, that's just a quick test that will tell you your line speed over a few seconds of usage, whereas the video player that they sell with this service turns out to be quite sensitive to the consistency of the line speed during the course of the game.

Edited May 3, 2009 by OriginalPoster

[marcus]

If you could tell us what exactly you want to watch, we could easily try it out and tell you

800 kbps is no problem on my line, but might be too much on shared hotel lines.

It's major league baseball that I want to watch. The service that offers it is at http://www.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index...teId=mediaguide

They have a demo video there, but it's not the same as what is shown during a real game, it's just a low resolution clip reciting the features of their service. They do have a rudimentary speed tester on their service though, which might give some indication of whether it would work at http://mlb.mlb.com/tools/bandwidthdetect/index.html . I wouldn't be surprised if that test is a bit biased towards making things look more favorable than they they can sell more subscriptions. For one thing, that's just a quick test that will tell you your line speed over a few seconds of usage, whereas the video player that they sell with this service turns out to be quite sensitive to the consistency of the line speed during the course of the game.

The speedtest gives me 1245 kbps down, and the demo was loaded in 16 seconds (it supports Bywifi video accelerator), so you should not have a problem

[simey]

I get 1156 kbps over the CAT CDMA system so it seems the speed might be ok, I think the original detractor was confusing kbps with Kbps.

[PoorSucker]

I get 1156 kbps over the CAT CDMA system so it seems the speed might be ok, I think the original detractor was confusing kbps with Kbps.

So which one goes faster kbps or Kbps.

[OriginalPoster]

I get 1156 kbps over the CAT CDMA system so it seems the speed might be ok, I think the original detractor was confusing kbps with Kbps.

That sounds really good if that speed is typical of CAT CDMA. But you need to buy a USB modem and a service contract in order to use that, right?

Edited May 4, 2009 by OriginalPoster

[marcus]

Just something you might want to try before heading to Samui : I suppose you mostly don't watch live TV, but recorded shows. In that case, it is very likely that you can download them to your PC using a download manager, before watching them.

This would normally speed up your downloads, but in case your hotel offers a shared line in the lobby, you can download them over there, and later watch them in your room. Also, it doesn't matter for the download manager if the speed is too slow for watching live, it just takes a bit longer to download.

[OriginalPoster]

Just something you might want to try before heading to Samui : I suppose you mostly don't watch live TV, but recorded shows. In that case, it is very likely that you can download them to your PC using a download manager, before watching them.

Actually no, the plan would be to watch the games live. In most cases the games are on during the morning hours (Thai time), but usually they don't start prohibitively early.

Edited May 4, 2009 by OriginalPoster

[koheesti]

If you could tell us what exactly you want to watch, we could easily try it out and tell you

800 kbps is no problem on my line, but might be too much on shared hotel lines.

It's major league baseball that I want to watch. The service that offers it is at http://www.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index...teId=mediaguide

They have a demo video there, but it's not the same as what is shown during a real game, it's just a low resolution clip reciting the features of their service. They do have a rudimentary speed tester on their service though, which might give some indication of whether it would work at http://mlb.mlb.com/tools/bandwidthdetect/index.html . I wouldn't be surprised if that test is a bit biased towards making things look more favorable than they they can sell more subscriptions. For one thing, that's just a quick test that will tell you your line speed over a few seconds of usage, whereas the video player that they sell with this service turns out to be quite sensitive to the consistency of the line speed during the course of the game.

If they are using the same viewer as last year you could experience problems. I tried watching the World Series and the stream really sucked. Two years ago the NFL viewer was bad then they changed for 2008 and it worked much better - although they sometimes had issues with the service being overloaded (which you won't get with a test).

[OriginalPoster]

If you could tell us what exactly you want to watch, we could easily try it out and tell you

800 kbps is no problem on my line, but might be too much on shared hotel lines.

It's major league baseball that I want to watch. The service that offers it is at http://www.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index...teId=mediaguide

They have a demo video there, but it's not the same as what is shown during a real game, it's just a low resolution clip reciting the features of their service. They do have a rudimentary speed tester on their service though, which might give some indication of whether it would work at http://mlb.mlb.com/tools/bandwidthdetect/index.html . I wouldn't be surprised if that test is a bit biased towards making things look more favorable than they they can sell more subscriptions. For one thing, that's just a quick test that will tell you your line speed over a few seconds of usage, whereas the video player that they sell with this service turns out to be quite sensitive to the consistency of the line speed during the course of the game.

If they are using the same viewer as last year you could experience problems. I tried watching the World Series and the stream really sucked. Two years ago the NFL viewer was bad then they changed for 2008 and it worked much better - although they sometimes had issues with the service being overloaded (which you won't get with a test).

They changed the viewer but I'm unable to know if it works better or worse when line speed gets dodgy. It seems to work better for me from Singapore since last year, but I suspect that the improvements are more due to my line quality improving since last year than due to anything that MLB did with their software.

Edited May 6, 2009 by OriginalPoster

[MattCinderey]

I use 6mb lines at all my hotspots. They offer the full 6mb outside of Thailand. They are very fast and dependable.

We also use high-spec load-balancing routers that do QoS very well.

Please do a search on bluechip wireless on this forum. There are quite a few Thai Visa members who use my service.

Streaming video is no problem at all.

I am currently sat upstairs in the restaurant at the Spa Samui. There are currently 13 users connected to the system.

Please find attached Speedtest I have just done. This is outside of Thailand.

Good fast Internet does exist here on Samui!

Regards,

Matt.

[OriginalPoster]

I use 6mb lines at all my hotspots. They offer the full 6mb outside of Thailand. They are very fast and dependable.

We also use high-spec load-balancing routers that do QoS very well.

Please do a search on bluechip wireless on this forum. There are quite a few Thai Visa members who use my service.

Streaming video is no problem at all.

I am currently sat upstairs in the restaurant at the Spa Samui. There are currently 13 users connected to the system.

Please find attached Speedtest I have just done. This is outside of Thailand.

Good fast Internet does exist here on Samui!

Regards,

Matt.

Sounds promising. I looked on your web site, looks like one of your hotspots is at Tropical Murphy's. How wide is your coverage area around that locale, would I need to go to Murphy's each morning to watch my games or would I be able to stay at those bungalow's behind Murphy's (Long Beach bungalows, I think) and still get a signal there?

Edited May 8, 2009 by LivinginKata
URL link removed

[MattCinderey]

I couldn't say on coverage really, it really depends a lot on where you are. If you're in a concrete room and no windows face the street then the signal will be very low.

Out in the open it will be good for up to 600m or more. We do a 5km link to the Jungle Club and a 10km link to Laem Sila with our radios.

We also have a hotspot a bit further up the road (towards Northern Chaweng) near Flintstone Bar. Again we have a 6mb line there.

The best thing would be for you to take your laptop down to the bunaglow's and give it a try.

You can use our 10 minute free trial to check connection speed.

Regards,

Matt.

[OriginalPoster]

We do a 5km link to the Jungle Club and a 10km link to Laem Sila with our radios.

So if I stay at the Jungle Club, it's a slam-dunk that I'll be able to get a fast enough connection in the mornings to be able watch the games?

[Rooo]

Easy on the advertising side please Matt.

[OriginalPoster]

Easy on the advertising side please.

Not sure who that's directed at, but I just want to know where to get a fast internet connection when visiting Samui. I don't see how I can find that out without naming names of business establishments.

[Rooo]

Easy on the advertising side please.

Not sure who that's directed at, but I just want to know where to get a fast internet connection when visiting Samui. I don't see how I can find that out without naming names of business establishments.

Easy on the advertising side please Matt.

If you quote, please quote the whole sentence,it says Matt. He can always PM you.

[OriginalPoster]

Easy on the advertising side please.

Not sure who that's directed at, but I just want to know where to get a fast internet connection when visiting Samui. I don't see how I can find that out without naming names of business establishments.

Easy on the advertising side please Matt.

If you quote, please quote the whole sentence,it says Matt. He can always PM you.

I thought I did quote the whole sentence, sorry about that. Are you sure that you didn't edit your message after I replied to it?

I'll drop the topic if that's better, I wasn't intending to cause offense.

Edited May 8, 2009 by OriginalPoster

[NHJ]

considering a business line(2meg) is 5900 baht a month, i think using those hotspots to watch the streaming will be a very good alternative, even if they must be overpriced like a bath per minute.

[OriginalPoster]

I use 6mb lines at all my hotspots. They offer the full 6mb outside of Thailand. They are very fast and dependable.

We also use high-spec load-balancing routers that do QoS very well.

Please do a search on bluechip wireless on this forum. There are quite a few Thai Visa members who use my service.

Streaming video is no problem at all.

I am currently sat upstairs in the restaurant at the Spa Samui. There are currently 13 users connected to the system.

Please find attached Speedtest I have just done. This is outside of Thailand.

Good fast Internet does exist here on Samui!

Regards,

Matt.

Matt - I was going to try your service this morning to watch the Dodgers game but when I read your "terms of use" I noticed that the max allowed usage is 1 GB per day. Post-season baseball games often run about 3 to 4 hours, so that 1 GB would run out on me in about the 2nd inning, right? Do you have have any unlimited packages?

Edited October 11, 2009 by OriginalPoster

[bluechipit]

Yes. Sure PM me!