Fed Up With Espn/star F1 Coverage

[apetley]

Being an F1 fan I watch using TRUE and the coverage they provide via ESPN/STAR.

Yesterday was my 'home', British' GP, so I sat down with a few beers and waited to enjoy.

The commentary was appalling as it is at every GP. How Slater ever into broadcasting when he constantly misses the action or just plain calls it wrong is beyond me.

And then there are the ad braeks every 4 or 5 laps. Crazy in such a fluid sport when the tactics are changing all the time.

So, does anyone know of any alternative sources of GP coverage? Either satellite(no cable here in the village) or internet feeds?

Thanks for reading, Andy.

[H2oDunc]

Try the cable networks. They hook into the South African broadcast and is very good. No interruptions and they use the UK commentary team so you get Martin Brundle and co. Here on Samui theyfor got to switch to the F1 one weekend. After going into theshop to explain that if there is no F1 then they can stick their cable they gave me the telephone number of the guy that switches the channels. Now if there is something I want to watch I give he guy a call and bingo, there it is. Bargain! Its certainly starting to hot up after yesterday. Should be a good end to a great series.

[apetley]

Thanks for that but as I said no cable in the village.

When we used to live in town we had cable and yes had the Supersport coverage which was so much better than ESPN/STAR.

[hughden]

I download the BBC coverage of qualifying and the race; quality stuff.

[phazey]

It's possible to use BBC's iplayer using a number of methods. I watched yesterdays race using a slingbox hosted in the UK. You can also get sports channels that offer better coverage streamed over the net by using software such as tvants....

[filingaccount]

As far as I know, there are several good online sources for live feeds.

Generally a weekend pass is around US$ 2 (official).

Also several un-official feeds for free (they also show the whole weekend)

If you are interested I can ask some of my friends who are interested in F1 to provide you with links and packages.

[Mobi]

As I have posted many times in various threads, the South African feed via Multichoice is much better than True, and no commercial breaks.

However you need a large dish, a box decoder, and an internet connection to a server provider which unscrambles the signal.

All doable, but a lot of hassle.

Depends how important it is to you.

[Prasert]

Multichoice is indeed the answer. These are the channels: Lyngsat MultiChoice.

For around 7500 you have all the equipment you need.

And the nice touch: it's not illegal according to Thai law to watch it, or share their smartcards.

[apetley]

Thanks for all the replies I really appreciate your advice.

Regards Multichoice. Does it rely on a fulltime internet connection or do you just do an occassional update of the decoder box?

The reason I ask is because out in the village my internet connection is ADSL but unreliable.

[Prasert]

Thanks for all the replies I really appreciate your advice.

Regards Multichoice. Does it rely on a fulltime internet connection or do you just do an occassional update of the decoder box?

The reason I ask is because out in the village my internet connection is ADSL but unreliable.

The receiver needs a key every 10 seconds to decode the encrypted satellite signal.

It gets this key from either the smartcard in the receiver, or from a smartcard server on the internet.

While slow internet is not a problem, no internet = no tv.

[Mobi]

I have run the box on an AIS Edge connection, but I'm not sure if you get Edge out in the villages, and I'm not sure how reliable it would be. I only used it for a brief period when my main internet went down.

You don't need a fast connection - just a reliable one.

Should be OK when 3G is rolled out, but no idea how long that will be.

IPStar is another alternative, but again - not particularly reliable.