Availability Of Hdtv In Chiang Mai

[retiredat50]

I'm considering a move to Chiang Mai. Can anyone out there tell me what I'd be able to watch on television. Are most places connected with cable, is HDTV available, what channels can I receive? For example can I receive HDTV History / Discovery channels?

Also what are the alternatives.

Thanks for any help.

[Benjie]

As far as I'm aware there aren't any worthwhile HD channels available in Thailand.

[retiredat50]

As far as I'm aware there aren't any worthwhile HD channels available in Thailand.

Are you saying that satellite TV and cable tv are not available? I would assume that satellite TV gave a few hundred channels including many international but I'm not sure what's available in Chiang Mai. Anyone out there using satellite TV?

[MJo]

Satellite and cable are available but no HDTV content and the SD content is also extremely poor quality at least in cable. Reason being True corp having monopoly in thailand.

There is options but those are illegal.

[Benjie]

As far as I'm aware there aren't any worthwhile HD channels available in Thailand.

Are you saying that satellite TV and cable tv are not available? I would assume that satellite TV gave a few hundred channels including many international but I'm not sure what's available in Chiang Mai. Anyone out there using satellite TV?

No I'm saying that NONE of the channels are in HD.

[monty]

The only viable option would be Truevisions.

Expensive, crappy programing with massive amount of repeats, the only thing they do good is show pretty much each and every Premier League football game. Good if you're English that is!

But yes, they do have discovery, History Channel, NatGeo etc...

But high compression ratio, so relatively low quality. Looks good on a CRT television, not so good on a proper big screen plasma or LCD.

Expensive as well (for Thailand) at about 1600 Baht/month for the Gold and 2100 Baht/month for the Platinum package.

[LivinLOS]

The only viable option would be Truevisions.

Expensive, crappy programing with massive amount of repeats, the only thing they do good is show pretty much each and every Premier League football game. Good if you're English that is!

But yes, they do have discovery, History Channel, NatGeo etc...

But high compression ratio, so relatively low quality. Looks good on a CRT television, not so good on a proper big screen plasma or LCD.

Expensive as well (for Thailand) at about 1600 Baht/month for the Gold and 2100 Baht/month for the Platinum package.

And none are in HD..

There are actually a few oddball channels you can pick up with the right equipment, but theres no High Def 'package' you can purchase.

Get used to downloading all your shows.. I get the series's and docus in HD, and have a media PC set up to handle the playback with remote etc so it looks like a media center. Most stuff is online long before it would be broadcast here.

[astral]

The only place you will find HD is on satellte, even then the channels are few and far betwwen

and will certainly need a subscription and card.

[zzSleepyJohn]

The only place you will find HD is on satellte, even then the channels are few and far betwwen

and will certainly need a subscription and card.

I'd agree they're few and far between, but of those, some of are actually listed as FTA, so if the lists are correct, it should be possible to see something without a subscription card. See my recently compiled attached list .

But I don't know where to get an HD decoder, or where to see any kind of demo before buying this gear in Thailand. Any ideas, anyone?

HiDef.doc

[kudroz]

It's possible to get HDTV in Chiang Mai (or sort of) but it's not cheap. You'd have to get a Slingbox PRO-HD that is connected to a good ISP in the states/europe. I have a Slingbox PRO-HD connected on DirecTV and Verizon Fios and I can watch HDTV on my computer and TV. It's not cheap, it'll cost you about $150 per month just for the Slingbox HD and DirecTV and then another $150 for Maxnet Premier.

Here is what it looks like:

(on a Mac in Canada where I am right now)

(on a PC in Chiang Mai about 6 months ago)

[Benjie]

I don't see how you could even start to think about slinging HD signals into Thailand.

Watching the data speeds of even the most aggressive of my HD RIPS I see a constant minimum of 10-11mbps, no chance of getting that sort of constant international internet speed here.

The 2nd snapshot shows 4mbps, so probably a lower resolution than 720p and even then I've personally never seen a connection capable of holding up even 4mbps CONSTANT international bandwidth.

[LivinLOS]

Yeah even guys with the best net connections that we as consumers can get seem to struggle with breakups and macro blocking even on muddy low def slingbox.

I would be stunned to see live real time slingbox working in proper HD from the US to here.

[astral]

Check out this thread for alternate ways of watching HD material.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Watching-Mov...ve-t238818.html