Is There A Cheaper Alternative To Ubc In Chiangmai?

[Ulysses G.]

There are also ways to extend the copyright for longer - at least there is for books.

[bikerjoy]

LETTER TO TRUE!!!

Attention

True Programm Manager

Dear Sirs,

pls. allow me to give you some recommendation.

Pls. Admend your programms. It’s not suFFicient for the price we pay. Give more value for money.

We want MORE quality programms.

Previously I had Dynasat in Chiang Rai which worked well, was cheap and had the important programmes.

Then I live in the HillsideCondo, Ch.Mai and had cable TV. Better programmes here too!

But now I got my house 25 km outside Chiang Mai…and no more cable!

Pls. get us;

The German DW-TV

The Australian TV

TV Rai Italian

TVE Spanish

NHK World

Hallmark

AL-JAZEERA good news channel!

RT RUSSIAN

YOu have a lot of free future channels! Why ?

Thanks for your attention,

[LivinLOS]

My parents live in Southern Spain on a typical Urbanisation (read: Moo Bahn) - 80% of which are either English or German (many retirees and quite a few expat workers etc). There are companies there that realise how much money there is to be had from non-local TV channels. They do satelite re-broadcast - basically thay have a mast up high (on a hill etc) and re-broadcast received satelite channels. Though this allows them to illegally re-transmit such a UK's Sky TV channels, BBC, ITV, and the equivalent German and pay-for Spanish channels it also allows for free-2-air (such as BBC World Service, Eurosport etc) too. The satelite feed is (re)encrypted and requires a decoder box which is rented from the re-broadcaster (cheaply). This saves the hassle of cabling for cable TV, and allows for more channels. It can also allow for such as captured internet streams etc to be broadcast.

With the mountains surrounding CM, it would not be difficult to place a broadcasting dish to cover the whole area. Free to air Eurpoean and American channels could be captured in areas that can received them and then re-broadcast (perhaps a day later etc) using such a mechanism. Much cheaper than cabling and with free-to-air could be argued that re-broadcasting with original adverts and logos is not theft (as microwave radiation is bouncing around continually as echos of these broadcasts anyway!) - there is probably enough out there to save having to steal channels from USB etc. I know in Europe there is certain presidence now with regards to this - where some countries tried to stop channels broadcasting in their air-space (causing loss of revenue - for example think of Sky Sports - an expensive satelite channel in the UK - has a paid for event, say a boxing match, and Euosport France broadcasts the same fight for free - who would pay as it could be seen in the UK on any SkyBox receiver for free?) - there was also the UK trying to stop hardcore porn (the Red Hot Dutch case) that also failed. If its being given away free, and broadcast freely, and thus received on a dish whether requested or not, it is hard to enforce some kind of eula on it.

How viable it is here is arguable, but it is plenty profitable in Spain - and the actual costs (after initial hardware costs for towers etc) is low compared with owning/renting a satelitte or burying fibre-optics (and maintaining them). In fact, as they seem set on doing the illegal stuff in Spain, they keep getting closed down only for another to appear a few weeks later - so not that difficult/expensive I would suggest.

Sorry thats not the case.. Satellite signals are blocked by the curvature of the earth.. So unless this hill you describe is high enough to see satellites over Europe or the USA, thats simply not happening, think about it for a second, even airplanes are not that high !! you would need to be up at the distance of the moon (or have a reflector rebroadcaster there)to gain line of sight to Europe, sat broadcasts are not like shortwave etc bouncing off the ionosphere. We cant even get Malaysian Astro up here but I could easily on Phuket, thats not something you can change by getting a few 100m elevation.

What happens in Europe is the feeds you mention, from national carriers and localized TV are available in the sky encrypted but are often difficult to sign up to or are packaged in less desirable packages and local legal and illegal rebroadcasters receive rights (or hack them) to retransmit and repackage them locally. Much like Thai cable channels did (mostly illegally I suspect) with Multi choice from south Africa. When multi choice got sick of the asian pirating they changed the system / footprint of the broadcast sat so that only the african region would physically receive it and all of a sudden Thai cable then no longer had it. BBC is an unusual one in that because its paid for by UK licencing they have some legal restrictions.

Theres lots of FTA up there (check lyngsat) but its unreliable, tends to move around, and encrypts and decrypts to the broadcasters choice. Hence it makes for a less that satisfying TV setup IMO. Really its the paid packages, accessed legally or not, where you can have a TV schedule and use it. The FTA stuff that a reseller could get, anyone with a dish can get, so who would buy that system ?? Lots of ways to access TV these days and a fast net connection is making 'broadcasters' a lot less relevant.

Hi sorry I think you misuinderstood me (probably my explaination) - I'm not talking about national rebroadcasting, but local. The places in Spain that do it, do for the local Urbanisations - therefore, they only have to be above them - i.e. a high hill or mountain. I was also suggesting that it could work to record some of the more popular F2A channels in areas where they are received, but rebroadcast them in areas where they can't - not just sticking up a higher dish (never mentioned that at all in fact). Think of it this way - I could pay a company in say western Russia perhaps, to record 24 hours of 30 channels of F2A channels I decide apon. They then transmit them to me - either physically or by electronic means - I then broadcast them on a local broadcasting dish on the top of Doi Suthep or wherever makes sense. People in CM who can get a line of site from their roof top can then pick up the signal. In Spain, of course they do the recording themselves digitally and rebroadcast with a small delay - using several receiver boxes a good dish and a good broadcast dish on a local mountain peak. This is fact - it actually happens - they are closed down (only to restart again a month later) all the time where my parents live - they have two dishes, one is almost flat and away from the equator pointing at a local hill I gather - the other points at the equator (used for HotBird F2A etc).

The reboradcasting isn't via satelite - its from dish to dish - I gather its a special kind of broadcasting dish they use.

Rebroadcasting is also not legal as the TV station pays for the rights to broadcast in their set area. Any retransmission outside this area is not legal. This is part of the reason transmissions are shaped to broadcast to a set area.

I understand the copyright issues (I suppose), but not sure if the law covers it here - I have my doubts as many countries to seem be quite gray in this srae (I am talking of F2A of course) - many broadcasts are also not copyrighted anyway (such a golden movies where the films are over 15 years old). When we say its illegal - where is it illegal - there are no international laws only signed up agreements (which are very tentative anyway - such as human rights) - would there be international agreements as to F2A rebroadcasting in areas where there were no assigned (i.e. paying) broadcasters anyway? Grey and murky yes, but lets face it even well known copyright like musci and film case international issue with regard tp prosecution when it has not be released in said country (i.e. no copyright owner in that juristiction). It is all very murky and will probably never get sorted out properly - easy to exploit me thinks. TiT

OK now I get you.. Its the step of recording TV and sending it (presumably over the net, so thats a few fiber optic lines you need) to rebroadcast here, rather then bouncing a broadcast signal.. Technically possible but..

Your suggesting someone set up a company, which competes against a Thai monopoly.. That has the only Sat licencing for the country. Illegally breaking Thai licencing, illegally breaking copyright, and all the while doing it in direct competition to entrenched power !!!

Thailand pays nearly no attention when Astro and Multi choice get pirated, but do you remember when they cracked down on UBC pirate cards ?? Jeez they went hard on any bar that had those, and that was just receiving UBC, not setting up a biz in competition to it. Hardly a biz I would advise a farang doing !!

In some ways this is what local cable does anyway.. My buddy had cable for his kids and it wasnt uncommon to see 'insert smartcard' appear on the feed and that was upstream, they just received SA multichoice and transcoded it to cable for resale is my guess. Back a few years the movie channel for cable would sometimes go to 'insert disk' halfway through a film as someone went to sleep at the switch and the VCD ran out !! I guess Thai companies get some leeway on the copyright aspects.

[moetownblues]

Nothing thats legal and could be talked about openly.

See garyh's post above regarding the Jsat TV sponsor.

Beware pay your money and take your chances. Here today and gone tomorrow.

Yes just like the Dynasat scam I fell for, 26,000 baht had shows for 2 weeks then "Poof" all gone. now just have a useless reciever and satelite dish.

[scorecard]

Nothing thats legal and could be talked about openly.

See garyh's post above regarding the Jsat TV sponsor.

Beware pay your money and take your chances. Here today and gone tomorrow.

Yes just like the Dynasat scam I fell for, 26,000 baht had shows for 2 weeks then "Poof" all gone. now just have a useless reciever and satelite dish.

A professionally operated competior to True is probably the answer, but I'm not holding my breath.