Watching TV from US on Internet

[dharmabm]

I have to agree XBMC is by far the best for what I want. It has pretty much every season of every major tv show and new episodes are available the Same day they play in the states or the uk. I also have over 7,000 live tv stations from around the world ( to Many, I'm trying to find a way to get rid of most of them) and pretty much every major movie that's been out of the theatres for 6 months or more.

Which addons are you using?

sent from my slimkat 1+ using tapatalk

[AJBangkok]

http://bit.ly/husham2015 Is the m3u link you use to get 8000 odd channels when you set up your live tv client on xbmc. There are plenty of utube vids that show you how to do that just google xbmc live TV set up.

Also another m3u list of around 200 channels just converted into an addon - it's called vdubtv25

For TV shows and movies I use the 1 channel and genisis addons.

[samuijimmy]

Moving to the Tech forum for more input.

There are a few threads on this subject, try Hola Unblocker for Chrome as a start, it's free

or Hola on Firefox!

[Chicog]

Buy a Roku 3.

Don't, on the other hand, buy an Apple TV.

Hi Chicog,

How do you get around geo-blocking using your Roku?

I am still unpacking after moving from Australia and don't have any of my HT gear set up yet.

Part of this is a WDTV unit and expect I may need to use a similar method to the Roku to get around geo-blocked sites?

Cheers

A US VPN hardcoded into a DDWRT router.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Anyone with an interest in watching U.S. cable television should pay attention to the upcoming launch of a new online service called Sling TV (not to be confused with the Slingbox hardware), which will offer a package of about a dozen U.S. cable channels including ESPN, ESPN2, CNN, TNT, TBS, and others for $20 a month -- entirely over the internet.

http://www.sling.com/

Due to launch supposedly later this month. And the first of several similar kinds of services due to come online sometime in 2015. The company behind the new Sling TV service is DISH TV, the satellite broadcaster, so there's some muscle and financial power there. But just to be clear, Sling TV will be entirely internet based -- no cable lines or satellite connections required.

[dharmabm]

For TV series is very hard to bet the "Couch potato" and "sabnzbd" combo, which automates everything, and your series just arrive ready to be viewed in your favorite media player. These two programs work well on the Mac, Win, Linux and Android.

Couchpotato is for movies, sickbeard is for TV [emoji6]

sent from my slimkat 1+ using tapatalk

[dharmabm]

http://bit.ly/husham2015 Is the m3u link you use to get 8000 odd channels when you set up your live tv client on xbmc. There are plenty of utube vids that show you how to do that just google xbmc live TV set up.

Also another m3u list of around 200 channels just converted into an addon - it's called vdubtv25

For TV shows and movies I use the 1 channel and genisis addons.

Thanks a lot for the Genesis tip, so far I'm finding this much better than Phoenix and 1channel

sent from my slimkat 1+ using tapatalk

[dannywla]

I have read the many many replies. I currently subscribe to True TV gold package. I pay around 50$ dollars and when I am away from my home HDTV, I am able to stream practically every channel except for the movie Channels and one Fox Sports channel. I have HDTV quality and never have any issues receiving all my US news CNN, and mostly NBA and NFL games.

I and anyone who lives in Thailand needs to download the app Trueanywhere. This will enable you to receive these numerous channels to be seen on all your mobile devices, ie iPhone, iPad, computer, laptops or smart TV away from your home

Many expats don't use this very nice APP, so get with it and get your streaming TV on the Go.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

http://bit.ly/husham2015 Is the m3u link you use to get 8000 odd channels when you set up your live tv client on xbmc. There are plenty of utube vids that show you how to do that just google xbmc live TV set up.

This is all a bit new to me... But after having set-up NextPVR on my PC to go along with Kodi, I can't seem to figure out how to import the channels list.

I can get the link you posted above. But NextPVR seems to be looking for a XXXX.m3u file And when I try to save the link you posted above as an .m3u file, it gives error messages when I try to import it into NextPVR.

What am I missing???

[DtemJai]

Popcorn Time 3.6 is my only choice, & don’t regret it + my 72 channels local cable TV/300 baht/month.

The new and improved Popcorn Time allows you & present sexy gf/wife to watch movies and TV shows online for free, in HD or SD with subtitles.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Anyone with an interest in watching U.S. cable television should pay attention to the upcoming launch of a new online service called Sling TV (not to be confused with the Slingbox hardware), which will offer a package of about a dozen U.S. cable channels including ESPN, ESPN2, CNN, TNT, TBS, and others for $20 a month -- entirely over the internet.

http://www.sling.com/

Due to launch supposedly later this month. And the first of several similar kinds of services due to come online sometime in 2015. The company behind the new Sling TV service is DISH TV, the satellite broadcaster, so there's some muscle and financial power there. But just to be clear, Sling TV will be entirely internet based -- no cable lines or satellite connections required.

I've tried and tinkered with, and still use, a variety of different solutions for this:

ILikeHD -- while not exclusively American in content, it nonetheless includes a lot of U.S. programming and channels. There's no technology to fiddle with and nothing complicated to set up. Just pay 300 baht per month and watch the channels via your web browser. It's about as easy as it gets, though it lacks any recording or time-shifting capacity.

Kodi-XBMC -- It's certainly more powerful in terms of being able, potentially, to access a much wider range of streaming channels. But in my experience, as someone who's pretty good with computers and software, it basically requires learning and familiarizing yourself with an entirely new kind of operating system. And unfortunately, one where the required applications are scattered here and there, and where the web addresses required to make things work change from time to time, and channels that were available yesterday suddenly are dead today, etc etc. Overall, for me, it seems to take an inordinate amount of work, time and effort to sort thru all the chaff and end up with the cream of what you really want to watch, and then have it organized and easily accessible on your PC or other device.

Soon to arrive Sling TV - At $20 a month, it's a bit more expensive than ILikeHD while not providing nearly as many channels in total. For for Americans abroad, having a legal and dependable, no hassles route for watching U.S. cable channels online is a real advantage, especially when the channels include ESPN, ESPN2, CNN, TNT, TBS, Food Network, HGTV and others, about a dozen in all.

And if you want to spend a bit more, there's always USTVNow's regular U.S. cable TV package for $29 per month, delivered online and with an optional online DVR component for an extra $10 to enable time-shifting. Their lineup includes all the major over-the-air broadcast networks (which they actually offer via a free plan) along with 20+ cable channels via their paid monthly service:

A&E, Animal Planet, Bravo, Cartoon Network, CNBC, CNN, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel, ESPN, FX, Fox News, History, Lifetime, National Geographic, Nickelodeon, Spike, Syfy, TBS, TNT, USA

I also got a Roku streaming stick a few months back, and have been tinkering around with that. Lots of content there available and organized in a somewhat easier and more convenient way compared to Kodi-XBMC. But one thing I quickly noticed is that a lot of the major U.S. OTA networks seem to be taking a lot of their full-shows content out of their Roku apps, apparently in favor of places like Hulu Plus, and even their own network websites. And Roku is particularly limited (other than with some news offerings) if you want to simply watch a streaming channel at length vs wanting to watch just a particular show or shows.

Because I have access to a U.S. cable account log-in that enables the unlocking of a lot of US TV network content via their websites, I actually found I was getting more content, more timely, and easier just by watching shows direct via the various network websites, compared to via their Roku apps, where the full show content is often limited or not there at all. Although, the network websites would be less helpful if I did NOT have the required cable account log-in credentials.

[AJBangkok]

http://bit.ly/husham2015 Is the m3u link you use to get 8000 odd channels when you set up your live tv client on xbmc. There are plenty of utube vids that show you how to do that just google xbmc live TV set up.

This is all a bit new to me... But after having set-up NextPVR on my PC to go along with Kodi, I can't seem to figure out how to import the channels list.

I can get the link you posted above. But NextPVR seems to be looking for a XXXX.m3u file And when I try to save the link you posted above as an .m3u file, it gives error messages when I try to import it into NextPVR.

What am I missing???

You don't need to save the link you just need to write it down and then type it into the m3u link box provided when you set up your iptv client when you enable live TV unde your settings menu on xbmc .

Here is a utube link that shows you how

Note I'm not sure if the utube vid has the latest m3u link so make sure the latest m3u link for husham ends with 2015 not 2014

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Anyone with an interest in watching U.S. cable television should pay attention to the upcoming launch of a new online service called Sling TV (not to be confused with the Slingbox hardware), which will offer a package of about a dozen U.S. cable channels including ESPN, ESPN2, CNN, TNT, TBS, and others for $20 a month -- entirely over the internet.

http://www.sling.com/

Due to launch supposedly later this month. And the first of several similar kinds of services due to come online sometime in 2015. The company behind the new Sling TV service is DISH TV, the satellite broadcaster, so there's some muscle and financial power there. But just to be clear, Sling TV will be entirely internet based -- no cable lines or satellite connections required.

An update on the soon to launch Sling TV service:

Sling TV: Everything you need to know

Sling TV is a new $20/month live TV package with 12 channels, including ESPN, TNT, CNN, HGTV and the Disney Channel. How does it work, how can you get it -- and will it allow you to quit cable?

• by David Katzmaier
  @dkatzmaier
• January 20, 2015 3:07 PM PST

http://www.cnet.com/news/sling-tv-everything-you-need-to-know/

[CaptHaddock]

For TV series is very hard to bet the "Couch potato" and "sabnzbd" combo, which automates everything, and your series just arrive ready to be viewed in your favorite media player. These two programs work well on the Mac, Win, Linux and Android.

This combo works fine on linux, not so well on Win 8. But although it runs fine on linux, there is still the problem that many of the movie files on usenet are malware calling for phony "codecs", etc. Have you found a way to filter these out, other than manually reviewing?

[Streamtopia]

Anyone with an interest in watching U.S. cable television should pay attention to the upcoming launch of a new online service called Sling TV (not to be confused with the Slingbox hardware), which will offer a package of about a dozen U.S. cable channels including ESPN, ESPN2, CNN, TNT, TBS, and others for $20 a month -- entirely over the internet.

http://www.sling.com/

Due to launch supposedly later this month. And the first of several similar kinds of services due to come online sometime in 2015. The company behind the new Sling TV service is DISH TV, the satellite broadcaster, so there's some muscle and financial power there. But just to be clear, Sling TV will be entirely internet based -- no cable lines or satellite connections required.

An update on the soon to launch Sling TV service:

Sling TV: Everything you need to know

Sling TV is a new $20/month live TV package with 12 channels, including ESPN, TNT, CNN, HGTV and the Disney Channel. How does it work, how can you get it -- and will it allow you to quit cable?

• by David Katzmaier
  @dkatzmaier
• January 20, 2015 3:07 PM PST

http://www.cnet.com/news/sling-tv-everything-you-need-to-know/

Hi TallGuy JohninBKK,

Just sharing that, we here at Stremtopia had a chance to played with our invited Sling TV account on Roku Stick and PC App.

There are 12 channels on the basic package as advertised. However, streaming speed to Thailand is quite slow comparing to Amazon Prime or Netflix (we couldn't get SD at all).

We used VPN because sling TV still not supported by smart DNS provider that we know of. VPN might have further slowdown the streaming speed.

We understanding that this is NOT an official launch, let's hope that streaming speed will be better when it is officially launched.

Just sharing and Happy Streaming

[joncl]

For TV series is very hard to bet the "Couch potato" and "sabnzbd" combo, which automates everything, and your series just arrive ready to be viewed in your favorite media player. These two programs work well on the Mac, Win, Linux and Android.

This combo works fine on linux, not so well on Win 8. But although it runs fine on linux, there is still the problem that many of the movie files on usenet are malware calling for phony "codecs", etc. Have you found a way to filter these out, other than manually reviewing?

In the two years since I posted that message things have moved on and sickbeard was replaced by TV Tumbler (same author) which runs in XBMC/Kodi and is the bees knees ..

[2fishin2]

I assume TVTumbler is an add-on?

[Digitalbanana]

TVTumbler 0.0.18.zip (from http://repo.tvtumbler.com/) won't install on my Android or Windows Kodi 14.1.

Think I'll give it a miss.

[joncl]

no it needs transmission for the auto downloading and either a NAS or some sort of storage to put the auto downloaded files on and for xbmc/kodi to read into its library .. so yes a rPI or Android box running openelec on say frodo will work OK at a push .. I use an old acer here running ubuntu for it to do its work, which it does very very well and fills up the NAS as it should.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Hi TallGuy JohninBKK,

Just sharing that, we here at Stremtopia had a chance to played with our invited Sling TV account on Roku Stick and PC App.

There are 12 channels on the basic package as advertised. However, streaming speed to Thailand is quite slow comparing to Amazon Prime or Netflix (we couldn't get SD at all).

We used VPN because sling TV still not supported by smart DNS provider that we know of. VPN might have further slowdown the streaming speed.

We understanding that this is NOT an official launch, let's hope that streaming speed will be better when it is officially launched.

Just sharing and Happy Streaming

Thanks for that update... I've also been using the SlingTV via their initial free 7-day trial for the past few days. I'm OK with it, but not overwhelmed.

Here's some basics:

--The PC version doesn't run in a browser, but instead, runs via a separate SlingTV app you have to install and run.

--Accessing SlingTV definitely requires a U.S. IP address. I've been using a VPN, not sure if any of the DNS services will work with this.

--You need a U.S. IP address even to be able to view their homepage: https://www.sling.com/

--The Sling TV app allows the user to select different streaming rates based on their speed of their Internet connection, starting at a low of 500 Kbps, then 800 Kbps, 1.5 Mbps, then unlimited. With my True 18 Mbps cable connection and a pretty good VPN service, it runs acceptably, but not as smoothly as others like Netscape or Amazon. Remember, those kinds of streaming speeds need to be sustained, not peak, levels.

--The biggest drawback for me, personally, is that there's little to no DVR/time shifting capacity in this service, so the U.S. primetime for cable channels falls in the mornings here, a time when I'm rarely able/inclined to be watching TV.

--The initial free 7-day trial, if not cancelled, becomes a monthly credit card billing, at least for my state, of a bit under $22 -- without adding on either of the extra $5 per month add-on packages SlingTV is offering.

--Regarding commercials, some channels seem to include the original commercials from the original broadcast. But, ESPN isn't doing that, so every time they go away to a couple minute-long commercial break, you get a static "We'll be right back" message and canned music that gets annoyingly repetitive very fast. I'm not a big fan of watching commercials, but I'm less of a fan of viewing the same static screen and canned music over and over and over again.

Here's some screen shots of what SlingTV looks like:

[bkkgooner]

Lack of video on demand makes the service a bit pointless really, most of us are at work when they are showing all the good stuff

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Lack of video on demand makes the service a bit pointless really, most of us are at work when they are showing all the good stuff

So... "most of us" seems to be disregarding all those residing here on retirement visas/extensions. Last time I checked, there were at least a FEW of us in those categories!

Thus, saying the service is "pointless" seems to be overreaching a bit, especially for this audience. Pointless for you perhaps, but certainly not "most" of the ThaiVisa community.

And, for news and sports buffs, it's going to be a bit different anyway. CNN is CNN whether it's morning or night. And for ESPN, of course, a lot of their college matchups are going to be morning or daytime there, meaning evenings/night here.

But, I do agree, the lack of pretty much any time shifting capacity with SlingTV is a demerit for us here. That's why I dearly loved and paid for every month the short-lived Aereo service, which allowed me to record online and watch later whatever major OTA networks programs I chose, although it was just the major OTA networks, not the cable TV ones.

I'd like to keep SlingTV, but for the reasons mentioned here, I suspect I'm going to continue with ILikeHD instead since even though I'm retired, I'm not really a morning TV kind of guy or a huge ESPN sports fan. It's unfortunate that the limited replay capability that SlingTV does have seems to be limited to the lower-profile networks in its package, and not the premier ones like CNN, ESPN, TNT and TBS.