Will a UK Kodi box work in Thailand

[malct]

Thinking about buying a Kodi box in the UK and planning on taking it with me to Thailand so that i can watch the USA and Mexican races since they are on the TV early morning in Thailand. Any idea if these will work via a hotel WiFi And will I be able to get the stream, I understand it might depend on signal strength in the hotel, only thing is connecting a Kodi box to a hotel TV and might be better putting Kodi on my tablet. Any thoughts, I know F1 is not everyone's cup of tea but any advice would be great, most likely I will be in issan around that time.

[sotsira]

Kodi is a media player platform that you can download on to any android box therefore any box 

will work anywhere as long as there's a good internet connection.

 

Hotel wifi around Thailand tend to be hit and miss though, also the tv you connect to will need to 

have a HDMI input and you'll need a cable as well, therefore downloading Kodi on to your tablet is

a good idea as you can have easier mobile access. 

[AJBangkok]

Your kodi box will work but getting the F1will depend on the Internet connection.

Are you using a paid subscription app for your F1 feed? If you are you it may not work that great in Thailand. I use Flawless and last nights race was spoiled by having to switch between feeds every few minutes. Having said that other races before the summer break it worked great.

 

 

[biggles45]

I bought a "kodi" type TV box in Tukcom already loaded with apps. It works fine in my place in the Philippines BUT

1. 10 mbps is not strong enough to stream movies/Tv series without pausing and letting the buffer catch up. Mate has 30 mbps and his works seamlessly

2. one of the box cables connects to the ethernet! port on my router. I have no idea how you would do this in a hotel or guest house if no router in your room. 

[StevieAus]

I live in Thailand and on the recommendation of a couple of friends bought an Amazon Fire stick we downloaded Kodi then some add ons

works fine and you can take and use anywhere , as long as other posters have stated you have a decent internet signal

[Jai Dee]

2 hours ago, biggles45 said:

10 mbps is not strong enough to stream movies/Tv series without pausing and letting the buffer catch up

10 Mbps should be fine for streaming movies or catchup TV, but may not be sufficient for buffer-free Live TV feeds.

 

You can tweak your box to get optimal performance by doing the following:

 

1. Start the Ares Wizard (instructions on how to download and install the Ares Wizard are in the Kodi® for Dummies topic)

2. Select Tweaks then Advanced Settings Wizard.

3. Select Next then Generate Settings.

4. The Wizard will examine your system and recommend a video cache setting depending on how much memory you have available.

5. Select Apply these Settings then restart Kodi.

 

You should find that your buffering problems should be minimised.

[watso63]

I don't bother with Kodi anymore. Great APK's out there. I choose Mobdro, UKTVNOW and Terrarium TV. None available from play store download direct from website. Go into settings and allow unknown sources. There are others but I get what I need from those.

[janclaes47]

2 hours ago, biggles45 said:

I bought a "kodi" type TV box in Tukcom already loaded with apps. It works fine in my place in the Philippines BUT

1. 10 mbps is not strong enough to stream movies/Tv series without pausing and letting the buffer catch up. Mate has 30 mbps and his works seamlessly

2. one of the box cables connects to the ethernet! port on my router. I have no idea how you would do this in a hotel or guest house if no router in your room. 

10Mb is about 3 times of what you need to stream movies and tv shows in FULL HD without buffering

 

You shouldn't have gone for the cheapest box available in tukcom, then you would have no problem now.

 

People always think all Android boxes are equal.............they are not.

 

I have 7Mb most of the time and stream full HD live tv without buffering.

[Randell]

Janclaes what box or app I guess I should say would you suggest for Thailand

[Encid]

3 hours ago, AJBangkok said:

Your kodi box will work but getting the F1will depend on the Internet connection.

Are you using a paid subscription app for your F1 feed? If you are you it may not work that great in Thailand. I use Flawless and last nights race was spoiled by having to switch between feeds every few minutes. Having said that other races before the summer break it worked great.

None of my Kodi video addons could provide me with a buffer-free stream for last night's F1 despite getting a 10 Mbps download speed from the UK.

I ended up watching it on Mobdro in SD.

The picture quality was very ordinary, but at least you could follow the action and the commentary without any buffering.

[Jaggg88]

On 17/08/2017 at 11:02 AM, sotsira said:

Kodi is a media player platform that you can download on to any android box therefore any box 

will work anywhere as long as there's a good internet connection.

 

Hotel wifi around Thailand tend to be hit and miss though, also the tv you connect to will need to 

have a HDMI input and you'll need a cable as well, therefore downloading Kodi on to your tablet is

a good idea as you can have easier mobile access. 

Kodi can also be downloaded to Windows and IOS Apple devices not just Android.

[oporhatch]

I have been exploring various options around this and have loaded Kodi on to my PC as well as a tablet.  However  I am now looking to buy an Android box and load  it on there also  -  The reason is I get fed up of connecting my devices up to my  large TV . Which I am tending to do every night.   I know it only takes seconds -  but I just want to load kodi  up and start watching and stop connecting and disconnecting my laptop every night. 

 

Just some  food for thought

 

regards

Richard 

[janclaes47]

3 hours ago, Randell said:

Janclaes what box or app I guess I should say would you suggest for Thailand

 

Feel free to send me a PM, and I will give you all the info you need, because it's not allowed to discuss this on the forum.

[jacko45k]

I would say not many hotel Wi-Fi connections will be good enough to stream TV,  particularly if you prefer higher resolution. Strangely enough sometimes rural hotels surprise you on their speed, but that is because they don't get many customers using the internet. So it wouldn't matter if it was on an Android box or on your tablet.  If it isn't you may do better hot-spotting from your phone. You will need a generous data plan.

[teddog]

VIPbox is generally good for F1  just wait 30 seconds for the adverts to die away, good for football too, but depends on what they are streaming, no choice

[janclaes47]

18 hours ago, Jai Dee said:

10 Mbps should be fine for streaming movies or catchup TV, but may not be sufficient for buffer-free Live TV feeds.

 

You can tweak your box to get optimal performance by doing the following:

 

1. Start the Ares Wizard (instructions on how to download and install the Ares Wizard are in the Kodi® for Dummies topic)

2. Select Tweaks then Advanced Settings Wizard.

3. Select Next then Generate Settings.

4. The Wizard will examine your system and recommend a video cache setting depending on how much memory you have available.

5. Select Apply these Settings then restart Kodi.

 

You should find that your buffering problems should be minimised.

Ares wizard applies the advanced settings wrong, so they probably will be no improvement at all.

 

This is what Ares advanced settings looks about.

 

 

And this is how according to the Kodi developers, who I think know which is the correct way, the advanced settings should look like.

http://kodi.wiki/view/Advancedsettings.xml

Spot the differences.

 

By the way, buffermode should be set to "0" instead of "2", because some addons will not work when set to "2"

 

 

Edited August 29, 2017 by janclaes47

[sandyf]

The OP question should have been will a Kodi box from the UK work.

 

I have had a box for a few years for Expat TV. When that went down the pan I tried to upgrade the android version but screwed it up. I was back in the UK recently and bought a new box and set up some TV apps while I was there.

When I got back to Thailand I was looking around the box and found that Kodi had been pre installed. Being a novice I had to do a bit of homework but it didn't matter what I tried I couldn't get anything to work. Either nothing would happen or I would get a picture which would stall after a few minutes. I researched some of the problems and an internet guru would suggest changing a certain setting, unfortunately most of these settings did not seem to be available on my box.

In the end I uninstalled the complete app and reinstalled it. I have added some of the popular addons and what I have done so far seems to work, apart from part of the ITV player, get a 'playback failed' message. Bit more homework required.

Bottom line, be a bit wary of a pre installed Kodi setup, a lot has changed recently.

[Digitalbanana]

1 hour ago, sandyf said:

apart from part of the ITV player, get a 'playback failed' message

The latest Kodi ITV Player (NAN ver 2.3.9 currently) works OK in Thailand for VOD without any need for a VPN service if you turn on the unrestricted geo settings in the addon.

[sandyf]

6 hours ago, Digitalbanana said:

The latest Kodi ITV Player (NAN ver 2.3.9 currently) works OK in Thailand for VOD without any need for a VPN service if you turn on the unrestricted geo settings in the addon.

Would that be different from catchup4kodi 2.3.9 ?, I got it from the N&N repo. It is only the top item on the menu "ITV PLAYER" that is a problem, the channels are ok.

[Digitalbanana]

14 hours ago, sandyf said:

Would that be different from catchup4kodi 2.3.9 ?, I got it from the N&N repo. It is only the top item on the menu "ITV PLAYER" that is a problem, the channels are ok.

Yes same. Goto settings and select unrestricted geo , then the top tem "ITV Player" works. There is no need to use/pay for a VPN. I can only get other items in list to play with a VPN and never use them. That said I never use ITVPlayer much either but good to know its there!

[sandyf]

1 hour ago, Digitalbanana said:

Yes same. Goto settings and select unrestricted geo , then the top tem "ITV Player" works. There is no need to use/pay for a VPN. I can only get other items in list to play with a VPN and never use them. That said I never use ITVPlayer much either but good to know its there!

I wouldn't dream of using it either with Kodi, it works much better as an app on its own and even better in Windows. I was only using it to check out kodi as I had something to compare. 

I have had a VPN that I subscribed to since expat went down and I do not think the problem is in that aspect. I did try the built in proxy but it made no difference.

The only reason I will persevere with kodi is that I read there is the ability to reduce the bitrate which should help a poor ISP, and they do not come much poorer than where I live.

[Digitalbanana]

1 hour ago, sandyf said:

I wouldn't dream of using it either with Kodi, it works much better as an app on its own and even better in Windows. I was only using it to check out kodi as I had something to compare. 

I meant I rarely watch ITV on anything. Nothing on the channel appeals much to me.

 

If I was going to use the ITV VOD I'd use the Kodi addon at the moment as there is no need for any VPN - much like the BBC iPlayer addon by same author (catchup4kodi) which also does not need a VPN, so no limit on bandwidth or slowing things down.

 

Easier still use teatime.tv which is still free at the moment.

[sandyf]

6 hours ago, Digitalbanana said:

I meant I rarely watch ITV on anything. Nothing on the channel appeals much to me.

 

If I was going to use the ITV VOD I'd use the Kodi addon at the moment as there is no need for any VPN - much like the BBC iPlayer addon by same author (catchup4kodi) which also does not need a VPN, so no limit on bandwidth or slowing things down.

 

Easier still use teatime.tv which is still free at the moment.

I ran into the same problem with the BBC addon, Iplayer WWW, as I did with the ITV Player. What I have tried today is both BBC and ITV from within the Covenant addon and that looks quite promising.

[Digitalbanana]

11 hours ago, sandyf said:

I ran into the same problem with the BBC addon, Iplayer WWW, as I did with the ITV Player. What I have tried today is both BBC and ITV from within the Covenant addon and that looks quite promising.

There are two BBC iPlayer addons in NAN repo, the iPlayerWWW addon only works with VPN last time I looked? I use the other BBC iPlayer catchup4kodi addon which requires no VPN for VOD.

The Covenant addon is just sourcing TV shows and movies from other fileshare locations, not BBC or ITV direct.

[sandyf]

3 hours ago, Digitalbanana said:

There are two BBC iPlayer addons in NAN repo, the iPlayerWWW addon only works with VPN last time I looked? I use the other BBC iPlayer catchup4kodi addon which requires no VPN for VOD.

The Covenant addon is just sourcing TV shows and movies from other fileshare locations, not BBC or ITV direct.

I had already said I use a vpn, why would you think otherwise. I am fairly certain that the problems are to do with the quality of the ISP, sometimes drops to below 2Mbs and 3BB say there is nothing they can do about it. I already changed from TOT, which was worse, when 3BB came to the area so nothing else available at the moment.

I am not concerned where the BBC programmes come from, I am just looking for some form of replacement for Expat TV, which was also an indirect service which worked reasonably well.

[Jip99]

10 minutes ago, sandyf said:

I had already said I use a vpn, why would you think otherwise. I am fairly certain that the problems are to do with the quality of the ISP, sometimes drops to below 2Mbs and 3BB say there is nothing they can do about it. I already changed from TOT, which was worse, when 3BB came to the area so nothing else available at the moment.

I am not concerned where the BBC programmes come from, I am just looking for some form of replacement for Expat TV, which was also an indirect service which worked reasonably well.

 

 

Sorry, I am coming in late here.... but reading the comment about Expat TV replacement..... a few friends swear by ACE TV.

 

 

I have taken the MRSKYTV route.......... anything is better than having to watch BBC World.

Edited August 31, 2017 by Jip99

[Digitalbanana]

1 hour ago, sandyf said:

I am fairly certain that the problems are to do with the quality of the ISP, sometimes drops to below 2Mbs and 3BB say there is nothing they can do about it.

We also have a 3BB line, the cheapest service at 590THB/m for 50mbps download. If we use a VPN on top the speed drops below 5mbps and streaming is more difficult, so we try to stream using apps that don't need a VPN as I mentioned before.

[sandyf]

17 hours ago, Digitalbanana said:

We also have a 3BB line, the cheapest service at 590THB/m for 50mbps download. If we use a VPN on top the speed drops below 5mbps and streaming is more difficult, so we try to stream using apps that don't need a VPN as I mentioned before.

590THB/m for 50mbps download

 

Not seen that service advertised. My 590 baht a month service is 11Mbs, we did try the 15Mbs but had to drop down as the line would not support it. Been making enquiries about the 50Mbs service at 700THB/m but not available for some time yet, but at least it is planned.

[janclaes47]

10 minutes ago, sandyf said:

590THB/m for 50mbps download

 

Not seen that service advertised. My 590 baht a month service is 11Mbs, we did try the 15Mbs but had to drop down as the line would not support it. Been making enquiries about the 50Mbs service at 700THB/m but not available for some time yet, but at least it is planned.

 

I was quite flabbergasted when I saw you mentioning 11Mb and 15 Mb packages from 3BB, as I've never know them to exist.

 

So a Google search learned me that 3BB seems to have different standards for different people, as I don't know another way to explain this.

 

These are 30/3 Mb VDSL packages from 3BB at 1200 Baht a month, as well as 10/1 Mb VDSL packages at 590 Baht

https://www.3bb.co.th/signup/register_en.php?pkg=

 

But then here your see that to others, including me, they sell 30/10 Mb VDSL for 590 Baht, and was told that the 50/20 Mb VDSL is discontinued, as you will also notice it is not listed any more on below link.

 

http://www.3bb.co.th/3bb/promotion

 

Anyway, 3BB clearly sells a lot of promises that don't keep up with, as they told me already before I signed up that I wouldn't get the 10 Mb up.

 

In fact I only get 4 Mb.

 

And look what they dare to write on their website. It is obvious that, as always in Thailand, 3BB reserves the right to charge you for something they have no intention to ever deliver and get away with it.

 

The company reserves the right in case the connecting speed is lower than advertised due to technical, network limitation factorsor concurrent user at the period of time.

 

Only in Thailand, the worldwide hub of the internet, I assume.

 

[sandyf]

31 minutes ago, janclaes47 said:

 

I was quite flabbergasted when I saw you mentioning 11Mb and 15 Mb packages from 3BB, as I've never know them to exist.

 

They are ADSL services.

When we built the house in 2010 there were no more ADSL lines available and we had to physically move the line from my father in laws house to mine and I put in a repeater back to his. At that point in time we were on the only service available, TOT at 7Mbs which was absolutely dreadful. 

About 4 years ago 3BB moved into the area and again we physically moved the line from the TOT distribution box to 3BB. Initially we signed up for the 15Mbs package but it could not be supported, it would drop off rather than just a reduction in speed, so we downgraded to the 11Mbs package. That works a lot better than TOT ever did but is subject to load on the line and drops significantly at certain times in the evening and weekends. Been advised recently that fiber is planned to come to the area at some time in the future.

 

Edit. As a matter of interest I had a look back at the agreement and they were in fact advertised as 10/512 and 13/1, it was 3BB that said in reality they were 11 and 15 on download and that is what speedtest showed when the worked ok. Apologies for using the wrong figures.

Edited September 1, 2017 by sandyf