TV, Internet and Phones
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Gus Morris
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TV, Internet and Phones
As I've already said we are thinking of moving down to the PO. We know the area quite well because my cousin owns a holiday home here which we have been using for the past ten years or so. For several years we effectively ran it for her while she could not do so. My brother has lived in the Loire Valley for years. So we have plenty of experience on hand when it comes to the nuts and bolts of living in France.
Can I run this past the local experts ? This is my summary of the current state of affairs.
From what I can gather there are parts of the PO where regular French TV ( TNT) cannot be received. To watch it you need satellite equipment and a viewing card. There are two possibilities. Canal + and Fransat. Canal+ charge for their card.
It is possible to get Freesat but you need a very large dish. This may require planning permission. Not much good for an apartment and very expensive to buy and install. There are alternatives. BFBS signals reach here but the kit is only sold to members of the armed forces. There is a UK TV backup transmission but it is not intended for public use. You need a specially programmed receiver and a source of the security codes, which change regularly. Interestingly, go 200 km up the coast and Freesat works just fine with a small dish.
It is possible to watch UK TV via the internet. I saw a demonstration last time we were down in the PO. Downloading from BBC I-player works well. There is no equivalent for ITV. To download you need a VPN to fool the TV company into thinking you are in the UK. Watching live streams is hit and miss. As an alternative to a VPN there are companies like Filmon who re-transmit UK TV. It is also possible to download some material from Torrent sites. None of this is strictly legal. What is odd is that you can download a show in a few minutes. And play it back with full stereo sound and a near HD quality picture. But try and watch live and it is likely to spool and picture quality comes and goes when it isn't stalled. On the other hand French catch up TV works well. Apparently it is all to do with data prioritisation.
Radio is a different story. Thousands of stations are on-line with no restrictions. Including the BBC. You can buy a portable wi-fi radio and listen anywhere in the house that gets a signal. These radios are quite expensive and maybe not as robust as ordinary DAB/FM sets.
Many English language TV shows on TNT have the original soundtrack too. It is just a question of changing your TV mode.
You have a choice of internet provider in most of the popular parts of the PO. But there are blackspots. Same goes for mobile phone networks. There don't seem to be any fibre optic networks. If you move from Orange to another supplier they will disconnect you at once. Even same day.
All comments and suggestions welcomed.
Gus
Can I run this past the local experts ? This is my summary of the current state of affairs.
From what I can gather there are parts of the PO where regular French TV ( TNT) cannot be received. To watch it you need satellite equipment and a viewing card. There are two possibilities. Canal + and Fransat. Canal+ charge for their card.
It is possible to get Freesat but you need a very large dish. This may require planning permission. Not much good for an apartment and very expensive to buy and install. There are alternatives. BFBS signals reach here but the kit is only sold to members of the armed forces. There is a UK TV backup transmission but it is not intended for public use. You need a specially programmed receiver and a source of the security codes, which change regularly. Interestingly, go 200 km up the coast and Freesat works just fine with a small dish.
It is possible to watch UK TV via the internet. I saw a demonstration last time we were down in the PO. Downloading from BBC I-player works well. There is no equivalent for ITV. To download you need a VPN to fool the TV company into thinking you are in the UK. Watching live streams is hit and miss. As an alternative to a VPN there are companies like Filmon who re-transmit UK TV. It is also possible to download some material from Torrent sites. None of this is strictly legal. What is odd is that you can download a show in a few minutes. And play it back with full stereo sound and a near HD quality picture. But try and watch live and it is likely to spool and picture quality comes and goes when it isn't stalled. On the other hand French catch up TV works well. Apparently it is all to do with data prioritisation.
Radio is a different story. Thousands of stations are on-line with no restrictions. Including the BBC. You can buy a portable wi-fi radio and listen anywhere in the house that gets a signal. These radios are quite expensive and maybe not as robust as ordinary DAB/FM sets.
Many English language TV shows on TNT have the original soundtrack too. It is just a question of changing your TV mode.
You have a choice of internet provider in most of the popular parts of the PO. But there are blackspots. Same goes for mobile phone networks. There don't seem to be any fibre optic networks. If you move from Orange to another supplier they will disconnect you at once. Even same day.
All comments and suggestions welcomed.
Gus
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Kate
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Hi Gus,
If you look back over the teckie forum, you'll see that most of your questions have been covered and recovered. Here is a summary by our Allan
http://forum.anglophone-direct.com/ftopic12402.php
And another......
http://www.anglophone-direct.com/Update ... ion-in-the?
If you look back over the teckie forum, you'll see that most of your questions have been covered and recovered. Here is a summary by our Allan
http://forum.anglophone-direct.com/ftopic12402.php
And another......
http://www.anglophone-direct.com/Update ... ion-in-the?
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montgolfiere
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Allan
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Re: TV, Internet and Phones
There are several equivalents for ITV, far and away the best is Sky Anytime which requires a subscription.Gus Morris wrote: Downloading from BBC I-player works well. There is no equivalent for ITV. To download you need a VPN to fool the TV company into thinking you are in the UK.
Gus
You can also use Sky Go Extra if you have an account or a friend's account details.
There are also 3rd party programs such as StreamTransport but they are a bit hit and miss.
An alternative to a VPN is a SmartDNS service which is in general much simpler to implement.
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Pearsonb
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Of course, there is the simple ITV Player - but you cannot download from it. Streaming only. But it makes programmes available for several weeks.
On the specific subject of radio, don't think you have to buy a specific piece of equipment. I listen on my iPad and on my Apple TV but any tablet or smartphone can get radio by Internet, as well as many other functions.
If, like me, you love radio, it is worth finding out about podcasts. You subscribe to these and then the programmes are automatically downloaded to your computer, tablet or smartphone. This is the way I listen to all my Radio 4 and 5 favourites at the time of my choosing.
Pearson
On the specific subject of radio, don't think you have to buy a specific piece of equipment. I listen on my iPad and on my Apple TV but any tablet or smartphone can get radio by Internet, as well as many other functions.
If, like me, you love radio, it is worth finding out about podcasts. You subscribe to these and then the programmes are automatically downloaded to your computer, tablet or smartphone. This is the way I listen to all my Radio 4 and 5 favourites at the time of my choosing.
Pearson
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Gus Morris
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Thank you all for the input. I've done a bit of research and had a chat on the phone with my friend in Perpignan to confirm one or two things. This is my current understanding of the realities of trying to watch UK FTA TV in the PO.
Access to UK TV on line is limited to those who have a UK IP address. All the rest denied. To fool the system you need to pretend you are inside the UK. This is what a VPN does. There is talk about DNS (Domain Name System) as an alternative to a VPN. But all DNS does is translate the alpha-numertc web site name into an IP address. It is not a real alternative technology. Sites like Filmon are just VPNs under another name with dedicated access to specific content.
What would be useful is a way of installing a VPN on a smart TV.
From what I can see IPTV boxes simply provide a user friendly way of watching TV over the internet. They do not, per se, circumvent access denial software. The quality of what you can receive is primarily determined by the amount of data that comes down the line, how it is compressed and the performance of the software on the target device. I've not seen any evidence that IPTV boxes have a distinct edge in this respect
I'm not so sure about VPNs being hard to install. I have recently loaded Witopia on a PC for a friend. It took just a few minutes to complete and is very flexible and user friendly in operation.
I still don't understand why, outside the UK, you can download a one hour programme from the BBC in just a few minutes and play it back with near HD picture quality and stereo sound. Yet the same kit struggles to display real time images from the same source.
Sky Go Extra was mentioned as a possibility. From the info on the Sky site it appears that it is available in the UK only. Is it access protected? Does it use enhanced data transmission protocols to give a better viewing experience?
I believe in keeping it simple. I have a nice new laptop with the latest Intel processor running Windows 8.1 and Linux. My ideal is to have all the tools in one box.
Gus
Access to UK TV on line is limited to those who have a UK IP address. All the rest denied. To fool the system you need to pretend you are inside the UK. This is what a VPN does. There is talk about DNS (Domain Name System) as an alternative to a VPN. But all DNS does is translate the alpha-numertc web site name into an IP address. It is not a real alternative technology. Sites like Filmon are just VPNs under another name with dedicated access to specific content.
What would be useful is a way of installing a VPN on a smart TV.
From what I can see IPTV boxes simply provide a user friendly way of watching TV over the internet. They do not, per se, circumvent access denial software. The quality of what you can receive is primarily determined by the amount of data that comes down the line, how it is compressed and the performance of the software on the target device. I've not seen any evidence that IPTV boxes have a distinct edge in this respect
I'm not so sure about VPNs being hard to install. I have recently loaded Witopia on a PC for a friend. It took just a few minutes to complete and is very flexible and user friendly in operation.
I still don't understand why, outside the UK, you can download a one hour programme from the BBC in just a few minutes and play it back with near HD picture quality and stereo sound. Yet the same kit struggles to display real time images from the same source.
Sky Go Extra was mentioned as a possibility. From the info on the Sky site it appears that it is available in the UK only. Is it access protected? Does it use enhanced data transmission protocols to give a better viewing experience?
I believe in keeping it simple. I have a nice new laptop with the latest Intel processor running Windows 8.1 and Linux. My ideal is to have all the tools in one box.
Gus
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Allan
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You really should read the articles that Kate referred you to.Gus Morris wrote:Thank you all for the input. I've done a bit of research and had a chat on the phone with my friend in Perpignan to confirm one or two things. This is my current understanding of the realities of trying to watch UK FTA TV in the PO.
Access to UK TV on line is limited to those who have a UK IP address. All the rest denied. To fool the system you need to pretend you are inside the UK. This is what a VPN does. There is talk about DNS (Domain Name System) as an alternative to a VPN. But all DNS does is translate the alpha-numertc web site name into an IP address. It is not a real alternative technology. Sites like Filmon are just VPNs under another name with dedicated access to specific content.
What would be useful is a way of installing a VPN on a smart TV.
From what I can see IPTV boxes simply provide a user friendly way of watching TV over the internet. They do not, per se, circumvent access denial software. The quality of what you can receive is primarily determined by the amount of data that comes down the line, how it is compressed and the performance of the software on the target device. I've not seen any evidence that IPTV boxes have a distinct edge in this respect
I'm not so sure about VPNs being hard to install. I have recently loaded Witopia on a PC for a friend. It took just a few minutes to complete and is very flexible and user friendly in operation.
I still don't understand why, outside the UK, you can download a one hour programme from the BBC in just a few minutes and play it back with near HD picture quality and stereo sound. Yet the same kit struggles to display real time images from the same source.
Sky Go Extra was mentioned as a possibility. From the info on the Sky site it appears that it is available in the UK only. Is it access protected? Does it use enhanced data transmission protocols to give a better viewing experience?
I believe in keeping it simple. I have a nice new laptop with the latest Intel processor running Windows 8.1 and Linux. My ideal is to have all the tools in one box.
Gus
True,DNS translates the alpha-numeric site name to an IP address but SmartDNS services translate the addresses of the TV services to that of a server operated by the SmartDNS provider in the destination country. That server acts as an in-line proxy and passes the received data back to you.
IF you request a site that is not a geo-protected site then the smartDNS simply returns the correct IP address.
SmartDNS services usually work on any device where you can manually configure the IP settings which includes most Smart TVs, the exception is where the ISP intercepts DNS services such as with satellite broadband.
Setting up a VPN on a PC is entirely different to setting one up on a router.
Filmon is emphatically not a VPN, they rebroadcast TV channels usually without geo-restriction or the permission of the channel.
Technically IPTV boxes are just a convenient way of watching Internet TV and don't do anything that a PC can't do, there are some however that come with a paid for service which rebroadcast channels, often illegally. Sometimes these services use a lower quality data stream to work on slower lines.
Sky Go Extra is geo-protected but works fine with A VPN. Or SmartDNS.
Downloads and realtime broadcasts do not generally come from the same source. TV companies have complex distribution networks.
The factors you are leaving out are quality and consistency of service. Remember, when you watch a UK stream, the data may well pass through multiple service provider's networks with no guarantee of speed, or even delivery of data. When you download, these factors aren't relevant.
Sky's On Demand service gets around these issues by downloading a big chunk of the program before you can start watching it and then continuing to download the rest in the background