UK TV - Success!

Colin L · Post by **Colin L** » Thu 16 Oct 2014 11:23

In the summer, I was asking about solutions to the disappearance of UK TV. Many thanks for the help I got from Dave and Allan in particular. We are now "sorted".

We now have Belkin @TV (the same thing as Slingbox) hooked up to our TV box at home and are receiving all our VirginMedia channels in sunny Baho. It is working well with hardly a stutter. Picture quality satisfactory to good. The only snag is that it ties up my laptop, but now I know the system works, it will be worth getting a laptop to dedicate to TV reception. As a backup, and to access catch up programmes, iPortal has so far retrieved programmes from BBC iplayer, ITV player and 5 on Demand.

Now having posted all that satisfied stuff , I suppose something will go wrong.

Allan · Post by **Allan** » Thu 16 Oct 2014 19:55

There are apps for IOS and Android for the Belkin @TV system - I think they are free. So you could use an Android TV box or an Android stick rather than your PC. iPad and an Apple TV would also do the job.

In my experience the apps work better than the PC version.

If buying an Android box/Stick, also get an Air-mouse as the supplied remotes are usually useless.

There are apps for iPlayer and ITV player on both Android and IOS but if the box you are controlling has catch-up TV then you wont need them

Sue · Post by **Sue** » Thu 16 Oct 2014 21:17

Metronic android stick from Intermarche around 59€.
Air mouse from ebay uk around £10 including p & p

martyn94 · Post by **martyn94** » Fri 17 Oct 2014 11:33

If I get this right, I just have to buy a house in the UK, and buy some kit there, and pay the tv licence, and the electricity bills and community charge and broadband, and I can have all the tv I want. Seems obvious once you think of it.

Sue · Post by **Sue** » Fri 17 Oct 2014 11:39

Wish I had a brain as quick as yours Martyn

Merisin · Post by **Merisin** » Fri 17 Oct 2014 12:00

For the benefit of anybody new to the debate I'll repeat what I've said before. We like to watch UK drama and documentaries. No spooling, in full HD, on a big screen with decent sound. If you don't mind deferred viewing, rather than watch TV live, you can do so with nothing more than a PC, a cable to the TV and a modest subscription.

Merisin

Colin L · Post by **Colin L** » Fri 17 Oct 2014 12:27

martyn94 wrote:If I get this right, I just have to buy a house in the UK, and buy some kit there, and pay the tv licence, and the electricity bills and community charge and broadband, and I can have all the tv I want. Seems obvious once you think of it.

No need to be sarky. Apart from wanting to say thank you publicly for the help I got on the forum, there is just the possibility that there are others looking in on the forum who, like us, have a second home here and might be helped by our experience, don't you think?

Sue · Post by **Sue** » Fri 17 Oct 2014 12:42

If you have an android stick no subscription is necessary. For us personally there is such a small amount we wish to watch on British tv a subscription would be wasted. Also the language to many TNT programmes can be changed from French to English.

martyn94 · Post by **martyn94** » Fri 17 Oct 2014 16:01

Colin L wrote:
martyn94 wrote:If I get this right, I just have to buy a house in the UK, and buy some kit there, and pay the tv licence, and the electricity bills and community charge and broadband, and I can have all the tv I want. Seems obvious once you think of it.
No need to be sarky. Apart from wanting to say thank you publicly for the help I got on the forum, there is just the possibility that there are others looking in on the forum who, like us, have a second home here and might be helped by our experience, don't you think?

I was being sarky at myself, if anything, for taking so long to realise what you were talking about. When you said that you had hooked up your Belkin box "at home", I took that to mean "in the PO", that being "home" to me. Once I realised that this was not so, I thought it might be helpful to spell that out, just in case anyone else was as dozy as me. If you had been a little more explicit in the first place, I would have had no excuse to post.

Colin L · Post by **Colin L** » Fri 17 Oct 2014 16:05

Well, there is a wee clue under the avatar on the left, where it says Location: Edinburgh or Baho.

It shows though that I'm not as well known on the forum as I used to be.

Santiago · Post by **Santiago** » Sun 19 Oct 2014 21:25

Your fame seems to have receded from you Colin

Probably not a bad thing.

I find that I'm perfectly happy with BBc iPlayer, plus all the other catchup TV internet channels. Does the Belkin give you access to much stuff that is not on iPlayer and is it saved, recordable or just live like filmon?

Presumably, if you have a friend or relative in the UK you do this with their set-top box.

Allan · Post by **Allan** » Sun 19 Oct 2014 23:39

The Belkin box works in the same way as a Slingbox, you take over the remote set top box and you can do anything that the box can do.

So if it is a Sky box then you have access to the Sky channels, you can record on it and watch catch up TV.

Think of it like a long HDMI lead from the box in the UK to the TV in France with a remote control going in the opposite direction.

You would be unlikely to use it with a friend's set top box unless they had a spare one, as every time you change channel it would change it for them as well.. It comes into its own for people like Colin that have 2 homes, it gives them full access to their home TV system wherever they happen to be.

Belkin and Sling boxes require much less bandwidth than any other TV serice.

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UK TV - Success!

UK TV - Success!