TV question. (1 Viewer)

Snowbird

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I want to take a TV out to the apartment in Bulgaria. We have Bulgarian satellite at the moment, but its rubbish and I would require a dish that is too big for Astra. Am thinking along the lines of internet TV. So what would I require, have heard about these Android TV boxes, so would one of these do the job and would I have to set it all up before leaving the UK.
 
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A fast reliable broadband connection to start with.

Once you have that there are a number number of ways to do it.

The boxes are OK, all they really do is pull a number of TV apps - iPlayer etc - together and provide a direct connection to a TV. You can achieve exactly the same thing with a tablet or laptop and an adapter to connect it to the TV if you want to.

There are loads of different boxes available all of which do pretty much the same thing.

One thing to beware of though is that some of the services are not available or have limited availability if you try and connect from outside the UK and you might find it tricky getting VPN software onto a box.
 

BwB

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The spec sheet says it has built in wifi so you should be good to go. If you need more than the features it has installed (Netflix, BBC, etc.) then you might find an additional box is desirable. Our TV at home is wifi and allows additional stuff to be installed so we cover just about everything (Samsung smart TV). Don't know if this particular brand you're looking at has that facility tho.
 

lorger

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My brother lives in Spain most of the year and he uses an Internet box I think it's called a kodi, my dad also uses it at home and has no problems with it.
 

hilldweller

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So, if I buy something like this will I still require the android box,

They do not give enough details to answer this. But an Android box or USB dongle is cheap enough anyway.

They declare: "including BBC iPlayer, Netflix, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter" only.

Assume you need one and your tame techie to set it up.

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Snowbird

Snowbird

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They do not give enough details to answer this. But an Android box or USB dongle is cheap enough anyway.

They declare: "including BBC iPlayer, Netflix, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter" only.

Assume you need one and your tame techie to set it up.

Thats the bit that worries me Brian. We have an all singing, all dancing TV at home. My semi tame techie set it up before he buggered off to Germany. We just about know how to get Coronation Street unassisted now. We are going to call in and see him in Munich on route to Bulgaria, so it may be an idea to get him to set it up whilst we are there. I will get one of those Android boxes to take with me. Life used to be so simple when we just had the BBC world service and the occasional long wave station coming in. I did have one of those Chromecast things in Spain that seemed to do the job admirably, but we left it in the van when we sold it. Also it needed a device to work it. As the apartment is occasionally rented out whatever we have has to be simple to use.
 
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All you need is any old tv, as long as it's got an hdmi slot and one of these,
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=262532033904&globalID=EBAY-GB
Believe me I have watched all English tv and live films and sport in at my mates house in Portugal with nothing but this setup.
Just looked back and that one runs out in an hour but there are loads of them, just look up Amazon firestick with kodi loaded
 
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Snowbird

Snowbird

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All you need is any old tv, as long as it's got an hdmi slot and one of these,
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=262532033904&globalID=EBAY-GB
Believe me I have watched all English tv and live films and sport in at my mates house in Portugal with nothing but this setup.
Just looked back and that one runs out in an hour but there are loads of them, just look up Amazon firestick with kodi loaded

I have thought about one of these, but as we will have no terrestrial TV can I get ITV BBC etc on this Firestick.

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Feb 16, 2013
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I have thought about one of these, but as we will have no terrestrial TV can I get ITV BBC etc on this Firestick.
Yes but you may need one of those vpn things, but as I understand it you need one of them whatever you use, but if you use the kodi side of it , I think that works without a vpn
 

Satandpcguy

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Just make sure that if you use Kodi, be prepared for lots of searching for reliable links, decent watchable quality links, the endless "working" logo, and "script errors"... it may offer lots of "free tv", but some can find it very confusing and difficult to use...

Or if you just want BBC ITV C4 and Five, hook the laptop to the TV via HDMI and go to filmon.com...

If you want to watch ANY of the official catch up services from UK broadcasters, or UK versions of netflix outside the UK, then you will need to run a UK VPN service that allocates you a UK IP internet address...as your non UK IP internet address will be blocked....
 
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More or less what I said, but I use the Amazon part for English tv which works well, and the kodi part for films and sport.

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The BBC iplayer will not work outside of the UK. It can detect that from your network location. You need to pretend you are in the UK by setting up a VPN connection to a computer in the UK so that the iPlayer sees the computer in the UK as the device accessing it. Basically the data gets sent to the UK computer then your UK computer send it to your computer in foreign lands.
 
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we have one something like this


Don't buy one without a Lan cable conector I found wifi to be a bit slow

And like all the above post suggest you will need fast unlimited broadband
 
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Snowbird

Snowbird

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Oh dear, I just knew this was not going to be an easy plug and play fix. I understand diesel engines, steam engines, old motorcycles and have a basic knowledge of the female mind, note I said BASIC. I have no, repeat NO knowledge of modern technical electronics. Is there nothing out there I can just plug in and watch Coronation Street.

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Feb 16, 2013
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Oh dear, I just knew this was not going to be an easy plug and play fix. I understand diesel engines, steam engines, old motorcycles and have a basic knowledge of the female mind, note I said BASIC. I have no, repeat NO knowledge of modern technical electronics. Is there nothing out there I can just plug in and watch Coronation Street.
Yeah , Amazon firestick(y):)
 
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Oh dear, I just knew this was not going to be an easy plug and play fix. I understand diesel engines, steam engines, old motorcycles and have a basic knowledge of the female mind, note I said BASIC. I have no, repeat NO knowledge of modern technical electronics. Is there nothing out there I can just plug in and watch Coronation Street.
Fire stick just shove it the hdmi slot connect to leccy, done! No wires no aireal no note, out of the box watching tele in ten minutes.
 
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Snowbird

Snowbird

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Fire stick just shove it the hdmi slot connect to leccy, done! No wires no aireal no note, out of the box watching tele in ten minutes.

OK, sounds good, sounds simple, but will it work outside the UK. Will I have to pretend am not outside the UK and try to kid it into thinking am in the UK to watch Cora.

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Feb 16, 2013
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OK, sounds good, sounds simple, but will it work outside the UK. Will I have to pretend am not outside the UK and try to kid it into thinking am in the UK to watch Cora.
I can't honestly tell you this, I know my mate in Portugal gets all his tv through one, no aireal no dish nowt but broadband through wifi, but I do think he has one of these vpn thingy, but if you want to persevere with kodi you can find anything without vpn, works through Internet wheather here or anywhere, I have actually used kodi in France on my phone over a three data signal.
You could try kodi out if you have a android device it's a genuine download in the google play store.
 
Aug 30, 2012
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Oh dear, I just knew this was not going to be an easy plug and play fix. I understand diesel engines, steam engines, old motorcycles and have a basic knowledge of the female mind, note I said BASIC. I have no, repeat NO knowledge of modern technical electronics. Is there nothing out there I can just plug in and watch Coronation Street.
Just look down street find 15 year kid and give them a fiver be working in ten minuets.
 

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