English TV or Films

[Gardenpotter]

We don't have any technology with us apart from mobile devices and mini WiFi.

In Spain for two months. We've not been able to watch any English TV as site WiFi's and our phones obviously don't achieve this and the Free sat app is sporadic. We've been told that satellite dishes are going to be redundant in a few years. We don't have Sky at home only a Netflix account. We don't watch soaps or anything like that but would like to watch some films occasionally, the news and some sport. A fellow Brit leant us a USB stick to insert in our 12v tele with some films on which was great. What's the best way to achieve getting some TV like this for future trips?

 

[Captain Pants]

Download Netflix content (films & TV) and watch at your leisure. You’ll obviously need a device with enough storage for your needs. I’ve got an iPad with 128gb which is adequate. If you subscribe to a virtual private network (VPN) you’ll be able to download or stream UK content (BBC, ITV, All4) while in Spain if you get a good enough wifi connection.

 

[Gardenpotter]

Thanks what VPN? I thought I had downloaded from Netflix but one film used a lot of data in one night. We're not very tecky you can tell!!

 

[Lenny HB]

Netflix & Prime you can set the download quality if you select the lowest quality it will be fine on a small TV and will save a lot of data.

You said "your phones don't achieve this" if you have UK sims you can watch all the UK catch up services, you can buy a lead to plug your phone into the TV but probably better to use a TV box or Firestick.
Personally I don't like Firesticks and I use an Android TV box which has 64GB of memory so I can download hours & hours of programs & films before we go away.

 

[SMB]

Have a look at this recent thread:

Amazon fire stick

Sorry Addie, but only if a P2P application has been installed will this happen. None of the IPTV apps can use P2P services. Many are direct link via MAC address or use M3U files only. However if you have Kodi installed or buy a firestick or other andriod machine with Kodi installed for you (not...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

Some vpn's don't work when it comes to BBC I player etc so you would need to shop around on the Internet and find out which ones do. TV player app on the firestick lets you watch BBC, ITV etc for free as mentioned in the above-mentioned post. I have a yearly subscription to Amazon Prime which includes movies and TV series which I got cheap on Black Friday. I find it works well even with a poor WiFi signal if you adjust the video quality to it's lowest setting. You can also download movies etc from it onto your tablet etc to watch offline. You could get a Vodafone 50gb datasim for your Mifi (I presume that's the mini WiFi unit you mention) on a 30 day rolling contract which not only gives you plenty of data wherever you get a decent phone signal but also gives you a UK IP address which means you can watch Iplayer etc without a VPN. Regarding the memory stick with movies on, I have a media player and a few larger capacity hard drives (bigger versions of memory sticks) which hold a lot of movies and series. The hard drives do work by just plugging them into the TV and using the built-in media player but with my Avtex TV I found it wouldn't play a lot of the movies as the media player didn't have the capability to play all the different types of movie formats. I use an external media player which comes with a remote and this plays most formats. Getting the movies etc for your hard drive is another thing, I normally find like-minded people on sites and copy their movies and vice-versa and have quite a lot now. Alternatively you might be able to find a expert 10 year old at home that will do it for you ?. Hope I've not confused you with the options and how to facilitate them, there are plenty of other threads about this topic, WiFi boosters for campsites with a poor WiFi signal etc (see the Motorhomewifi website as a starter). Below is the media player I use with hard drive storage:

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[Gardenpotter]

Wow thank you loads of info. It seems you and others obtain your own remedies and equipment rather than manage through your phone provider which is what we do at the moment.