[Anonymous]

[dubtraveller]

On business in US for a few weeks…family with me missing UK TV (i.e. soaps, X Factor etc!)…be grateful for any recommended – and preferably legit – sites for watching UK TV (via web) abroad from all the seasoned travellers on here.
Thanks in advance,
Chris

[Gin&Tonic]

Dubtraveller – all UK channels and SKY has access to the most popular shows on the I players via www

[excessbaggage]

In the UK I use tvcatchup.com, but i’m not sure if this will work when abroad or not:

http://www.tvcatchup.com

Funnily enough it has an ad for the X Factor on its front page at the moment.

[ticklos]

I use the fabulous slingbox (www.slingbox.com).

You can buy a slingbox from Dixons, John Lewis, Amazon, etc so is perfectly legal.

It plugs into your home Sky/Cable/TV/whatever and then you can watch this from your laptop anywhere in the world.

I am an expat and have been using it with a Sky+ box in my parents house for the last 4 years (with the equally fabulous “slingcatcher” so I can watch UK TV (including all the sports, movies, etc) on a normal telly.

Hope it helps

Chris

[Ardmarnoch]

I agree with Ticklos. As I assume you have a UK home and a UK TV license, and are only travelling on trips abroad, the Slingbox is legal and effective option to watch what you do in the UK.

It supports TV delivery and control to remote PC’s, laptops, iPads and Smartphones. The quality of the picture you receive is directly proportional to the speed of your connection.

The ususal limiting factors are remote download speed, international gateway performance in your local country and very importantly your UPLOAD speed at home.

Regular ADSL gives a max upload speed of 448Kb which is OK ish. ADSL2 gives you 1MB or more which is good, and FTTC services such as BT Infinity gives up to 10 or 15MB which is truly excellent and which really removes that bottleneck.

Virgin cable is also good.

The Slingbox gives you full rmote control including the “red button” etc for all that extra stuff.

Recommended.

[dubtraveller]

Thanks for the excellent info to all..the slingbox sounds just the ticket…just kicking myself now (as will the wife no doubt) for not checking up on this before going on this trip..such is life!

[MartynSinclair]

I would be very interested in a solution to SKy News live (not the 3 minute reel) whilst travelling, especially in the States and Asia.

am going to look at Slingbox.

[GeorgeG]

Slingbox is good. But really you won’t miss much on the soap front – I imagine a few people will fall pregnant by someone else’s husband, someone will die by foul play, someone else will return after an extended stay in South America, and the rest will have inane conversations while buying the local paper.. And I can’t wait to be here watching it all unfold!

[LuganoPirate]

Sorry to be a bore, but technically even using slingbox is “illegal”. The terms of the various broadcasters allow them to show the sporting events, movies etc to viewers in the UK.

BBC et al will not allow you to watch the iPlayer from outside the UK but happily allow European cable companies to carry all their programming. And I mean all, BBC 1- 4, ITV all channels etc.

Consequently I wouldn’t worry to much about being “legit” as I don’t envisage the Sheriff and his posse coming to hunt you down!!!

Living in Switzerland my UK tv is very important for me and travelling quite a bit I’ve been looking at several solutions, especially as I spend three months a year in S. Africa.

I’ve found the following to be very good.

http://www.watchuktv.co.uk/

http://www.gettvabroad.com/how-to-watch-free-national-tv-abroad

Or else just type in “iPlayer abroad” and you’ll find several solutions. Some are very technical so unless you’re 10 years old or a nuclear physicist forget them!

They are great for simply keeping up with Corrie or Eastenders, er, I mean Panorama or Mastermind, while travelling while the sling box is better suited for a more permanent setup.

Hope this helps.

Ps. Martyn, I’ve found Sky News on tv all over Europe and in most countries in Africa and certainly Malaysia and Singapore. I’ve also been told you can get it in the larger Chinese cities. If they’ve got CNN they can usually get Sky, and once you alert their techies to the fact they will often add Sky or replace CNN. Most are happy to show a British Programme rather than a US one.

[ticklos]

Hmm… legality of “place shifting” with the Slingbox….

Maybe saying “it is perfectly legal” cannot be proven until someone has been challenged for it (which, to my knowledge and google, hasn’t happened).

What is clear is that it is certainly more legal than using a UK based VPN to deliberately break the terms and conditions of services such as BBC iPlayer.

For example, the iPlayer terms state (http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/information/terms_conditions):

—
3.2 How you may NOT use BBC iPlayer

3.2.1 If you are outside of the UK

You may not watch or download BBC Content using BBC iPlayer if you are outside of the UK, although you may listen to some (but not all) BBC radio content if you are outside of the UK. The types of BBC radio content that may be available outside of the UK will depend on the BBC’s agreements with the persons who own rights in such content.

—

So that’s pretty clear.

Again, no-one has been taken to court over this, but you would be deliberately breaking the T&C’s of usage.

Chris

[MartynSinclair]

Hi LuganoPirate – thanks for your comments re Sky News. In Florida I have a home and the techies I have had out have said it is impossible to allign the dish to catch Sky News. The Cable supplier, My Brighthouse do not run a ‘feed’ (if thats the right expression) from Sky. The internet version is blocked, unless, I go into the internet via VPN link to my server in the UK. Same applies when I am in Asia.

I know European countries get a Sky News feed but I have not managed to secure the feeds independantly whilst on my travels.

I know Thailand for example has a connection with Sky, becasue every single premiership game is shown live and apparently for no cost!!

[MartynSinclair]

My attemps to log into Sky whilst I am currently in Japan

Sky Player is only available to users connecting from within the UK or Republic of Ireland, and you appear to be abroad. If this is not the case, check our Help section for advice or contact your Internet Service Provider [code 304].

[Marcin1101]

You do not need to buy a Slingbox – you can rent one from thetelly.net and have access to all Freeview channels or, as some have already mentioned, get access to a proxy, e.g. tvproxy.co.uk. Tried both and they work OK, although there were some problems with connectivity, especially with the proxy server, during the most popular shows. Hope this helps.

[dubtraveller]

Thanks again for the help and information.

Martyn – I have yet to catch Sky News over here in the US, which is a pity. It would be nice for a change from CNN etc!

As to soaps/entertainment shows, I could heard my wife trying to watch X Factor last night (clips via YouTube I think or maybe some illicit sites I don;t know about!, but have so far resisted the urge to update her on this thread!

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