Join Talk Quesada

Welcome to Talk Quesada! My name's Alex and this is my website all about Ciudad Quesada in Spain. Talk Quesada is free to sign up and use so register below!

TVOptions

TVOptions

Postby Hilnjohn » Sat Dec 14, 2013 11:05 pm

Can anyone give advice re: TVOptions. New to the area and not sure what is the best way to get tv service. Our sellers mentioned that the community had a tv supply. What about satellite. Would appreciate some advice.
Hilnjohn
 
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Nov 13, 2013 12:51 am
Which part of Spain are you from?: Lo crispin
Gender: Male

Re: TVOptions

Postby dr.doolittle » Sun Dec 15, 2013 6:30 am

if you have internet go for 6 meg and get a Brit Box, we did, one off payment 129euro no monthly payments, all sky movies, (and thousands more) all sky sports, bt sports, al jazzera, all the old tv series, plus normal tv, we also have 2.4mtr dish so lucky I guess.
dr.doolittle
 
Posts: 2405
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2013 5:43 am
Location: Entre Naranjos, Laguna Green.
Gender: Male

Re: TVOptions

Postby partygoer » Sun Dec 15, 2013 10:25 am

Dr Doolittle,
Where are the company who you bought yours from, situated?

Also are you still with Telefonica if not who do you get your Internet from?
partygoer
 
Posts: 380
Joined: Sun Nov 17, 2013 8:21 pm
Which part of Spain are you from?: Quesada
Gender: Female

Re: TVOptions

Postby Jan » Sun Dec 15, 2013 10:37 am

Hello Hilnjohn,

There is more information here on this link about the Brit Box: http://www.talkquesada.com/post8208.html

Hope this helps.

Jan
Like us on Facebook to keep in touch: Facebook.com/TalkQuesada
User avatar
Jan
Site Admin
 
Posts: 11193
Images: 164
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2011 8:34 pm
Which part of Spain are you from?: Lo Marabu Dona Pepa
Gender: Female

Re: TVOptions

Postby marcliff » Sun Dec 15, 2013 10:50 am

It depends on what TV system is provided by your community. If simply the Spanish TDT (their version of Freeview digital) then you simply plug a lead into the back of your telly and get all the Spanish TV channels. If the programme is originally in English (or American to be honest) then it will generally have a dual language option and you will get it in English. There are currently about a dozen channels with this option but be prepared for many, many adverts (breaks can last up to 15 minutes).
Your community may also have a satellite system wired up. It will depend on what they choose to link into. For example, ours had BBC1 and ITV plus 2 channels in Dutch, 2 in Russian, 2 in German, 2 in virtually every other language.
Internet providers are many and varied. Some provide all the UK Sky channels including films and sports and others just the Freesat channels. You will normally get a small dish on the roof measuring anything from a few centimetres up to 60 or 70 cm. Normal charges for this can vary between 15 to 30 euros or even higher but can also provide a telephone system as well. Installation costs can be zero up to a couple of hundred euros if you take the telephone option.
A satellite dish on your roof will, currently, enable you to get all the Free to Air channels similar to UK Freesat. You will need a 1.4 metre dish in this area to get all the channels at the moment. Any Sky receiver or Freesat receiver can be used to get these channels. A one off installation fee of around 300 euros (some cheaper, some more expensive depending on whether you want a receiver with it) is charged but there is no monthly fee. The British channels are due to move to a new satellite any time now (or up to February) and people are a bit worried that the footprint will be so limited that we will lose the channels. We went through this a while back and the Costa del Sol did lose a lot of channels and some channels were lost by those with a 1 metre dish but most of us were OK. Depending on which site you read, it's either going to make no difference at all when the new satellite comes in or it will be the satellite version of Armageddon and we will lose everything.
We had the community system but the picture wasn't very good and only had limited channels. We went for an internet provider but the picture was often jerky and subject to constant buffering on a 3Mb system. We have retained the internet and telephone on that system but binned the TV. We had a 1.4m dish fitted a couple of years ago (we had to go to the AGM and change the community rules as they originally said no dishes) and a freesat HD receiver from UK. We now get all the free to air channels and have no problems at all. If the satellite does go off soon, we may have to change to a larger dish but would probably not as they are very intrusive.
If you have the internet, then you can simply call up the filmon website which gives you access to the UK freeview channels (or most of them). You can then plug your computer into the telly via the HDMI port and get them all for free in SD. You can take out a cheap subscription and get them in HD but I don't know about the quality as I haven't done it. We do use the SD free one now and again to get channels like History and Dave which aren't on freesat. They are eminently watchable.
If you can get a 6Mb internet system, as dr. doolittle says, then you will get a more stable picture. Some companies allow you to switch off the system when you aren't there and don't charge you but others do not so do your homework on that one. After all, paying 300 euros a year if you are only out on holidays a few times is rather expensive. The dish (if you are allowed one) is better and, after the installation fee, won't cost anything but, again, be aware of the possibility that channels may (or may not) disappear.
Anyway, Brit TV is so dire lately that it wouldn't hurt to wait and see what happens.
(reference the Spanish digital TV. We use a HDD recorder and record the programmes we want, such as CSI, Bones, Castle, House, NCIS and so on plus a lot of modern (ish) films. There are plently of American programmes on, often going through to 4 in the morning. Once recorded, I go through them and cut out all the adverts and we end up with an extra (we call it Spanish US) channel to watch what we want without the breaks. Seems to work well)
User avatar
marcliff
 
Posts: 9694
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2012 4:41 pm
Location: Doña Pepa 2
Which part of Spain are you from?: Dona Pepa 2
Gender: Male

Re: TVOptions

Postby Jan » Sun Dec 15, 2013 10:53 am

There is also lots of information topics by the members of TalkQuesada, about their experiences with TV providers on this link if you haven't yet seen them:
http://www.talkquesada.com/broadband-wifi-phone-and-tv-f88/

The community TV, you mentioned Hilnjohn, could be the TDT system which the Spanish use like our British digital receivers and comes through the community aerial system. The (set-top style) boxes can be bought anywhere quite cheaply often under or around 30 euros and that's all that's needed as there is no licence fee in Spain.

We are holiday-homers and only have the TDT system and change the language when the channels are showing British or American films / programmes, which can be found on certain channels all the time. We also use a DVD for films and programmes we have recorded in the UK from our TV. It suits us as we are on holiday and don't watch as much TV or as often as at home in the UK.

Found this description on line:
Terrestrial Digital Television (TDT)
TDT is the Spanish equivalent of of the UK's freeview television. Digital television provides a greater number of channels and better picture quality using transmission to a standard television aerial. TDT also allows the viewer to choose the original version language, subtitles and in the case of some sports events, different camera angles.


Hope this also helps.

Jan
PS Just seen Marcliff's post above, sorry if I have repeated his info.
Like us on Facebook to keep in touch: Facebook.com/TalkQuesada
User avatar
Jan
Site Admin
 
Posts: 11193
Images: 164
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2011 8:34 pm
Which part of Spain are you from?: Lo Marabu Dona Pepa
Gender: Female

Re: TVOptions

Postby dr.doolittle » Sun Dec 15, 2013 11:45 am

partygoer wrote:Dr Doolittle,
Where are the company who you bought yours from, situated?

Also are you still with Telefonica if not who do you get your Internet from?
the company are in Calpe, and we are with telecable, cant fault them, free calls to uk, free calls to Spanish numbers and 6 meg internet.
dr.doolittle
 
Posts: 2405
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2013 5:43 am
Location: Entre Naranjos, Laguna Green.
Gender: Male

Re: TVOptions

Postby nananderson » Sun Dec 15, 2013 2:57 pm

We live in Lo Crispin & have the community tv system connected , we get most of the uk channnels, soaps ect , sky news , a few movie channels euro sport etc , im sure your president will be able to give you an exact list of channels. We paid a one off fee for connection & have had no problems after being duped twice before paying for systems then after a couple of months companies went bust.
I suppose it depends how many channels you want , we are happy with what we have but it may not suit everyone .
User avatar
nananderson
 
Posts: 53
Joined: Wed Mar 13, 2013 9:53 am
Which part of Spain are you from?: Lo Crispin
Gender: Female

Re: TVOptions

Postby JeremyB » Sun Dec 15, 2013 4:26 pm

If you want good quality legitimate UK television channels then you will basically need either a large enough and well installed satellite dish or to be able to hook up to a community system.
Internet systems can do a good job but most rely on "streaming" which is essentially an illegal rebroadcast of channels. These broadcasts are generally low bitrate which means low quality. If you subscribe to an internet system and pay a monthly fee you may well get very good and clear channels if your internet connection is good enough, at least 6mb and most likely more to have a consistently good image.
The systems such as the Brit Box are simply tapping into the illegal streaming systems and up to you whether you are happy with that or not. If you read the small print on the Brit Box website you will read that actually it is just a smart TV box with a program called XBMC pre-installed. This is simply the most popular free HTPC (Home Theatre PC) software available to download on the internet. You can download it here http://xbmc.org/download/ . I have installed XBMC on my home PCs and laptop and it is brilliant for managing movie and music collections and does also have many options for "free" TV and movies. If you are interested check out the XBMChub forum http://www.xbmchub.com/forums/forum.php and you will find lots of interesting stuff to read.
The Brit Box simply has XBMC and a program called Navi-X installed. There is a special section on Navi-X on the XBMC forum. The movie streams generally work very well and you can get very high quality free live streams and even some 3D movies if you search for them. The links to the Sky Sports channels work reasonably well with a fairly low quality image as they are all flash streams with a maximum of 400 kbps.
If you really want decent quality "free" sports including all major European football leagues including the premiership then do an internet search for "wiziwig.tv" and take a look around. You will need to install some software such as Sopcast, Acestream and Streamtorrent to get the best quality streams and you will find all software links on the software section of the Wiziwig forum. You need a PC connected to your TV and a decent internet connection with 6mb as a minimum but if you are happy with the "streaming" concept knowing that you are not paying for something that is normally paid for then you can get good quality free sports without paying somebody for just hooking you up to the system.
User avatar
JeremyB
 
Posts: 192
Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2013 3:37 pm
Which part of Spain are you from?: La Fiesta
Gender: Male

Re: TVOptions

Postby Hilnjohn » Sun Dec 15, 2013 7:41 pm

Thanks everyone for the advice and info much appreciated. Will hopefully get it sorted next week.
Hilnjohn
 
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Nov 13, 2013 12:51 am
Which part of Spain are you from?: Lo crispin
Gender: Male

Next

Return to Broadband, Computer, Wifi, Phone and TV

 
 

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests

Login
Username:


Password:


Remember me


Forgot password?

Register now

Find in Quesada
What are you looking for in Quesada?: