Is broadband good fast enough to watch TV online

[fuji70]

Hiya

I've just moved into my property and I'm trying to keep costs down. I don't need a landline phone and I'm not bothered about TV either. What I tended to do in the UK is watch TV programmes online (SKY and BBC iPlayer especially).

At the moment I am using a 3 mobile dongle, but the speeds aren't fast enough to watch videos online (for eg I tend to watch a lot of documentaries posted on YouTube) The picture continually freezes.

I am considering getting Adam broadband for a year, but I will only do this is the speeds are up to it.

Anyone got any thoughts/recommendations on it?

Thanks
Jo

[HEAPS GOOD !!!]

Ideally you will need ADSL2 for the speed, and then a very good laptop/desktop with a pretty good processor and video/graphics card....i watch the English Premierleague here, i have to watch it on small screen as my old desktop cnt handle full screen.

I have not tried my new laptop yet.....


HG

[fuji70]

Hiya

I've got a MacBook and that seemed to do the trick in the UK. My other concern is download limits (not something I was subjected to back home, but I'm trying to get away from comparing them all the time!) Watching the footie is also something I want to be doing. What's your monthly limit? (If that's not too personal a question...apologies of so)

[churchj1]

I also think it depends on where you live, down here in Aldinga broadband is painfully slow, almost feels like dial up some times and videos almost always freeze or do not load up.I like to watch X factor (sad I know) but it takes days sometimes to get a full episode in!!
You will also have to pay to change your IP address to a UK one if you want to watch ITV or BBC iplayers as they don't work here in Oz, there is a good thread on here with some websites for UKTV access but again you need to pay and also need a good processor for better quality viewing.
JC

[Diane]

We use Adam ADLS2, and apart from some buffering at the start of some programmes, it works fine. We have the 10 GB a month programme - upgraded from 5 GB a month as with four of us using it, the download limit got reached before the end of the month (Youtube seems to eat it up somehow) and tend to watch live streaming rather than downloading through just a normal laptop. Adam don't charge you extra when you go over your download limit, it just slows down to dialup speed. Their customer service is very good as well - you actually get to talk to a real person!

[onepommie]

hi,we have adam adsl2,and we watch some programs live,most can be downloaded from uk nova,read this to watch live uk tv

Download VLC if you aint got it

Code:
http://rapidshare.com/files/272763894/V1L1C.rar


Download British TV.exe


http://rapidshare.com/files/285440524/British_TV.rar


1 Install VLC if you havent allready
2 Run British Tv.exe

3 In British Tv Window Select number of channell ie. 1 = BBC1 ect.....

You can record channels to by....

Selecting view on the taskbar Right Click, enable 'advanced controls' and a record button should appear. Press the button and it records

Have fun

[fuji70]

Thanks for this! However, I have a Mac and so I believe that it's a little more complicated. When (sigh!) I get a job, I'll probably go for Adam Naked DSL and try and watch the UK TV.

Cheers
Jo

[onepommie]

Even with a mac,you can download from here,

http://www.uknova.com/wsgi/index

just signup,no junk mail.

[onepommie]

for macs os

Updated 1/10/09
Code:
Windows
http://rapidshare.com/files/28783972...tv-windows.zip



Linux 32
http://rapidshare.com/files/28784023...linux32bit.zip


Linux 64
http://rapidshare.com/files/28784069...linux64bit.zip
Note: You must run the Linux version inside a terminal.

Mac
http://rapidshare.com/files/287841737/britishtv-mac.zip

For those having problems ive found the troubleshooter for this prog it may help...

Instructions
Windows
For British TV to work you need VLC media player installed to it default location on your version of Windows. In other words, you need to install without changing any settings in the installer. The British TV program can be placed anywhere on your computer.

Linux
You need to install VLC however you normally install packages for your distribution of Linux. Regular Linux users should already be familiar with this procedure, so I won't go into detail here. After installing VLC, open a Terminal window, and drag the British TV program to that window. Press enter.

Mac OS X
Download VLC. Copy the VLC program to "/Applications". Then double-click to open the British TV program.

Troubleshooter

Q. How do i change a channel?
A. Use the channel number.

Q. VLC not found at script/britishtv.pl line 163, <> line 1.
A. Make sure VLC is installed to the default location for your platform. If it is, please post.

Q. Is there a way to switch channels without opening a new prompt window?
A. When you close VLC, you'll go back to the channel list.

Q. What is VLC?
A. VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, MPEG-1, mp3, ogg, aac ...) as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs, and various streaming protocols.

Q.The video buffers up to 100% and nothing happens.
A. Wait a few more seconds and the video will appear.

Q. I get sound, but no video; only a black screen.
A. Make sure VLC is up to date. If it is, the stream may have a fault.

Q. The video buffers to 100%, plays for a couple of seconds, and then stops and picture freezes.
A. If you are running a Antivirus and Firewall, please allow VLC and British TV.exe. If this does not help, try increasing the cache (Preferences -> All -> Input/Codecs => Access Modules => MMS). If that doesn't help, you can try to copy and paste the URL into a different media player. If that doesn't help, you may need to upgrade your Internet connection to a higher speed.

Q. Does this work from outside the UK?
A. Yes.

Q. Does VLC need to be the default player?
A. No.

Q. Channels won't buffer or start.
A. The sever that host the channels is probably undergoing maintenance, is down, or the URLs have changed. This has nothing to do with the British TV program, VLC, or someperson. Please email someperson with a list of non-working channels so that he may provide an update if necessary.

[Trevez]

having some trouble getting this to work.. thought it was coz my VLC was too new so installed the older version from rapid share- but still getting "VLC not found at script/britishtv.pl line 316, <> line 1."

VLC is installed to C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe

Im on Win XP SP2. Any help would be appreciated as I wanna watch the Waled v Sth Africa Rugby! I usually use myp2p.eu, but the streams on there look like their on the poo side in terms of quality!!

ta