Reply to: Using iPlayer Overseas

[chef]

I've been looking into this aswell as German tv is complete tulipe. From what I can gather, reports are that a minimum of 50kbps is required for it to be watchable. Other reports say if you can watch a youtube video without it stuttering then slingbox should be fine. I can't find any official documentation of this though, it's more just heresay on various forums.

When AFH I'm using a vodafone mobile connect usb dongle in a heavily built up area and surrounded by thick german walls, I get bbc iplayer (via home vpn) download of around 60kbps, I'm planning on buying a Slingbox in 10 days when i'm next home and will give an update on speed shortly thereafter.

Chef

[scooterscot]

Use a slingbox here - works fine - the last hotel I stayed at was the sofitel, the network speed was way faster than at home.

[BoredBloke]

I thought of getting a slingbox - does anybody how much bandwidth do they need? I think my net connection at home will be fine but I'm not sure of the speed and bandwidth available at the cr@ppy hotel I'm staying at.

[expat]

Yes set up a VPN server on your UK computer and connect to it when you are abroad. You can find all the setup details here:
http://www.consult-here.com/BBC.html

including how to pay!

[Archangel]

Just get a slingbox.

http://www.slingmedia.com/


Then you can watch anything you can watch at home (sky, footie, bbc, etc etc)

[Gunner1947]

Therefore, assuming you have a system and an Internet connection running at home, one approach would be to use that system as a proxy through which to tunnel the connection.


Thanks for the above Nick, appreciated, looks like that could be the way to go for my lads. We are presently stationed in Canada working with the Canadian Forces until the end of 2009 with just a few weeks leave now and again.

Not sure how we'd link to our computers in the UK, so if you could drop me a PVT message I'd appreciate it. It would really help morale if we can keep up with UK TV while we are away from home.

[rwmail]

When attemping to use BBC's iPlayer overseas, it's only available to those within the UK - a licence payer issue, I guess. But even if you pay for a licence here in the UK you should be able to watch UK telly in Europe.

Any way I can 'fool' the browser/PC to think I'm still in the UK?

Yes set up a VPN server on your UK computer and connect to it when you are abroad. You can find all the setup details here:
http://www.consult-here.com/BBC.html

[larry]

Thanks for the info. I'll get some mates in various countries to try it out.

[ASB]

EDIT: FWIW I know for a fact that certain UK broadcasters (explicitly not the BBC) have been required to implement such geographical controls over their streams by the Performing Rights Society - this was against their wishes, and such controls had to be implemented at their own expense. Apparently the PRS likes to impose rules, but chooses not to pay for the imposition thereof

I got moaned at by the PRS. I hold a PRS licence to allow my daughter to use some music in a public performance. She put a video of it up on you tube. The most recent comment was from the PRS.... (What I couldn't work out was whether we were actually under the terms of the license we agreed since that allowed public broadcast).

[chef]

I haven't tried it myself, but apparently this works:

1. Sign up for the service and get it working while you are in the UK.
2. Use a UK based proxy when you are abroad

exactly what i did using the proxy i listed earlier, works fine for me

[Sysman]

I haven't tried it myself, but apparently this works:

1. Sign up for the service and get it working while you are in the UK.
2. Use a UK based proxy when you are abroad

Reading between the lines, they do more stringent checks during the signup process than for normal playing (i.e. they possibly check against a list of UK based public proxies during the signup process, but not for normal use).

This effectively means that a UK TV licence payer doing stints abroad can use the service, but it keeps out the rabble from the rest of the world.

[thunderlizard]

But even if you pay for a licence here in the UK you should be able to watch UK telly in Europe.

I don't think that's true. Licensing has conditions, and restricting use to the UK is probaby one of them.

Though as it happens, you don't need a TV licence for iplayer anyway because it's not live.

[chef]

Find a public proxy server in the uk and point your browser to it.

try

217.65.158.65
port 8080

[pmeswani]

When attemping to use BBC's iPlayer overseas, it's only available to those within the UK - a licence payer issue, I guess. But even if you pay for a licence here in the UK you should be able to watch UK telly in Europe.

Any way I can 'fool' the browser/PC to think I'm still in the UK?

Find a public proxy server in the uk and point your browser to it.

[NoddY]

Lease a virtual machine from a UK based company and run a proxy on it.