ExPat Shield & elite

Steve C Cronin

Steve C Cronin

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Has anyone else noticed this application's reluctance in recent weeks to make a successful connection to BBC TV channels from Greece? Or is it as my younger son says "The Beeb employs lots of clever people to prevent you from doing that"?
 
It's a Greece thing and total lack of bandwidth!

When we were there I used a variety of methods to get out of Greece to watch live sport, most never worked as there was no bandwidth to support them. ExPat shield works well every where else.

If you have a mate/you have SKY back in the UK then a Sling Box may be your answer, but again you are relying on having a reliable fast connection and the band width to support it.

Good luck
 
I've mentioned to a couple of people recently that ExPAtShield is too slow to use for streaming TV here in Galicia. It was fine until a few weeks ago and then it became very poor. It seems to be faster late at night and iPlayer downloads usually finish if left running overnight.

I've carried out some tests recently and bandwidth drops by a huge amount when ExPatShield used. So it isn't just the loca WiFi/broadband connection. Perhaps it has become more popular and demand is killing their servers at certain times.

Filmon.com often works when iPlayer won't but you can't restart a prog. if you've turned on a bit late. But it does give access to UK Freeview channels in addition to the BBC ones.
 
Mistroma said:
I've mentioned to a couple of people recently that ExPAtShield is too slow to use for streaming TV here in Galicia. It was fine until a few weeks ago and then it became very poor. It seems to be faster late at night and iPlayer downloads usually finish if left running overnight.

I've carried out some tests recently and bandwidth drops by a huge amount when ExPatShield used. So it isn't just the loca WiFi/broadband connection. Perhaps it has become more popular and demand is killing their servers at certain times.

Filmon.com often works when iPlayer won't but you can't restart a prog. if you've turned on a bit late. But it does give access to UK Freeview channels in addition to the BBC ones.
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Watched Last Night of the Proms live on our berth in Gouvia Marina through a Vodafone Mobile Hotspot. Now, all we can get, even with the (purchased) "Elite" add-on is a few single frames before the "content not working, try again later banner comes up. First tries on Filmon seem excellent.
 
I noticed that the Expat Shield are now charging to watch the BBC through it, bit cheeky seeing as they put ads on there too. I'm connected to Laptop Telly now, all the UK channels seem to work fine and without the buffering now. download is http://www.laptoptelly.com
 
Filmon works well for live progs. if decent bandwidth. I sometimes download via iPlayer desktop if bandwidth not great or prog. screened when I'm offline. Expatshield was OK for that until they started charging.

I might try Beebify.com next time I want something from iPlayer. Looks promising but I think it is likely to download file via web browser interface (not iPlayer desktop). That might be a problem with poor Wifi if connection drops as it might lose a partial download. Worth a try though as it's free. Does anyone have a better free solution to BBC iPlayer downloads abroad?
 
Don't use "Ex-Pat" now as I found hacking attempts trebled on various secure sites I used. It may have been coincidental but I can happily do without TV where-ever I am. My wife, however, is an addict.
From the comments made I'd suspect that the slowdown in streaming has more to do with lack of bandwidth than anything else - but those with a preference for the conspiratorial theory of occurences may feel more comfortable believing otherwise/
 
After seeing this and buying a years subscription with Laptop Telly I have e-mailed them to make sure this isn't a scam, forwarding my details etc.
Apparently the Administrative Contact is relating to their domain name and the company is actually based in Sydney Australia, Pommy TV.
The reason why the address is not listed on the domain search is that its privately listed. Took a while to get them on the Australian number, but got through eventually.
 
I too , have found Expat Shield lacking lately and have discovered through my it savvy son , a much better way to view bbc /itv etc .
Living in Greece , we find the ads on Greek tv too intrusive and far too long .
Expat is ok for viewing but still spends too much time buffering , and the picture quality is poor / below average , as I am sure most people have found .

ok heres what to do ....

1. download U torrent .
2. search Pirate Bay , yes it is still running , in fact PB has just celebrated its 10 th birthday !
3 enter the film/ program you want to watch ,when you see it ,
4 click on "download this torrent "
5 it takes 10minutes or so
6 save to my videos
7pour glass of wine,
7 sit back watch program in high quality / HD , like you have never seen on E/P

enjoy ,
grafozz
 
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I've been doing the same for many years and it works well for many things. Every US TV series, anything on UK TV with appeal to US (Wide range Dr Who, Top Gear, Casualty, Downton Abbey,etc). Progs. are often available long before BBC gets them on iPlayer (usually much smaller files as well). Usually pretty easy to spot anything that's a scam but I only download to spare laptop used for general browsing.

However, there are gaps and you have to use Filmon.com, iPlayer etc. for those.

uTorrent works well and I usually use the auto-shutdown feature to turn off laptop once download completes.

I'd hoped "Strictly .. Dancing" thingy was such a gap. Just hoping that my wife doesn't think to check TPB.
 
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