Slingbox vs Filmon

affinite

affinite

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Looking for feedback re these two ways of watching British TV when overseas.
Long way off but I want to watch the Rugby world cup on ITV but its on when we are away in Greece next year.
Dont think I'll find many Greek bars showing it ;)
 
OK.

To be honest, I've personally had a mixed experience with FilmonTV, but, curiously, it recently started working for me again. Clearly, this is the cheapest option. I guess you can also test it quite extensively in UK, before you go to build up confidence levels, if necessary.

Alternatively, our Slingbox is a wonderful thing that has "paid its rent" many times over. We use it to watch live TV, including BT Sport and Sky Sports, and to access recorded material from the BT Vision recording box. As we are currently -5hrs to UK, the ability to record and watch a series, or whatever, is an attractive feature we value. Depending on the services you have from your TV provider, Slingbox also gives you access to iPlayer, ITV Player and the other catchup services, outside UK, without a VPN.

On the downside, the Slingbox requires you to leave whatever receiver you will be uploading via the Slingbox to be powered on. When the BT box goes into standby, we can switch it back, using the virtual remote control in Slingbox, but it does need to be in service. After uninterrupted "service", of 4 or 5 months, we found ourselves needing to reboot the Bt Vision box (no idea if a power cut or something upset it's equilibrium), and we could do that remotely, using a Wemo switch. Alternatively, you may have a neighbour, or someone staying in your house who could do that. Since November, we've only needed that the once. You'll ideally want a decent upload speed on your home broadband, and consider the impact, should your broadband provider have usage caps. Streaming counts in any allowance.

You can watch Slingbox on your laptop, tablet or phone. The smaller the device, the less internet speed required. We can happily stream to iPad on 0.5mb, with very acceptable picture quality. At that level the laptops at full screen can be grainy periodically.

So, it's an apples and pears comparison. If you do elect to go down the Slingbox route, you will probably be surprised how much you use it, but I would strongly suggest you get it set up well in advance of the World Cup, just in case you have any initial wrinkles.

If you want anything further, please ask.
 
Thanks for the info MM
Im off to Los Angeles tomorrow for a few days so I'll try to test Filmon while Im away.
Shame I cant use it for Sky Sports (I'll miss the 3rd test against the All Blacks) - Hey Ho
We also have BT so its useful to know that the slingbox works OK with BTV.
 
That would be where the Slingbox comes into it's own. Similarly the BT Sport apps (on iOS anyway) will only work with Location Services enabled, so being able to watch via Slingbox is advantageous. You can watch it on a laptop, but only if you use a VPN.

It does work well with the BT setup. There is a little setting up to do on the router, but provided you take your time it's not too taxing.

As I say, we're Slingbox fans, and anyone we show it to thinks its great. Or at least they say they do.........

We'll be catching up with the third test on Saturday, but as it's live here at 3am, it'll be recorded to watch as soon as we get up, so as not to discover the score. It's all a game.
 
So Im in my LA hotel room, Im on my own and its 4am
What to do ......
I know 'll try Filmon - does it work
err No it doesn't all I get is a constant commercial for Expedia USA.
Cant get any UK content at all
I think I'll try a slingbox next time
 
Did you login to Filmon? As I say, I've had a chequered history with it, but it seems to be behaving right now. It's useful to have an alternative, if only one of us wants to watch the current World Cup.......

When selecting your Slingbox, I would suggest the Pro HD, or it's a bit trickier for someone to use it away from home, if there are others at home who,also want to watch TV, on different channels.

Looking on eBay, this one looks potentially interesting, if you don't want to spend much: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sling-Med...?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Other&hash=item3a91f77101
 
MM
I didn't log in but I just did and its just the same. ie no UK content
The internet connection is a bit slow here but that isn't the problem
Think I'll take a look at that slingbox link - I like the idea of accessing/controlling the DVR anyway
 
i was having a look at the time4tv link, which started giving me all sorts of update messages, which Dr Google suggests are malware. Malawarebytes has just removed 7 items.

I'm not suggesting anything sinister or fault. Just the usual warning about unknown links.

The Chromecast? I assume that just effectively makes the TV a smart TV, enabling mirroring? At £30, it looks fun.
 
That is very odd unless AdblockPlus is blocking what you are getting. I use that link a lot and never had any warnings. Running MBAM gives no results for me, but it never does as I use the free Comodo Internet Security which would sandbox any unknowns and put up a warning itself when it did so.

You are almost right about Chromecast but it only receives instructions from a Chrome browser or a Chromecast enabled App which is not yet available foe Filmon for example, but they are working on it. The smart TV equivalent is an Android TV stick which can be bought from Amazon for about 50€ and that is what I use with a Filmon App to watch TV in France since the Astra footprint was reduced to prevent us using a normal satellite dish in the south of the country for UK TV.
 
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