Afraid moving abroad will deny you of TvLand's all-night Benson marathon? Well, you don't have to miss that or any of your other favorite shows.
There are many websites which promote “internet-tv” and many of them are either scams or have such a poor selection of channels it's not worth the cost. Recently, I arranged with a friend to install a Slingbox in his Illinois home. This black box is the answer for expats around the world who don't want to miss their favorite sporting events, Dukes of Hazard re-runs, or daily dose of Jeopardy.
I'll breakdown how my sling box is setup.
A friend of mine in Illinois connected my Slingbox to his coaxial television cable in his home. Then he connected his Internet ethernet cable to the Slingbox. I downloaded and installed the slingplayer software on my computer here in Uruguay and entered the slingbox ID and password for the box in Illinois. The slingbox in Illinois takes the tv signal and uploads it over the internet, which I then download as streaming video on my computer. I can control the slingbox in illinois via my computer to change the tv channel. So, for the first time in 6 years I won't have to miss any Bears games this Football season.
The only caveats are; the internet upload speed connected to the Slingbox needs to be 256k or higher and the download internet connection on the computer you are watching 'TV' on has to be 256k or higher. Aside from the cable tv costs(which my friend is paying for his own use anyways, his internet costs(which he pays anyways) and my internet costs(which are already being paid for) there are no additional costs. I should mention the quality on the computer isn't that great or the screen size that big, but for me it's good enough. Oh, and only one person may watch the streaming video from the slingbox at a time.
The SlingBox can also be connected to cableboxes or satellite receiver boxes and be controlled by the slingplayer software. However, in the same regards as if you connected two TVs to the cablebox, the channel on the cablebox would be the same on both TVs or in my case the same channel on the TV in Illinois and on my computer in Uruguay. Ideally, I would have a cablebox just for the slingbox so I could watch the non basic cable movie channels, digital music, etc., without affecting what my friend watches on his TV. But I'm fine with the direct coaxial cable which doesn't affect his viewing. Another neat thing is, say you are missing family video night at Aunt Hilda's, and who would want to miss those. Your nice relatives could connect the slingbox to the DVD or VHS player instead of the coax cable and you could watch vacation video footage on your computer in Uruguay of Uncle Mort doing his rendition of “Lady” in Branson Missouri or Aunt Hilda catching rays in her hot pink bikini at the Gulf Shores.
The link for slingbox is, www.slingbox.com It can be purchased for about 200.00 at bestbuy or other electronic stores. Major League Baseball TV(www.mlb.tv 80.00 year subscription) has also been great for watching White Sox games via streaming video but less important now that I have the slingbox.
5 Responses to “The World’s Longest Umbilical Cord”
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No competition to Sling box but still pretty interesting:TVU Networks offers a free P2P TV service:http://www.tvunetworks.com/Player Download (free)http://www.tvunetworks.com/downloads/index.htmLimited number of channels:CBN (Financial)ESPN (Asia)CCTV-5 (Sports)Cartoon NetworkCNN (Low Quality)ABCESPN (Sports)CSTVAnime 1OperaCNN1BloombergHBOHollywood (movies)MBC (high)Star TVand othersImage quality varies but overall it’s good. I was able to watch the World Cup in good quality without many interruptions in the signal (once per 15 minutes).
Left by Euclid on July 13th, 2006
What job prospects are there in Uruguay for for Americans? What kinds of opportunties do you see to earn either US dollars or Uruguayan pesos?Enjoy your website very much. Thank you!
Left by Hugo on July 17th, 2006
As Hamlet said, “theer’s the rub”.Many talent people leave Uruguay due to the lack of good jobs. That should NOT however, be interpreted as a lack of good opportunities–if you can search them out and seize them.Uruguay is, in my archaic opinion, over-educated. Since education is free through the doctoral level, everybody goes to school forever. On the one hand this produces a plethora of well educated people for the work force. But, on the other hand, it also produces a stultifying lack of innovation and entrepreneurship.One might be ablt to get a job based on ones English skills–teaching English or working for a large company with international business, but I am personally unaware of anyone who has done so.In my completely biased opinion, the best way to live here is to find a service or services you can render by phone and interenet in North America or Europe and get paid in US Dollars or Euros. Then live here inexpensively on prices based on pesos.If anyone has better ideas, I would love to know about them and will publish them gladly provided they are not some kind of multi-level promotion.
Left by The Southron on July 17th, 2006
Hi,I see that a lot of places for sale or rent advertise that they have cable TV. Are there any English language programmes (BBC News 24, BBC Prime etc) and do they show English football? Sounds mad but here in Spain where I live now they show anything up to 7 or 8 English games a week as well as matches from Brazil, Argentina, Portugal, Germany, France and Holland!). There’s not much I miss about the Uk but football is one of them.On a more serious note I think it’s easy to underestimate the importance of such things. For my first couple or three years life was pure adventure but as time passes you start to miss the odd things from “home”.
Left by Bill on August 28th, 2006
There are three main cable companies and one satelliteprovider(Direct TV). Many of the sitcoms and movies are in English with Spanish subtitles regardless of the provider. The option with the most English spoken is DirectTV. To see a listing of what they have available…Go to: http://www.directv.com.uy Click the “Productos y Servicios” Tab and the go to “Paquetes y Precios” followed by “Abono Basico” to see a listing of available channels on their basic package. Remember as I mention below some channels have Latin American Versions like TNT so the programming is different. The Latin American versions of Espn, EspnPlus, and Fox Sports are the main Sports Channels. Soccer/Futboldominates the programming and you can usually catch EPL, Seria A, and SpanishPrimera matches as well as UEFA Cup and the other tournaments. There are also 2local channels dedicated to sports. There’s almost always some sort of soccer on. Also, ESPN and FOX usually show sporting events that arenationally broadcast in the USA(i.e.Monday Night Football, the Superbowl, World Series, etc.)Note: Some sports leagues are now offering streaming video/radio for a yearly subscription such as mlb.com and NFL.com. I think more will be following suit.Hope that helps!
Left by Copperhead on August 29th, 2006