TV4Expats: Dutch TV for overseas
Recently a story by Tino Kuis appeared about Thai television. A good article, but my mind wandered a bit while reading it, because I never watch television since I live in Thailand.
My eye fell on a TV4Expats banner, which advertised the possibility to follow Dutch television on a daily basis. I'm not going to tell you exactly how that works, just take a look at the extensive website tv4expats.nl
We have had more of these kinds of offers in recent years, but all of them have failed miserably. However, TV4Expats offers a free trial account, with which you can check for a few days whether this provider succeeds in conjuring up all Dutch television programs (and more) on my PC or even on the television set.
I have applied for the test account because I am not so keen on Dutch television in general, but would like to be able to follow Dutch football and other sporting events directly.
After a few days I was assigned a trial account, neat and tidy with extensive and clear instructions for use. I immediately got to work, followed all instructions correctly, nothing wrong. Until the very end, because then I first got the message “Connecting with test account5” and then (retried several times.) the message that the connection could not be established.
I then sent an E-mail to TV4Expats stating that it had not worked and what I could possibly do about it. To be fair, it said that the website clearly stated that the min. download capacity should be 4 Mbs and that I only have max. 3 Mbs. I am working on increasing the capacity of my computer, but that aside.
I immediately received an email back:
“Thank you very much for your email and it's a pity that it hasn't worked yet.
Watching TV is not a problem in Bangkok, but it seems to be less good at the moment from Pattaya or Phuket. So this depends on location and also depends on the ISP, what kind of infrastructure there is, and how it is used. This can even vary per “neighborhood” within a city. For example, we also have a customer on Koh Chang who watches TV every day without any problems. You would say that both Phuket and Pattaya should definitely work.
Even a 4mb (or more) connection is not always a guarantee. It may happen that there is not enough bandwidth available further down the network and then it will not work.
In any case, many thanks for the effort and if you want to test even more, we can also try, for example, whether it works with a VPN. This is because “traffic shaping” is being done in some networks. The information is given different priorities. Some ISPs forbid video streaming and peer-to-peer networking in this way because it uses a lot of bandwidth.”
I will now first wait until the capacity of my computer has been increased (to 15 Mbs) and I may request that test account again.
Is there anyone among the blog readers who has experience with TV4Expats? I would greatly appreciate a response.
Hi Gringo,
I myself have no experience with the TV4Expats you mentioned, but maybe you can benefit from my experience with another provider?
I have been using the provider of the Dutch transmitter park that works in Thailand for a number of months, which you can find here http://www.ntvchannel.com/:.
You have the choice of 2 programmings with both 8 channels exclusively Dutch channels, which broadcast live and live, or last night's programming in the Netherlands between 17 and 2 pm local time.
In general I have no complaints about the quality and I believe that 3 Mbps is enough to get an acceptable picture?
I also mainly watch the sports games, although I must say that a good film is not to be sneezed at sometimes.
I just read that you can recently order a box that you can connect directly to your TV and to your router with cable or via WiFi, so that you no longer need a PC or something to watch. Even a remote control is included.
I hope my input is of some use to you?
Hi Andre.
Went to connect that box yesterday from TOT, I have not yet delved into it myself.
But my neighbor works for TOT who can just skype over his television.
Come have a BBQ with me tonight so I hope to know more about this cabinet.
Keep you posted.
Greetings Harry.
Hi Harry,
I meant the box of NTV Channel itself and not of TOT
According to the site already mentioned, you can buy this and connect it directly to your TV so that you no longer need a PC to receive the 8 Dutch channels.
no not with tvexpats but experience with ntv.com. they pass nl 1 2 and 3 and rtl 4 5 7 and sbs 6 and veronica.
this for 699 baht per month. works fine in chiang mai
it can be cheaper if you pay in advance per 3 months or 6 months or a whole year, but for me the option of 699 baht is fine. I can decide in a month whether I want to continue.
image is good, even and sometimes some disturbances but not much.
I am very curious if it will work, because next week I will get fiber optic cable from 3BB with 30 Mb download and 3 Mb upload, costs about 1200 baht per month….
This is not possible at all with fiber optic cable. They then hang it between the rest of the spaghetti cables on your house. No one would believe that. I have 12 MB and that is already a lot. So I can follow the streams well, but let 30 MB come first. demonstrate before they hurt you financially.
Jan, that German acquaintance I mentioned earlier, also has a fiber optic connection and he shares it with a few neighbors. He is very satisfied with it. He lives in the middle of Hua Hin.
Good luck, but I doubt whether that speed will be achieved.
Those speeds will only be achieved if the entire route is equipped with fiber optic and it is installed according to the rules of the art. (including bends within the limit, etc)
Compare it with a highway. You can create 6 or more lanes, but if there are a few bridges in between with only 2 lanes, this will of course affect the flow over the entire route.
They may mean that the cable is provided to reach those speeds, but that does not mean that you will get them (now).
I would say keep us informed. Maybe they will surprise you and us.
A German acquaintance of mine installs GlobalHDTV in people's homes. This program works great even on a slow connection. From 6 mbps you have HDTV and up to that speed you can do it with less quality. However, most channels are in German and about 14 in English. Costs with an annual subscription 9900 Baht for the whole year. For that you also get Skype sports and a number of channels for free, for which you have to pay at least fifty euros per month in Germany.
I have a trial version of this program myself and it works really well. If I wanted to watch TV, I would have taken out a subscription and it is certainly worth it for people who like to watch sports.
But I don't want to advertise here. It is mainly a German enterprise.
I also have a box from TOT: TOTiptv. It is a box that runs on Android with a number of apps and it automatically starts with the TOT program. Almost all Thai channels can be received and you still have paid channels. That is, you can watch newer movies for a fee, but you can also watch slightly older movies in (mostly) English with Thai subtitles for free. This box costs TOT 100 Baht per month with an internet subscription. We have a connection via TOT-Wi with about 6mbps.
Yes and with that box you can Skype, read your emails, use the internet and so on. You can download and install Apps to a limited extent, but you can also install apps from a memory card. There are two USB inputs and an SD input on the box. I already have an external keyboard and wireless mouse connected to it. Works fine. But you can also work with just the remote control. Keyboard is useful for writing something faster. The box has an HDMI output, which you can then connect to your TV or monitor. It has W-Lan and LAN…
Oh and you can also watch Youtube movies. Or you can play a movie that you have copied onto an SD card via this box. In HD quality!
Sjaak, this story is about Dutch television. I hardly watch television, but the Dyutse TV can really be stolen from me.
Gringo, I wanted to indicate with my story that there is technically no obstacle to watching TV via a reasonable internet connection. The German provider is an excellent example of this.
Besides, I was also talking about TOT.
I have also requested a trial subscription from the Dutch supplier.
I want to let you know that you can also watch Dutch Free to air TV on http://www.wwitv.com.
and the other site with 7000 TV channels is http://www.delicast.com.
I often watched these Internet channels in Chang Rai and that on the wifi of the hotel.
take a minute off the computer and I'm sure one of these sites will show up
Sincerely
Technical Bureau J.Zoet&ZN