# English/American TV in Spain



## Guest

are there any choices to get non-dubed TV here? 

Apparently the actor/dubbing union is very strong here and everything is dubbed straight away. I did get to watch us/brit news in San Sebastian but then I just wanted to jump out the 3rd floor of the Maria Chirstina hotel window but didn't think it would kill me and that only Spanish speakers would ever know it happened.

In Medellin I have DirectTV but apparently because of the earths curvature they won't work here...this is one time the it would be nice if the world was flat....

My friend showed me the one English channel here but it turned out to be a uk'er teaching English...not monty python


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## Bfpijuan

We have telefonica and when in Valencia we had Ono. Also, with digital television a lot of the shows are televised in English.


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## brocher

Are there any set top boxes available which would give a few English speaking channels, like the UK Freeview and Freesat boxes, for a low one off payment?


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## Bfpijuan

I'm not familiar with these items. But, I believe there are on the coast. Have you tried researching through the English papers?


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## sat

TDT is Spanish Digital Terrestrial television.
It is the Spanish equivilent of the UK Freeview service.
You get around 30- 40 spanish channels.
There are no UK / USA channels on Spanish TV as we are in Spain!
However, many of the UK and USA imported shows are shown in both dubbed and original versions.

As longer as you have a TV aerial, pointng at the masts or repeaters, and either a TDT set top box, or a TV with a built in digital tuner, then you can get them.

See tdt1.com for the channels for an area.

ou cannot get direct TV here in spain, as th satellite that transmits it is focused on the american not europe. makes no difference if the earth was curved or flat..you are just not able to get the beam.


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## Pesky Wesky

sat said:


> TDT is Spanish Digital Terrestrial television.
> It is the Spanish equivilent of the UK Freeview service.
> You get around 30- 40 spanish channels.
> There are no UK / USA channels on Spanish TV as we are in Spain!
> However, many of the UK and USA imported shows are shown in both dubbed and original versions.
> 
> As longer as you have a TV aerial, pointng at the masts or repeaters, and either a TDT set top box, or a TV with a built in digital tuner, then you can get them.
> 
> See tdt1.com for the channels for an area.
> 
> ou cannot get direct TV here in spain, as th satellite that transmits it is focused on the american not europe. makes no difference if the earth was curved or flat..you are just not able to get the beam.


Just as sat says, on the ordinary tv channels TVE1/ TVE2/ Cuatro etc, many of the seriels, documentaries, films are available in the original version, which is usually English. Just press the audio button on your remote control.


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## Joppa

Try US-based VPN (Virtual Private Network) provider that enables you to watch US TV programs online. 
http://www.anchorfree.com/hotspot-shield/ has been recommended.


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## Alcalaina

If you have Spanish TDT you can subscribe to English-language news channels via Digital Plus.

Informativos - plus.es

To remove the Spanish dubbing from English-language drama series and movies, if you don't have an audio button on your remote you can go into the set-up menu and change the language setting. You can watch all sorts of things in English on Spanish TV - House, Downton Abbey, Desperate Housewives, endless cop shows, even the Simpsons!


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## 90199

Try this
Watch UK TV Abroad


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## Alcalaina

Hepa said:


> Try this
> Watch UK TV Abroad


That's just another VPN-based service (pretending you are in another country by hiding your real IP address) with all the security and other issues that Expat Shield etc have.

Do you use it?


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## sat

Alcalaina said:


> If you have Spanish TDT you can subscribe to English-language news channels via Digital Plus.


TDT and D+ are two seperate systems.

TDT is terrestrial via a TV aerial
D+ is via satellite

You cannot get D+ on TDT - although there are some encrypted channels on TDT also - GOL, AXN, Canal+Dos - but most (not all) TDT channels are on D+.

CNN, Euronews, Sky News, BBC World News are pretty much free to air on most satellite, so no further subscription is required. Only the "so called fair and balance !!!!) Fox News tends to be subscription on pay tv packages.


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## 90199

Alcalaina said:


> That's just another VPN-based service (pretending you are in another country by hiding your real IP address) with all the security and other issues that Expat Shield etc have.
> 
> Do you use it?


No I don't use that one, thought about it though. I use Movistar Imagenio

I can get CNN and BBC news, several other channels like National Geographic and Discovery, plus umpteen films in English.

We cannot receive English T.V. by satellite, too far away. I never watched Soaps, so not being able to receive ITV or the others doesn't really bother me, we have a nice bar within walking distance

Hepa


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## Alcalaina

sat said:


> TDT and D+ are two seperate systems.
> 
> TDT is terrestrial via a TV aerial
> D+ is via satellite
> 
> You cannot get D+ on TDT - although there are some encrypted channels on TDT also - GOL, AXN, Canal+Dos - but most (not all) TDT channels are on D+.
> 
> CNN, Euronews, Sky News, BBC World News are pretty much free to air on most satellite, so no further subscription is required. Only the "so called fair and balance !!!!) Fox News tends to be subscription on pay tv packages.


Oh right - so if I only have a regular TDT aerial at the moment, would I need a dish to get D+? Or a different sort of aerial?

I'm glad you're here Sat, at least someone knows what they're talking about!


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## sat

Alcalaina said:


> Oh right - so if I only have a regular TDT aerial at the moment, would I need a dish to get D+? Or a different sort of aerial?


TDT carries free to air and some pay channel via a TV aerial.

D+ is the satellite tv service, that requries a satellite dish , a D+ receiver, and D+ subscription.



Alcalaina said:


> I'm glad you're here Sat, at least someone knows what they're talking about!


Well some of the time anyway!


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## thrax

We recently bought a Sky dish and a new flat screen tv etc. There was already a Televes sat dish which receives mostly German TV (100s of them) and a terrestrial antenna which received Spanish TV. Since we got the new TV I decided to plug the antenna into the back of it so we could watch tennis. Now for the weird bit. We receive, via the antenna and definitely not the dish since that is no longer connected, TVE HD plus three other HD channels and about 35 other channels which say SD (I assume standard definition) all of them on this system say they are digital channels which I didn't think you could receive via an antenna. And it is definitely high definition - the picture is stunning. And the even weirder bit is that Clan and the Disney Channel which on the old system were in Spanish are now in English (we have a one yr old who is allowed to watch a few bits of TV at selected times so it isn't us watching Disney, honest). We have even seen some old Colombo episodes and some US films in English on two of the channels plus a load of documentary programs on another also in English. Our Spanish neighbour is very puzzled by this since he has the same antenna but can't get the channels we get. So I think that is all very odd and even worse, all this happened without recourse to whisky.


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## sat

Your TV has a built in TDT HD receiver...so plugging the aerial into the TV will get your the TDT channel - about 40plus of them...with a few (TVEHD< Sexta HD, Conco HD) in HD.

TDT - Televison Digital Terrestrial - the terrestrial bit meaning via a TV aerial.
Its been available for at least 5 years.
And its well ahead of UK TV, as they are still going to be switching off analogue to digital until next year! In Spain analogue swicth off was last Easter!

If your neighbour has a TDT receiver then he should get the same SD channels you get.
If he has a HD TDT receiver, or a HDTV, then he will all the chanels you get.
Assuming the cabling is OK, and there are no splitters affecting the signal.

HDTV and HD Ready TVs are not the same. HD Ready TVs mean they MUSThave a seperate set top box to provide the HD source...a HD TV has the HD TDT tuner built in.

The quality of TVEHD is absolutely stunning, beating BBCHD hands down!

Clan and Disney are digital channels and were not on anaglogue. You have always been able to cahnge the language on them, and other most channels, that show UK / USA imported programmes, usually via a button on the remote marked "audio".

see tdt1.com for a list of frequencies for TDT channels in your area.


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## MacRov

Anyone here used or heard of Teleast ? are they any good, been recommended to us to use when we come over but don't know anything about them. Moving to San javier (Costa Calida) area if anyone knows of any other tv companies to look at.

John


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## brocher

Well, I'm not great on technology - takes me all my time to retune a TV here in UK - so here's hoping that just pressing the audio button will work!

If not, I have saved all this info for future reference - thanks all!


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## iseeshesaid

*Thanks everyone*

I was wondering the same thing and this is pretty useful information. While it's nice to improve my Spanish I just can't get over the dubbed voices on some of these shows. I can only take so much!


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## Guest

iseeshesaid said:


> I was wondering the same thing and this is pretty useful information. While it's nice to improve my Spanish I just can't get over the dubbed voices on some of these shows. I can only take so much!


What's even more difficult for us Spanish challenged is that the English is not removed but turned down with the Spanish overlaying it...this makes for understanding (for me anyway) wt hell they are saying as my ear is trying to pick up the English.


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## Ettylou

Hi, I use one of the VPN jobies and get to watch all UK channels (BBC & ITV live) the rest using iplayer works well here in the Czech Republic and I plan on using it when I return to Spain too. My mum & dad in law use a big dish & sat box (which is what we did too when we lived there) & they get all the normal UK channels and more. They are in the Valencia region x


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## tradujur

I grew tired trying to watch series and films in original languages, so I try watching them from the websites of their corresponding broadcasting companies. Have you tried that? If you have a problem with your IP being from Spain, you can use a proxy.


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## buble

I live in Torrelodones near Madrid and have problems with sat.tv. as we have quite a few thunderstorms. I saw **************reply on the thread english tv 26th April and thought I would give it a try. I have been watching english tv for 7 days now WOW fantastic. I havn't tried bbciplayer or itv player yet as I want to make sure that it continues to work without any trouble. I will post again in a weeks time to let you know if it still works OK. 
ps why was the thread closed it was just getting interesting?


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## buble

buble said:


> I live in Torrelodones near Madrid and have problems with sat.tv. as we have quite a few thunderstorms. I saw***************reply on the thread english tv 26th April and thought I would give it a try. I have been watching english tv for 7 days now WOW fantastic. I havn't tried bbciplayer or itv player yet as I want to make sure that it continues to work without any trouble. I will post again in a weeks time to let you know if it still works OK.
> ps why was the thread closed it was just getting interesting?


I forgot to mention that anyone using **** on their tv sets will need to resize the screen. It took me some time to work this out but it is simples Tchh. Move the cursor to the top lefthand of the screen, click on view then click on preferances and change the numbers to 5.4, this will give you a full size screen.


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## xabiaxica

buble said:


> I forgot to mention that anyone using ***** on their tv sets will need to resize the screen. It took me some time to work this out but it is simples Tchh. Move the cursor to the top lefthand of the screen, click on view then click on preferances and change the numbers to 5.4, this will give you a full size screen.


ask away here, or start a new thread


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## jojo

buble said:


> ps why was the thread closed it was just getting interesting?


Because it was being turned into an advertising fest by some chap trying to promote tv or summat, which isnt allowed on the forum

Jo


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## DavidO

Have you looked into Internet TV? I don't mean those gimmicks that offer every channel in the world but big broadcasters like the BBC that offer almost their entire lineup via Internet. Most programs are available the following day after their scheduled broadcast but the BBC also offers a lot of popular shows live.

We use BBC IPlayer, ITV Player, and 4 on Demand. These all have their own websites. All the other major programs including those in other countries like the USA offer their own versions.

We started using this method after refusing to pay extortionate fees for the local cable network and getting cut off. It's been about 6 months now and we really enjoy it. 

Of course you need a computer and a fast broadband connection. It's also more enjoyable if you have a nice display monitor. But with modern TVs you can plug your computer right in.

You also have to connect using a "proxy" service connected to a server in the country of broadcast. We use a paid service that costs just $20 a year. Works great!


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## Alcalaina

DavidO said:


> Have you looked into Internet TV? I don't mean those gimmicks that offer every channel in the world but big broadcasters like the BBC that offer almost their entire lineup via Internet. Most programs are available the following day after their scheduled broadcast but the BBC also offers a lot of popular shows live.
> 
> We use BBC IPlayer, ITV Player, and 4 on Demand. These all have their own websites. All the other major programs including those in other countries like the USA offer their own versions.
> 
> We started using this method after refusing to pay extortionate fees for the local cable network and getting cut off. It's been about 6 months now and we really enjoy it.
> 
> Of course you need a computer and a fast broadband connection. It's also more enjoyable if you have a nice display monitor. But with modern TVs you can plug your computer right in.
> 
> You also have to connect using a "proxy" service connected to a server in the country of broadcast. We use a paid service that costs just $20 a year. Works great!


Yes, that's what the chap who got banned was saying. We've now gone round in a circle!


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## jojo

Alcalaina said:


> Yes, that's what the chap who got banned was saying. We've now gone round in a circle!


There is nothing wrong with recommending a service that you use and find works for you! We all do it from time to time about many things on here when the question is being asked. 

Digging up old posts or starting new ones with only one intention is something else

Jo xxx


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## xabiaxica

Alcalaina said:


> Yes, that's what the chap who got banned was saying. We've now gone round in a circle!


the difference was that he had joined purely to plug/advertise certain companies

which as you all know is against the rules.....


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## xabiaxica

jojo said:


> There is nothing wrong with recommending a service that you use and find works for you! We all do it from time to time about many things on here when the question is being asked.
> 
> Digging up old posts or starting new ones with only one intention is something else
> 
> Jo xxx


oh god I've done it again


note to self - don't half look at the forum when you are teaching


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## DavidO

I didn't realize I may have been treading on the rules by recommending services. Thank goodness I didn't name the proxy service I use!

I should point out that I have no financial interest nor any other benefits from the services I mentioned. Plugging something for commercial or self-interest is what is commonly meant by spam.


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## xabiaxica

DavidO said:


> I didn't realize I may have been treading on the rules by recommending services. Thank goodness I didn't name the proxy service I use!
> 
> I should point out that I have no financial interest nor any other benefits from the services I mentioned. Plugging something for commercial or self-interest is what is commonly meant by spam.


_
you_ didn't break any rules

recommendations from established members are encouraged


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## rjnpenang

Hi Everybody, I have been sent this link, a free service to watch the BBC I player, don' t know if it works but worth a try if it's free!. I have no commercial interest in this, Regards Rob
http://www.watch-bbc-iplayer.com/


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## mrypg9

What are the 'issues' with ExpatShield?


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## Alcalaina

ExpatShield like all free proxy servers have security risks. This information was provided by a friend who works in internet security. A bit long but it covers all the issues:

*
Free proxies are almost universally hacked*
A proxy server works by maintaining a list of IPs of people logged on to it through its publicly known IP address. Your actual address is known to the server. You set the proxy details in your browser so that when you access a website, you are really accessing the proxy first. It then makes the connection for you like a telephone exchange.

If the proxy server is free, then no-one is making available money to maintain it. It could be a group of kids experimenting, or it could be someone harvesting details of the traffic. If you access websites through the proxy and log in, or provide any passwords or secure data, it flows through the proxy and can be recorded.

People like the BBC go after free proxy companies so they are often shut down or moved. Sometimes, the police go after them because they are run by people harvesting identities.

*Proxies might be two-way connections*
Once the connection to the proxy is made, you are not sure whether the link is one- or two-way. It will definitely open a port on your computer and whereas these would normally be security controlled, you will have removed that security by allowing the proxy to access your machine.

If that is the case, then potentially a hacker of the proxy server (and almost all free servers are hacked) can access your machine through that open port. A hacker would establish a connection with the proxy server overriding any security on the server, and then they have free access to anything on the connected machines.

Free proxies disappear regularly. If they were harvesting data, that data is gone and there is no trace left of the culprits.

Once in your machine, they are undetectable - a virus checker would not see them. But they could still install software to harvest your passwords and login details, copy your documents, etc. You will have given them permission to do so, and the virus checker would respect that.

In addition, if the traffic between your machine and the server is not encrypted, then passwords and identities are transferred in plain text which means they can easily be captured. Once on the proxy server, you have no idea of the security level of the other machines in use.

*Paid-for proxies*
These make charges to cover the cost of maintaining security. They are likely to be reliably present and will contract to protect your data. They will often provide software which preserves your machine security. But far more of these services actually sell a service as if they were secure but simply harvest other available free proxies and channel your traffic through those. You pay them, and they then risk your data. It looks like you are buying a secure service but they themselves are using free servers to make more money.

Others actually do the business properly and sell access to a secure network of servers using a VPN technology - Virtual Private Network - which maintains a network level security protocol. It's as secure as if you were accessing a work network. These are the only proxy services worth considering.

*What is needed for real security?*
First you need a piece of software that runs fast on your own machine which will encrypt the stream of communication between you and your proxy service. Without this, you will never have security no matter what anyone says. It needs to ensure that not only is your identity hidden, but the traffic as well.

You need to know the proxy security is such that traffic logs, login details, etc, are deleted regularly. This is so that even if the server is hacked, there is no history to be had.

Thirdly, the service has to be provided by a global network of dedicated, secure servers which maintain interlinked security. A chain is only as strong as the weakest link, and that means the weakest server security. Informal or transient networks are therefore effectively open. Properly secure proxy server networks have machines checking each other's security.

*Identity Cloaker*
This is the only one that seems to meet all the security requirements at the moment and so is banned by some governments because they can't then hack citizen communications. It costs around $10 per month. No doubt there are others getting close but it is the clear front-runner.


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## phil carr

*Sky TV Availability*



brocher said:


> Are there any set top boxes available which would give a few English speaking channels, like the UK Freeview and Freesat boxes, for a low one off payment?


Depending on your location, you can get Sky tv, however, installation can be quite expensive, and you will need a UK address to open the account, also you can lose coverage in the early evening as the satellite moves. Google sky installers for your area.

P.S. If sky discover that you are outside the UK, they will close your account, but if you dont tell them, all is fine.


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## Pat Lleida

There are lots of free to air channels on the Astra satellite at 28.2E. This is the one Sky uses, but here is no need to have Sky if you only want the Beeb, ITV, C4 etc. You can buy kits with a 80cm dish in any DIY shop for about 100€, or failing that any shop that specialises in dishes or electronics. 
Fitting the dish is a doddle if you have line of site towards the southern horizon. Where you have to point it varies depending where you are. 

A good site to check for line of sight is Satellite Finder / Dish Pointing Calculator with Google Maps | DishPointer.com

You put in your location and the satellite you want from the dropdown Astra 28.2 and it shows you where you should be pointing. 
Also there is an input for obstacles such as trees or buildings.

Anyone who needs any info feel free to PM me, I have put a dish up in every flat I have lived in since I got here.


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