# British Television



## Pead01

Hi

Can anyone in Portugal give us some advice on how to go about getting British TV Channels in Portugal? My partner loves soaps such as Eastenders and Emmerdale and we like BBC programmes. I know that there has been a problem with satellites being changed but do not know if an answer to this has been found by those living in Portugal. I have looked at Portuguese TV providers but often the British programmes are limited to news and sport. I have been told that British TV can be accessed through the internet using a smart TV but that this is a grey area legally and that the BBC actively blocks online services of this nature. Also I know that iPlayer is now dependent on having a british tv licence.

So, any experience anyone can give would be most welcome.

Many thanks
John


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## travelling-man

BBC Iplayer is on it's way out and you need an IP shield to watch any of the I players but there are several other online options that don't require satellite dishes or decoders etc....... all you need is a decent internet commection: 

Most popular options are: 

filmon.vom or viewabroad.com which give you all the Brit channels onto your computer or android device which you can then put onto your TV via wifi or cable if you wish. 

kodi.com which give you everything you could possibly want from newest movies to old soaps and it's all on demand....... internet searches on this & the next option vary..... some will tell you it's legal & others not but both options have been running for a significant period & to the best of my knowledge there has been no prosecutions........ both websites say they're legal & both are completely free. 

The other one is mobdro.com for android and that gives you endless scheduled programming including sky. 

There are several companies offering decoders either for a one off fee or regular payments but they only offer what you can get for free elsewhere and to me, they're not far short of a scam.


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## Maggy Crawford

We are not technical minded and have a 2.3 m dish and freesat and it works perfectly. We have access to all UK programmes plus several hundred others, most of which are garbage. I don't know where you are but if you are near Figueiró dos Vinhos we can recommend our installer from whom we purchased it. Maybe not the cheapest option but it works for us and is a one off payment.


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## Pead01

Hi Maggy,

Thank you for your reply. It is very interesting what you say about Freesat as Freesat said to me that it was not available outside the UK. We have a TV which is set up for Freesat so being able to use it would be a very welcome solution to our problem.

We have not yet made the move to Portugal but are trying to sort out answers to common problems before we move by asking those in the know. We will probably move to the Sesimbra/Setubal area which is quite a bit south of you. However if you could give us the name of your installer's company they might have someone in our prospective area? Did they install the dish for you and was there a particular satellite they had to align it too?
many thanks
John


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## Pead01

HI Travelling Man,

Thank you for your reply. I will look into the options you have highlighted. It is intersting that Maggy can get Freesat as this would be a wonderful solution for us. In any case thank you as all this information will help with our move to Portugal.
cheers
John


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## Maggy Crawford

Don't ask me about the technical stuff!! Tony is an independent installer, ex PT. He sold us the dish, brought it over and installed it and only left after making sure we had optimum reception. The Freesat box we bought from an Englishman who had brought it over with him. My sister has a Humax HDR 1100-S 500 GB Freesat which works brilliantly, available from Amazon and they had it shipped to them here. We are thinking of replacing our box with a Humax.


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## brodev

BBC does not want people outside of UK to receive their signals and actively try to stop people from receiving them. As a result what works today may not work tomorrow. Bearing that in mind an outlay of hundreds of pounds/euros may not be worthwhile. Personally I have a dish pointed at 27.5W and I have a (dodgy) box that decodes the signals and I get the following programs
TV
BBC One
BBC Two
CBBC
BBC Three
CBeebies UK
BBC Four
NEW! Channel 5 HD (VPID 6401)
BBC News
BBC Parliament
BBC Red Button 1
BBC One Wales
BBC One Scotland
BBC One Northern Ireland
ITV London
Channel 4 UK
RADIO
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 5
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra
BBC 6 Music
BBC Radio 4 Extra
BBC 1Xtra
BBC Asian Network
BBC World Service UK
Total cost €300 including installation but I have no idea how long it will last.
As an aside Freesat will not work in Algarve unless you have a dish like Jodrell Bank


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## Pead01

Maggy Crawford said:


> Don't ask me about the technical stuff!! Tony is an independent installer, ex PT. He sold us the dish, brought it over and installed it and only left after making sure we had optimum reception. The Freesat box we bought from an Englishman who had brought it over with him. My sister has a Humax HDR 1100-S 500 GB Freesat which works brilliantly, available from Amazon and they had it shipped to them here. We are thinking of replacing our box with a Humax.


Hi Maggy,

Interesting. It was good of your installer to come out from England to install your equipment. We have a Bluray recorder which has Freesat built in so probably would not require a Humax. Your dish is quite big. We might have to go down the same route as you.
thanks
John


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## Maggy Crawford

Tony did not come out from England. Ex PT means he used to work for Portuguese Telecom before it became MEO. He lives about 20 km away.


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## Pead01

Many thanks for the clarification Maggy.


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## MrBife

IPTV (Internet Protocol TeleVision) Via the Internet is the only way to go - it depends on having a reasonable speed (megabits per second or mbps - anything over about 5 is good) and an uncapped volume of data per month (gigabytes per month as some services cut after a preset limit). Satellite TV distribution is becoming ever more specific and the newer generations of satellites have their spot beams focused on one intended country.

The larger size satellite dishes can be re purposed as a part of a solar boiler for a stirling engine but are increasingly less useful. 

These is quite a good explanation but there are plenty of others if you search ..

IPTV - A simple explanation of Web TV (Internet television)

If you look at Ebay and search for IPTV then you will see a big choice of 'receiver box' ideas. A good option for now would be the MAG254 which you can research specifically and will do everything you want + be future proof so far as is possible these days. The only essential is a good internet service.


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## advolex

*IPTV reception*

Yes, IPTV might well be the way to go for your specific needs. In northern Portugal I use satellite (Astra) for news, mainly in German, cable (NOS) for Portuguese and English news and occasional shows and finally IPTV for news and films in Swedish.

The problem with IPTV was geolocation locking, which affects BBC iPlayer as well. For the Swedish programming you have to receive the IP broadcast from an IP address beleived to be in Sweden. This must be circumvented when you're in Portugal, and the circumvention as such is not illegal for the consumer in most countries. It might be prohibited by your IP provider, though and they might restrict your reception. Mine didn't and doesn't. At first, for IPTV I used a cheap Chinese redistributor I found on Alibaba (there are - for sure - 100:s of them), and found it to be somewhat useful, with occasional stuttering and disconnections. So I didn't prolong the service. Instead I looked at DNS spoofing services, to adress the geolocking at the source, without having to rely on Chinese expats in Sweden, maintaining their reception signal quality and rebroadcasting the signal.

For six months now I'm happy using unlocator.com, which has an address in Copenhagen, Denmark, a company to which I'm not in any way affiliated. They claim to support the BBC iPlayer and provide a rather impressive list of channels you can watch all over the globe. It has a generous trial policy and might well fit your bill. https://unlocator.com/channel/bbc-iplayer/


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## advolex

*Not so happy now*



advolex said:


> ... Instead I looked at DNS spoofing services, to adress the geolocking at the source, without having to rely on Chinese expats in Sweden, maintaining their reception signal quality and rebroadcasting the signal.
> 
> For six months now I'm happy using unlocator.com, which has an address in Copenhagen, Denmark, a company to which I'm not in any way affiliated. They claim to support the BBC iPlayer and provide a rather impressive list of channels you can watch all over the globe. It has a generous trial policy and might well fit your bill. https://unlocator.com/channel/bbc-iplayer/


I'm back at square one now, and will not extend my one year term with Unlocator.com . Even considering the remaining time on my term, I will be using good old and solid VPN for the occasional Sweden reception from now on. Unlocator ("Smart DNS") did not eventually deliver what worked and was promised a year ago, and no fix was within reach. I never tried the British channels, however, so I can't tell if they work.:amen:


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## JohnBoy

advolex said:


> I'm back at square one now, and will not extend my one year term with Unlocator.com . Even considering the remaining time on my term, I will be using good old and solid VPN for the occasional Sweden reception from now on. Unlocator ("Smart DNS") did not eventually deliver what worked and was promised a year ago, and no fix was within reach. I never tried the British channels, however, so I can't tell if they work.:amen:


I have been using Tunnel Bear for some time and it works well. You can have a free version with 500 Mb data per month. Alternatively, the unlimited data plan is only $59.88 p.a. and Sweden is amongst the countries that you can connect to.


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## advolex

*VPN providers*



JohnBoy said:


> I have been using Tunnel Bear for some time and it works well. You can have a free version with 500 Mb data per month. Alternatively, the unlimited data plan is only $59.88 p.a. and Sweden is amongst the countries that you can connect to.


Thanks, JohnBoy, I will check it out. I will need more than 500Mb per month though. It looks more like 10 - 15 minutes in HD. But for trying out I think it might suffice to get an impression of the throughput. I know there are free alternatives (Hola etc) but there is a price for everything so you're paying one way or the other. A bit like the EU, you could say. No. That's unfair. It was the media. And the crooked politicians.:canada:


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## JohnBoy

advolex said:


> Thanks, JohnBoy, I will check it out. I will need more than 500Mb per month though. It looks more like 10 - 15 minutes in HD. But for trying out I think it might suffice to get an impression of the throughput. I know there are free alternatives (Hola etc) but there is a price for everything so you're paying one way or the other. A bit like the EU, you could say. No. That's unfair. It was the media. And the crooked politicians.:canada:


You're correct; 500Mb would not be enough. They usually offer a 7-day free trial of the unlimited plan, so that might be worth looking at. I have used it via the UK, US, Australia, Germany and France successfully to date.


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## baldilocks

Provided you can get a reasonable download speed on your internet (5Mb or more) you don't need any IPTV or anything else just go to https://www.firstonetv.eu/Live and select watch now - stacks of country's television to watch - free.


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## dstump

I know that the topic of getting UK TV has many column inches in these forums. I'd just like to add a couple more column inches on the subject by sharing a little bit of personal experience of setting up access to UK TV.

First off was to understand what I actually wanted:


Internet connectivity, no dish
Ability to watch live streaming TV from the major channels - BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. 
Ability to watch catch up TV from the same providers
Ability to pick up sports channels: Sky and BT
Ability to watch movies

I successfully managed to set everything up with an Android set top box I bought off of Amazon for around £40. I loaded all of the apps, plus set up a Smart DNS and it all worked reasonably well. Only trouble was I had about five remotes laying around the living room. I wasn't able to watch All4 or My5 on the Android box, so had to flip to the Smart TV option. Then the pesky MEO guys started to randomly changing the IP address which throws Smart DNS into meltdown. 

Back to the drawing board. ANSWER - Amazon Fire TV or in my case the Fire Stick

The solution was so quick and simple. 

1. Create an Amazon account online. 
2. Buy latest Amazon Fire TV/Stick (£39.99) *** I suggest waiting a couple of weeks for Black Friday (24th November 2017) and I'm sure Amazon will be offering them a knock down prices.***
3. This is the tricky bit because Amazon will not deliver outside of the UK, so somehow get it from UK to here.
4. Once you have received the Fire TV/Stick steps 5 and 6 will take all of 10 minutes to set up, and then you can start watching your TV favs, either live or catch up with the bonus of a single remote controller. 
5. Once you have it here: 

plug it into the back of the TV - HDMI connection, 
set up the Wi-Fi connection,
log in using your Amazon account,
if necessary go to the Amazon Appstore and download: iPlayer, ITV Hub, All4, My5, TV Player,
6. To start watching the programs you will need to install either VPN or a Smart DNS. Here are a couple of URLS on the best VPNs for Amazon Fire TV/Stick and how to install. One benefit of having the VPN on the Fire TV/Stick is you can take the device with you when you go travelling and watch TV anywhere.
https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/install-vpn-amazon-fire-tv-stick/
https://restoreprivacy.com/vpn-fire-stick/
*Note: if you already have a VPN running on your router there is no need to install on the Fire TV/Stick*.
As for the more technically savvy amongst you, the Smart DNS option has numerous providers, (good old Google search will find them) ensure you use their IP auto update app, to beat MEO's insistence on changing the IP address daily. Setting up an additional Dynamic DNS is also an option. 

Anyhow I know there are many other ways of watching TV and this isn't a post to start a debate on the various merits of each, but I thought I'd share this with you, it's working for me.


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## RichardHenshall

To add to the above, for those that need it but might not realise, Meo offer their own free DynIP service which is accessible through their Área Cliente, which provides a hostname of the form _yourname_.dynip.sapo.pt that resolves to your regularly changed IP address.


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## JohnBoy

Thanks for that dstump. Just in time as I'm on my way into London and one item on my shopping list was a fix for that very problem. I was considering Google Chromecast but will look at the Firestick too now.


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## advolex

*DynDNS and similar services*



RichardHenshall said:


> To add to the above, for those that need it but might not realise, Meo offer their own free DynIP service which is accessible through their Área Cliente, which provides a hostname of the form _yourname_.dynip.sapo.pt that resolves to your regularly changed IP address.


Years ago I used DynDNS for getting an unique auto-updated URL (like superhero.advolex.com) for my everchanging dynamic IP addresses, which every Internet Provider seems to take pride in. The idea was to setup my own PBX, using a SIP server (asterisk). As SIP federation depends on DNS for you to get any phone calls, this was absolutely necessary. And static IP addresses are expensive and prune to hacking and DDOS attacks. It was my understanding that you only need private DNS services if you're running servers, which I now don't.

So dynamic IPv4 works fine for IPTV with smart-DNS if you don't mind updating your smart-DNS occasionally, but NOS is not switching gateways that often. And they don't require me to use their DNS servers, which would make smart-DNS impossible, like MEO did when I was with them a couple of years ago. The fact that MEO was hijacking my DNS resolution requests was the main reason for my switch to NOS (Cable Portugal, cabo.pt). Now I can safeguard my DNS requests by encrypting them (DNSCrypt). And my bandwidth is not impaired.


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## advolex

*Chromecast*



JohnBoy said:


> Thanks for that dstump. Just in time as I'm on my way into London and one item on my shopping list was a fix for that very problem. I was considering Google Chromecast but will look at the Firestick too now.


I have several of those little boxes, including the Chromecast. This was by far the easiest to setup, but it comes with a downside. It's so easy to setup so before you know it it has upgraded itself so you cannot root it anymore. Without root you cannot change the DNS server addresses, from Google's own - 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 are hardcoded - to your Smart DNS provider's, so goodbye watching geolocked shows. - I managed to trick the chromecast to accept non-Google DNS resolution, but it was an ongoing battle. Basically you need to get and setup and maintain a OpenWRT (or derivative thereof) router. I gave up eventually, only to discover that if you download the shows to watch later, no Smart-DNS is required (unless encryption is used, the Swedish broadcasters don't employ encryption with their geolocking schemes).

So get this Amazon Firestick thingy if you want to watch geolocked shows in real time. :frusty:


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## advolex

*Not shipping to PT? WTF!*



dstump said:


> 2. Buy latest Amazon Fire TV/Stick (£39.99) *** I suggest waiting a couple of weeks for Black Friday (24th November 2017) and I'm sure Amazon will be offering them a knock down prices.***
> 3. This is the tricky bit because Amazon will not deliver outside of the UK, so somehow get it from UK to here.


The price has been reduced to $24,99 ($15 off, which is more than a bargain), and is applicable ending tomorrow. It looks like I was on the US site. Alas, no shipping to Portugal, not from the UK and not from the US. So, no Fire Stick for me. When I recover from this blow I might check other sources. Or just use the old stuff.:frusty:


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## Strontium

Hi 

I am in the UK for a while so PM me if you want to buy an £25 Amazon fire stick then risk post from UK to PT


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## advolex

Strontium said:


> Hi
> 
> I am in the UK for a while so PM me if you want to buy an £25 Amazon fire stick then risk post from UK to PT


Thanks, PM under way.


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## Strontium

That didn't go as planned..........................


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## JohnBoy

advolex said:


> Thanks, PM under way.


Did you get a Firestick advolex? Amazon have them on offer again until 26 March at £29.99 and free postage to UK addresses. I can arrange for delivery to a UK address and onward to PT at cost if you wish. 

Thanks to dstump for the original heads-up on this. I managed to grab one during the Black Friday sale and mainly it's working a treat. I'm just having a small issue with the set up at the moment but hopefully we'll soon have that resolved.


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## RichardHenshall

It's also available from amazon.de for €29.99 but delivered to Germany & Austria only, if anyone has that option available.


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## advolex

RichardHenshall said:


> It's also available from amazon.de for €29.99 but delivered to Germany & Austria only, if anyone has that option available.


It looks tempting at first, but I have recent experience with post from England - Netherlands to Portugal just disappearing. And the allegedly Manchester-based seller GearBest.eu not responding to the support ticket I opened when the insurance-paid delivery failed. Weeks later when I had given up on finding a mail address to this seller of an Internet capable Android Box w HDMI (sometimes called a TV-box), I received a printed form from CTT Lisbon that I was required to declare, with payment details, product advertisement etc for "a Netherlands TV-Box". I sent the formalities requested even when I was unable to verify that the CTT form described the device I had bought two months earlier. Haven't heard from either the privatised Portugal mail CTT nor GearBest since. Some weeks back I heard on Sweden news that the also privatised Sweden mail would start to charge addressees of mail from PRC China a hefty 15 EUR just to forward the tax authority's claim for VAT of a much lesser amount.

The Chinese appear to dislike the idea of VAT, something we've grown used to over the years. When the Chinese seller doesn't meet expectations the European consumer will be called. That's the rules of engagement in the Trade War with China. But the Netherlands is not China, we all thought, and neither is Manchester UK.

So I will probably not buy anything in a while that has not officially been brought to the local market in Portugal. In my case it meant buying Over The Counter a Kodi Box called Open Box, 2 generations old and 18 EUR more expensive on purchase. I'll have to scrap it pretty soon, because it cannot be upgraded anymore, but for now it works as it should. I e no decoding possible, but geo lock circumvention possible.


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## MrandMrsH

You can download MagicBox to your Firestick and pay £70 for a year’s subscription (£5.83 a month). You get 500 channels from around the world which include all the subscription channels that you would normally pay for. Also, all the pay per view channels are free. Let me know if you need further info


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## travelling-man

MrandMrsH said:


> You can download MagicBox to your Firestick and pay £70 for a year’s subscription (£5.83 a month). You get 500 channels from around the world which include all the subscription channels that you would normally pay for. Also, all the pay per view channels are free. Let me know if you need further info


Why pay that when it needs a half decent internet connection & that same half decent internet connection will give you similar through kodi & mobdro for nothing?


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## advolex

MrandMrsH said:


> You can download MagicBox to your Firestick and pay £70 for a year’s subscription (£5.83 a month). You get 500 channels from around the world which include all the subscription channels that you would normally pay for. Also, all the pay per view channels are free. Let me know if you need further info


I doubt that MagicBox, a learning tool, can be used to access British TV overseas:
"MagicBox is a Cloud-based mobile learning platform used by K-12 publishers to create & distribute
rich interactive eBooks and track learner’s progress through analytics dashboards."
Could you clear up the confusion?


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## advolex

Friendly requests on PM, with sender's email, will be rewarded (a questionable statement indeed) with a PDF containing my take on the legality of the Kodi usage, with regard to the ECJ 2017 filmspeler case. Here I will only link to another commentary, A link too far: CJEU rules that sale equals communication and streaming from unlawful sources is illegal (C-527/15, Filmspeler) | European Law Blog


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## dstump

travelling-man said:


> Why pay that when it needs a half decent internet connection & that same half decent internet connection will give you similar through kodi & mobdro for nothing?


Hi TM,

One of the reasons for researching and buying the Amazon Fire Stick was because I needed to move away from Kodi, because, for me, it is very clunky and awkward and it isn't easy for non techie minded people to set up, plus when new versions come out you have to make sure you have the correct version of Android (especially if you have one of the dodgy set top boxes) lastly the addons are for ever changing and take ages to load.

If you are using Kodi for movies, can I suggest you try and an alternative app called 'Terrarium TV'. It is simple to load and very easy to use and it has auto update when there is a new release of software. 

As for Mobdro, take a look at an alternative called 'UKTVNOW' (UKTVNOW), it has all the same channels as Mobdro but so much simpler to use and easy to download.

Following on from my post #18 in this tread, I have now set up 10 people in my area with the Fire Stick, which is on Easter offer in the UK at the moment for 30 quid rather than 40 quid. It plugs straight into the back of the TV, has a single remote control unit, so very easy to navigate, one small power cable so no spaghetti cables trailing out of the back of the TV. You can load both Kodi and Mobdro on it, although if you are wanting to watch the standard UK TV only, the Fire Stick offers this as standard and in much higher resolution than Mobdro or Kodi. With a little cunning and a little knowledge I can watch all of the main footie games in HD also.


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## advolex

*Terrarium issues*



dstump said:


> Hi TM,
> 
> ...
> 
> If you are using Kodi for movies, can I suggest you try and an alternative app called 'Terrarium TV'. It is simple to load and very easy to use and it has auto update when there is a new release of software.
> 
> ...


I wanted to check-out "Terrarium TV", based on dstump's recommendation. I found some issues as I went along, and am hoping @dstump could help sort them out.

1) It appears to be available as Android binaries (APK) only, and the suggestion is to use an Android emulator (like Nox) to install the APK on other platforms. - Kodi has binaries ready to install on most platforms.

2) Is it really simple to load? Simplest would be to download and install from the Play Store, where Kodi has been available for years, also on other platforms i e iOS on theirs, but Terrarium is not available on any app store. Instead it's distributed as APK from third party servers.

3) Obviously, this third party server issue is a risk factor, as the packager supplying the APK may have tampered with it to install malware etc. and there is no way to verify that the APK package is OK. So you should consider building your own package from sources available on Github, which most just won't do. Maybe Terrarium APK is available from a trusted packager like F-droid?

4) I found an APK from https://terrariumtv.mobi . It's called com.nitroxenon.terrarium_1.9.5-107.apk . nitroxenon is the developer's handle on Github, which sounds promising. But the latest release sourced on Github is 1.8.3 and not 1.9.5 (build 107), so where is the source of 1.9.5? The binary was checked with some antivirus / malware scanners and reported as clean. If this is fine for somebody else than me, then go ahead. I just wouldn't dare without further and more specific recommendations from trusted sources.

5) I can read the following statement: "Terrarium TV brings to you the TV shows and movies from a wide range of sources. This is why there is always a fair chance of finding what you are looking for. It has everything that you would like to watch." But it says nowhere how it goes about bringing you all this. Does it do geo-unlocking somehow, or does it just redistribute the channels available at every moment? Is it a P2P network where you yourself take part in the distribution? Or have the British channels stopped suddenly to emply geo-locking? With the sheer volume of US shows in UK TV I would doubt that very much. Is there really a benefit using Terrarium over Kodi when watching UK TV? I agree that Kodi is clunky, but it works once you've set it up.


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## travelling-man

Have to say I don't have any problems at all with kodi/mobdro & find them very easy to use...... Changing the (kodi) addons from time to time is admittedly necessary but it doesn't take long & isn't an inconvenience. 

That said, if I want to watch UK TV (which I rarely do) I just use tvcatchup.com.


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## dstump

Sorry Advolex, I can't answer the points you highlight. My Fire Stick is Android based so I have little interest in any other platform/operating system. All I have done is download Terrarium on to the Fire Stick and now after watching half a dozen movies over the weeks with no buffering and in high definition I am quite happy with it. 

The reason for posting to the British Television thread is just to share information and my experience with others. Over the many years I have been an expat wrestling with the subject of getting British TV of a consistent quality and reliability I have used: a Smart TV, a laptop/desktop to connect to the TV, Kodi/Android set top boxes, I have connected to the MEO set top box and even configured a Raspberry pi all in the search for my personal needs. Yes, I was able to watch a whole bunch of stuff, but the picture quality was inconsistent, (not to mention the 'buffering' half way through a program), I found I needed to maintain software versions, as well as managing a bunch of controllers, a mouse and keyboard in the lounge and a critical factor was the missus couldn't get to grips with "all of this technical stuff."

What I have now cost me cost me £25 (took advantage of Black Friday offer), my VPN/DNS subscription cost €35 for two years (again I got a great deal on Black Friday) this set up provides me with everything I need, through a single device about the size of a USB stick, which plugs into the back of the TV out of sight, powered by a single small cable and downsizing the pile of remotes spread over the coffee table from four down to one. No need for a mouse or a keyboard, I can even speak into the remote and it will launch the apps.

Life is so much easier because my wife is happy, because with a single click or voice instruction to the remote she can access all of the British main stations (live and catch up), which launch instantly in High Definition, as mentioned we can watch up to date movies, a couple of clicks and 20 seconds later we are watching with a box of popcorn on our laps. As for sport, one click and I'm watching Premier League footie, or La Liga, or Bundesliga, etc. again in HD, for Rugby and Golf I rely on using UKTVNOW (which as mentioned I personally find is more user friendly than Mobdro - personal choice).


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## advolex

*Kodi or Terrarium? Personal choice decides*



dstump said:


> Sorry Advolex, I can't answer the points you highlight. My Fire Stick is Android based so I have little interest in any other platform/operating system. All I have done is download Terrarium on to the Fire Stick and now after watching half a dozen movies over the weeks with no buffering and in high definition I am quite happy with it.
> 
> ... can access all of the British main stations (live and catch up), which launch instantly in High Definition, as mentioned we can watch up to date movies, a couple of clicks and 20 seconds later we are watching with a box of popcorn on our laps. As for sport, one click and I'm watching Premier League footie, or La Liga, or Bundesliga, etc. again in HD, for Rugby and Golf I rely on using UKTVNOW (which as mentioned I personally find is more user friendly than Mobdro - personal choice).


No need for sorrow  . I have looked forther and I agree, which solution you prefer would primarily be a matter of personal choice. Besides, it's difficult to tell why one solution would be "better" than another. My personal choice is always to prefer open source software. Kodi is open source, with sources available to anyone for inspection and/or modification. Terrarium's sources are not publicly available, which I worry about, especially with Android software. Nor have I seen any licence declaration. I did notice, however, that the version 1.95 which I was so reluctant to employ, was heavily burdened with advertisements and frequent nagging full-screen to register with Google. The picture was fine though, and in HD. Same as Kodi. But you must endure advertisements, which I never had to with Kodi. Now, I'm aware that there exists modded versions (either patched or forked from the original) of Terrarium TV APK's, but I have not tried these (yet): terrarium-tv-mod[dlandroid.com].apk and terrarium-tv[dlandroid.com].apk . - The risks would be similar, I guess.

Finally, I notice that @dstump continues to use subscription services VPN/proxy for geo unblocking, so it seems that Terrarium is not a final solution for this problem for us expats. Neither is Kodi. But then I didn't find the tab in Terrarium for live TV from any British broadcaster, there were tabs for movies and TV series etc, where the content comes from different, sometimes several sources. Of course these "illegal" sources, from "pirate" sites, would not serve geo locked material.


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## baldilocks

Hi all
We have tried Kodis and they keep failing, so have now ordered a Firestick so when we get it, we may need somebody's assistance in setting it up - I can manage most things I need on the PC but online television has me baffled - I don't watch it myself - this is for She Who Must Be Obeyed - she is the one with square eyes!


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