Best Android or other TV service box

[El Cid]

You can't put a VPN on a TV. Also, only certain special routers will handle a VPN. VPNs are a waste of time for something as simple as unblocking a TV provider.

Use a DNS - preferably in your router..

Sid

[casita-bonita]

I'm also with Fobos and normally have no problems streaming live tv. TVPlayer runs all evening without a blip. Currently looking at transponder tv which also runs flawlessly all eve. Hoolatv looks pretty stable also, but my Android box doesn't like their app.

More likely it is the sources you are using that are the problem.

Have you tried iPlayer, itv player etc. Normally they are excellent, but you will need VPN or DNS redirection to view these. A bunch of us here, me included use Smartdnsproxy for this service. Cheap as chips and super reliable.

Is Smartdnsproxy an internet service you pay for, never heard of it ?

Sorry, also meant to ask, how do you put a VPN on your TV, know how to do it on the laptop, very straightforward but never tried on a TV set?

To be honest i have never tried, and the general view on here is that you cannot put VPN on your tv. I have a second router with a permanently connected VPN, which is slow, but useful for devices that i can't install vpn on, eg tv, PS3, hifi amp. For other devices e.g tablet, phone, PC, tv box i run an app, OpenVPN which doesn't lose as much linespeed..

Smartdnsproxy is a service thst gives you both DNS and VPN. Just renewed my sub, $24 for two years.

Forgot to add earlier both transpondertv and hola have free trials and there's no vpn or DNS requirement. Give them a try and see f you fall back in love with iptv

[Dunflittin68]

Thanks forthe suggestions, looks like none of them are straightforward and not cheap as we have TWO TV's to think about. Also I am told that VPN's reduce your bandwidth which might cause us a problem with two TV's. Hola website took me to an American website called DirectTV to subscribe.

[casita-bonita]

Its hoola not hola, http://hoolatv.com. both do a free trial which at least will hopefully prove if it's your box or dodgy streams.

They may give you concurrent access, probably depending on the package you purchase. Transponder for example £6.5 per month gives you multiple concurrent connections, whereas their annual subscription doesn't. They are at transponder.tv

Not sure what hoola give you for your fiver a month.

VPN can reduce your linespeed, on my router by about 50%, which is why i put it onto my devices where i only lose maybe 10%, which still leaves plenty of speed for streaming, although i generally don't stream tv over vpn.

Neither of these need VPN or DNS redirection.

[Dunflittin68]

Thanks Bob, I will look into your suggestions.

[fyfin]

There is an app TapTV which seems to give numerous channels including UK and no vpn necessary. I have tested it on an android box and works fine.

[markwilding]

When you say they work fine, can you watch live TV uninterrupted over a reasonable period, say 90 minutes without buffering?

[fyfin]

Good point. I haven't really tested it as I have so many other ways of watching live tv. However my friend installed it an watched the golf on sky sports for over an hour with no issues. I honestly believe your internet connection makes a huge difference. I would say it costs nothing to try it. It's a free app

[casita-bonita]

When you say they work fine, can you watch live TV uninterrupted over a reasonable period, say 90 minutes without buffering?

The advantage of hoola and transponder are the streams are paid for and so should be reliable otherwise their business won't last long. Unlike tvtap, mobdro, uktvnow etc.

Also they both provide full epg so are the closest to emulating what we used to have with Astra.

Right now I'm finding tvplayer to be more than acceptable, but you never know when they will try new tricks to stop folks outside the UK watching, so can only consider it as a temporary solution.

As a slight aside has anybody installed Stremio? Supposed to be a Kodi alternative although as yet it doesn't have the huge community following of Kod so not many addons are available. No live tv yet (that i can find) but great for movies and boxsets. Impressed with what i have seen of it so far.

[gerrynag]

Still dependant on your internet speed, if you don't have a decent speed, then you will have similar buffering problems to those you already have.
Best way to find out is to try their free version or trial version.

[Dunflittin68]

We are supposed to be getting 15mps and were told by our internet provider that we should be able to run two tV's and 3 laptops off that speed but I find the streaming very hit and miss. We can be watching a film on TCM like we were today and it was perfect, never froze once, now we are watching live TV again and hubby is trying to watch the Grand Prix and has tried 3 different apps and all are freezing like crazy and pixelating like crazy !

I have looked at loads of android boxes and get more confused by the day. There are lots of good ones but most seem to come from the UK and how do I know they will run a freeze free streaming service? Is there any local technicians around anyone knows that could give me some advice ? Don't fancy paying out 100 euros or more for a box and end up with the same problem.

[fyfin]

I don't profess to be an expert but I assume you have run a speed check when it is buffering. You seldom get the download speed they promise. Then I believe bandwidth comes into it as well and if the provider has too many subscribers, then at peak times it causes problems. It's easy to check download speed, there's lots of sites do it. I use ookla http://www.speedtest.net/ I don't know if a better android box would make much of a difference.

[markwilding]

Are you watching on a legal site? Obviously, the bandwidth also depends on the provider’s limitations and how many people watching squeezing their bandwidth.
I have watched the whole race on a legal Sky steam with no buffering at all.

[El Cid]

What legal Sky stream? Almost all are illegal unless you are paying Sky for the usage.

Sid

[Dunflittin68]

I don't profess to be an expert but I assume you have run a speed check when it is buffering. You seldom get the download speed they promise. Then I believe bandwidth comes into it as well and if the provider has too many subscribers, then at peak times it causes problems. It's easy to check download speed, there's lots of sites do it. I use ookla http://www.speedtest.net/ I don't know if a better android box would make much of a difference.

I checked the speed only yesterday and it was running at over 12mps, as you say you rarely get what you are promised. We were watching it on both Mobdro and LiveNet TV and even RedBox but had the same problem with all of them. I am wondering if as you say that overload at popular times is causing the problem as we don't get the problem so much in a morning, only occasionally on sites like Gold, ITV3 and as I say on both Mobdro and LiveNetTV which is what we watch with the most. We have lost a lot of access to channels on LiveNetTV as we can't figure out how to update it on our old Kodi app which is a few yrs old and we are using Confluence interface, so not sure where to look to update it. I think we use Kodi 16. Mobdro seems to update regularly with pop up boxes to use but not LiveNetTV. Any idea how to update it ?

[Dunflittin68]

I don't profess to be an expert but I assume you have run a speed check when it is buffering. You seldom get the download speed they promise. Then I believe bandwidth comes into it as well and if the provider has too many subscribers, then at peak times it causes problems. It's easy to check download speed, there's lots of sites do it. I use ookla http://www.speedtest.net/ I don't know if a better android box would make much of a difference.

Just checked the speed with your suggested site and I got the following: Ping 30, Download 12.94, Upload 3.98, taken at 08.30.a.m. I will test it again next time we are having problems but we did check it when it was buffering badly as I said and the Download speed was over 12.

[elusive]

Getting buffering when watching things like the G.P is prob more of an issue at the providers end because of the amount of people trying to access it

[markwilding]

What legal Sky stream? Almost all are illegal unless you are paying Sky for the usage.

Sid

It's possible with Now TV and because my brother works for Sky I have access to SkyGo. These days it isn't even necessary to use a VPN if someone in the UK is using the service as well. I can use two of the four devices allowed so have it the Ipad and PS4, which seems to be the only way of getting it on the big screen, although I've heard plugging a computer into the tele works s well.

It's of course a matter of opinion, even before having access to Sky, I used to buy passes for Now TV . This is why I don't like these apps that give access but with poor quality streams and picture.

[Dunflittin68]

Getting buffering when watching things like the G.P is prob more of an issue at the providers end because of the amount of people trying to access it

I agree but doesn't explain why we get it on other channels like Gold, ITV3 and even ITV at times.

[Paulinmalaga]

You can have a super download speed but still get buffering if your ping etc is poor

https://topspeeddata.com/ping-test-live/