Follow-on to the the TV saga.
I decided to give the indoor aerial option a shot and plumped for naquada’s suggestion of a boosted DVB-T receiver.
Partial service has been restored in that we now have 3 fuzzy analogue channels (1-3). Interestingly we now get the BBC South programmes rather than BBC London, and I’d rather liked the London option.
Next step is to pick up a cheap DVB set-top box and see if we get anything digital through the walls and windows. Given the poor quality of the analogue reception, I’m not hopeful… although the DAB radio does get about 50% of the channels that we should see in our area.
In the interim, I have been watching some stuff online. We’re only 5 days into the month, and my ISP (Pipex) just emailed me to say that I’m at 70% of my bandwidth limit for the month. Wow. And eek.
Update: tried a cheap Philips DVB box that had good reviews. Unfortunately it fails to find a single channel. So, for now, it’s snowy BBC1, BBC2 and ITV through a set-top aerial. This digital 21st century living stuff just rocks… 🙁
Technorati tags: television, DVB, TV, digital television, ISP, bandwidth
I could not even dare to watch any TV online .. that is if I can with the 384kbps connection that I have. My bandwidth allowance is only 3GB per month. This cost me close to R350 per month (£25)
I’m facing the same kind of dilemma with my ISP at home. The phone line to my house is dodgy at best, and has a variety of delightful impacts on my DSL connection under a breeze.
Almost all of the choices I could possibly have for Internet service would have to come in on the same line, so it doesn’t really matter who my provider is – they’re all going to have the same issues.
The other option is to get Internet service from the cable (TV) company. They will delightfully offer me a tv+phone+isp package for more money than I want to pay, or any combination of those… for more money than I want to pay.
They also have a habit of cutting off, without appeal, customers who exceed an unspecified bandwidth usage. “No, you’re using too much of the Internet. We no longer want your money”. It’s not clear what the business model is.
thanks for the GREAT post! Very useful…