Best way to get international TV?

[binky]

Anybody know a good way to get international TV?

I just bought a new TV, and it's a Sony HD TV. I have basic analog cable and I'm receiving some new the channels (wierd channel numbers like "44.1", "44.2") in HD. I might go digital for cable, but I am definitely NOT a sports fan, so I'm not sure it's worth it. I like watching movies, and it sure does do a great job with those.

For broadcast stuff though... What I really would like and what would get me to change my "basic cable" subscription is if I could somehow get international tv. Comcast has the monopoly here and they offer nil. I don't just mean the big spanish channel that just shows junk like soaps & dubbed prime time. I want european news, european shows, etc. including GB, France, Germany, Italy. Asia/India would be cool too, since there's probably some in English and my Hindi/Urdu/Japanese etc are, uh, nonexistent. Hey it'd be nice to see what the Ozzies & NZ'ers are watching too. They almost speak my language. Hehe. I want to see the world from the other perspectives. I want to work on my foreign languages. I'd like to watch that stuff.

I only live on a 3/4 acre plot in crowded New England, so I can't exactly hide a 6-foot satellite dish in my back yard, so that's not an option for me.

I hope the answer doesn't depend on where I live, but if it matters, I live in the greater Boston area.

Anybody doing this already or do you just have any ideas?

 

[mosport]

Free-to-Air (FTA) satellite receivers like Pansat, Viewsat, Coolsat paired up with a 36" dish can pick up international channels. Most ethnic programming is broadcast unencrypted on Ku band so you won't need any fancy boxes with extra features, a basic unit under $100 will work fine.

Here's a list of what's available free-to-air, hope you find what you're looking for!

 

[binky]

Hey that's looking pretty promising, though there are some hurdles for me to research like that I don't think the 1-meter dish would fit asthetically. Maybe I could just build a shed around the thing to hide it or something like that.

Oh, and I shoulda mentioned that it'd be nice to get Canadian channels too. I only noticed Montreal in the list but at least that's something.

I didn't realize there are free international broadcasts. Looks like I've got lots to investigate. Thanks for the link!

 

[flashy bazook]

The 44.1, 44.2 etc. are ways of identifying the digital channels. Because more broadcasts are possible with digital transmission, a station that previously had 1 analog channel can now have multiple channels. So they label them like that (say if the analog CBS is channel 9, it may be identified as 9.1, with a special news only CBS channel as 9.2, a weather only CBS channel as 9.3, etc.).

For foreign transmissions, they are available from pay satellites, but only certain ones. For instance, Dish offers foreign language packages on top of the usual domestic (US) choices. I believe there are European offerings. You'd just need to go to their website, and then chose a satellite TV company by the package that interests you. Of course, these packages are also charged extra, often a rather significant sum for what may seem like only a few channels (so 3 specialized foreign language channels for an extra $30 bucks per month would not be unusual).

 

[Coop]

Why would you want to see european tv anyway? It's mostly re-runs of 10 year old american shows. Of course there are the european news programs, but those will be in different languages and without subtitles...

 

[DocArnie]

Why would you want to see european tv anyway? It's mostly re-runs of 10 year old american shows. Of course there are the european news programs, but those will be in different languages and without subtitles...

I think british TV is worth watching. Sometimes I can watch "Top Gear" on BBC and it's the best car show I know. The brits also get fresh episodes of american/canadian serials. German TV sucks so bad that I stopped watching TV. I love to watch foreign movies and serials in their original language.

 

[binky]

Sometimes it's just because it's different. The news isn't US news. The language isn't the same. I feel good inside when I stretch out a little and I also don't like feeling so much like the US is the only country on the planet, which is easy to do given the perspective of many things here. Don't get me wrong -- I like it here best -- I just need to feel like Canada isn't just the white roadless tract from where the winter weather originates (are there polar bears & caribou in Quebec?) as it's usually portrayed or that Europe is just the place where the UN convenes and a little farther North there's this spikey iron Eiffel tower thing where everybody hates us. GB is a bell tower and a horse drawn coach and other cinderella stuff, but if you go to the other island there's a lot of hatred over the split there that Sinead O'Connor described and we see the bombings in Belfast every once in a while.
And where the heck are "The Netherlands" anyway? Is that one country or a whole slew of them and why don't they just name it one place if they all get along so well? ;-)

I want my TV to be a little Window On The World!!!

 

[shakeylegs]

Dish network (and I believe DirectTV) offers international packages as well as a bunch of public service channels like LINK, FSTV, BYU etc. In an effort to have anything but comcast, I've subscribed to Dish for several years and am very happy with the service and the programming. I subscribe to the Polish package which has a cnn-like 24 hour news channel. Most of the other international programming seems to be a mix of news, talk shows, soaps, and childrens programs.

In an effort to expand the Polish offerings at home, I put up a Globecast satellite dish. Globecast has a large international offering and a particularly large selection of islamic channels. The latter are non-subscription and some are broadcast in english. I think Globecast is Ku band and the dish is only slightly larger than the Dish and Direct models.

It's interesting to watch cnn, then see the same story on al jazeera, then watch it on FSTV and PBS, then Univision, and finally on something like abc/cbs/nbc. For otherworldly coverage, Fox is always an option.

 

[binky]

It's interesting to watch cnn, then see the same story on al jazeera

I bet "interesting" is an understatement! Hehe. That's something I'd very much like to have though -- all those different points of view and other stuff. Sorta take it all in, throw it all into a room and see if what nuggets of actuality remain after the dust settles. Learning the languages and just seeing the other cultures is a big part of it too. I'm just so tired of feeling trapped in this limited programming & access. I'll check out the DISH stuff.

 

[JohnB]

Check out
http://www.sopcast.com/

 

[scott.cr]

You should call your cable company and ask... my carrier doesn't list international channels as options in their sales literature, but 25-30 international channels were free for the asking.

 

[Mash]

Sometimes it's just because it's different. The news isn't US news. The language isn't the same. I feel good inside when I stretch out a little and I also don't like feeling so much like the US is the only country on the planet, which is easy to do given the perspective of many things here. Don't get me wrong -- I like it here best -- I just need to feel like Canada isn't just the white roadless tract from where the winter weather originates (are there polar bears & caribou in Quebec?) as it's usually portrayed or that Europe is just the place where the UN convenes and a little farther North there's this spikey iron Eiffel tower thing where everybody hates us. GB is a bell tower and a horse drawn coach and other cinderella stuff, but if you go to the other island there's a lot of hatred over the split there that Sinead O'Connor described and we see the bombings in Belfast every once in a while.
And where the heck are "The Netherlands" anyway? Is that one country or a whole slew of them and why don't they just name it one place if they all get along so well? ;-)

I want my TV to be a little Window On The World!!!

Kudos to you for seeking more than whats being fed to you, very refreshing!
And now for some related humour!

http://www.msxnet.org/humour/america
http://www.anvari.org/fun/Political/World_According_to_the_USA.html
http://www.signs-of-the-times.org/image/image/112/monde_US.jpg