A family member in the UK has a full Virgin TV package with all the sky channels.
Virgin do a similar service to sky whereby you can watch your channels on your computer or smartphone away from home (iphone and android using their app) anywhere in the UK.
Now,given that Multimax who provide my Internet also kindly provide a UK VPN this should in theory mean that I can watch all the channels that my UK relative pays for using his log in and password.
Taking this one step further,rather than watching on my PC or laptop,I would like to watch these channels on my TV,without having it permanently connected to a PC.
Is there a box I can buy (possibly similar to the NTV box that Multimax use)that would help me to achieve this-so that I get an 'on screen menu' just like a normal satellite type set-up?
I see lots of these TV media boxes advertised on Amazon and E bay but am confused as to what to buy.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Virgin TV 'Anywhere' and Multimax query
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Re: Virgin TV 'Anywhere' and Multimax query
This whole area is a minefield to be honest.
Firstly on a pc / laptop and using a VPN (ours or a third party one) you should be able to access the virgin online services.
When you talk about a dedicated 'box' is when things start to get very complicated. There are many different 'boxes' available on a range of different underlying platforms (android based, ios based, Linux based, windows based) with a range of pros and cons. Firstly there is the issue of can you configure the box with a VPN service or not. Secondly there is the issue of what actual services a given box supports, which itself is a mine field and a moving target. Some services just do not work on some boxes. Some work now, but could get broken at any point in the future if the service delivery method changes. Things like does the box have a built in browser that supports 'adobe flash' can be very relevant. For me there is no definitely best box for the kind of thing you are trying to achieve.
To give an example, I have a 'smart TV'. It has built in apps for a range of video on demand services. However it does not allow you to configure a VPN within the TV itself. So when you first connected it and fire it up, it loads apps suitable for the RoC as that is where it thinks you are, so no BBC iPlayer. There are ways to then force it into thinking it is in the UK so you can get the relevant apps on the TV. So I have for example the app for BBC iPlayer and that does work through the multimax connection because we VPN traffic to BBC automatically in the background. However I personally also have the TV connected to a PC as a slave screen and I tend to use the PC's iplaer and nto the one built into the TV itself. Why ? Mainly because the PC version of iplayer will generally restart a program where you left off if there is an interruption where as the TV version does not and it is a pain 'skipping forward' on the TV version. I then have apps on the TV for things like itv player , 4od, Netflix and lovefilem. These do not work 'out of the box' because they are all region limited and we do not 'auto vpn' traffic to these services. The TV does not allow you to configure a VPN on it but there are alternative 3rd part VPN like service that can work with the TV despite this (but not the free MM VPN). Using one of these service (streamvia is the one I am testing currently) these other apps do work but again the TV version is never as flexible or well supported as the PC version. Finally the TV has a built in web browser. Using this some video service work and others do not (if you can deal with the region issues) and this changes as the TV maker updates its browsers and as services change their systems. The kind of issues I outline with the smart TV also apply to varying degrees to the various boxes that are out there as well.
Firstly on a pc / laptop and using a VPN (ours or a third party one) you should be able to access the virgin online services.
When you talk about a dedicated 'box' is when things start to get very complicated. There are many different 'boxes' available on a range of different underlying platforms (android based, ios based, Linux based, windows based) with a range of pros and cons. Firstly there is the issue of can you configure the box with a VPN service or not. Secondly there is the issue of what actual services a given box supports, which itself is a mine field and a moving target. Some services just do not work on some boxes. Some work now, but could get broken at any point in the future if the service delivery method changes. Things like does the box have a built in browser that supports 'adobe flash' can be very relevant. For me there is no definitely best box for the kind of thing you are trying to achieve.
To give an example, I have a 'smart TV'. It has built in apps for a range of video on demand services. However it does not allow you to configure a VPN within the TV itself. So when you first connected it and fire it up, it loads apps suitable for the RoC as that is where it thinks you are, so no BBC iPlayer. There are ways to then force it into thinking it is in the UK so you can get the relevant apps on the TV. So I have for example the app for BBC iPlayer and that does work through the multimax connection because we VPN traffic to BBC automatically in the background. However I personally also have the TV connected to a PC as a slave screen and I tend to use the PC's iplaer and nto the one built into the TV itself. Why ? Mainly because the PC version of iplayer will generally restart a program where you left off if there is an interruption where as the TV version does not and it is a pain 'skipping forward' on the TV version. I then have apps on the TV for things like itv player , 4od, Netflix and lovefilem. These do not work 'out of the box' because they are all region limited and we do not 'auto vpn' traffic to these services. The TV does not allow you to configure a VPN on it but there are alternative 3rd part VPN like service that can work with the TV despite this (but not the free MM VPN). Using one of these service (streamvia is the one I am testing currently) these other apps do work but again the TV version is never as flexible or well supported as the PC version. Finally the TV has a built in web browser. Using this some video service work and others do not (if you can deal with the region issues) and this changes as the TV maker updates its browsers and as services change their systems. The kind of issues I outline with the smart TV also apply to varying degrees to the various boxes that are out there as well.
