Watching foreign TV channels in the US can get quite expensive. For example, if you sign up for six Indian channels with DirectTV, your cost could be as high as $30 a month. This is over and above what you already pay for programming.
However you can workaround this limitation. It is not easy and requires a bit of investment of your time and money. Enter the Slingbox.
The Slingbox is a hardware device that allows you to placeshift your TV. So in theory given a Slingbox, all you will need to setup to enjoy Indian channels at home would be
- An always on high-speed internet connection in India
- A Slingbox
- A router
- A computer capable of playing these streams and displaying them on your TV
In theory this sounds quite nice and rosy, however there are several caveats.
- Slingmedia advertises the Slingbox to be NTSC only. They do sell a PAL version, but this is not available in the U.S
- The video connectors used in India tend to be quite different.
- Setting up the router to forward the port alone might not be sufficient. For instance, at my place the internet connection was supplied through a DSL modem with a firewall built in. There was little or no documentation about setting this up.
Anyway it is possible to overcome all of these problems. I will go into further detail in subsequent posts. If you cannot wait to hear how to set it up for yourself, feel free to contact me, and I will be glad to help