My wife is pretty homesick and would like to get more tv channels. She doesn't like AFN. I was thinking about buying a channel decoder but I don't know if that will get us more channels. Any advice? Thanks

Jason -

We subscribe to SKY, uses the same satellite as AFN, so dish & wiring all the same, just plug into Sky box; we went with a 3-pack deal, runs about $35/month.

Do you by chance have a number we could call for that cable? I know im getting sick of watching the same movies over and over. I would love to have actual cable. Thanks ahead of time

Can you use the Sky network on the support site? We are a bit depressed around here because the World Cup is on this year and we may miss it becasue we don't get Euro Sports... AFN is very incompetent...

Jennifer

this might be what we're looking for

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Sky_Broadcasting

Robert -

We signed up for Sky @ the Auchan in Guiligano; got the box there, signed the paperwork. When we got home just had to hook the box up & call a toll-free number the salesman had given us, pressing a couple of buttons, and haven't looked back since. Don't remember the last time we switched over to AFN!

On the S.S. you don't have your own dish, so not "plug & play" as it is on the economy. I've heard of people putting dishes on their balconies, but don't believe it's "allowed".

Head over to some friends when it's on!

I have to say after 5-1/2 years here I am sick of AFN and their crappy TV channels. Same movies over and over and over and the same TV shows throughout the day just at different times!! Wish we could get SKY on base.

From what I've been told, you can only get Sky off base and if you have Italian cable. Also, the channel decoder they sell at the NEX is only if you live off of base and get Italian cable.

Anyone know a way to get more channels?

What about programs like VPN? With VPN they send you a box, hooks up to your computer and streams USA tv from that to your TV. The site linked does $15 per month. Anyone use this? http://www.happy-vpn.com/watch-tv.php

http://www.nationphone.com/USATVAbroad.html

Costly. They all seem costly. There is no way of knowing if this even works on base, allowed or if they even set it up in this country.

Get a sling box and a sling box catcher. Ask someone in the states to hook up a slingbox to a cable or dish box..preferably a DVR box due to the time change. We payed someone the price of an extra box (no need for it to be hooked up to a TV). Then here we have a slingcatcher which hooks up to our TV, we can switch it on and control the box from here. We get our local home programming, we can DVR all the shows we want and when we watch it, it's just like watching TV at home in the states, no skipping or bad picture..in fact the picture is better than AFN's pic! You can call me at 629-5280 if you would like to come and take a look at it.

The only problem with that is none of my friends in the states have HBO for example. So if I wanted to watch True Blood, I wouldn't be able to. Plus they wouldn't go for anything eating up bandwidth because they are big online gamers. Thanks for the info.

Don't you need both the sling box and someone with a sling catcher to make this work? Or can I just by sling box solo and still get USA channels?

I play online games (WoW/Aion) and those take a lot of bandwidth. So does my wife. In the past when I tried watching streaming tv online, it broke, paused and jumped. Due to how I use the internet, will sling box be as jumpy since it's streaming as well?

No they need the sling box hooked up to their cable box and you need the catcher only if you want to watch it through your tv. Otherwise you could watch it through the Internet and can actually access it on any device that has the interet (ie. iPhone). You do this when you create an online account while setting it up. Also, the person hooking up your sling box needs Internet because the sling box communicates though the internet that's how you are able to watch it, then the catcher (set up over here) talks to your pc when you also log into the same slingbox account.

Yes it will mess with your bandwidth. We live on the SS and depending on the time of day, slingbox can also run much slower and can appear jumpy.

We have noticed that watching sling box through the computer had less streaming problems than with the catcher. The catcher is just more convenient as we all don't want to gather around the pc.