Recommend an IPTV service

[jd1940]

I've done some reading on the legality of IPTV and it appears in the U.S. it's probably illegal for most of the "IPTV" services to do what they're doing. But. that doesn't mean it's illegal or prosecutable for someone to receive it as long as they're not promoting or reselling the service. As far as I can tell no one has been prosecuted for receiving IPTV channels. You should probably avoid becoming an associate reseller if you're really concerned. Besides, you can always route the IPTV signal through a VPN. I suspect we'll be hearing a lot more about this topic in the future!

[Graham]

As far as I can tell no one has been prosecuted for receiving IPTV channels.

Do people in the US face legal action for downloading music without the permission of the music's "owner"? Would downloading/streaming TV without the "owner's" permission be seen as different to downloading music?

One possible legality test might be ... Does the IPTV service include the BBC channels broadcast in the UK? It is my understanding that the BBC is forbidden from licensing these channels for viewing outside of the UK.

[jrockow]

I do use a VPN, but am concerned about having my contact info stored on some server somewhere.

[jd1940]

Do people in the US face legal action for downloading music without the permission of the music's "owner"? Would downloading/streaming TV without the "owner's" permission be seen as different to downloading music?

One possible legality test might be ... Does the IPTV service include the BBC channels broadcast in the UK? It is my understanding that the BBC is forbidden from licensing these channels for viewing outside of the UK.

I don't believe anyone has been prosecuted for music downloads for years. I believe when it was first possible to download music there were some prosecutions but I believe they finally decided that wasn't going to work and decided to prosecute those who were making the music available. The IPTV service I'm testing does include the BBC channels.

[jrockow]

I don't believe anyone has been prosecuted for music downloads for years. I believe when it was first possible to download music there were some prosecutions but I believe they finally decided that wasn't going to work and decided to prosecute those who were making the music available. The IPTV service I'm testing does include the BBC channels.

Which IPTV are you testing?
Please post results.

[donschjr]

I'm using Vaders and am quite happy with it but I had to have Sub's help to get it working in Npvr. I don't use on demand in Npvr so I'm not sure how that would work.

[jd1940]

Which IPTV are you testing?
Please post results.

I'm testing Ace <http://www.ace-hosting.net/>. They seem to have all the U.S. channels as well as those from most of Europe. They also have a large selection of On Demand programs. They load easily and provide eps info for most of the channels. They will also group all of the channel categories in the NPVRs eps section. Screen quality is as good if not better than my cable is. Please note, however, I am not an associate reseller and am neither encouraging nor discouraging your use of their service.

[jrockow]

I'm testing Ace <http://www.ace-hosting.net/>. They seem to have all the U.S. channels as well as those from most of Europe. They also have a large selection of On Demand programs. They load easily and provide eps info for most of the channels. They will also group all of the channel categories in the NPVRs eps section. Screen quality is as good if not better than my cable is. Please note, however, I am not an associate reseller and am neither encouraging nor discouraging your use of their service.

I got myself a sub to ACE.
Couple of quick observations and questions:
Most of the USA channels come in OK, and the quality of the pix is pretty good.
However, on several of the channels (mostly hidef) I get some stuttering which really turns me off.
Do you see this?

Also, I haven't been able to get any of the OnDemand movies to work at all.
It just says "getting stream, waiting for stream, and finally times out"
How does it work for you?

[sgilani]

As exciting as it is, I'm fearful of IPTV because many providers (including the big boys like Sling, PS Vue, etc) get away with either 30fps video, or only stereo audio (and not surround). If that becomes the new normal, it's a sad step backwards in a world where 1080i60 and 5.1 surround is the broadcast norm.

They don't seem to have an incentive to do any better (other than upgrading to 4K) because the public at large seems just happy to go with the lower frame rate or downmixed audio, and it's sad.

Of course, the *real* fear is DRM and being completely stuck in the provider's app. Great to see NextPVR out in front of the trend in that regard, but the more mainstream providers will likely never expose ts streams etc for other apps to consume.

[jd1940]

I got myself a sub to ACE.
Couple of quick observations and questions:
Most of the USA channels come in OK, and the quality of the pix is pretty good.
However, on several of the channels (mostly hidef) I get some stuttering which really turns me off.
Do you see this?

Also, I haven't been able to get any of the OnDemand movies to work at all.
It just says "getting stream, waiting for stream, and finally times out"
How does it work for you?

I've only workied with the American and British channels. The vast majority work just fine for me, with no stuttering. I really haven't played with the On Demand stuff since I get all that I want from Sonarr. I did notice, however, if you select an On Demand item, what it does for me is to start recording that item, which shows up in Recordings. The couple of items I played with did start recording, however, and I could watch what was being recorded.