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TV Cable Upgrade for Short Term Rentals


gawguy
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Hi Fellows and Ladies, if any and others if any..

As they say in Korean dramas -- it's been awhile. Yes, yes, but I'm good. I have a big problem in Pattaya. I have rented the same room in the same condo building for the past 15 years when I come twice a year. And actually I saw this place recommended on Nana Plaza forum, thank you for changing my life for the better! Big Kiss !!

We used to have Sophon Cable before Covid at no extra charge as the cable TV provider. It was pretty bad. Now in the US I have top of the line Comcast services, voice command the remote, captions for almost everything, AI, DVR automatically skips commercials - on the expensive side but all perfect. HBO, Showtime, Apple TV+.

Whatever I have in Pattaya now may or may not be Sophon, is the WORST possible TV experience. There is no program guide. You are tuned to a movie and there is no information - not its name, cast or anything! Incredible! There are no captions and I am hard of hearing. There are mostly blurry non HD channels. A lot of the channels don't sync audio with video so voices and mouths do different things. There are lots of sports channels all with soccer, badminton, field hockey. I'd like to watch an occasional American football, or basketball (!! The amazing Golden State Warriors are my local team !!) or baseball game or golf. They used to have the Golf Channel on Sophon, gone now.

I want to subscribe to a different service or get a streaming box. Whatever I can do. The company that I rent the room from and interact with is not part of the condo building management which may add a complication. So I thought I would run this by 360 first for some ideas before taking it up with the rental company or condo office.

Help!! I'm dying here!  GG

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Hi GG, good to see you still around.

How good is your TV and is it Smart? and how good is your internet.
Cable TV is confined to the past now, it is internet TV.

Main Provider is True Vision with their TrueID service, a bit pricey for what it is, I only have the package for English Premier League Football (Soccer) I don’t bother with the more expensive one with movies etc, selection is rather limited. True is the current name of UBC.

Netflix. Netflix Thailand itself has a decent selection, using a VPN males your selection a whole lot wider.

Disney+ Has a few decent movies but suffers from continuous buffering, something not encountered with Netflix, so it is them and not us so to speak.

YouTube You would be amazed at the amount of free content available on YouTube, works well with app on smart TV not only a PC/ Laptop / Tablet / Phone thing anymore.

Apple TV not worth it with other options 99THB for a movie soon adds up to more than Metflix.

Sure to be other options out there I have not touched on, but as  I said not restricted to a physical cable and TV model and Internet connection dictate your viewing pleasure.

 

 

 

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The TV is a 2018 55inch I think Smart TV. It's connected with a TV cable that comes through the wall is and plugged into a Jack on the TV called Ant In, not an HDMI jack although there are several.

I use my Oppo phone as a Wifi hotspot that I use to connect a couple of Lenovo Thinkpads. Speedtest result: Download 23.5 mbps. 

I've looked over what you have noted and TrueID might be good. Is there a longterm contract or can I cancel when I go home and revive it when I come back? It's probably either that or youTube which I like. I would really prefer to watch the TV comfortably lying down on the bed, not my phone or laptop.

I appreciate your response and anything else you might add.

GG

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TrueID can be cancelled and reactivated on a monthly basis, I personally only have mine registered for 9-10 months per year for the EPL Football Season. Pretty simple, don’t pay bill, cut off, pay bill reconnected, even I can work that out.

I wouldn’t use a mobile for TV unless you have an unlimited data package, streaming uses a lot of data 

If your TV is Smart then YouTube is an app that is on the TV, no need to squint over a mobile phone.

 

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Your condo doesn't have internet? No ethernet plug or WiFi? If the TV is smart, under settings there should be an option for setting up a WiFi connection. The TV may also have an ethernet port.

You can get a ROKU streamer device that plugs into the TV, if the TV doesn't have internet connection options. Google ROKU to see all the streaming options.

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It's actually gotten worse. It's hopeless. How could it get worse? A confession first. Even though I'm a macho guy, about 20 years ago when I first started coming over here I came across Korean Drama in it's early stages. I watched one series and then I watched another one and after a year I had fallen into the abyss. The roots of this were those Doris Day, Rock Hudson movies, those WWII romantic war hero movies, rolling around with the girl in the surf. I'm still in the abyss. It suits me. They used to have KBS World from Seoul which was excellent, but it became too pricey and disappeared. The latest outlet was Sony One TV channel and about a week ago it froze. This is when I was already struggling with "there's 120 channels and there's nothing on, god damnit!" Then Sony One froze for 3 days on the same picture and then it was replaced by the worst channel I've ever seen called Oppa Mania. Oppa is the Korean word for a cute guy, so this channel is now all about cute guys - members of boy groups, not even singing, but doing endless cute shit that appeals to 10 - 20 year old girls 20 hours a day. Then late at night the channel plays Thai Dramas with English subs. That is rock bottom! Added insult to injury.

So yeah.. I turned to YouTube on my laptop fed by Wifi hotspot from my phone. It's fast enough and I have unlimited data.

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And speaking of the TV programming here... there seems to be a Badminton channel! A surfing channel. A women's field hockey channel. These things get there own channel!? These can only be fillers so there will be fewer blank spots on the channel list. There can't be demand for those niches.

Oh well.. what do I know? Well maybe one thing - I've got my channel list of about 50 "favorites" and THERE IS NOTHING ON

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