Live streaming tv problem

[robbie 348]

Hi guys, not sure if this is hardware related or not. I live in the UK at present but watch live tv from the US. My problem is that sometimes the picture is very pixelated, like if I am watching a nascar race the pixels can't keep up with the background. My os is Xubuntu 12.04 and my computer has an old-ish gigabyte 945 motherboard and a 210 graphics card. Are they too old by todays standards and would an upgrade help? Another thought is could a better router do it? I run it through my tv and the picture is better in 1080 than 720 but still not perfect. Any ideas? Thanks, Rob.

[theDaveTheRave]

robbie 348,

how do you manage to watch live tv from the US ? I've tried and i allways get blocked do to my IP address not terminating in the US.

Are you using TOR and using the US as your final exit point (i've never been able to get this to work for me. Or are you getting your tv through a satelite that is pointing at a US dish?

Onto your question.

have you noticed that the pixelation is worse at particular times of day? we always used to joke at university that the web would slow down mid afternoon when the US started to wake up, slowing down all the servers. I guess less of a problem nowadays, but i guess with transmit heavy tv you may see pixelation if your link isn't upto speed.

also this is, in my opinion, a problem with modern tvs that don't have a sufficient refresh rate. I look at them in the shops and as far as I'm concerned they pixelate at the speed of a sprinters feet, try watching and football match and the ball seems to pixelate an awfull lot. HD is better, but still not up to the old analogue standard, although I admit the colour and vibrance of the new tvs is awesome.

and before you ask, no I'm not a 'vinly was much better than cd' person. I'm just fussy when it comes to vision. I still don't like the image quality on digi SLR cameras compared to my old celluloid Cannon AE1, especially once you get to 'large' size images. Neg scanner and celluloid are still much better, particularly at high speed.

David

[robbie 348]

David, I've only recently moved to the UK from the US and my ip and stuff still see me as living in Indianapolis, so that may be why I don't have problems.

[theDaveTheRave]

robbie,

OK we seem to have moved a bit 'off topic'

you say that you IP still sees you as being in indianapolis ?

surely your IP is received from your ISP ? so how come they give you an addres that the net seems to think is still in indiana ? or have you set your DHCP server (this gives you your IP) to still be based in the US (as it was when you lived in indianapolis).

If so that would be a good solution for lots of people, just change the DHCP server and YOOPEE and IP from a foreign country.

could you post the output of
iwconfig

and maybe to a path ping to google.com just to see what it comes up with.

sorry the curiosity is getting to me

cheers.

David