We just received a notice from our compound management that they are having to stop some of the satellite channels because they are illegal - I wouldn't mind but they are taking off Star World which is the only one that is actually English speaking and worth watching (yes I have no taste).

Has anyone else heard of a crackdown or are the authorities just leaning on our management? Anyone had this happen before? Any opinion on whether it will be permanent or not?

Cheers

Have heard that a few other compounds have done that recently too. Our compound sent a letter saying some channels would be temporarily gone while they are "upgrading." Starworld is gone now.

Well if it is a satellite service offered by your management then nothing can be done about it. I would suppose if you bought the satellite service from a 3rd party provider you wouldn't get it "upgraded"?

tnmom wrote:Have heard that a few other compounds have done that recently too. Our compound sent a letter saying some channels would be temporarily gone while they are "upgrading." Starworld is gone now.

Why lose anything at all when you can get 110 plus English channels on MPEG4 streaming? Totally legal and totally portable.

There's always been this kind of thing happening now and then over the years and they've always come back after awhile. I've heard reasons like the government wants a bigger "brown paper bag" and they are in discussions on the exact size or the need to look like they are cracking down at the top level. Whatever the reason, it's always come back so hang on in there. Looks like some good options for viewing from SatelliteTV above.

Adrienne
http://www.shanghaiprops.com

I read on the web....a startling piece of investigative research.... that foreigners in China were entitled to have satellite TV. Not so for the citizens of the PRC.

Damn. Had the document on the drive, but, can't find it now. Trust us, it's OK.

A Formal Document outlining the rights and responsibilities of Foreigners in terms of International media. It's black and white.

No paper bag, no funny business.

Z.

It might be good but it ain't cheap. RMB3000+ to install and RMB2500+ every 3 months.

Misteral wrote:It might be good but it ain't cheap. RMB3000+ to install and RMB2500+ every 3 months.

Well look at pay TV in the USA or the UK. It aint free either.

There's always Dream TV with 30 English channels for RMB3050 including 12 months sub, PLUS DISH INSTALL lol

Wasn't suggesting it should be free, just a little pricey. Who needs 110 channels anyway? Was it Bruce Springstein who sang "57 channels and nothing on"? The 30 odd channels on my pirate Dream is good enough for me and cost RMB2400 over two years ago, and that was the full cost (except once the card went down and I got a new one for RMB150). That was summer 2007. If I really want to watch a series/show that I don't have I torrent it. Anyway, good luck.

Zak101 wrote:I read on the web....a startling piece of investigative research.... that foreigners in China were entitled to have satellite TV. Not so for the citizens of the PRC..

Yes Zak I have said that for a long time but been called a liar.

Apparently a lot of othe people know better even though they have never checked the laws. Satellite TV in CHina is not illegal, you just need a permit.

Misteral wrote:Wasn't suggesting it should be free, just a little pricey. Who needs 110 channels anyway?

The 30 odd channels on my pirate Dream is good enough for me.

Not much I can do to compete with pirated systems or torrents which take a day to download.

Yes Agreed, but there are many who want that choice. They also want the 22 sports channels. There are many who cannot have dishes on highrise apartments. Many do not like going to bars to watch sports. There are two satellite packages combined on this system.

However, you can split the packages and pay less than RMB 630 per month. Which for many is cheaper than a night out.

Part of the cost is the 2mb upload bandwidth. That's not free either.

The good things in life are free, some things you just have to pay for

torrents take days to download??? are you delusional or moron or maybe both...

most series I download only takes at most 1 hour top to download, movie about 1-3 hour .....

jeffry3 wrote:torrents take days to download??? are you delusional or moron or maybe both...

most series I download only takes at most 1 hour top to download, movie about 1-3 hour .....

I dont know but others on shanghai expat have said it often takes them a day to download content.

I dont have that problem with slow speeds.

I never said days... thats just you twist on words.

jeffry3 wrote:torrents take days to download??? are you delusional or moron or maybe both...

most series I download only takes at most 1 hour top to download, movie about 1-3 hour .....

Hold on a moment. You don't realize that the time it takes to download something will vary with the number of seeds, amount of bandwidth available between the seeding machines and his torrent client, and even the SIZE of what is being downloaded-- and YOU are asking if HE is delusional or a moron?

What is delusional and moronic is your failure to recognize that knowing how to use bittorrent does not mean you understand how it works. If you did you would realize that download speeds can vary widely.

yes but it would not take days if you know where to look for!!!

He is delusional since he knows exactly it wouldn't take days but still said it to promote his business for free here....

C'mon lads take it easy. We're only talking about a wee bit of telly here. Kiss and make up. xx

Misteral wrote:C'mon lads take it easy. We're only talking about a wee bit of telly here. Kiss and make up. xx

All is forgiven for those who call me a moron. Thanfully I have some good religious TV for those folks. They might like to learn some humility and seek redress with God.

Misteral wrote:C'mon lads take it easy. We're only talking about a wee bit of telly here. Kiss and make up. xx

Hugs and kisses and ponies.

SatelliteTV wrote:

Zak101 wrote:I read on the web....a startling piece of investigative research.... that foreigners in China were entitled to have satellite TV. Not so for the citizens of the PRC..

Yes Zak I have said that for a long time but been called a liar.

Apparently a lot of othe people know better even though they have never checked the laws. Satellite TV in CHina is not illegal, you just need a permit.

A permit that is usually virtually impossible to get unless one has some connections or happens to be running a large MNC or living in an expat compound. Much like the prοtest zones in the Olympic village...

^ Pile on!!!

You as an individula, will never, ever, ever get a permit.

Sat....Let's not go through this again please.

ANY dish mounted outside an apartment and used by an expat here for their own use is for all intents and purposes illegal.
Period
Full Stop
No other way it will ever be.

So although technically correct in your statement...I cannot beleive you could be such an idiot as to believe otherwise.

Please stop misleading the newbies.

SatelliteTV wrote:Not much I can do to compete with pirated systems or torrents which take a day to download.

I download 720p versions of many US and UK shows each week. Each one takes a couple of hours at most to download. I can watch in HD which as far as I know no satellite service can provide here, regardless of how much I pay. I download from newsgroups and can max my connection for the whole download.

I've also managed to watch every match my English football team have played this season by free P2P stream. I'm watching on my big TV not on a laptop screen. The streams are not perfect, but generally stable and free.

If I was back in the UK I would now do the same.

When I try to watch games on stream it is generally not stable and constantly buffering. I log out of all other programmes but still rubbish. I (alas) use China Telecom as my ISP. Any advice (apart from changing my ISP) jzzzzzzz?

If you are using a router (wired or wireless) you probably need to forward ports for TVAnts/Sopcast etc.

Has anyone else heard of a crackdown or are the authorities just leaning on our management? Anyone had this happen before? Any opinion on whether it will be permanent or not?

Wondering if anyone has heard anything to address the original question? I know that last year the Windsor compounds lost their satellite - rumor was that they did not pay the necessary "fees" to be allowed to have it. Also heard recently that some of the Zhudi area compounds lost theirs. As I said above, our compound has not admitted that they are permanently missing just that some channels are temporarily gone while the system is being "upgraded."
Our family watches mostly DVDs and online TV through tudou, youtube, etc so it isn't that big of a deal. We wouldn't spend the money on our own system - legal or illegal.

We didn't receive a letter, but starworld is gone...

p1atl10 wrote:
ANY dish mounted outside an apartment and used by an expat here for their own use is for all intents and purposes illegal.
.

SO PLAT10 what you are telling us that is other people should not have dishes as they are illegal. But it's ok for you to have them.

Thats why you have 2 dishes then eh?

BY the way, none of my own company's clients have any dishes at all in China they are all on streaming systems. So no dishes.

^wow.. you are truly amazing.. slick willy!

I guess all of those satellite systems you conned so many people into buying are just hooked up to what??? Paper plates? Tin cans?

SatelliteTV wrote:

p1atl10 wrote:
ANY dish mounted outside an apartment and used by an expat here for their own use is for all intents and purposes illegal.
.

SO PLAT10 what you are telling us that is other people should not have dishes as they are illegal. But it's ok for you to have them.

Thats why you have 2 dishes then eh?

BY the way, none of my own company's clietns have any dishes at all in China they are all on streaming systems. So no dishes.

Let's not got though this again.....

My dish is illegal.

Both of them....

As are 99.9% of all the dishes you see on all the balconies on all the apartments in town.

Choice I made knowing full well they are illegal, and there is a chance that at some point some nice neighborhood official could take it down.

(Luckily they always warn you first...takes about 5 minutes to take it down and hide it in the apartment!)

My ONLY point has always been that you should not decieve them into thinking otherwise.

Tell them the truth, let them make an informed decision on the facts, not your distortions and fine technical line about the legality.

If you have an illegal dish you are on the same moral ground as a backpacker who works on a L visa.

Snippets wrote:^wow.. you are truly amazing.. slick willy! I guess all of those satellite systems you conned so many people into buying are just hooked up to what??? Paper plates? Tin cans?

I never conned anybody into buying naything. We are all adults here.

Some people simpy chose to no longer use pirated systems so they can access more channels and not have the interruptions of pirate cards and have better picture quality.

The satellite agents like Eric Chen at dreamsatellite used to charge up to 8000RMB for Dream TV systems with pay cards with renewals at RMB6,000 a year

Now it's 3,000rmb for a new decoder with 12 months subscription. Yep what a con job that was, bringing the prices down. Subs will be around RMB1500 a year. Yes a real con job that is

Dishes illegal without a permit. I Have al;ways said so.