Ray Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 I will only comment on the internet services I'm familiar with, and television.We have Cable Onda (national cable TV service with Spanish language channels + Fox news) for internet. Since arriving at our current residence the speed has improved, and may be higher or lower than other areas. But it has always been adequate for email, online searches and TV services. Currently we have about 20MB download. Probably max. speed for the area. Up to 50 MB (maybe more by now) in Panama City area, I've been told. Outlying areas are not generally served by the cable, and the only alternative is Planet Telecom (land lines & satellite??). It is very expensive (been told $100 + by those required to use due to location) and slow, about 3-4MB speed.Assuming one locates where there is adequate internet service available, there are options for television beyond Cable Onda. The USTV Now network, operating out of Harrisburg, PA area, have an American TV internet offering of about 28 channels. 6 basic channels are available for FREE with your sign up (to be able to log in and use). The monthly charge is $29 per month for the full channel offering, and there is an option for a DVR service as well. They also have a trial subscription of $19 per month for the full channel service for the first 3 months. See ustvnow.com for details. You must be 'outside' the US to qualify for the service.Additionally there are other options dependent upon family 'connections' for other US viewing access. A VPN (virtual private network) is a required connection which can make it 'appear' you are somewhere you are not. My current service can put me in 9 US locations, and 20+ foreign countries. An online search for VPN's will find options.By using a VPN, with the explosion of 'On Demand' services being offered by US cable companies (Comcast/Xfinity, Frontier Communications, and the like as well as several networks) it is possible to log into family subscriptions and view On Demand and Live programming. 'Chiriqui Chatter' (authored by Don Ray, US Embassy warden in David, Panama) has had recent articles about his use of KODI and TVMC for other on demand programming.Other info: Panama computers are Spanish language.....few exceptions....maybe special orders. Television sets are compatible with US specs, or US manufactured. There are places, more where more populated, where devices can be purchased and serviced/repaired.Many cell phones are US compatible, changeable sims. Pre-paid or subscription accounts are available, and internet data plans are also available from several companies.....Mas Movil, Digicel, Claro, Movistar are the major companies nationwide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudyS Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 A recent option for TV is IPTV. It is a streaming service using a small box. It can be used with direct ethernet connection to a router or wireless. No VPN is needed. You get live TV (all the networks - CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC FOX, etc. plus ESPN and many sports channels). Also there is a huge selection of video on demand movies and TV episodes as well as radio (NPR, etc.), music. Everything. It also has third party apps like KODI. This is the only option I know of, except for slingbox and USTVnow.com, that offers live TV. It requires a minimum internet speed of 4 meg, but works much better with 10 to 20 meg. There are two providers of this service. Both speak English:Carlos de Campos, carlos_decampos@hotmail.com 6752-0782and Juan Arauz at Overclock Center in San Francisco Plaza Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonnie Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 I would not encourage anyone to get IPTV right now. We have had it for about a month. It worked pretty well at first, with only occasional freezing, but seems to have gotten progressively worse. It has been unwatchable the last three nights and much of the last three days. It certainly could be attributable to forces outside of IPTV itself--such as Internet overload--but whatever it is, it isn't worth the price we paid at this point. We took the plunge and are hoping to see improvement.Are other IPTV users experiencing the same problems? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Woolford Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Can you clear the cache? Just a guess, i don't have one, Bonnie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonnie Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Unfortunately, I have no idea how to "clear the cache." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoJo Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Bonnie, have you called the guy that installed it? Maybe he has a clue as to what the problem is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudyS Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Clearing the cache is not applicable for IPTV. It doesn't work through your computer. It works through a box attached to your TV by a HDMI cable. There is no cache. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonnie Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 The guy who installed it (Juan Arauz) was here late yesterday afternoon. He installed a more powerful router for us to try, but it was worse than ever last night. Juan thinks it's problems with Internet capacity. Whether this can be resolved is anybody's guess. Very frustrating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twin Wolf Technology Group Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Bonnie - just my guess but I suspect you are suffering slow downs and bandwidth problems out on the Internet and not at your home. If you are getting the large amount of bandwidth at your home that you have reported and are getting that bandwidth at the time you are having issues with IPTV - then it is very likely the problem is network congestion out on the Internet or issues at the IPTV service provider. Any network congestion on the Internet is going to cause problems like you are seeing. Also, as the programming is routed from the original source to the IPTV provider before going to you, this adds another layer for these bandwidth problems to occur. A "more powerful router" is very unlikely to solve the issues since it sounds like the problem is not at your home. I would encourage you to check out KODI as Don Ray has been describing or talk to Juan Arauz about it. It is one less layer of "service providers" and a more direct route to the source of the actual programming, thereby minimizing the possibility of running into network congestion. The other benefit is that KODI accomplishes the same thing you are trying to do with IPTV at little to no cost. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Woolford Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Clearing the cache is not applicable for IPTV. It doesn't work through your computer. It works through a box attached to your TV by a HDMI cable. There is no cache.Yes, i'm aware it's an interface and I'm not sure what box IPTV is using, but it does contain a processor with a memory cache. To the best of my knowledge, the IPTV platform is KODI which I recently installed on a Fire TV box. I am not very familiar with it yet, but have noticed apps with tools which mention 'clearing the cache'. Here's what Google turned up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudyS Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 I have an AVOV box. My platform is not KODI. It is a platform called Micky Hop. I will find out for sure. Maybe Juan's is based on KODI. I have had no trouble with freezing today. There was some last night. In general it works very well with minimal freezing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudyS Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 (edited) Update: The AVOV box does not have Micky Hop platform or a KODI platform. Here's what Carlos said:Aov's platform is "Stalker Middleware" A.K.A known as the backend as well. This is the software that is incorporated in the Avov device to connect to the server. There are many Android devices with different Middleware platforms with different IPTV providers. I am sure Juan's is different. Only a handle full of Android devices have built in Stalker Middleware to work on our server. Edited October 14, 2015 by JudyS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Woolford Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 (edited) Update: The AVOV box does not have Micky Hop platform or a KODI platform. Here's what Carlos said:Aov's platform is "Stalker Middleware" A.K.A known as the backend as well. This is the software that is incorporated in the Avov device to connect to the server. There are many Android devices with different Middleware platforms with different IPTV providers. I am sure Juan's is different. Only a handle full of Android devices have built in Stalker Middleware to work on our server.http://select-pedia.com/tutos/2015/07/how-to-clear-the-cache-on-kodi-genesis-and-iptv-stalker-stops-buffering/not saying this is your problem but it might be worth checking out Edited October 14, 2015 by Keith Woolford Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudyS Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Before you do all that messing around with your system, know that the freezing problem has been happening all over the world the last couple of days. The provider has been in beta mode and is doing the last steps to finalize the system. It is causing some odd behavior, including freezing. Be patient.http://ftazeta.com/iptv-only-general-discussions/75374-iptv-freezing-like-crazy.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudyS Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 From the horse's mouth (the horse being Carlos):Re: freezing "Yes beta mode is ending thats why all the hoopla."Re: Cache clearing, "Clearing the cache is for Kodi users. Kodi applications can also run stalker. No cache clearing is necessary on the Avov android.". 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Ray Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 This is my latest post on my IPTV experience and available hardware.http://www.chiriquichatter.net/blog/2015/10/15/iptv-and-streaming-hardware-in-panama-from-my-perspective/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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