TV signals changed? Netflix?

We have just reconnected our cable service with UPC.
Everytime we re connect with them they give us a totally different box for WiFi, this time we got a box for the tv set where as last time we had no box for the tv.
The thing is I gave up long ago with HU tv so we bought a cheap used dual system older Sony which I was able to use with my US VHS exercise tapes.
This older tv set does not work with the new box UPC gave us to be able to pick up the 59 cannals  that go with our new cable contract.
My husband can pick up only 29 of them and they are all in HU.
I don't care much as long as I get the internet service.
I pick up Netflix from my US contract, in the states my name is still on the house cable services.
Weird to live in two worlds at once.
So far my Netflix is coming in nice and fast without some of the issues we had with the old WiFi box we had in HU.
Our phone didn't work for over a week, they had to reset everything a week after we thought we were good to go.
My son has e-mailed me a half dozen times but only 2 messages have come through so far, not sure if it is our cable line or something off with google.
If I  was sure I was going to stay in HU for good, I would buy a modern tv set but I am never sure about anything these days.
If you find out what's up with the internet and tv. please inform us all.

I use Netflix,original US. TV shows.Try it for a month.

My husband looked up Netflix here in Hungary, so far it looks to all be in English.
8 Euro's 12 or more depending on how many computers you want to use and the quality HD, etc.
First month is free but you need a bank card .
For now we are using our Netflix from the US, so far so good.

I had Netflix in US before i moved. Then here in Hungary there is Netflix so no account changes. I have been trying to get this VPN to work for 3 or 4 months so i can watch US Netflix so i can not say how switching between the 2 is.

But as far as using Netflix here it works well internet wise i see no drop in speed or anything using the same laptop i did in US. 

Oh Netflix will put things in whatever default language you chose. If you want that to be English everything that can be in English will be. That said just like in US many things are in subtiltes even if the title and info about the movie, show is in english. You just have to look at the details. Very little is dubbed although i have noticed the European Spanish films from Spain to be dubbed into english and really badly also!

We have UPC for our internet and cable and landline.  We have like 30 english stations 30 Hungarian ones, i know there is 1 or 2 in French only for some reason.

It is only 12 thousand HUF so very cheap.

I don't know much about the cable services over there - my husband's family uses something like satellite. That might be worth a shot if you haven't considered it already.

Netflix in Hungary is pretty good and the selections are quite various considering how new it is there. (Heck, I live in Canada and am missing a few movies and shows I would have liked to watch). As for dubs and subs it is mainly in english and Spanish.  You'll have a few things in German, Chinese and other "main" languages. Basically, nothing in Hungarian. If that isn't too much of an issue then I definitely reccomend - doubly so since its so cheap. Try it for a month and see.

Actually I was at my MILs last week and noticed she's got a new digital box for over the air TV.  She never had one before.  So yes, it looks like the old method of transmission is dead. 

Kids now using the IPTV which they never used as we had the English sound track enabled.  However, as Spongebob was on No. 1 Fluffyette and Mrs Fluffy managed to figure out how to change it to Hungarian.  I knew but didn't tell them how to do it.  My evil plan was thwarted.

I suppose no point in buying a box now.  My TV already has digital TV decoder in it but it cannot pick up any HU signals on that method. Probably changed the frequency. 

Looks like decoder boxes are needed now regardless of the TV type you are using. 

Shame they haven't fixed the digital radio yet.  I hope they will provide a lot of international (English) radio when they do.

Yes, I wish the radio had some decent classic rock stations here in HU.
For now, I have to get onto internet radio to get my "groove on"!

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Yes, I wish the radio had some decent classic rock stations here in HU.
For now, I have to get onto internet radio to get my "groove on"!

You might like this radio station Marilyn: Planet Rock

Might be a bit unreliable on a bad Internet connection.

I brought two digital radios over. I really miss the service. Internet radio is ok but we do not have it in the countryside yet.

anns wrote:

I brought two digital radios over. I really miss the service. Internet radio is ok but we do not have it in the countryside yet.

If you have Internet, you can of course listen to the radio by streaming it.  The digital radio probably won't work if you brought it from the UK. My  DAB radio doesn't work here.

We have been unable to set up with an internet provider in the countryside but I do have internet in town.

anns wrote:

We have been unable to set up with an internet provider in the countryside but I do have internet in town.

Oh dear.  That's not so good. Only option is 3G or 4G mobile with flat rate unlimited connection.  I reckon that would cost about 30 EUR a month.

PAYG for 3G is way too expensive to be a serious proposition. I use a 3G PAYG connection in Balaton twice a year and coverage and speed is atrocious.  Our "family traffic" alone is 40+ GB a month.

European mobile services are generally appalling. I've had better quality and faster connections in under developed African and Asian countries - unlimited PAYG connections for EUR 20 a month.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Only option is 3G or 4G mobile with flat rate unlimited connection.

If you know of a Hungarian provider that provides unbundled 4G wireless with an unlimited connection that would be great to share. 

We have no phone lines at all, and are completely wireless. T-Mobile has very good 4G wireless service in our area, but it's wireless broadband offerings max out at 20 GB a month for about 7,700 HUF (25 Euro). If you go beyond that, you can still use the Internet, but it is really slowed down.

But even 20 GB I would think should be more than enough for general browsing and Internet radio if coverage is available in one's area.

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

Only option is 3G or 4G mobile with flat rate unlimited connection.

If you know of a Hungarian provider that provides unbundled 4G wireless with an unlimited connection that would be great to share. 

We have no phone lines at all, and are completely wireless. T-Mobile has very good 4G wireless service in our area, but it's wireless broadband offerings max out at 20 GB a month for about 7,700 HUF (25 Euro). If you go beyond that, you can still use the Internet, but it is really slowed down.

But even 20 GB I would think should be more than enough for general browsing and Internet radio if coverage is available in one's area.

I was working on general knowledge of the market rather than here specifically. I had a quick look and it's pretty bad here compared with some other countries and yes, I can see they throttle it back over 20GB.  Stupid. 

In my (recent) experience gives me an impression Europe is woeful.  I think Mrs Fluffy has unlimited Internet on her phone but easily enough we can make it a general purpose router and phone.  They didn't intend to sign her for such a purpose but I will try and check her tarif.

One thing you might be able to do is club together with your neighbours if someone within line of sight is able to get a DSL or fibre connection to T-Com.  Then, with  a decent enough router, using wireless (limits for decent connection, maybe 200m with reasonable good directional antenna, 300+ m with fiddling), all the sharers can piggyback onto a shared T-Com service.  It's a fairly common method these days to try and overcome these kind of signal hassle - it's really common to make WiFi connection like this in Africa.  Necessity is the mother of invention. 

If you can cross your land, directly to the neighbours place then it's possible to install a fibre cable at relatively low cost.  It could just be strung on fence posts, doesn't have to be buried.  I actually share my Internet with my neighbours when theirs is broken but I only use WiFi for that.   It might actually also be possible to install a decent land connection to an outbuilding (where there's power) then use own fibre to the house.   Even without power, it's possible using solar power (but this would be $$).

We burn up 40GB+ because we watch TV over the internet, the kids are on Youtube these days and now they've started streaming music.  We've also got a rapidly growing selection of networked equipment which is directly accessible from the Internet - everyone now has a laptop and a WiFi enabled mobile.  And we also have a server, projector, various small net tops, monitoring cameras, various access points etc. Between the 4 of us, I think we've got about 15-16 active devices.  But I'm a professional geek so I like fiddling with all this stuff.

BTW, 4G coverage in your area shown here in a map: Vodafone 4G map.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I was working on general knowledge of the market rather than here specifically.

Darn. You had my hopes up there for a while.

fluffy2560 wrote:

One thing you might be able to do is club together with your neighbours if someone within line of sight is able to get a DSL or fibre connection to T-Com

Already checked on that.   

The nearest wired connection of any type is 6 km away. No one here is going to out of their pocket pay to dig a ditch that long. And actually live in a National Park, no above ground wires allowed of any type other than for power. We could not even get a phone wire installed here.

4G is fast enough. Just wish there was more than 20 GB with T-Mobile. We had another company earlier, but they became terrible. T-Mobile has been pretty good so far.

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

I was working on general knowledge of the market rather than here specifically.

Darn. You had my hopes up there for a while.

The nearest wired connection of any type is 6 km away. No one here is going to out of their pocket pay to dig a ditch that long. And actually live in a National Park, no above ground wires allowed of any type other than for power. We could not even get a phone wire installed here.....

Sorry. I just think about the technology, then search for the provider.

You can go 6km but you'd need the cooperation of a few neighbours. I think with unlicensed bands/frequencies you might be able to get a link via a repeater subject to power restrictions.  On the other hand, if you happen to see a tower anywhere in line of sight of your location, they might let you put up your own microwave back haul or "mirror".  Then you can link to someone else on from there.  The cable doesn't have to be buried. It could be just strung on fence posts and 6km is no distance technologically.  Financially it's not very good.   Community systems though are very common in many parts of the world, including the USA.   BTW, they can put data down the power lines if they care to. Power cables can come with a central fibre core. But they have to make an effort to do it.

fluffy2560 wrote:

You can go 6km but you'd need the cooperation of a few neighbours.

From long experience living in this area, neighbors would rather not gain from cooperation if it means their neighbor would also benefit, due to a 20 year feud starting when that neighbor's chicken pooped once on their property. Pettiness is pretty high here. 

fluffy2560 wrote:

The cable doesn't have to be buried. It could be just strung on fence posts and 6km is no distance technologically.

National park rules. No above ground wires (except for holding up grapes). Not even on fence posts. We asked. 

But not just that, it assumes everyone knows what that wire is for. If it is reachable, someone, at some time, would come along and think.... "What is this doing here" and cut it. Communication is also a weak point here.

klsallee wrote:

.....Pettiness is pretty high here. 

Not just there. Here too.  Local government just told me my balcony was unacceptable and I had to change the design and make it "solid" so I cannot be seen lounging about  on the balcony from the road. 

We were also told our balcony doors are 3cm (yes, 3cm!!) in the wrong position and we have to buy replacements (the ones installed are brand new!!).  Yeah, like we'll do that.  Bonkers.  I can live with modifying the balcony but not buying new doors over such nonsense.

The only thing you can do on your network is try to find someone in line of sight who has the same problem and then another person in line of sight to a location where there is telecom service.  Then you could use each location as a repeater while dropping the service in at each location.  In Africa, they use domestic satellite dishes as reflectors for wifi transmitters.  It seems to work very well. I was told with fiddling about, and being high up enough and LOS (Line of Sight), they could get 10km on a good day.

Cooperation is the only way it can work.  Plenty of communities do it.  But here, as you say, cooperation is unlikely.

fluffy2560 wrote:

klsallee wrote:

.....Pettiness is pretty high here. 

Not just there. Here too.  Local government just told me my balcony was unacceptable and I had to change the design and make it "solid" so I cannot be seen lounging about  on the balcony from the road..... We were also told our balcony doors are 3cm (yes, 3cm!!) in the wrong position......

Did they provide the exact law reference and or local regulation that requires that you have a "solid" wall or move your doors? If not, you can ask them to provide it, and if they do not, their "opinion" means nothing in Hungary legally. Many times local governments try to fake out people with false authority.

But if there is a such a regulation, then it stinks, but you have to comply. Meanwhile, watching a neighbor building a house that is beyond all local regulations in size. My "rumor mills" sources say the owner is a big wig in some Hungarian bank. Money and connections do seem to have advantages here. Pettiness is trumped by corruption.

Side note: when in Tapolca recently, having lunch at the very touristic "Mill Lake", I got to watch someone hanging up their laundry in their yard. Now that was really appetizing.... No one can see you on your balcony, but no regulation about seeing laundry? 

I am sooo tempted at times to buy a pair of super big grannie panties and a bra and hang them outside our flat, so tried of seeing people's laundry hanging off the railings in the house, just so tacky!
I have a odd sense of humor, probably no one would get the joke if I hung up huge panties and a super sized bra, just so gross...
Last year someone had a blouse hanging outside for months on end, never took it in.
I found out later that the women was trying to use the blouse to scare off birds in the building, come on, we live in a city any sort of nature is welcome.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

I am sooo tempted at times to buy a pair of super big grannie panties and a bra and hang them outside our flat, so tried of seeing people's laundry hanging off the railings in the house, just so tacky!

LOL!! 

As you know I have my stuff hanging on a line along my walkway. Fortunately I don't share this area with any one else. Neighbours probably disapproved when i first used my English Gypsy clothesline but now they all hang out on those concertinas fold up things.
However , I hang the underwear behind or dry it in the house. In my block we have groups of good looking male medical students and I could probably carry two of their heads home in my bra.  I don't want to scare them. Our washing line at the Tanya is well out of sight. In some villages in the UK the lords and ladies don't let people hang washing out on a Sunday.

klsallee wrote:

Did they provide the exact law reference and or local regulation that requires that you have a "solid" wall or move your doors? If not, you can ask them to provide it, and if they do not, their "opinion" means nothing in Hungary legally. Many times local governments try to fake out people with false authority.

It's a good point.  Our plans were approved with the solid wall but I thought it made the place look like a guard tower so I suggested we have brushed aluminium or stainless steel.  Strangely, other places being built also have these "blockers" on them but yet other ones do not.  So who knows.  I see this as decoration and personal taste.  There's likely another show down over the pergola shown on the plans.  If they insist on that, then it's pistols at dawn/mortal combat. 

As for the windows, we'll move them 3cm "sometime".  By the time the inspector returns,  it'll be too late really and he might forget.   

I have to say we modified parts of the plans on the fly because the design didn't work in practice - chimney was in the wrong place, stairs and doors oddly positioned.  So we changed them with our builder redrawing the plans themselves.  We took the risk we'd just pay a fine and if they said nothing, then fine!

Inspector never said anything about those parts.  Fingers crossed.

klsallee wrote:

But if there is a such a regulation, then it stinks, but you have to comply. Meanwhile, watching a neighbor building a house that is beyond all local regulations in size. My "rumor mills" sources say the owner is a big wig in some Hungarian bank. Money and connections do seem to have advantages here. Pettiness is trumped by corruption.

Yes of course. When we lived in District III of Budapest, some big cheese  (also head of a bank) built a very inapproriate palace next to our apartment building.  Strange really as it was protected land.  Dug into the hill and removed a chunk of it.  There are several other encroachments like that around here too.   There are also some ludicrously inappropriate designs around here too.  Very over developed, all fake French chateau with giant iron gates - in a suburban street.

klsallee wrote:

Side note: when in Tapolca recently, having lunch at the very touristic "Mill Lake", I got to watch someone hanging up their laundry in their yard. Now that was really appetizing.... No one can see you on your balcony, but no regulation about seeing laundry? 

No-one wants their damp laundry in their apartment building.  It'll just lead to mould due to "kontar" (bodged) construction and terrible ventilation.  Stick it outside. In this weather it'll dry in about 5 minutes.

I always think of my Hungarian MIL when I hang my laundry up.
I actually did wash her "big grannie panties" and her personal laundry for her and hung them up outside at her large yard in Erd, problem was I did it on a Sunday and she had a fit, what would the neighbors say hanging clothing on a Sunday?! Could never make that women happy no matter what.

We  have a loft area inside our flat which comes in handy for drying but honestly I hate drying clothing indoors, still there is no area outside to dry in private, I know in the old times many buildings  had a common roof top room for clothing drying, these days they have been turned into rooftop flats for profit.
I have just discovered a self serve laundry not far from our flat, I think when the weather turns chilly I will start going there and use their dryers.

fluffy2560 wrote:

No-one wants their damp laundry in their apartment building.  It'll just lead to mould due to "kontar" (bodged) construction and terrible ventilation.  Stick it outside. In this weather it'll dry in about 5 minutes.

Sorry, my error. I was apparently not clear. I will attempt to clarify.

I have no problem with drying laundry outside.

But, if one does that, IMHO, one should consider doing it in a place that is not completely obvious, and in line of sight, to the neighbors.

And also i was obtusely commenting on what seemed as a double standard: requiring building a wall so nobody should see you lounging on your property, while finding it perfectly okay for underwear to flap quite visible in the breeze, in a tourist area, where people are eating (or at least trying to eat).

fluffy2560 wrote:

Our plans were approved

There is a saying: It is easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission

There in may be your mistake......

It has taken me years to get the right paperwork to do anything, while I see others apparently just "doing it" (As Nike might say).

Yeah, it kind of stinks. But that is reality here.

Following the rules is almost a guarantee for heartburn here. Yet, I still do it. At times, I wonder if I am the only one. 

Maybe I need to see a psychiatrist.....

No, your not the only one who tries to follow the rules.
My husband is still so darn paranoid of the gov. at times ( lived the first 23 years of his life in commie days, the hard 50's and 60's) that he would rather just let things slide then deal with them.
Doesn't wish to "rock the boat" baby...
Glad to hear that the plans were approved, nice to hear some good news.

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

Our plans were approved

There is a saying: It is easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission
....
Maybe I need to see a psychiatrist.....

Well approved to the extent that feel they have the authority to interfere anytime.

Mrs Fluffy has told me how it will go - just enough to pass the inspections, then we do not need to "consult" them further.  Apparently, this comes down to our reconstructed property having a "kitchen, bathroom and bedroom" which is easy to achieve. 

BTW, I do not think pergola falls into essentials, nor does choosing our tiles.  And yes, we've told what colour our balcony tiles should be. It's such a heavy hint, I do not know think we can refuse.

I almost feel like they are inviting themselves in a little too much now