TELEVISION IN COSTA RICA

mburk wrote:

I live in Jaco Beach and have cable but get very few English speaking or US channels.  Can someone help me as to how to receive numerous TV channels please?

What service are you using?  Have you looked through the menu to see if you can set the language to English?   Is Claro available there?  If so, most of the available channels are U.S. stations and are in English.  When they first set it up they will be in español, but can be easily switched to English using the remote.

There's also satellite available at:   http://www.satellitecostarica.com/index … h-for-780/   

They are reasonably priced at $850 for initial set-up and then you just select what U.S. channels you want through Dish Network.  Your monthly fee will be determinate upon how many channels you choose.  I'm moving soon and plan to use their service at that time.    With this company, you do not pay until after the install, you are up and running and satisfied with the reception.

- Expat Dave

I use Cable Tica in Tamarindo - our condo does not have an option for purchase of a dish.  We get some US channels and English language programs (excluding NBC - not available in CR).  Also, make sure you set the language-audio setting to "Alternate SAP" - some channels will broadcast Spanish on the default setting and English on the Alternate setting.

If you have a decent internet connection (at least 5mbps), I'd recommend getting Sling TV and a smart DNS.   It'll get you NBC and most of the speciality channels.

Hi Dave.
Thanks for your reply.  The satellite sounds the best but I am not sure my Condo HOA will allow it.  I will check into it.  I have set the channels I get into English but there are so few decent channels to choose
from on the cable.  I live in Jaco near Croc's Casino.

Look into IPTV there are many options. BESTIPTV is about 7usd a month . You by may need to purchase a device to use it

Learn to use utorrent (free program) and download whatever tv shows you like (of course this would not include sports, and movies, while available are a bit harder to find good copies of). If you have at least 1.5 mb per second you can download a one hour tv show in anywhere from 20-60 minutes using a torrent. I use eztv web site for torrents.
Having a good anti-virus or anti-malware is important when using torrents. I use Emsisoft and Malwarebytes. The former is like $15 or so a year and the latter is free or pay depending on features. They work together very well and I've never had a virus nor any malware that was anything more than just annoying until I got rid of it.

Even major series on pay cable are available to download via torrents. is it legal?

That said, my wife likes to watch entertainment tv, you know, those cheesy live entertainment "news" shows. Ugh. So we got Claro satellite and it kinda sucks. Not just for us but for many people we know complain about it always going out for an hour or two especially when it's cloudy, windy or rainy. (!!)

But we watch all tv series and cable series we want either through torrents or through Netflix Costa Rica.

You can also install blue stacks on a PC or use and android box and install MOBDRO apk and install. Not in Google play store. Google and install. Then you can watch lots of live TV for free including sports and news services.

[Post under review]

Just FYI what people desperately need in Costa Rica is reliable INTERNET. We've pretty much got pretty good sat tv in most every place. But many many people are living with very unreliable internet, slow, etc.
I am lucky, mine is reliable but the speed varies greatly, from 2mbps to 14mbps. I'd be very happy with a reliable 4mbps connection that doesn't change with weather, # of people using it in the area, etc.  Just in case someone reading this is interested in getting into the internet business.

How much does Satellite TV run there in your area ?

Does Pluto TV come in on internet there?

buckner1673 wrote:

How much does Satellite TV run there in your area ?

About the same as in the USA, maybe a little cheaper.
However depending on where you live, being that it is coming from satellites, the cloudy windy rainy weather in some parts of CR may interfere with your signal at times, making it less reliable then the USA.
I don't have it but have heard many many people complaining about it.
Best thing (unless you watch a lot of Sports) is to learn to download TV shows free, use Netflix or Prime for movies, and pay a la carte for HBO or etc. via Prime.

I do not know for sure. I am guessing the answer is yes though. I never heard of it til  just now so I looked it up.

The only thing I have had trouble getting here in Costa Rica is USA tv channels: CBS, ABC, NBC, TNT, PBS etc. I get a message saying "not available in your country", when I try to get them via Fire TV.

If I think of it I'll check and see if I can get Pluto on my Fire TV. I'm curious now to see what they offer. If I do I'll come back here and let you know.

I do get youtube, Netflix, Spotify, Pandora, and some other channels using my Fire TV stick.

There are ways to use a router to make just about any service think you are IN the USA and then you can get anything the USA gets. However this has been beyond my level of expertise and I've never learned how to do it, nor is it a high priority for me. But there ARE people who know how to do it and it is possible if you're intent on doing it. You'll just have to learn how or find someone who knows.

I pay $ 9.00 a month and I watch everyting TV Shows, Networks, Movies and Sports on my Streaming Android System. Mo rain problrms and in HD.

buckner1673 wrote:

I pay $ 9.00 a month and I watch everyting TV Shows, Networks, Movies and Sports on my Streaming Android System. Mo rain problrms and in HD.

Do you wish to share How you do that?

neffdave wrote:

Does Pluto TV come in on internet there?

Okay now I know what Pluto TV is and I was able to watch it on my Computer only by using a proxy provided by my VPN (PrivateInternetAccess which is about $3 a month) and super easy to install and use on a computer.

However, since it does require an IP from the USA, that means I can watch it on my computer or phone or tablet in which I 've installed PIA (PrivateInternetAccess proxy service/VPN) but it almost surely will NOT work on Fire TV unless I were to go the route I mentioned above, where I would make my entire internet signal look like it's the USA, via altering my main modem where the internet signal comes into the house.
As I said, that is surely do-able but in my experience not super easy.
Maybe someone here will have a comment as to how to do it easily?

My VPN is expiring in a week or two. So I did some research. There are now 10 different VPN services for between 3 and $15 a month that are said to give you USA Netflix, Prime, and various other American TV options.

this link explains and reviews 10 different vpns that are available. I'm thinking of going with the one called cyberghost. Note that most of these have huge discounts right now, but when they renew they will go back to the original price which in some cases is over $100 per year. That's why I'm going with the one called cyberghost, because it is on sale now, but renews at that sale price or close to it. Some are available right now for $3 a month, but then they go up to $13 a month or more when they expire after a year or two.

anyway here is the link of reviews for the various options of vpn's.
https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/5-best-v … -actually-
If this forum kills the link above, just to do a Google search for vpnmentor.

One more thing. This review site says that private internet access makes USA Netflix available. However, it is the one I have been using for a few years, and I find that Netflix keeps blocking them. So while there may be some availability of Netflix  through PIA, I have found it to be very unreliable in that sense.

The good thing is that all of these companies will give you 30 days trial and if you don't like it within 30 days you can get your money back. And cyberghost has 45 days free trial.

Thanks for the great information.

What is streaming android service?  Does it go by another name?

Are you looking for cable TV in Costa Rica?

Im using nord now. So far so good for watching Netflix and hulu.

How much do you pay monthly?
Eddie

I can't remember what our internet service was, but I was able to get Netflix and Hulu with no problems in Montezuma and Delicias.....I hear they're laying high speed underground cables soon so the service should be much m ore reliable and people won't be able to steal the cables like they have in the past

Nord is a proxy service that makes it look like you are in the United States, and you can use it with Fire TV or I think Roku and with your computer and phone. It costs somewhere around $6 a month. But you have to buy it for a year or two to get that price.

TV boxes? Not sure what you mean.
With nord vpn you can connect your router to it, but then your router is always connected to it which I don't like to do.
So they have an app on Fire TV that you can turn on and off , that you can use to connect to Netflix and Prime and Hulu in the USA. Worked fine for me a couple weeks ago. I don't really use it often.
In other words, if you don't connect it directly to the router you can use it via Fire TV (probably others as well, like Roku) or your computer or phone and turn it on and off at will.
As for speed, it doesn't slow it up that much - maybe 10%.

There are a few different options.  Youtube TV, a IPTV box from Amazon.com with GOTV or CLOUDTV app or Super Sonic Streams and a firestick.

I've used the free FortiClient VPN to allow access to shows in the US while in Costa Rica.