The Equipment We’re Using

There are lots of different set-ups you could use, but this is the system we’re using to trial this new (to us) method of watching TV abroad: We have this:

• A 12V Cello TV (available on Amazon)
• A Huawei MiFi with (optional) roof-mounted antenna (available from motorhomewifi.com)
• A Vodafone data SIM which gives 15GB per month for £20 (more information here)
• A NowTV box (ours is old and needs 230V power, but newer ‘stick’ versions don’t need this and are available from Amazon)
• An alternative to the NowTV box is the Amazon Fire Stick

If you wanted to, you could avoid much of this kit. For example, you could simply pop the Vodafone SIM into an iPad, and watch using the NowTV app. We like our motorhome’s Internet set-up though, as it means we can easily share a single Internet connection with both of our phones, laptops, our Kindles and so on.

How It Works

This is how the system brings the TV into your motorhome:

• The MiFi connects to a 3G or 4G network wherever you are
• The MiFi then creates a private WiFi network in your van
• You connect the NowTV to a HDMI port (or USB depending on which model you have) on your TV
• You use the NowTV remote to connect the NowTV box to your WiFi network
• You can then use the NowTV remote to select which streaming service you want to watch – some are free such as the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 catch up services (iPlayer, ITVHub, All 4 etc) while others need you to buy passes (various Sky channels, Netflix etc)

How Much Data It Uses

On the NowTV system we have, you can’t tell it to use SD quality so it always streams in HD. On a test we watched an hour of faultless TV by the beach in France (hey’s it’s raining!) and it used 0.78GB of data. With a 50GB Vodafone SIM this means you could watch 60 hours of TV a month for £30 (conditions here), if you didn’t use the data for anything else.

This Australian article is useful for getting an idea of how much data other popular streaming services use. For example, if watching on a device which lets you change quality settings (like laptop), you can force Netflix to stream at lower quality so it only uses about 300MB an hour. That’s less than half the data used per hour on our NowTV test.

We’re not Using a VPN

In the video above we weren’t using a VPN. A VPN (like Tunnel Bear – which is about £50 a year for unlimited data) can be used to make it appear that you’re physically located in the UK, even when you’re actually in another country. As far as I know we’d have to watch through a laptop, smart phone or tablet if we needed to use a VPN. Some websites limit their functionality or don’t allow streaming services to people who are outside the UK, so a VPN can be useful in those circumstances. We expected the BBC iPlayer wouldn’t work without a VPN, but it did, for our hour-long test at least. Technically watching iPlayer abroad (unless you downloaded the content in the UK) also breaches rights agreements, so best avoided to stay within the letter of the law. This Which article may be useful for assessing which streaming services are likely to work outside the UK.

Our Thoughts on Internet TV

We’ve only done a quick test to confirm the system works, so we’re not yet sure whether it will be as usable across Europe as it is here in France. The 4G connection we’re on is giving us a massive 40 to 50MBit download speed (and 30 to 40GBit upload), so it’s no surprise the TV streams so well. Can we get similar speeds across Europe? Maybe not, but since the NowTV system works perfectly at home with a 10MBit download speed, that probably won’t matter.

The system uses a fair amount of data though, and we’ve currently opted for the 15GB/£20 a month Vodafone SIM, so we’re only likely to use this setup to watch programs we really don’t want to miss. We also have a satellite TV system, which uses no data at all, although it needs fettling to get it working again. Finally we have the entire world out of the habitation door to go look at, and a library full of books on our Kindles to enjoy. It’s still great to have the option to crack open British TV whenever/wherever we want though, when the evenings are dark and the skies are grey!

What do You Reckon?

Are you using the Internet to watch TV abroad in your motorhome or campervan? What are your experiences? What equipment are you using? We’d love to hear what’s working well for you.

Cheers, Jay