[FilipH]

Here are five ways people can use to get their Olympics fix:

P2P Streaming. China is the motherland of P2P streaming, with almost a dozen vendors offering live TV transmissions. The leading Chinese P2P TV platform PPLive is officially licensed to show the games — but only to an audience within China. PPLive told us it will restrict the transmissions to IP addresses from within the country. Hardcore fans might want to try to access the transmissions through a Chinese proxy server, but the chances this will work for a bigger audience are rather slim. After all, people usually tend to use proxy servers to access web sites outside of the PRC. Of course, there are other companies that seem to care less about filters and licenses. Both soccer and NBA fans have previously reported success with PPStream, PPMate, Sopcast, TVUPlayer and TVKoo.

Live video sites. Move over, Chris Pirillo: Streaming video hosters like Ustream, Stickam and Justin.tv will see a bunch of people trying to relay TV coverage of the games. The sites will probably try to shut down some of these efforts, but there’s a good chance that some will fall through the cracks. Who knows, maybe we’ll even see new kinds of spot coverage coming right out of someone’s living room, Mystery Science Theater-style?

YouTube. Granted, the official Olympics coverage will not be available to visitors with States-based IP addresses. But that won’t stop users that access YouTube through a proxy server based in India or any of the other 76 countries that have access to the IOC channel. Users will also upload excerpts and highlights from the competitions on their own. Google will try to filter these submissions, but, as Liz already noted, those filters won’t catch everything.

Torrent sites. BitTorrent has long been a good option for time-shifting TV, with some shows even finding their way online between the East Coast and the West Coast premiere, so we’ll likely see quite a few Olympic TV moments on torrent sites as well. Torrents should pop up on major sites like Mininova and The Pirate Bay as well as specialized, invite-only communities like Sportbit.org within hours of the major competitions. Just don’t expect a cheerful Pirate Bay doodle. Site admin Peter Sunde aka Brokep has announced on his blog that he doesn’t want to help out the Chinese government by drawing attention to the games: “In my opinion the Olympics should never be held in a country like that.”

Foreign TV. The BBC is broadcasting the Olympics online — with up to seven live streams, no less — and broadcasters in other countries will offer their own coverage on the web as well, oftentimes using fewer technical hurdles than NBC. Granted, most of these streams will be protected by IP filters, but once again, proxy servers should be able to solve this problem. And I wouldn’t be too surprised if someone figures out a way to access a stream of some obscure Russian TV station without any proxy.


source : 5 Alternative Ways to Watch the Olympics Online

[hullexile]

Or just watch Pearl?

[jonnye]

Originally Posted by hullexile

Or just watch Pearl?

Well, yes, but the Pearl schedule that was sent through a week or so ago didn't exactly excite me. Having multiple events take place simultaneously means that you're at the whim of watching what Pearl wish to broadcast.

I'll miss the BBC digital coverage where I could hit the red button and choose the sport I wanted to watch. The fact that the BBC are streaming up to 7 simultaneous 'channels' is very interesting. Just need to sort out a proxy - which has not proven easy with iPlayer in the past ...

I mean, damnit, how else am I going to get my fix of Greco-Roman wrestling!

[saun-fam]

Thank you for this post! We've decided not to sign up for cable (too many channels of stuff we didn't want for too much $$) but I've been bummed I couldn't get the Olympics. We knew about bittorrent, and are exploring the nbc.com site which should also have downloads, but its great to know about some alternatives!

[KnowItAll]

jonnye - take a look at VPNTunnel - Protecting your freedom online

[jonnye]

KIA - thanks for the link ... that does look very promising indeed.

[FilipH]

According to SMCP "Hongkongers will also be able to watch the Games on the internet - i-Cable will broadcast all the competitions on four "streaming" channels available through its Chinese-language website http://2008.i-cable.com"

And for the HDTV's out there according to SMCP as well ...

"ATV will show the Games on its Home channel, but households capable of receiving high-definition TV signals will also be able to watch events on its Olympic 13, Olympic 14, Olympic 15 and HD Olympic 19 channels."

[KnowItAll]

>> KIA - thanks for the link ... that does look very promising indeed.

I'm going to blow GBP10 on it and test tonight, would love to be able to get access to the BBC iPlayer.

[FilipH]

doublepost

[jonnye]

Originally Posted by KnowItAll

>> KIA - thanks for the link ... that does look very promising indeed.

I'm going to blow GBP10 on it and test tonight, would love to be able to get access to the BBC iPlayer.

Heh - I've just signed up too. They use PayPal as their automated payment system, although you can also call them to make a payment. So far my account hasn't been creditted though. I seem to remember that PayPal isn't always instantaneous.

Tech interest: it seems as though it uses openvpn as the technology, with username/password in combination with signed certificates. The supplied client is a Java based one, but there's no reason to think that if you can get the certificates used by the client you couldn't run your tunnel from a Linux system. Or even BSD if you're that way inclined...