Mobile solution?

Hi all.
My parents have a caravan which they use every weekend for about 6 months a year.
They have a tv in the 'lounge' but they want to be able to take there laptop to occasionally watch a bit of freeview in the bedroom and do a bit of surfing.
I know PAYG may be the best option but I dont know roughly what the usage would be, particularly watching freeview.
I'm hoping there may be others with a similar scenario who could tell me what their solution is.
Thanks for any advice.
Jeff

Edited by deleted (Mon 14-Feb-11 13:27:53)

If it was me, for the TV I would try the 'TV USB tuner' route to avoid any 3G charges - else it could cost you a fortune

Amazon have some around the £20 mark...

Why would watching Freeview, via a terrestrial aerial, affect their broadband usage?
What is the TV in the lounge connected to? - Can't you split the input and, has been said, use a USB tuner?

Edited by deleted (Mon 14-Feb-11 13:35:35)

Ok, so this is probably going to sound really stupid, but I thought you still had to be connected to the net to use a USB tv tuner?

Nope. Nothing to do with the net. The PC is acting just like a TV.

In reply to a post by Stevenage_Neil:

Nope. Nothing to do with the net. The PC is acting just like a TV.

DOH!!
So the next question is, could you recommend a USB tuner.

Hauppage is arguably the best, but you "takes your choice".

If your parents are telly addicts, and if they have Sky TV at home - with a broadband connection at home, and if mobile broadband fees are no object, then look at Slingbox - they can watch, and control, their Sky box from the luxury of their caravan bedroom! If the caravan site has free Wi-Fi forget about the mobile broadband charges.

Edited by deleted (Mon 14-Feb-11 13:52:43)

In reply to a post by Stevenage_Neil:

Hauppage is arguably the best, but you "takes your choice".

If your parents are telly addicts, and if they have Sky TV at home - with a broadband connection at home, and if mobile broadband fees are no object, then look at Slingbox - they can watch, and control, their Sky box from the luxury of their caravan bedroom! If the caravan site has free Wi-Fi forget about the mobile broadband charges.

lol, no they're not tv addicts and they dont have sky.
Going back to what you said earlier about splitting the input, how would this work exactly?
AFAIK they have an arieal from the roof going into the lounge and thats it.
And many thanks for your help so far

A 99p "Y" splitter, (B&Q, local hardware store etc), and a length of co-ax cable, with connectors, to go from the lounge to the bedroom.

In reply to a post by Stevenage_Neil:

A 99p "Y" splitter, (B&Q, local hardware store etc), and a length of co-ax cable, with connectors, to go from the lounge to the bedroom.

Sounds simple enough, even for them!!
Back to the original question, if they want to surf the net occasionally what would be the best option, PAYG?
Any good deals about at the moment?

In reply to a post by steadyeddie:

In reply to a post by Stevenage_Neil:

Nope. Nothing to do with the net. The PC is acting just like a TV.

DOH!!
So the next question is, could you recommend a USB tuner.

We also use a laptop in the caravan for both TV & Internet.

For TV, we use something like this :-
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/140509131659 .... (Cost = Sub £5)
and plug it into the Std caravan roof-aerial cable/amp.
Works like a dream, & not bad for recording, either.


And for internet we use a 3 dongle (as they generally seem to cover more areas than many others) with a PAYG SIM .

In reply to a post by steadyeddie:

Going back to what you said earlier about splitting the input, how would this work exactly?
AFAIK they have an arieal from the roof going into the lounge and thats it.

Most caravans generally have at least the basic "Status Omni-directional" roof aerial fitted (looks like a small "flying saucer") ....

These USED to be somewhat poor for digital TV as they often got "swamped" by the stronger analogue TV signals ... However, now most/all areas have switched off the old analogue transmissions, they work surprisingly well for digital TV.
As standard, these use an amplifier (= Signal Booster) to enhance the reception, which have the added advantage of usually having TWO TV-output connections .... Look where the cable comes in through the roof & trace the cable if needed to a small box (like in the following link-photo) ... and simply plug in a TV-extension cable from the USB TV dongle to the 2nd output from that box.
http://www.aerialshack.com/status-s315-caravan-aeria...

http://www.aerialshack.com/images/large/omni2.jpg


Here's some other general-info links you may find interesting :-

http://www.caravanningnow.co.uk/caravanning/faqaeria...

http://www.aerialsandtv.com/touringaerials.html

http://caravanaerial.com/caravan-aerial/

In reply to a post by steadyeddie:

My parents have a caravan which they use every weekend for about 6 months a year.
.... and do a bit of surfing.
I know PAYG may be the best option but I dont know roughly what the usage would be, ..........
I'm hoping there may be others with a similar scenario who could tell me what their solution is.

Our experience is typically around 60-70meg a day doing quite a lot of online work + research + general browsing + emails + etc, and we are fairly heavy-time (multiple hours) users in terms of mobile broadband ... This would equate to around 15-20 days per Gig of PAYG, but I suspect your parents per-day useage would be considerably less than ours.

As for most effective PAYG cost-wise, you have an incoming PM which should bring the cost down to sub-£20 per entire 6-month period.

P.S ... Forget about downloading/watching "video" via mobile broadband ... As others have already stated, it WILL cost you a fortune.

Bob, you have a PM

Yes, Master

Regards
Igor

Edited by deleted (Mon 14-Feb-11 21:08:18)