Hey everybody,

I just read the recent thread about things that MENA people miss most in the States and it had me nodding and grinning!

Misses the food? Check. Sense of community spirit? Check. His Mom? Won't discuss it, but check...

And decent (partiularly European-ish) clothes? Double check!!

Our biggest question for everyone here relates to the TV issue.

We don't have a satellite dish and it isn't really an option where we're renting currently. Tonight, we started looking into websites offering $30-40 downloadable software for streaming live "online TV" via the computer...

Has anyone tried this stuff, or heard about it from anyone else who has? I tend not to trust online stuff very much, but we agreed to look into the options and ask for feedback from others first.

Some of these websites seem pretty questionable -- poorly designed ads, and you can't access a full list of channels. But others look almost reputable. And it would be worth the $40 for him to be able to watch his soccer, and maybe a few Arabic language stations. (The major ones at least, if finding a specifically Moroccan station is too much to hope for.)

Anybody heard about these programs? Particularly as respects futbol and Arabic language stuff?

Best wishes to everyone as our spouses continue adjusting,



E

2 years???? OUCH!!! that is crazy! We just started the AOS/EAD process in April that is scary, does your husband have to keep renewing his EAD then?

Be very careful!!! Some of those things are scams. You pay they money, and they don't send you any software or give you streaming access. Instead, they send you a list of websites that may or may not offer free or paid streaming service.

We use Jump TV. A bit expensive (we pay $20 for 3 months of 2M in Morocco), but it's reliable and not a scam site. There's also another site that mybackpages referred me to where they have free Al Jazeera among other channels. I'm at work, so I don't have the link, but I'll post it when I get home tonight.


ETA: I also found a program, again I can't remember the name of it so I'll post it tonight, where we can get good quality streams of all the European soccer leagues. So far though, I've only been able to find it in Chinese. But at least he can watch!

There was a thread somewhere with free sites for Moroccan TV and radio, but I know that one of them stopped working - for TV.
I just googled 2m moroccan tv and found this, and it works for now. use it while it does.

http://www.livewtv.com/arabic_channel/2m.htm

I also had some links to the radio, but have to look for them.

There's also some Arabic channels on Dish channels, and if you're willing to pay $40, i'm sure you can get them too.

Ok, here's the site we use for free Al Jazeera. It's been pretty reliable for quite a few months now, whereas most of the other free sites get shut down rather quickly: http://casavie.com/tv.htm

As I said, we subscribe to 2M through Jump TV, but they also have many other Arabic channels: http://www.jumptv.com

And the program that we use to get the European soccer, albeit in Chinese, is SopCast.

Thanks Jenn! Hubby will be so happy when I show him the links!

Can you only watch this stuff on the computer though and not on the big tv?

You can get a cable to connect the computer to the TV. We don't have one, just because usually when he's watching soccer or Arabic channels, I want to watch something different on the TV.

Heya! Haven't seen u in a while E.

I have been a ghost too on VJ seem like.

Back to topic, I am gonna end up getting a satellite dish thru some of
the Arab stores. I definitely want to hear the language more so I can pick up on it.

I am in a rush to learn the language. Can't have my little one talking
to me in Arabic and I can't understand him

Maryum

my friend has a dish to get arabic TV. it is some plan where him and all his friends bought into the programming line up. anyways he pays something like 6.00 towards the use of the dish and programming. each person some how has a dish at their house. I will ask more about how they worked it out.

oh cool thanks for the sites. i book marked them..

Thanks for the cool sites everyone!

We have had Dish Network Arab and French line-up for quite a while and really enjoy it. It was cool being able to watch the Real Madrid game yesterday. That made my soccer-fanatic husband so so so happy.

www.3rab-sound.com/

My husband used to host on this site. It is arabic music on the net, he used to play American songs for me when he was working and we where chatting It used to be in english and Arabic but now I believe that it is all arabic, well I guess if I could read Arabic writing, then I might be able to find where I could view in english.

These I Googled

http://www.3arbvc.com/radio.php (music)
www.listenarabic.com/
www.arab.de/arab-radio.html
http://www.surfmusic.de/format/arabic.html

If you have a south-facing mount location, get a 36" satellite dish and an FTA satellite receiver. You'll spend about $300 but then you've got a ton of Arabic programming for free on Galaxy 25 @ 97W. They've got 2M and Al Maghribia, for example.

Wow, thanks for the awesome links and advice, everybody!!!

We're able to stream 2M now, which makes him *very* happy. (And it also means I can start getting my Choumicha fix again... does anybody else have a thing for her cooking show? I love it.)

The next item on his agenda is following the soccer link and then figuring out whether we have access to anything tall and south-facing...

Many thanks,



E

My husband has never mentioned anything about Arabic television. It does not appear to me that he misses it. I will direct him to this thread.