Monday, February 22, 2010

Help Needed...

So, one of the reasons we chose the hotel we did was because they promised satellite TV in the rooms. Well, turns out by "satellite TV" that meant that they only have cable (i.e. all Spanish) in the 2000+ rooms that sprawl all over this place, and the satellite is only in the main lobby building that has a games room in the bottom floor. I'm being told that if I want to watch Lost tomorrow night, I have to go there and ask the DJ to change the channel at 8, although "if other people are in the room wanting to watch sports, it's not likely the other people in the room will let you watch it." I have a friend helping me out and he's going to try to upload it for me immediately following, but it took about a minute to download a 3MB file this morning, so I can only imagine how long a 350MB file will take.

So... does anyone out there live in Mexico? Do you get Lost on a cable local channel? Is it possible for me to actually watch this in the room or will I be attempting to watch it in a room with 100 other people throwing things at me for an hour? (or watching it really late at night after it's finally downloaded?)

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

17 comments:

Michelle said...

If someone has a slingbox, you'd be able to watch it live. We sold ours, so I can't help, but I hope someone has one for you to use!

Erin {pughs' news} said...

OH MY GOD. Bad news, Nikki. Maybe you could get hubby to cause some sort of diversion to clear the room before you ask the guy to change the channel? I'm thinking flaming arrows or something of that nature...

Sagacious Penguin said...

I don't suppose LOST is on in Spanish on one of those cable channels and that English closed captions are an option...?

Lindsey said...

Are you sure it will be in Spanish? In high school I dated an exchange student from Mexico. He told me that he learned a lot of English from watching the show Friends. He said that the reruns were dubbed in Spanish but the new ones were in English with Spanish subtitles because they were so new. You should ask if they know if the American tv shows are dubbed or are in English with subtitles. You have to think that with so many potential spoilers ABC probably wants as few people as possible with the script before it airs. Hope that helps :)

Ana Maria said...

...Hi...I live in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico; however, as part of my cable package I receive the ABC channel so I'm lucky to watch Lost in real time, same as everyone else in USA; the AXN channel for Latinamerica airs Lost, however, they are behind 2, 3 episodes, as this tuesday they should be airing the 2nd episode, "What Kate does"...My advice? Raise hell, Nikki!!! I mean, really really raise hell; sadly, from experience, nothing ever gets done in my country(customer service-wise)unless you show them anger/hurt/disappointment or all of those combined...on feb2, day of the premiere, my cable company decided to scramble the ABC signal, and lets just say that I so raised a storm that I almost told them the way they were going to depart this earth...and I got the signal restored...best of luck; you have my sympathy...demand to talk to the supervisor, manager, owner, president of the hotel chain; threaten to unleash the smoke monster on them, anything...I don't know exactly where you are at in Mexico, but in Cancun most hotels are very accomodating(I worked there for almost 9 yrs, in the hotel industry); are you in Los Cabos? what resort? I have a very good friend there; let me know so I can try and raise some hell on your behalf, from my corner of the world...

Unknown said...

there is tvgorge.com. It is a usa streaming site but I don't think it is real time. I don't know what it would be like in mexico. Its worth try. Your on vacation right so after 5 years of faithfully service you can be a day late!

Anonymous said...

If all else fails, iTunes will have it available Wed A.M. for $1.99.

Anonymous said...

If the olympics wasn't on, I'd say fight like hell to watch Lost tomorrow night. However, there may be some hefty competition for the TV. Good luck!!!

Alicia said...

Ask the concierge (or contact a travel agency) to see if there's a hotel nearby that you could watch it at - you'd probably have to pay for a night's stay.

Otherwise, have a great time in Mexico, and we'll all be here waiting for your return.

Nikki Stafford said...

Hm... never thought of piggybacking on someone else's slingbox! Let me know if anyone out there has one.

Ana Maria: I'm just outside of Playa Del Carmen, near Tulum. And today it is HOT. :)

Lindsey: All of the channels in our room were overdubbed in Spanish and we figured out how to turn it off so now it's closed-captioned in Spanish, but they're speaking English. But from what Ana Maria is saying, it sounds like even those channels won't be playing Lost.

As for the Olympics, there doesn't seem to be much interest in Mexico (none of the stations are playing it) yet most of the guests here are Canadian, and there are some Americans as well. Last night the US vs. Canada hockey game was fun to watch (which proved to us that they DO have satellite, since they were picking up the MSNBC feed). Would have been more fun had Canada won!!

Hm... I might have to do as ronald says, and just post something the next day (download overnight and watch the next morning). If I do, I'll put up a post so you guys can start discussing and don't have to wait for me!

SDS said...

Hey Nik :) it's been a long time since I've read your blog.

I recently remembered about this place and, as you can see, I have mentioned it on my blog as a Lost blog to check out:

http://superduperstream.blogspot.com/2010/02/lost-weekly-round-up.html

My blog has a ton of Lost stuff on it, but also other stuff relating to comics, boxing, DVDs, etc the usual stuff.

I thought you might like to check it out, and I'll be checking out all the updates here that I missed! Maybe we can advertise each others blogs or whatever.

I am doing a project just now called the Lost Blogging Collective:

http://superduperstream.blogspot.com/search/label/Lost%20Blogging%20Collective

Whereby each week I email a group of Lost bloggers (around 12 at the moment) 2 questions about Lost, and we all answer them to see how the fandom/blogosphere/*insert random buzzword* opinion is between us.

If any of this sounds interesting to you, I am always available at lostquestions23@gmail.com and interested in any kind of project or collaboration - I just love communicating with people in general :D

Finally, I have a competition to win a free Lost t-shirt. It's very easy to enter - just pick what t-shirt design you like, and a random person wins that t-shirt!! The comp ends on Friday though, so be quick if you are interested:

http://superduperstream.blogspot.com/2010/02/lost-cafepress-competition-extension.html

Okay, I feel I have taken up enough of your time now so I will leave it at that :) as soon as I get a spare few hours I will dedicate more time to reading your blog :)

Hope to hear from you soon!

- Chris
- lostquestions23@gmail.com
- superduperstream.blogspot.com

PS Good luck! I hope you find somewhere to see Lost :)

Joshua said...

Wow, what a heartbreaker! Sounds like you might well just be stuck this time. And that really sucks.

Wait a minute -- stuck... time... Aaaah! Life imitating art!!!

At the least, if you're left with no other option but to leave us to our comments all castaway-like until you can post later on in the day, you can probably count on us to be civil in the meantime.

Probably.

Good luck in your quest. And remember, if all else fails, you can always just roam the streets tomorrow wearing a sandwich board that says, "¿Puedo mirar yo televisiĆ³n en su casa, por favor?" or something. Maybe add that you'll pay en cerveza...

Anonymous said...

Poor Nikki. :(

It's like she's stranded on some strange island that only has a very out-dated computer or something.

Good luck wrestling the TV away from the Olympics. Maybe if you're lucky, there will be other Lost fans to help you.

Ana Maria said...

...I know the Reservations manager at the Occidental hotels, which is between Playa and Tulum; if you're there, post something here and I'll ask her to do whatever she can to help you; if at some other hotel, like someone else already mentioned ask the concierge to assist you; if the hotel has no concierge, then someone at the Front Desk; better yet, ask for the Front Desk manager, or for the Manager On Duty; tell them that it was your understanding that you'd have access to satellite and that was the reason you chose that hotel, that now, because of this, your job has been "compromised"...and you're right, most mexicans wouldn't be interested in the Winter Olympics, but there are a lot of canadian tourists always, in Cancun and in the Tulum corridor; I'm sure there's someone at your hotel that can help you, you just have to find the right person! and you are in paradise, enjoy the sun; Playa del Carmen is a lot of fun, hope you have the time to go there...BEST OF LUCK...

Jazzygirl said...

Aww Nikki! I really hope you can make it work out! I have to say, if anyone can, it's you. :)
As Josh said, we'll be fine if you can't post until Wed. We can start hashing it all out in the meantime. Hell, I usually don't get to post until later on Wed anyway because I can't read/post at work/school or else I'm screwed timewise...alright so I read some posts last week but that was it! LOL
Anywaaaaaaaaaay....don't stress! I"m sure you're probably more stressed about not seeing in real time than posting on here about it. LOL

Hutch said...

Tell the manager about the multitude of LOST fans who read your blog and PROMISE to mention his name and the name (plus website) of the hotel. All that free publicity should make it worth his while to find a way for you to watch tonight episode.....We'll do are part and e-mail him a thank you....

Ken said...

I see you solved your problem. But if you're ever in a bind; for a live stream, you can try this site: http://atdhe.net/watchtv.html

Ironically I use this to stream out-of-area sports.