TV & Movie viewing - say NO to Foxtel and Freeview
 

Hi all,

Seems to me there is a few of us that are sick of the rubbish on free to air, and Foxtel ripping us off. We have the various download options whether it be torrent or usenet but they have their issues.

Some people use a geographic location blocking set up and get there Apple TV to get Netfix, Hulu, HBO and the like from the US.

So I figured I'd start a thread for us to put all these options in one place and make it easier for others to set up and try.

So if your so inclined feel free to add in ideas or advice.

I had never heard about ego blocking until a few days ago when you posted about it.

I use Express Files to get most of tv series that I watch. The shows are normally up within a few minutes of the show ending and you get good download speeds.

IPTV - Maige TV
 

One that I am considering is a Maige TV device. It's an IPTV system based in China. It has over 350 channels and many are HD at 1080P. The system is up to its second device version and the device and interface is much improved. You need a 5 Mbs internet to get HD and good operation. The main reason for this for me is SPORT channels which my Apple TV doesn't get having only ESPN.

It's cost is $85USD per annum but one year subscription is included in the original purchase price of $320 USD to $340 odd for a one with built in WiFi.

The English channels tend to have Chinese sub titles but not the sports ones in general. The majority of channels are either Chinese, Japanese and Korean though.

Device is [URL="http://www.maige-tv.com/en/p/70:c:85/maige-tv/maige-tv-hd2s/"]Maige HD2S[/URL]

English Channel List

HBO Movies HD / HBO Movie Hits HD / HBO Movies Family HD / HBO Movies Signature HD / AXN HD / Star Movies HD / Star World HD / SYFY HD / Universal HD / FOX HD / FX HD / Fox Movies Premium HD / Fox Crime HD / KIX HD / TMM HD / Nat Geo HD / Nat Geo Adventure HD / Nat Geo Wild HD / Discovery World HD / Discovery Science HD / Discovery Turbo HD / Home & Health HD / History HD / Sky News HD / BBC World News HD / CNBC HD / LITV HD / Fashion TV HD / Channel V HD / MTV HD / Outdoor Channel HD / Golf Channel HD / Fox Sports Plus HD / Euro Sport HD / Astro Sports 1 HD / Astro Sports 2 HD / ESPN HD / ESPN 2 HD / NBA Sports HD / EPL English Premier League HD / Fox Soccer HD / Now Sports 2 HD / Now Sports 5 HD / Fox Action Movie HD / OASIS HD / MBC HD / Tennis HD / BBC Knowledge / BBC Entertianment / Fox News / AXN / Channel V / Hollywood Movies / Star Sports / Animal Planet / Discovery / TV 5 / Bloomberg / CNN News / NHK

+ VOD English Movie Database 30'000 Updated Daily

[YT]k93dRS7KrV4[/YT]

Interesting.
Sounds similiar to the TV Pad/TV Pad 2, but with subscription fees.

I've pretty much stopped watching FTA except for ABC news (if I have enough time to sit down with breakfast).

I am actually using a lot of Xbox One, or a media player like WDTVLive, and using the YouTube Pairing, so i setup a playlist up via youtube.com, and they all stream directly to big screen TV's i have paired.

Can even do it via the Phone App, which is cool.

Works pretty well.

[QUOTE=thehowlfactor;797240]I had never heard about ego blocking until a few days ago when you posted about it.

I use Express Files to get most of tv series that I watch. The shows are normally up within a few minutes of the show ending and you get good download speeds.[/QUOTE]

I meant GEOgraphic position blocking (ego is what the spell check does to "geo"). All it does is makes a web site believe I am in the US (or other country if provider allows) meaning that I can watch internet provided video/audio material that isn't allowed in Australia.

There are a few providers but the bigger ones are:

UnblockUS

UNOtelly

Getflix

They tend to work better than using a VPN service as the bandwidth isn't limited (allowing HD video streaming) and some allow which country you want appear to be in. It also allows me to listen to digital services in Australia that may also be geo blocked such as AFL games on digital radio if the game is on at the same time in the same city.

I'll edit the above later to include site links and more sites to choose from.

The issue with express files is that it's still illegal downloading, just as is torrents, and easy to track if your not using an encrypted connection to download.

[QUOTE=GTB Liberty;797245]I meant GEOgraphic position blocking (ego is what the spell check does to "geo"). All it does is makes a web site believe I am in the US (or other country if provider allows) meaning that I can watch internet provided video/audio material that isn't allowed in Australia.[/QUOTE]

Easier way of looking at this.
Blocks of IP address are given out to countries/companies/regions/etc so based on that (ie 106.x.x.x is leased to iiNet) they can determine what region you are connecting from and whether or not you are allowed to access the content.

All you do to get around this is to connect to a remote end that passes your connection or data through an IP address range that is allowed to access the content.

Hey presto, happy consumer :D

[QUOTE=RichX;797244]I am actually using a lot of Xbox One, or a media player like WDTVLive, and using the YouTube Pairing, so i setup a playlist up via youtube.com, and they all stream directly to big screen TV's i have paired.

Can even do it via the Phone App, which is cool.

Works pretty well.[/QUOTE]

To watch YouTube material I simply Airplay off my Ipad to my AppleTV as none of my TVs have a "smart tv" seTup with a YouTube app.

One of my favourite devices is my Synology NAS which allows Airplay via an app called DSvideo which allows it to directly Airplay to an AppleTV or just recently to a Google Chromecast device. The DSvideo app is availed for Ipad, IPhone and Android (I believe). Very handy for watching my TV and Movie collection that resides on my NAS. It also allows the material to be watched directly on the mobile devices as well via streaming. It can also allow movies/TV to be uploaded to the device for watching away from home.

If any other of the tech heads want to help in write ups such as how to set-up an AppleTV to get USA based Netflix, Hulu, HBO etc feel free.

Probably heard a few weeks ago, MS has announced XBONE is getting Plex (finally!), very hard to believe that either consoles were released without DLNA support, particularly the MS console as they were raving that it was a media console.

[QUOTE=Soksta;797243]Interesting.
Sounds similiar to the TV Pad/TV Pad 2, but with subscription fees.

I've pretty much stopped watching FTA except for ABC news (if I have enough time to sit down with breakfast).[/QUOTE]

I've seen the TVpad and I wasn't impressed. Just to many delivery glitches.

I believe the Maige device system is better as they utilise there own servers to make the delivery more consistent.