Watching TV online while outside the US? (technical stuff)

anna7602 · December 2011

I was just casually talking with a friend the other day about the fact that we don't have cable, but watch everything we want through Netflix, abc.com, etc. and he said I probably wouldn't be able to continue doing this when we move to Paris next month because of the band width (or maybe something else).

Is this true? It's not a big deal if it is, but I should probably cancel my Netflix membership in that case.

frlcb · December 2011

You won't be able to watch any of the American networks if you are out of the country because they block international IP addresses. Netflix may be the same way. There are, however, ways around it, like getting a US IP address. We pay for a UK one and it is like $80 a year or something, they also sell US ones.

anna7602 · December 2011

frlcb:
You won't be able to watch any of the American networks if you are out of the country because they block international IP addresses. Netflix may be the same way. There are, however, ways around it, like getting a US IP address. We pay for a UK one and it is like $80 a year or something, they also sell US ones.

Thanks. It's probably not worth it to us, but so fascinating to find out this is the case. Now I get why Pandora didn't work for me when I was in Argentina earlier this year. I thought the internet connection was just slow.

Publius · December 2011

What frlcb said. However, we have an appleTV that is hooked up H's US iTunes account and are able to watch Netflix through it. I'm not sure if H has to turn the IP blocker on to use it but I'm thinking not. Either way though, you don't need an IP blocker to rent movies and tv shows from iTunes. Also, there are plenty of sites that stream tv for free and don't care about your IP address.

NLfoodie · December 2011

We've used a US IP address before, but that usually slows things down considerably. Best thing to do is go through ch131.com or fastpasstv or so.

Another option is getting a family member to agree to put a slingbox on their tv. You log in to the slingbox and can watch, record, change channels etcetera. Assuming most people have more than 1 tv, they can hook it up to the one they watch the least themselves (or just at times when you'd be asleep) because if you're logged in and they're watching live, you have to watch the same.

My friend had her ILs attach a slingbox, it really did work great!

wise_rita · December 2011

Another option for TV viewing is illegal websites that show American programming. It obviously won't be live, but I think you can watch stuff fairly up-to-date. There is letmewatchthis dot com, ch131 dot com, casttv dot com, watchseries dot com and lots of others. They get taken down a lot so it can be inconvenient.

LadyMadrid08 · December 2011

You can still watch shows on abc and other networks using a hotspot shield, but it doesn't work for Netflix. I've tried with my parent's account and it's no go.

mollymurphy · December 2011

NLfoodie:
Another option is getting a family member to agree to put a slingbox on their tv. You log in to the slingbox and can watch, record, change channels etcetera. Assuming most people have more than 1 tv, they can hook it up to the one they watch the least themselves (or just at times when you'd be asleep) because if you're logged in and they're watching live, you have to watch the same.

This is what we did. It's not perfect, but a pretty good substitute when you really want to watch US programs.

Watching TV online while outside the US? (technical stuff)

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