Gozit

We use a Samsung Smarttv with unblockus, with the latter configured at the router level. We signed up for a US Netflix account, with a Canadian credit card and billing address. It works a treat. All I did was sign up/set up the unblockus first, then went to netflix.com in my computer's browser, signed up (which gives you a US account when accessing it with unblockus) and then connected smart tv and signed in.

Cheers

bats

We've bought a smart tv on sale in Bestbuy, will get it rigged up this weekend and see how or if it works.

MrHyperPants

I didn't bother with getting the Smart TV option when I got my TV last year. Saved myself a $100. I'm pretty sure most people get the Smart TV for Netflixs. The rest of the crap apps aren't worth it. As far as I know you can't pic up Canadian Free View channels on a Smart TV.

I then bought a Minix Neo 8h media box for $180. Which has all the Smart TV options and more. I run Netflixs and othe apps on it. I also have XMBC on it. Which is already installed on the box when you by it. Though I had to configure XBMC myself.

scrubbedexpat091

What's a free view channel? Over the air or something else?


We got a smart TV as it was on clearance and cheaper then the normal TV's not on clearance, it was a 2013 model in 2014, so I suppose the store was trying to get rid of them since they had new models of the same brand and size.

Not sure I'd pay extra though, only thing we use it for is netflix, have never used any of the other apps, none are useful or just redundant, why use Cineplex on demand when Shaw offers movies for the same price?

sharkus

Yes, I too was wondering about the freeview channel thing. If it's a cable channel then in theory plugging in a cable to the tv and wall should pick up something. These days it's likely all digital, and I think Clear QAM is the term used for non encrypted digital channels, of which there are a couple, and the TV should be able to pick them up, but I have noticed some do move around on the channel number. My guess is it's the cable companies doing their bit to "persuade" you to get a subscription.

scrubbedexpat091

Without the cable box, not even our old school 2005 TV can pick anything up, before it went all digital it would pick up some channels by just plugging it into the cable outlet, but now it can't.

No over the air can be picked up either, too far from Vancouver and mountains in the way blocking TV and radio signals over the air.

sharkus

Sorry, should have said the TV would need a QAM thingy in it to pick up the digital signals, but it won't for obvious reasons, pick up the encrypted ones.

bats

Aagghh
We took the Vizio back as it didn't have a native browser so we couldn't get BBC
We got a Samsung. Can't get BBC. " This device is no longer supported"
Netflix won't play anything it just shows us Marco Polo
Unhappy, deeply and miserably unhappy.
The damn thing is going back and we get an unsmart tv.

plasticcanuck

I apologise if my question seems stupid to you but have you opened your Netflix account on the Smart TV?

bats

Oh yes. We did that. No worries about a stupid question thoigh. The simple things are often easy to forget.

plasticcanuck

FWIW I'll provide my experience with getting Netflix on my Smart TV.
MY Router/modem is located in the basement. I, basically, did not have a
sufficiently strong signal to get Netflix on the TV on the main floor. Read up about signal boosters and eventually at Best Buy bought a Netgear booster which plugs into electric wall socket, which I did in the kitchen about 10 feet from the TV. It works like a charm and also boosts signals on the other devices. At Best Buy they told me if it didn't work I had 30 days to return for full refund. I think it cost $70-80. Not cheap on top of the TV cost but, for me, a good investment.
Much Good Luck, I know how exasperating it can be.

SchnookoLoly

We use Chromecast with our televisions, with some custom software set up in the router. We can then do Netflix, BBC, and a load of other apps all from phones etc. We have the desktop connected to one TV as well, which is convenient. Drop a PM if you want the details of how to do it, or hunt through my previous posts as I've posted our setup in the past.

bats

We returned the smart and now have an LG with fancy sound bar. All is well in the bat cave.

Many thanks for the kind offers of help.

scrubbedexpat091

We have been using unblockus again and up until yesterday worked fine, and we could access US/UK and other netflix fine, we can still access the US version, but every time we try to go to the UK one we get an error and netflix won't load, change the settings back to Canada or the US and it works fine.

Has netflix figured out how to block people using services like this, or just a fluke of some sort?

Michael

One of the following is likely the cause of the problem.

• The Smart DNS server that you are using has a problem.
• A software upgrade on the UK Smart DNS servers caused UK Netflix not to work.
• Netflix UK upgraded their software which caused Netflix not to work for Smart DNS and Smart DNS has to be re-customized for the UK Netflix web site.

The concept of how Smart DNS gets around the country centric authentication is well known and if desired, web sites could block Smart DNS from working. Apparently most companies don't care enough to spend the money to change the way video services web sites work to block Smart DNS.