sirplug

I use an IP blocker, currently Expat Shield, to access BBC and ITV content, on the net. I will be subscribing to Unblock-US as soon as Sky stops at the end of the month, then I can access US TV as wells as UK TV....

Catchafire

Everything is going good. Nice to have a good choice of content. Been able to access Amazon on demand and Hulu.

Unblockus allows you to switch Netflix locations from US to the UK and Sweden, with local content for each location. Great as the OH is from Sweden!

Strange that we only need the one Netflix account, but it works across the board.

Don't miss Sky at all. Free view works, but rarely watch it.

C4udynz

We have Tivo - fab. Pretty sure prime is getting better too. Find friends with sky for the rugby though

inky78

If you want a site to stream sports (any) pm me and i'll tell you some sites. Obviously not over the open forum. You do have to close a lot of adverts which can be a bit of a pain but no major dramas. When Ireland play NZ here, I was watching the UK SKY sports on a match being played in Auckland. I have watched cricket, rugby and football over this. As you are streaming you will need a decent speed and a reasonable amount of data (depending on how much you watch) Probably should have brought tickets but at the time I was keeping a eye on finances

Infern0

Here is another suggestion

http://www.filmon.com/

Create a free account and hey presto, British freeview live 24/7

no proxies required, you can even get it on android

ovbg

Does FilmOn offer UK television for free in New Zealand? I use this service in Germany and it's great, especially if you Airplay from an iDevice as the video quality is for some reason much better than on a PC or Mac.

But I was under the impression, UK Television is only offered free within Europe (or the EU). Outside of this region, I though FilmOn charged for the live UK television channels.

In any case, I find it an excellent service. The video quality is quite poor on a computer, but on my iPad it is very sharp and even when Airplayed it is pretty good.

Sherlock Holmes

Hi ovbg and welcome to the forum. Your first post had been moderated as it contained a url link.

Perhaps have a look in the Germany forum and say hello.

Enjoy B.E.

ovbg

Thank you Mr Holmes.

So, I'm still interested to know if FilmOn has UK TV on their free service in NZ. The last time I VPN'd into NZ, I noticed my FilmOn app stopped showing the UK channels. I was wondering if that was standard in NZ.

Anyway, yesterday the BBC iPad app was updated (that is, the real one, not the global one), and this came with a couple of really nice features some people in NZ may be interested in. For a start, the video quality is now much better and pretty much SD in quality. Secondly, it now offers full Airplay to an ATV, rather than the previous "mirroring hack" of before.

This is for both their on-demand and live streams!

The quality when Airplayed to my 40" TV is very good. Of course, you will need either a VPN or SmartDNS to access this from the UK. I personally use SmartDNS only when accessing TVNZ shows because the bandwidth is so much higher for these longer distances, but many VPN's may also work.

Anyway, it's pretty easy now to be able to watch the BBC even in NZ. It's really amazing how TV has changed so much!

inky78

For all those that might want to know, if you have set your unblock-us account to the UK then you can stream TV on the BBC iplayer site, whilst this is on (I've tried this twice with success both times) Or do like I do and download it to watch without judders in HD :-)

Catchafire

Anyone know how to get the Iplayer app for Ipad/Iphone, without having a UK Itunes account?

ovbg

You will need a UK iTunes account, but this is pretty easy and painless.
* On a computer (rather than a mobile device) go to iTunes and create a new account. Make it a UK account.
* You will need a separate email address to the one you normally use with iTunes - this is how you switch between national accounts. If you don't have a 2nd email address, just create a quick free one from any of the free web based services out there. If you keep the password the same as your existing email address, it makes it easy to switch between them.
* The key here is when this is done on a computer's iTunes, you get the option to not use a credit card. Choose this method as the credit cards may have to be issued in the country you are setting up. Besides, the BBC iPlayer is free.

And it's done.

Now, you can log into the UK account, and download any free app, song, tv show or whatever. Of course, generally you will only be able to download free apps. But in the UK app store, the free BBC iPlayer app is the official one rather than the Global one.

Now, if you have an ATV, you should be able to Airplay this across to your television. Since last week, the BBC iPlayer app has been updated with a couple of really cool things, including much better quality video and airplay without mirroring. The quality is SD, but good enough in my opinion to look fantastic.

Oh, and the live feeds work great from the BBC as well! It all Airplay's so good.

You will need some unblocking service. I use Overplay and love it. That costs only US$5 a month for their SmartDNS service (you won't need the full VPN), and this will give you access to so much international TV, it's one of the best US$5 to spend in a month.

You should be able to also download the other UK apps now that you have an iTunes UK account such as 4oD, ITV and Demand5, as well as Ireland's RTE (their version of BBC) and TV3 works as well (no relation to NZ's TV3). RTE, TV3 (IE) and ITV all Airplay quite well, Demand5 only with Black borders, but 4oD blocks Airplay.

I also recommend the SmartDNS as it is far easier to set up, doesn't slow down normal traffic (as you don't tunnel into the UK), and allows far faster bandwidth from the UK meaning you may not have any buffering issues. BBC's SD stream is about the same as TVNZ's highest quality, and using the SmartDNS in Germany, I never have buffering issues going your way.

You can leave the SmartDNS on at all times, so your normal internet won't be affected, you can still watch NZ on-demand TV but you will be opened up to so many other sites.

The BBC also offer full HD on PC's or Smart TV's which may (or may not) work in your country. But if you already own a Smart TV it maybe worth trying out. I have full HD BBC iPlayer here in Germany direct on my Samsung TV which is normally blocked - but it is worth checking if NZ models work before buying! Anyone who is interested, I have some videos I put up to show what is possible and how to change country stores in Samsung Smart TV's, plus examples of BBC playing when abroad.

I'll post the link if anyone is interested, but only if people ask, as I don't want to come across as a spammer being so new here.

I used to have a Satellite here in Germany which could pick up UK TV, but when we moved to a new place, that was impossible, I was so disappointed that I could no longer get English language Television, I went all out to find out how to do it in a comfortable "sofa friendly" way, that now I can get not only UK TV, but television from all around the world. I never thought a year ago, I could even be watching New Zealand Television here in Germany - wow, NZ has changed since I left

southerner

Hi ovbg, are you still getting BBC iPlayer fine using Overplay? I have replicated your suggested setup with UK itunes account to download iPlayer app and have used Overplay SmartDNS, and got ITV fine but BBC playing hard to get. Before trying some different options I wondered if BBC have tightened up their screening....?

Anyone having problems with bbc?

jmh

Hmmmm..... Just looked up the igloo website. Looks good. Anyone using it?

Edited to add: I notice that they have a partnership with some broadband providers so you don't have to worry about your data cap. Details here: http://www.igloo.co.nz/igloo/whatis/isp.html

I'm with slingshot so I'm going to seriously consider this. I think Sky is a real rip off.

ovbg

Just tested it southerner and everything is fine here, on all devices I have and both live & catch-up.

It's interesting that you are having problems as usually it's the other way around. In most cases it is the BBC which is the least problematic.

Anyway, can you tell me exactly what the problem is? Do you still get a geo-block message from the BBC? (Or are you directed back to the Overplay site just for the BBC?). Is it working but having bandwidth problems, i.e. you are not getting an error message, but a spinning wheel that won't stop?

Are you trying this on a PC or another device?

Here are some things you can try:
1) Try clearing the cache on your web browser. Sometimes that causes the problems. If it still doesn't work, try a new browser that you have never used for the BBC yet (just as a test), so if you use FireFox, try IE or Safari etc. Often the problem with web browsers is that once the service begins, they still automatically resort back to their saved cache rather than streaming everything again.

2) Try this test from Overplay, if it works, you should get a green tick:
http://www.overplay.net/smartdnstest.php

3) Are you on a dynamic IP address? By this, I mean does your ISP change your external IP address every day? (If they do, it may be invisible to you unless you have situations like this Smart DNS - in which you will have to go back to Overplay and reassign the new IP address with their service)

Let me know what the details are, and don't give up. The BBC is usually the easiest one to get going, and you should get it working.

Regarding the previous discussions on live TV, I'm writing an article for my new blog exactly on how to get live TV for the UK with comparisons and descriptions. It's still a few weeks away from publication, but it may have something of interest for people here. The blog discusses everything about watching global Internet TV: www.eyeondemand.com so is topical for this discussion and has direct/easy instructions on how to set some things up.

(update odd... I was just on the Overplay site and for the first time ever, I saw at the IP address assignment page that it told me my SmartDNS was not "on"... this is odd because it is on, and working. Maybe they have a technical problem there. I'll contact them and see if this is the case - who knows southerner, maybe this is the problem.

Don't give up or despair!

jmh

I've just been reading that this is a tie up between TVNZ and SKY. Can't see my favourite programme The History Channel either.