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Devilmaycare

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It's going to be for live sports content. A commercial free option is not possible. Basically cable with just the sports channels.
They'll still offer commercial free and then put up the placard saying "we're in a commercial" break like they do now on streams that they don't have the commercials on for. Enough people will sign up for it that they'll try it.
 

puckhead

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They'll still offer commercial free and then put up the placard saying "we're in a commercial" break like they do now on streams that they don't have the commercials on for. Enough people will sign up for it that they'll try it.

Way, way back in the early HD days, one of my favorite places to view hockey games was on Cuban's HDNet channel (now AXS TV). The picture was glorious of course, but even better was the announcers would take these long breaks which were called 'sounds of the ice' or something like that. Basically, they shut the announcer mics off and just let the on-ice mics play. You could hear the skates, the puck on sticks, the on-ice communication between the players, the chirping (oh, the chirping!), everything. Just the best.

During tv time-outs and commercial breaks, they would just leave the wide shot up with the in-house PA and rink noise being the only thing on.

I'd pay big for that if I could get Yotes games that way.
 

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They'll still offer commercial free and then put up the placard saying "we're in a commercial" break like they do now on streams that they don't have the commercials on for. Enough people will sign up for it that they'll try it.
There's no precedent for that. The advertisers are paying to have their commercials air during the game. Those ads will run, the only time I see them not run is when the streaming service can't fill their allotted slots with ad buys. The national ads always run.
 

Devilmaycare

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Way, way back in the early HD days, one of my favorite places to view hockey games was on Cuban's HDNet channel (now AXS TV). The picture was glorious of course, but even better was the announcers would take these long breaks which were called 'sounds of the ice' or something like that. Basically, they shut the announcer mics off and just let the on-ice mics play. You could hear the skates, the puck on sticks, the on-ice communication between the players, the chirping (oh, the chirping!), everything. Just the best.

During tv time-outs and commercial breaks, they would just leave the wide shot up with the in-house PA and rink noise being the only thing on.

I'd pay big for that if I could get Yotes games that way.
I'd pay extra to have no announcers and just game sound. The only time I want to hear someone is for something like an injury report.
 

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I'd pay extra to have no announcers and just game sound. The only time I want to hear someone is for something like an injury report.

Same. I know what's going on in the game. I'm usually just listening to sat radio because I get so sick of the same old schtick.

I'm sure the tech could be implemented in streaming and probably even Next-Gen broadcasts to provide the user with their choice of sound mixes. I'm not sure the broadcasters want to give the consumer that choice, however.
 

Devilmaycare

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Same. I know what's going on in the game. I'm usually just listening to sat radio because I get so sick of the same old schtick.

I'm sure the tech could be implemented in streaming and probably even Next-Gen broadcasts to provide the user with their choice of sound mixes. I'm not sure the broadcasters want to give the consumer that choice, however.
What I'd really love is to get something like this for all sports. This is just a demo and no a real product yet but it would be so cool have for real. For football and hockey you could have the field/ice with all of the player's locations show. I'd get the CC out for it.

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puckhead

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What I'd really love is to get something like this for all sports. This is just a demo and no a real product yet but it would be so cool have for real. For football and hockey you could have the field/ice with all of the player's locations show. I'd get the CC out for it.

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That's pretty wild!
 
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Covert Rain

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What I'd really love is to get something like this for all sports. This is just a demo and no a real product yet but it would be so cool have for real. For football and hockey you could have the field/ice with all of the player's locations show. I'd get the CC out for it.

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Covert Rain

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Has anybody else noticed since Best Buy has announced they are no longer carrying media that all of the sudden Walmart and Target are getting exclusive sets like Steel Box sets when they never used to before?
 

Devilmaycare

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Has anybody else noticed since Best Buy has announced they are no longer carrying media that all of the sudden Walmart and Target are getting exclusive sets like Steel Box sets when they never used to before?
I haven't been paying too much attention since there hasn't been much coming out (expect James Cameron day is next week!) but the Steel Books had been a BestBuy exclusive so it makes sense that they switched to the other retailers now which is good. I was worried that they might go away.
 

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Sling couldn’t process my debit card for a payment so they dropped me.
I told them to shut up and take my money but they said no.

I have fubo tv now.
 

Russ Smith

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Pretty sure the answer is yes but not 100% sure.

Can you use VPN on a smart tv?

Say you're out of the country but want to watch US sports, can you take your internet through the VPN and then to the tv so that the tv thinks it's in the US? I know I can do it on a laptop and then cast or connect to the tv by HDMI but do I have to?

I'm debating just running the laptop to a projector and projecting it but not sure I'll be in a big enough space for the projector to work well, a smart tv would be ideal.

I suppose it would be useful if I had said if I'm in the Philippines can I do this?
 

Devilmaycare

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Pretty sure the answer is yes but not 100% sure.

Can you use VPN on a smart tv?

Say you're out of the country but want to watch US sports, can you take your internet through the VPN and then to the tv so that the tv thinks it's in the US? I know I can do it on a laptop and then cast or connect to the tv by HDMI but do I have to?

I'm debating just running the laptop to a projector and projecting it but not sure I'll be in a big enough space for the projector to work well, a smart tv would be ideal.

I suppose it would be useful if I had said if I'm in the Philippines can I do this?
That's a big old "it depends". If it's running Android TV you should be able to. If it's running a different OS then it's going to depend on which one. This is as far as a VPN goes. It's mainly due to being able to configure the networking to go through the VPN or not.

Most of the VPN providers also have a DNS option that will get around a lot of geo-blocks and that's usually configurable on all of them. It's setting the TV to use those DNS servers instead of the ISP's DNS.
 

Russ Smith

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That's a big old "it depends". If it's running Android TV you should be able to. If it's running a different OS then it's going to depend on which one. This is as far as a VPN goes. It's mainly due to being able to configure the networking to go through the VPN or not.

Most of the VPN providers also have a DNS option that will get around a lot of geo-blocks and that's usually configurable on all of them. It's setting the TV to use those DNS servers instead of the ISP's DNS.


Thanks. I unfortunately won't know the answer until I'm there and buy the tv because I'm not taking it with me. I have a Roku and a Fire stick and would ideally use one of those to get Netflix etc but I'm hoping I can also get NFL games via youtubetv, and college basketball.

In march of 23 while there I was able to use VPN on my laptop to do online banking, I was even able to certify for unemployment as I was taking job interviews while there. So I know VPN will work on the laptop, so I'm guessing easiest way may be HDMI cable to the tv, or a projector if the room is large enough.

Still figuring out the internet part. 23 we used what was basically a hotspot but we were getting 8-10 mbps, very slow and unreliable. They allegedly have fiber now but I've been unable to get confirmation. It seems our best bet might be starlink.
 

Devilmaycare

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Thanks. I unfortunately won't know the answer until I'm there and buy the tv because I'm not taking it with me. I have a Roku and a Fire stick and would ideally use one of those to get Netflix etc but I'm hoping I can also get NFL games via youtubetv, and college basketball.

In march of 23 while there I was able to use VPN on my laptop to do online banking, I was even able to certify for unemployment as I was taking job interviews while there. So I know VPN will work on the laptop, so I'm guessing easiest way may be HDMI cable to the tv, or a projector if the room is large enough.

Still figuring out the internet part. 23 we used what was basically a hotspot but we were getting 8-10 mbps, very slow and unreliable. They allegedly have fiber now but I've been unable to get confirmation. It seems our best bet might be starlink.
A VPN will definitely get you around the restrictions. Playing through a laptop would be an easy solution for running it since you know it will. The other idea would be to buy an AppleTV, Shield, or whatever you prefer here and then we can get it configured while you're here to bring with.

For the sports I think you're ok if you're going through YouTubeTV. I don't believe they VPN block. If you were using the league's app, especially MLB's, then you might still have trouble. MLB has their's locked down. On devices with GPS, like your phone, they require location services on and use that over the IP's location. They also block a lot of the VPN servers if you try from something like a laptop that doesn't have it. I can't find a server that isn't blocked by them with my normal VPN. I have a secondary one that I did find a server that isn't blocked, yet.

Get the fiber if you can. If you can't, Starlink was pretty good the two times I've used it. JSX has it for the internet connectivity on their planes. I was surprised at how well it worked and the speed while at 30k feet going 500 mph or whatever the plane was doing.
 

Russ Smith

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A VPN will definitely get you around the restrictions. Playing through a laptop would be an easy solution for running it since you know it will. The other idea would be to buy an AppleTV, Shield, or whatever you prefer here and then we can get it configured while you're here to bring with.

For the sports I think you're ok if you're going through YouTubeTV. I don't believe they VPN block. If you were using the league's app, especially MLB's, then you might still have trouble. MLB has their's locked down. On devices with GPS, like your phone, they require location services on and use that over the IP's location. They also block a lot of the VPN servers if you try from something like a laptop that doesn't have it. I can't find a server that isn't blocked by them with my normal VPN. I have a secondary one that I did find a server that isn't blocked, yet.

Get the fiber if you can. If you can't, Starlink was pretty good the two times I've used it. JSX has it for the internet connectivity on their planes. I was surprised at how well it worked and the speed while at 30k feet going 500 mph or whatever the plane was doing.

Mixed bag here my VPN is Norton. I can't access MGM+ to watch From, even with the VPN on it knows I'm in the Philippines. Netflix, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime and Paramount Plus all work with VPN. I cancelled MGM+ for now since I'm here awhile.

Still haven't figured out a good permanent wifi I'm told we can buy a star link dish get it in Dumaguete and then transport it by boat to Siquijor, apparently otherwise it's really hard to get one here because there's only 1 address on the island in the database. Still figuring out how to pay since credit card has to be to a Filipino Bank
 

Devilmaycare

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Mixed bag here my VPN is Norton. I can't access MGM+ to watch From, even with the VPN on it knows I'm in the Philippines. Netflix, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime and Paramount Plus all work with VPN. I cancelled MGM+ for now since I'm here awhile.

Still haven't figured out a good permanent wifi I'm told we can buy a star link dish get it in Dumaguete and then transport it by boat to Siquijor, apparently otherwise it's really hard to get one here because there's only 1 address on the island in the database. Still figuring out how to pay since credit card has to be to a Filipino Bank
Give another VPN a try. Norton is a big player and their servers are known. MGM+ is probably blocking you based on that alone. I had that issue when using PIA with the MLB's streaming to get around blackout rules. Give AdGuard VPN a shot. I've had the best luck with them for getting around geo fencing. If the trial works, hit me up before subscribing. I have a couple deals I can send you.
 

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Give another VPN a try. Norton is a big player and their servers are known. MGM+ is probably blocking you based on that alone. I had that issue when using PIA with the MLB's streaming to get around blackout rules. Give AdGuard VPN a shot. I've had the best luck with them for getting around geo fencing. If the trial works, hit me up before subscribing. I have a couple deals I can send you.

I use ExpressVPN.
 
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Covert Rain

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Mixed bag here my VPN is Norton. I can't access MGM+ to watch From, even with the VPN on it knows I'm in the Philippines. Netflix, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime and Paramount Plus all work with VPN. I cancelled MGM+ for now since I'm here awhile.

Still haven't figured out a good permanent wifi I'm told we can buy a star link dish get it in Dumaguete and then transport it by boat to Siquijor, apparently otherwise it's really hard to get one here because there's only 1 address on the island in the database. Still figuring out how to pay since credit card has to be to a Filipino Bank
Sometimes it's not because they know you are in the Philippines. Some services are tracking VPN server locations. If they know you are using a server in that location? They will block you. So, they may not necessarily know where you are. Only that you are using a widely known VPN server location. Streaming services are doing IP address monitoring, monitory WebRTC Leaks and analyzing packets. Good VPNs then shift to keep the streaming services on their toes. Some are better at it than others. It's giant game of whack a mole.
 

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Sometimes it's not because they know you are in the Philippines. Some services are tracking VPN server locations. If they know you are using a server in that location? They will block you. So, they may not necessarily know where you are. Only that you are using a widely known VPN server location. Streaming services are doing IP address monitoring, monitory WebRTC Leaks and analyzing packets. Good VPNs then shift to keep the streaming services on their toes. Some are better at it than others. It's giant game of whack a mole.

I'm a novice at this stuff, but doesn't a VPN change your supposed server location?
 
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Covert Rain

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I'm a novice at this stuff, but doesn't a VPN change your supposed server location?
Yes. However, that doesn't stop the streaming services from finding out the location of those popular VPN servers and blocking them. Which means anybody connected to that server will be blocked. VPNs have various ways of attempting to mask those or update VPN server locations. That's why I called it a whack-a-mole game. Some VPNs are better than others playing this game. Stay away from Free VPN's. They typically are terrible at it and they don't protect your identity.
 

Dan H

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A lot of newer routers will allow you to enter VPN information into the router itself. This puts all of your devices on the VPN without requiring you to configure them manually.
 
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