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YouTube TV and VPNs, and alternatives


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I use nord vpn, and a dns changer ( I know how to change manually but wife does not). Both have a nice GUI easy to change to anywhere.

Now I use a NUC computer attached to my TV so I have access to change anything I want easily.

We I use Hulu live TV. Works great with the dns, vpn and the new unlimited cloud dvr makes it as nice as Google TV was. We also open up accounts with, acorn, britbox, some others when we see something we like.  Prime TV thru amazon.com.mx much cheaper than usa version, don't need vpn,dns for this. Now to access the movies we own on usa amazon we need dns,vpn.

Also have a BBC account so we can change dns, vpn to Britain and watch shows we like.

It is a great time to be a xpat tech wise.

Also the NUC are now being made by off brands just bought a new one for $250 off Amazon ready to go out of the box windows and all, 2 4k outs too. So they really are pretty cheap and you get much more control of your TV watching.

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2 hours ago, Mexicoafterlife said:

It is a great time to be a xpat tech wise.

Ain't it the truth.

Will bear Hulu Live in mind. Pretty equivalent to YTTV, but a little more expensive if you want more than two seats. In the end it's just TV, and hardly a big deal. Me, I love a project.

Do they still make big, tower desktops any more? Maybe for gamers.

Much prefer a desktop. Laptops are like working through a keyhole. Wasn't blessed with small hands, was blessed with myopia 😐. I've got a couple Beelink minicomputers (Rizen) that run rings around the last tower I had. Big fan of Raspberry Pi, too.

Naturally, they run Linux all but exclusively, yet can dual boot the Win 11 that came installed -- but only if the apocalypse comes, or my mom needs tech support.

Once I'm more settled I'll look into what I can do to help raise the ante, computer-wise, with the youth of San Antonio. Pretty sure I can help, but best to go slow. Another project.

LQ

 

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I think the large desktop tower still reigns supreme for serious video 'handling' be it gaming or capture/editing. Some users use multiple video cards which are processors themselves. To keep hardware cool lots of space and fans are required unless going water cooled. I am currently facing a rebuild of my system built in 2010 (i7, 950 3.06 ghz, Rampage 3 Gene MB, Nvidia Geforce 480 video card, 24 GB RAM). I use it for live feed via firewire from a HD camera on a high powered microscope. When built it was ahead of the times. Now the motherboards and video card combinations are light years beyond.

My video card will no longer run/load drivers; it is beyond its lifespan. Next will be the old 7200 rpm hard drive and power supply. The tower/case is an excellent Antec running 4 adjustable fans with options for more so I'm contemplating acquiring the parts for new 'guts'. I don't know the best Mexican outlet for PC parts but have been looking here; https://www.cyberpuerta.mx/  and Amazon. Any advice for where to purchase is appreciated.

I bought one of the 'refurbished' Dell 32 GB RAM mini-towers from Amazon. My idea was to install a firewire card and video card into the 2 available slots. The 'rebuilder' (ha) tech had not correctly wiped the previous company's Windows 10 configuration so it did not load correctly. I contacted them and tried to get them to just send me a fresh install of W10 but they were seemingly very concerned about what was left on the PC so I returned it for refund. In retrospect I should have tried an install of Linux Mint but I'm not even sure it would load. 

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For TV, I just use Kodi-Real Debrid on a laptop > HDMI to TV. I like to keep things as simple as possible. As I've learned, Real Debrid acts as a VPN so no need to use my VPN for that. I do have Prime for the rare occasion when Debrid has trouble and USTVGO and NPR (radio) for news. I've been tempted to try signing up for YouTubeTV with my VPN just to see...  Is the trial version/period long enough to know if it would be stable?

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Man I feel for anyone trying to buy a video card.  The coin miners buy up everything and made finding one hard and if you do they are super overpriced. 

My laptop is like your your desktop made on 2010 great Alienware but just to old to do much serious gaming.  But waiting for the steam deck to hit mexico to replace it. Switched my steam to mexico so will have to wait for mexico launch.

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12 minutes ago, timjwilson said:

been tempted to try signing up for YouTubeTV with my VPN just to see...  Is the trial version/period long enough to know if it would be stable?

It's normally seven days free, and fourteen during promotions.

Stable? Certainly the throughput will be stable, so it'll be a question of how aggressively Google/YTTV polices VPN use. There's speculation in this thread that they're maybe less aggressive if one user account slot is in use at the account's chosen U.S. location. Hard to say. YTTV doesn't want to be aggressive, but content deals  -- made typically for an entire country -- enumerate the geo-enforcement steps that must be performed, and how they're documented. YTTV would look the other way on activity not specifically forbidden contractually.

There's nothing special about YTTV, in comparison with it's competitors like SlingTV and, as I've learned here, Hulu Plus. These all meet the generic requirement of a streaming TV service that includes local/regional TV content, national content, cloud-DVR, and some integration of premium channels (e.g., HBO). They're all about the same price, because their largest cost by far is content licensing, which everybody pays.

You could maybe get a sense of relative location enforcement laxity by following the subreddit for each service, but maybe not. These things change.

WRT to integrating, say, HBO into, say, YTTV, that's only valuable if you watch TV a certain way. If you approach it like, "Turn on the TV and see what's on," maybe it's good to be able to search a pile that includes your premium subscriptions. But you'll pay full U.S. freight for those subscriptions, vs. the cheaper Mexico rate.

There's also no guarantee that you'll be able to DVR premium channels if they're bought through a streaming service, though it's great if you can. OTOH, god and Bram Cohen created Bittorrent for a reason. Ahem.

1 hour ago, timjwilson said:

live feed via firewire from a HD camera on a high powered microscope.

Assume the camera's interface is what keeps you using Betamax Firewire. I've read that Firewire can be adapted to Thunderbolt 3, but don't bother using anything but Apple's adapters. After all, it was Apple that promoted 1394 into existence, then didn't.

1 hour ago, timjwilson said:

the large desktop tower still reigns supreme for serious video 'handling' be it gaming or capture/editing

Oh, sure. Recovering video coder here. Video encoding/transcoding is about as processor-intensive as it gets -- so we were all issued these beastly Dell towers, so that everybody could do encodes and help visually determine if a proposed video-encoder (software) change was worthwhile. But I don't do that any more, and ffmpeg runs just fine on my small boxen.

And I suppose some folks still kinda get-off on towers, tricking them out with lights and what not. Personally, I retired my last build and have no plans to go back. I'm just a simple, country computer nerd now, living out his simple existence in the dust and salsa of Central Mexico.

LQ

 

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1 hour ago, Lou Quillio said:

It's normally seven days free, and fourteen during promotions.

Stable? Certainly the throughput will be stable, so it'll be a question of how aggressively Google/YTTV polices VPN use. There's speculation in this thread that they're maybe less aggressive if one user account slot is in use at the account's chosen U.S. location. Hard to say. YTTV doesn't want to be aggressive, but content deals  -- made typically for an entire country -- enumerate the geo-enforcement steps that must be performed, and how they're documented. YTTV would look the other way on activity not specifically forbidden contractually.

There's nothing special about YTTV, in comparison with it's competitors like SlingTV and, as I've learned here, Hulu Plus. These all meet the generic requirement of a streaming TV service that includes local/regional TV content, national content, cloud-DVR, and some integration of premium channels (e.g., HBO). They're all about the same price, because their largest cost by far is content licensing, which everybody pays.

You could maybe get a sense of relative location enforcement laxity by following the subreddit for each service, but maybe not. These things change.

WRT to integrating, say, HBO into, say, YTTV, that's only valuable if you watch TV a certain way. If you approach it like, "Turn on the TV and see what's on," maybe it's good to be able to search a pile that includes your premium subscriptions. But you'll pay full U.S. freight for those subscriptions, vs. the cheaper Mexico rate.

There's also no guarantee that you'll be able to DVR premium channels if they're bought through a streaming service, though it's great if you can. OTOH, god and Bram Cohen created Bittorrent for a reason. Ahem.

Assume the camera's interface is what keeps you using Betamax Firewire. I've read that Firewire can be adapted to Thunderbolt 3, but don't bother using anything but Apple's adapters. After all, it was Apple that promoted 1394 into existence, then didn't.

Oh, sure. Recovering video coder here. Video encoding/transcoding is about as processor-intensive as it gets -- so we were all issued these beastly Dell towers, so that everybody could do encodes and help visually determine if a proposed video-encoder (software) change was worthwhile. But I don't do that any more, and ffmpeg runs just fine on my small boxen.

And I suppose some folks still kinda get-off on towers, tricking them out with lights and what not. Personally, I retired my last build and have no plans to go back. I'm just a simple, country computer nerd now, living out his simple existence in the dust and salsa of Central Mexico.

LQ

 

Yes it is the camera interface which keeps me loyal (so far) to 1394, however I did experiment with USB 3 and found a delay compared to firewire. I'd like to try the 'C USB' at some point. I need to have fairly precise ontime transfer as I attempt to follow microorganisms travelling around a slide. [this one not HD]

 

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