# Free tv/movies etc



## steve01 (Dec 8, 2010)

Had my moans for the day, so i thought i'd offer something more positive.

We decided we'd try and use the internet for all tv/movies for a week after the loss of sky/freesat channels / poor reception etc.

I'm just a normal person, not an internet expert, but not stupid.

We decided to try and watch all tv / radio for a week without switching the skybox on

I connected the monitor cable out of the back of the pc into a convenient hole in the back of a tv, connected an 'ear phone' type connector out of the pc sound card into a socket in the back of the tv and away we went.

We have an old pc and used a 5 year old flat screen tv - anything newer should cope with this no problem.

We listened to all of the bbc radio stations for free - bbciplayer.

We watched all bbc/atv channels for free (average quality) at filmon +free movies and various other channels.
We found a free movie site (can't give the name here' - a little complicated to use but it does have instuctions on the site - this week for free we watched 'Lincoln'. 'The Hobbit', Total Recall(2012), 'Warhorse', New batman film - can't remember its name', and last night 'Les Miserables - just released = all for free at good / to very good quality.
We believe that with an HDMI connection from the pc to the TV that the quality could have been much improved but our old pc doesn't have an hdmi out

Next bit is more complicated = but i'm not a computer whiz kid.
We used expatshield - free version - lots of annoying popups and ukvpnfree.

We used 2 vpn switchers = both free to make the pc think it was in the UK and watched all BBC/ITV/CH4/CH5 for free at a better quality than above.

We also added the desktop bbciplayer and downloaded the first 2 episodes of Africa - played back after downloading we watched at superb quality.

I don't believe we did anything illegal - VPN is a grey area - filmon claims its showing bbc/atv legally, and the movies all had offical copy/distribution messages. - BBC radio stations including local stations are available free at the bbc website.

The only problem we had was via a free vpn we couldn't get enough broadband speed to watch HD - maimum achieved was 2mb as opposed to 12mb via MEO.

Happy to say it was a very positive experiment = throw away your sky/freesat :clap2:


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## Dennis (Sep 29, 2008)

Hi Steve01
We have an HD TV with HDMI connection and MEO and would be very interested to try the same as you. 
Any chance you could pm me the sites you tried?
Thanks.


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## steve01 (Dec 8, 2010)

Hi,
all the websites are in the original post - if i put them on in full the message will probably be deleted

bbc.co.uk iplayer
filmon.com
channel5.com demand5
itv.com itvplayer

expatshield.com and put free vpn in the search engine

also search youtube for movies - lots of older films for free there

i recommend starting with bbc radio and filmon because any pc should be able to get them without any problem/changes
Good luck


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

Expatshield is the free one, when you install opt out of installing any toolbars, default browser option helps cut back on ads, quality, streaming and bufferingdepends 100% on your internet connection, there was a recent post on same subject with some other pay site options.

To get any UK TV like Iplayer you need the a UK IP address which is what expatshield and the pay ones supply but if you've a c*** internet


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

FWIW, I've just tried expatshield & filmon.

I binned expatshield because it interfered with some of my other pages but I find I can watch filmon which means I can view Dave & Yesterday etc albeit on my laptop 

I get a few short buffering interruptions but it's not too bad and it's a big bonus compared to not being able to watch it at all. 

My thanks to Steve01 for the tip off.


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## steve01 (Dec 8, 2010)

If you use expatshield through google crome and turn on the crome pop up blocker it behaves itself better
Using one of the free VPN sites gives the same benfits as expatshield - UK ip address but without the pop-ups - only outstanding issue i get is no better than 2mb download speeds
I have expatshield disabled in the background and only turn it on when needed.
tip - start an iplayer download, then turn expatshield off (disable)- you only need it to start the download, not all the way through - then your download speed will revert back to your Portuguese internet provider - switching off expat shield like this and reverting back to Meo my download speed increases 6 fold


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

Steve

I seem to be able to watch filmon without expatshield so what's the advantage of expatshield?


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## steve01 (Dec 8, 2010)

Filmon isn't broadcast from the UK, it doesn't have a UKIP address or restriction
I added filmon because it gets most of the UK channels, albeit not great quality unless you pay extra for the HD version

Expat shield spoofs your IP address - changes it from a Portuguese IP to a UK one
it lets your watch and record internet sites with a UK IP only restriction.
Like 
bbc iplayer
channel5.com demand5
itv.com itvplayer
that you otherwise can't watch material on
VPN's do the same for the UK, USA (lots of ip restricted tv channels), other restricted sites in other countries


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

OK thanks.


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

Steve what sort of speed are you getting with Meo that you have to mess around to that degree


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## steve01 (Dec 8, 2010)

Non of this is because of Meo - i get around 12mb which is great for most things.
The whole point of this is to access UK tv which with the exception of filmon ypu can't do through Meo
The problem being when you use Expatshield or VPN it bounces the info off the UK and this slows everything down to around 2mb


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

I asked because when I've run speed tests using my Portuguese IP or Expat shield UK IP address I've not found any marked difference and overall performance all down to internet speed here, all expatshield does is to mask your PT IP address so you access blocked TV or buy download music from Amazon


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## Etchy Boy (Oct 16, 2012)

One thing I found with ExpatShield (apart from it being very slow at times with reduced bandwidth) is that some sites appear to know of its IP ranges.

Example, I wanted to buy an MP3 from Amazon, even with ExpatShield and a UK IP address it tells me "download purchases are not available in your country" ... I had to wait until i went to the UK during xmas to download the music.

Filmon is awesome, have it on my phone and iPad ... actually I tried it whilst I was in a cafe using 3G on my android ... no buffering issues, worked a treat. In fact, vodafone sent me a 4g sim last wk, guess that's going to be rolled out soon enough in the algarve.

Thx,
Etch


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## steve01 (Dec 8, 2010)

Canoeman - i've already answered your questions above.
Just one point - if you use an IP address show utility and an internet speed test you'll find expatshield and all vpn's actually route all of your requests through a UK based server - this server then makes the request fooling the receiving internet page into believing you're in the UK/USA/wherever it then passes the result back to you.
For me using 3 different free vpn services (2 UK , 1USA) or expatshield (UK) this gives an average speed of 2mb, going native through Meo i average 12mb.
This means i can't watch HD programs from the UK without excess buffering, for non HD i have no problems whatsoever , and using my favourite movie site directly through Meo i can watch HD and 3D without problems


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

Bear in mind, currently we have no problems with TV reception via Astra sats even the 5's


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## steve01 (Dec 8, 2010)

i only put this on to cheer people up by showing that regardless of the future sky/freesat situation its possible for non technical people to not only get whats currently on satelite , but much more also - all for free

Not to enter into technical debate - i'm really not qualified


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## Janina k (Nov 30, 2011)

*Reply*

Hi Steve

From Krystyna and I a big thanks. 

Last night instead of having to use a laptop conected to our TV and Expsatshield we where able to leave our TV and desktop connected together. So Steve you saved me the trouble of reconnecting machines. 

To help other we only have a very slow connection of 1.75mbs also while the TV was on Krystyna was able to use the internet. So for those on a slow connection don't give up hope you can watch TV thanks to Steve and no buffering of signal.

There are no adverts like on Expatshield but as of UK TV you do get the normal adverts but we can live with that. 

Fred


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## MarinaS (Dec 6, 2012)

haha I'm sure it wasn't legal to watch eg the Hobbit "for free"


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## steve01 (Dec 8, 2010)

I'd have thought the same - but it did have all of the official authorised movie encoding.

Still never look a gift horse in the mouth

Maybe we have different laws to you, not eating dogs for instance or wandering around with loaded guns on the off chance you might find a reason to shoot someone.

Watching a movie palls into insignificance don'tcha think

Anyway - you should watch Lincoln - for free of course, (i did) had some great idea's, freedom of speech etc

ขอให้มีความสุขมาก ๆ ในวันนี้นะ


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## notlongnow (May 21, 2009)

Am I right in saying that Expat Shield still doesn't let you watch 4OD? Like the sites Etch mentioned 4OD seems to have learned of Expat Shield's IP ranges.

I'm a big fan of TunnelBear - yes, it costs money, but it's less flaky than ES, with no ads, and works for everything UK or US.


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## Waterdog (Oct 24, 2011)

steve01 said:


> Had my moans for the day, so i thought i'd offer something more positive.
> 
> We decided we'd try and use the internet for all tv/movies for a week after the loss of sky/freesat channels / poor reception etc.
> 
> ...


Thank you for a very useful informative thread.:clap2:


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## coati (Sep 12, 2012)

Hi
Im envious no can do as the bandwith would cost me thousands on Avanti Satellite
Can use IPlayer as IP address is genuine UK and it woks but cost prohibitive


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## Mel1987 (Feb 27, 2013)

IPTV is now also available while allows you to watch freeview channels via the internet without using a VPN


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