Some shows in UK are free to watch but you need to create an account in their webpage and you usually need a physical address (plus they have ads but maybe those I can skip). I don’t live in the UK, so I’m unsure how to watch those shows. Torrents are extremely hard to find, even more of good quality. Does someone have some advice on this? In particular I was looking for certain cooking tv show contest, but not only that.

  • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
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    9 months ago

    Reminds me of the good old days when you could still receive Cartoon Network unencrypted over satellite. Batman, Dexter and Cow and Chicken helped me learn English as a child.

    • rambos@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      The main reason why people my age have good english skills I believe

  • Samir Boulema
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    9 months ago

    r/tv_bunny has a lot of good UK downloads. I use it mainly to watch QI :p

    • Yprum@lemmy.worldOP
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      9 months ago

      Wow thanks! Really need to try that one! Live tv is not my jam tho, I don’t care much for stuff I can’t choose when to watch.

  • Unruffled [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.comM
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    9 months ago

    Another good option is to use something similar to Smart DNS Proxy to bypass geo-blocking by UK (and other) TV channels. I’ve been using it for years with no issues. There is some configuration involved, but it’s not too complicated. You may also have to change you system clock to a UK timezone for the BBC, since they sometimes check for that. I wouldn’t recommend using their DNS service for any other purpose though, since there are no privacy guarantees.

    IMO most VPNs simply can’t keep up with their IP addresses being quickly blocked by UK TV websites, so they are very hit and miss for that particular use case. Plus it’s not their necessarily their core business, so they don’t put so much effort into circumventing geoblocking. You might find one that will work, but it will often be blocked in a few days or weeks. But your mileage may vary & you may get lucky.

    • Yprum@lemmy.worldOP
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      9 months ago

      Thanks for the info, I’ll check that DNS proxy. But my issue is not geo blocking itself, I already passed that with VPN but they also require an account with a lot of details in order to watch the content. I have tried creating an account to manage it but without success and it felt too much effort, I’d prefer to find some alternative. Thanks anyway!

      • Unruffled [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.comM
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        9 months ago

        No problem. In that case, you could use something like sonarr to subscribe to a specific show and have it download automatically when a new episode is available. It’s great for quality of life as everything happens automatically after the initial setup, and of course, you will avoid ads this way. There are plenty of guides on how to set up an *arr stack if you do a quick web search.

    • Yprum@lemmy.worldOP
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      9 months ago

      I did try, but I think the next step was an UK phone number or something… The thing is that they try as hard as possible to block it. And I just want a workaround for it, if there’s any…

  • shish_mish@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Just use a VPN , ProtonMail have a VPN and the basic level is free and works very well at getting around geo locked sites. I use Mullvad, another VPN that is affordable at £5 a month.

    • Yprum@lemmy.worldOP
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      9 months ago

      Yeah I have a VPN already and recently I’ve been considering changing mail and calendar and storage to proton and have my account there, but didn’t check their VPN service yet.

      Without the VPN I couldn’t even get to try the playback, but with VPN I still need a way to circumvent their account requirements.

  • doleo@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    ExpressVPN is the only one I’ve got working with iplayer, thus far. There used to be ‘tvcatchup’, but that got nerfed then killed. I haven’t found anything else since.