Streaming TV through VPN

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Sharp Guy
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Streaming TV through VPN

#1

Post by Sharp Guy »

I'm tired of paying out the nose for DirecTV. Last year during football and hockey season I was paying well over $250/month for TV. I vowed I wasn't going to do that again. So now more than ever we're seriously considering getting rid of the dish and streaming everything. We already stream most of our TV content except for sports and occasionally watching the local news. I know I can get a service like YouTube TV and still get local content on the major networks. My big concern is being able to watch my Chicago Bears play on Sundays which is why I stuck with DirecTV for so long.

I did a little reading today and one article mentioned the benefits of streaming through VPN. The idea is that I could set the VPN for a server in the Chicago market (I'm in DFW) and pick up the programming from there. Have any of you ever tried this? I'm a little concerned about how easy (or difficult) it is to do this. Will I be able to easily change the VPN server when I want to watch Chicago channels and then easily change back for watching local TV where I'm at? I assume the VPN thing effects my whole network. I have all of my 3D printers connected to our home network. Will the VPN effect being able to run my machines? If any of you have any knowledge or experience with this I'd appreciate your input

On a side note, I bought a Amazon Firestick on sale just to try on the TV in my home office. I'm fairly happy with it but a friend at work suggested I try the Roku. So I think I'll order one and then do the free trial of YouTube TV to see how well we cope without the dish. Anyone have any thoughts on which streaming service they like best? It seems like YouTube TV might be the best bang for the buck (for me) but I know there are several others (Sling, Fubo, Hulu Live, AT&T, etc). I know I definitely don't want to mess with an antenna. So whatever I go with needs to have live TV. All this is a little overwhelming and the last thing I want is to keep spending more money trying to find services that provide the content we want. So any input there would be appreciated.
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SG89
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Re: Streaming TV through VPN

#2

Post by SG89 »

I use a roku, sling, locast app for locals on my phone, antenna for locals on my tv. Also pluto is free and has some decent content. I cut the cord about 5 years ago and don't miss it. I had youtube tv and it's fine but too expensive for my tastes. If you used a vpn to get Chicago area content, wouldn't you be subject to blackout restrictions?
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Re: Streaming TV through VPN

#3

Post by SG89 »

It's a trial and error thing, luckily with streaming you have no contracts so you can cancel anytime and try something else. Just know that streaming is not an exact copy of satellite TV /cable. Menus look way different, often you can't channel surf in the traditional way and you often have to subscribe to multiple different services to get all the content you want. IMO it's still better than paying $1400 a year for dish network. I pay $400-$500 a year total for sling and any other streaming services I use (subscribe for a month or 2 then cancel like for instance hulu for handmaids tale or Netflix for peaky blinders) I always have sling going because I watch a lot of history channel, food network, and my son watches nick jr channel. Plus with sling you get nbc 5 and fox 4 and you can record on those channels too so I can record football games.
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Re: Streaming TV through VPN

#4

Post by SG89 »

FYI the antenna is great for live sports the picture quality is so much clearer than through streaming (sling doesn't stream in 4k). The antenna doesn't use any bandwidth either (obvi). My antenna cost like $40 five years ago and I've never had a problem, I got a splitter and all my tv's are connected to it.
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Re: Streaming TV through VPN

#5

Post by JRinFL »

Some of the streaming services and content providers are pretty good at finding the IP numbers of VPN services and blocking them. It could work one week and be blocked the next. It mostly works, but it is not guaranteed. Depending on the VPN service, you may not be able to stream at the best quality as you are pushing everything through what amounts to a smaller pipe. There is also overhead due to the encryption inherent in a VPN connection.

The VPN will only impact the data you are pushing/pulling through it over the internet. Your internal devices communicating to each other on your local LAN/WAN will not be affected by it.

Pro Sports and Cable/Satellite providers work hand in hand to keep as much content to themselves as they can. Most of the people I know who still pay for cable or satellite are doing it just to watch their sports programs.
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Re: Streaming TV through VPN

#6

Post by Sharp Guy »

Spydergirl88 wrote:
Mon Jul 26, 2021 10:36 pm
I had youtube tv and it's fine but too expensive for my tastes.
I'm not sure that's what we'll go with yet. I'm going to order the Roku and do the free trial and see how I like it. I see it doesn't have a couple channels we might watch. I'll look hard at some of the other options too. As you said, we might have to do a couple services to see what we'll like. It's still going to be much cheaper than what I've been paying

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... 1648413801
Spydergirl88 wrote:
Mon Jul 26, 2021 10:36 pm
If you used a vpn to get Chicago area content, wouldn't you be subject to blackout restrictions?
No, that's the reason we'd use VPN. The idea is that you use the VPN service to log into a server in the Chicago area. That way the streaming service thinks you're network's in that area. Then the content they show you is local to that area. Again, I'm not exactly sure how all that works. We used a VPN client to log into our network at a company I worked for and my IP address was in Germany (German company). So everything I did on the internet while logged in my browser thought I was in Germany. I found out the hard way when I tried to buy a rifle scope from Optics planet for my work computer and they wouldn't sell it to me because they thought I was in Germany. I had to call them and convince them that I was actually located in the same general area they were. It was a big mess and they made me jump through hoops to clear it up.

I already have a Locast account but, IIRC, last fall when I tried to use it the service knew I was in the Dallas from my IP address. So I couldn't view my game. I'm still not entirely sure this will be what I'll do. The article below says I can get the Express VPN app on my TV but might be difficult to find. I have some research and experimenting to do before I actually cancel DirecTV

https://www.expressvpn.com/vpn-service/locast-vpn

https://www.expressvpn.com/vpn-software ... ring-cable
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Re: Streaming TV through VPN

#7

Post by Sharp Guy »

Spydergirl88 wrote:
Mon Jul 26, 2021 10:50 pm
FYI the antenna is great for live sports the picture quality is so much clearer than through streaming (sling doesn't stream in 4k). The antenna doesn't use any bandwidth either (obvi). My antenna cost like $40 five years ago and I've never had a problem, I got a splitter and all my tv's are connected to it.
I've thought about going with an antenna (still might) but I really don't want to get into running cable for each of my TVs. Two of our TVs still have cable running in the general area but my other two TVs (garage and office) do not.

What kind of antenna did you go with? I don't want to get into mounting one to our roof. Whatever I use it would have to be an indoor antenna. I have small window in our attic at the front of the house (facing south). I might be able to get by with an indoor antenna placed there.
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Re: Streaming TV through VPN

#8

Post by JRinFL »

I use an internal antenna in my attic for local broadcast. No windows and so far reception has been fine. I put in a quality splitter to feed two TVs with no issues. It was one of the long range Winegard models from Home Depot. Under $50 at the time.
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Re: Streaming TV through VPN

#9

Post by SG89 »

I use this on my roof: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0024R4B ... UTF8&psc=1

I had tried an indoor antenna but it didn't work for me because it was a short range antenna. I live about 30-40 miles away from the nearest TV station so I needed an antenna with a longer range.
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Re: Streaming TV through VPN

#10

Post by Sharp Guy »

JRinFL wrote:
Tue Jul 27, 2021 7:44 am
I use an internal antenna in my attic for local broadcast. No windows and so far reception has been fine. I put in a quality splitter to feed two TVs with no issues. It was one of the long range Winegard models from Home Depot. Under $50 at the time.
Thanks for this and your previous info

The whole DirecTV NFL Ticket thing is frustrating for me. I really only use it to watch the handful of games that I wouldn't be able to see otherwise. An alternative to trying the VPN thing might be to use NFL Game Pass. The games are available a few hours after the actually air. Might be an ok solution because I often record my games and watch them later anyway.
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Re: Streaming TV through VPN

#11

Post by Sharp Guy »

Spydergirl88 wrote:
Tue Jul 27, 2021 8:08 am
I use this on my roof: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0024R4B ... UTF8&psc=1

I had tried an indoor antenna but it didn't work for me because it was a short range antenna. I live about 30-40 miles away from the nearest TV station so I needed an antenna with a longer range.
I saw that antenna when I looked yesterday.

These are the indoor ones I was looking at

https://www.amazon.com/Latest-Amplified ... 192&sr=8-3

https://www.amazon.com/Antenna-Outdoor- ... s9dHJ1ZQ==

I still don't want to go that route if I don't have to. Maybe I'd just do if for our main TV in the living room
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Re: Streaming TV through VPN

#12

Post by JRinFL »

Sharp Guy wrote:
Tue Jul 27, 2021 8:11 am
JRinFL wrote:
Tue Jul 27, 2021 7:44 am
I use an internal antenna in my attic for local broadcast. No windows and so far reception has been fine. I put in a quality splitter to feed two TVs with no issues. It was one of the long range Winegard models from Home Depot. Under $50 at the time.
Thanks for this and your previous info

The whole DirecTV NFL Ticket thing is frustrating for me. I really only use it to watch the handful of games that I wouldn't be able to see otherwise. An alternative to trying the VPN thing might be to use NFL Game Pass. The games are available a few hours after the actually air. Might be an ok solution because I often record my games and watch them later anyway.
This site is very useful if do go with an antenna. http://www.tvfool.com/ It will assist in aiming your antenna for best reception.
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Re: Streaming TV through VPN

#13

Post by SG89 »

Yeah that's a great website JR
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Re: Streaming TV through VPN

#14

Post by Sharp Guy »

Thanks for that website. The more I think about it the more my brain hurts. I may just suck it up and keep the dish. Simplicity is worth something

If I get rid of the dish I'll probably just use NFL Game Pass and watch the games I need to after they air
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Re: Streaming TV through VPN

#15

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Here, we use a VPN app. It is part of the Norton / Symantec antivirus package. I've never looked in to setting up a VPN server. Are you sure that you need a VPN server? If it was part of my job to do so I'd choose to do it with RedHat. Their support is fantastic. Just make sure to buy the best support package.

When I had NHL streaming I made the mistake of choosing Chicago as my home team and then they would not let me watch home games. I did not have a TV at the time and was mad about that. The home games were blacked out!

I had Comcast for Internet at 100mbps to the home and it was fantastic, but I did not have any cable shows because it rqd a TV.
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Re: Streaming TV through VPN

#16

Post by Sharp Guy »

Naperville wrote:
Tue Jul 27, 2021 12:32 pm
Here, we use a VPN app. It is part of the Norton / Symantec antivirus package. I've never looked in to setting up a VPN server. Are you sure that you need a VPN server? If it was part of my job to do so I'd choose to do it with RedHat. Their support is fantastic. Just make sure to buy the best support package.

When I had NHL streaming I made the mistake of choosing Chicago as my home team and then they would not let me watch home games. I did not have a TV at the time and was mad about that. The home games were blacked out!

I had Comcast for Internet at 100mbps to the home and it was fantastic, but I did not have any cable shows because it rqd a TV.
As far as I know I wouldn't be setting up a VPN server. I would be using a VPN service such as Express VPN

I remember when they were blacking out the Blackhawks home games. I think it's been a long time since they've had to that. I'm not concerned about watching the hawks. There's a website that shows every NHL game with your choice of home or away broadcast. I used it several times last year. Not sure how they get away with it but it was fabulous. I used to subscribe to the NHL package too. Not anymore
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Re: Streaming TV through VPN

#17

Post by Naperville »

Sharp Guy wrote:
Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:38 pm
As far as I know I wouldn't be setting up a VPN server. I would be using a VPN service such as Express VPN

I remember when they were blacking out the Blackhawks home games. I think it's been a long time since they've had to that. I'm not concerned about watching the hawks. There's a website that shows every NHL game with your choice of home or away broadcast. I used it several times last year. Not sure how they get away with it but it was fabulous. I used to subscribe to the NHL package too. Not anymore
Get ready to use that Blackhawks streaming service a bit more.

The Blackhawks just traded for Fleury for goal tending, and they have a new guy that apparently is pretty good for defense. They just need 2 more forwards and they will be competitive. :winking-tongue
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Re: Streaming TV through VPN

#18

Post by Sharp Guy »

Naperville wrote:
Tue Jul 27, 2021 4:07 pm
Sharp Guy wrote:
Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:38 pm
As far as I know I wouldn't be setting up a VPN server. I would be using a VPN service such as Express VPN

I remember when they were blacking out the Blackhawks home games. I think it's been a long time since they've had to that. I'm not concerned about watching the hawks. There's a website that shows every NHL game with your choice of home or away broadcast. I used it several times last year. Not sure how they get away with it but it was fabulous. I used to subscribe to the NHL package too. Not anymore
Get ready to use that Blackhawks streaming service a bit more.

The Blackhawks just traded for Fleury for goal tending, and they have a new guy that apparently is pretty good for defense. They just need 2 more forwards and they will be competitive. :winking-tongue
Oh I've been watching. Apparently Fleury wasn't happy about the trade because last I heard he's now thinking about retiring. If he retires the trade deal's off

They also picked up Seth Jones and his younger brother Caleb
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Re: Streaming TV through VPN

#19

Post by Superflex »

Anytime TV is an IPTV service out of Indiana
$15/month
4300 channels (lots of local and foreign channels). All the premium channels like HBO, Cinemax, ESPN+, etc
Only works on Amazon firestick or an Android smart TV.
Google it. Looks like a shady site but I have been using it for over a year. Josh, the owner provides rapid replies if you have any questions or need help.
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Re: Streaming TV through VPN

#20

Post by Sharp Guy »

Superflex wrote:
Thu Aug 05, 2021 4:16 pm
Anytime TV is an IPTV service out of Indiana
$15/month
4300 channels (lots of local and foreign channels). All the premium channels like HBO, Cinemax, ESPN+, etc
Only works on Amazon firestick or an Android smart TV.
Google it. Looks like a shady site but I have been using it for over a year. Josh, the owner provides rapid replies if you have any questions or need help.
Hmm interesting. I'll take a look. I made a similar post in one of the FB groups I belong to (Chicago Sports Fans in DFW?) and some guy sent me a PM that was describing something similar. It sounded kind of shady so I decided to pass. I can't find the message now.

Anyway, my primary interest is just finding an alternative to DirecTV and to find a way to still watch my out of market team. I've been test driving YouTube TV and I like it enough that I cancelled my DirecTV today. I'm going to try a VPN service soon and see how that works. If it doesn't work out I'll just do NFL Game Pass. There's usually only a handful of games each year that aren't on National tv or aren't televised in the area I'm in. For those games I'll have to watch a few hours after they're aired. I prefer to watch live but not the end of the world if I can't. I'll be saving enough money each month that I can deal with some inconveniences.
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