So my wife, the ever tolerant Pam mentioned the other day of her frustrations in trying to be able to watch Britbox. She found out which BBC channel it was on, tried to register and found that since our IP address isn't in the UK, she can't. She can get some of the shows when they come up on services like Hulu but she'd like to not be limited to using a service.

Didn't know if there was a work around. Since the entire knowledge of the human race is contained within SF, i thought I'd pose the question and see if there was a way to help out my wife.

Thanks for any help.

Do you have Amazon Prime? You can subscribe to Britbox on Prime Video, for about $7/month or so, and enjoy all those British mysteries and comedies.
EDITED: Just checked; it’s been $9.99/month, going up to $10.99/month.

Alternatively, I think it’s also available on AppleTV, also a subscription.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
Do you have Amazon Prime? You can subscribe to Britbox on Prime Video, for about $7/month or so, and enjoy all those British mysteries and comedies.
Alternatively, I think it’s also available on AppleTV, also a subscription.

Cool! We do have prime and since we now have gig fiber to the house, streaming is actually possible. She will take a look. Thanks.

I’ve been wanting to watch some shows in britbox. Three methods seem available. Subscription to britbox through the Apple TV app on Apple TV. Subscription through prime video. Or britbox app. I’ve heard there are issues, platform agonistic with the last option. I was leaning toward the first option but not sure how limited the content choices will be.

Interested in responses in this thread.

Brad, see my edit: subscription starting next month will be $10.99/month, but it is easy and seamless with Amazon Prime Video.

quote:

Originally posted by Appliance Brad:
since our IP address isn't in the UK, she can't.

With a VPN you can make it appear that you are from any location. I am brand new to using a VPN and am not thoroughly familiar with how to do it, but it is one of the beneficial features. We pay something like $4/month for NordVPN on a 2 year deal.

quote:

Originally posted by Fly-Sig:

With a VPN you can make it appear that you are from any location. I am brand new to using a VPN and am not thoroughly familiar with how to do it, but it is one of the beneficial features. We pay something like $4/month for NordVPN on a 2 year deal.

Proxy server was my first thought but above my pay grade to setting it up or if it would work.

Yes, most VPNs will allow you to masquerade your IP address to one in another country. A VPN does this by creating an encrypted IP-in-IP "tunnel" to a server located in that country so that it looks to a service provider like network traffic is originating there.

Many of the commercial VPN "products" also include non-VPN "extras" like virus/e-mail scanning, adult site blocking, etc. I use ProtonVPN which sticks to the basic tunneling. I can generally recommend Proton's various offerings on the basis of security, policies, and cost.

You could also do something similar with a self-hosted "cloud" server located in the desired destination country. This may be more of a learning curve than many would want, but it offers the most flexibility in software choices, etc. and you would "own" the entire setup, modulo relying on the cloud service provider.

Not sure specifically how Brit Box works but...

Quite a few years ago I was wanting to watch some Dr. Who and the only way I could for free was through BBC, the real one not the U.S. one.

I had to make a account but I don't remember off hand what was all involved, but I do know it wasn't all that funky. From that point I just use a VPN set to a UK location and I can watch anything I want through the website.

The only occasional annoyance I have is you need to be careful with cookies. I can't do much for any specific settings on the site without it going goofy on me and needing to clearing cookies and resetting/restarting things.

quote:

Originally posted by Appliance Brad:

Proxy server was my first thought but above my pay grade to setting it up or if it would work.

What are you watching on? For phones and computers, the NordVPN app is super simple. Once signed up, it's literally a map where you tap where you want it to look like you're at and click go. Not sure how it works on streaming boxes if that is your path. Be aware some of the streamers can detect this. But then the VPN guys counter it. Cat and mouse game.

BritBox is a streaming channel you can add if you have a Roku, I have considered getting it for Doctor Who.

Do you have a Roku stick on your TV or a Roku TV? IMO they are the future, we do everything on a Roku TV now; YouTube TV, Prime, Disney+, PBS Kids, Peacock and Paramount+

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
BritBox is a streaming channel you can add if you have a Roku, I have considered getting it for Doctor Who.

Do you have a Roku stick on your TV or a Roku TV? IMO they are the future, we do everything on a Roku TV now; YouTube TV, Prime, Disney+, PBS Kids, Peacock and Paramount+

My experience differs. The retal house at the beach that we took this summer had a big beautiful 65" Roku TV. We rented this place last year when they had a Roku stick and a cable subscription, this year they dropped cable. I found the available selections on Roku much less interesting, full of schlock shows "Whores of Hotlanta," etc. with little else. Couldn't even get a NASCAR or F1 race. Basic cable (Comcast or maybe Xfinity) was much better. I mostly watched Internet-available stuff on my Raspberry Pi 400 hooked to the TV via HDMI.

At least I now know not to waste my money on anything Roku.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:

My experience differs. The retal house at the beach that we took this summer had a big beautiful 65" Roku TV. We rented this place last year when they had a Roku stick and a cable subscription, this year they dropped cable. I found the available selections on Roku much less interesting, full of schlock shows "Whores of Hotlanta," etc. with little else. Couldn't even get a NASCAR or F1 race. Basic cable (Comcast or maybe Xfinity) was much better. I mostly watched Internet-available stuff on my Raspberry Pi 400 hooked to the TV via HDMI.

At least I now know not to waste my money on anything Roku.

Not sure what exactly you were watching? Like the free streaming options on Roku like the Roku Channel, Plex and Tubi? Yes that’s all crap because it’s free.

I have YTTV which replaces cable for me and has tons of sports and all the normal pay streaming platforms as I mentioned before like Disney, Paramount, Hulu and Peacock and there’s enough content there to last a lifetime.

We have PBS Kids which is good for kids and free but that’s really the only free streaming channel we use, the others are all subscription.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:

At least I now know not to waste my money on anything Roku.

My Roku [really old model] literally only gets used for F1TV.
We dropped YTTV after the repeated cost increases. 1 year of F1TV is about the same as 1 month of YTTV