Bringing DVDs and player

[hk blues]

2 hours ago, Tukaram (Tim) said:

... my Globe modem does not allow VPN.  

I was able to use a VPN with Globe previously but maybe it depends on the modem model or it's a new change.  I haven't tried for the past year

[GeoffH]

2 hours ago, Tukaram (Tim) said:

my Globe modem does not allow VPN.  Using my laptop I can Chromecast to the TV, though.  

We have Globe at Home and I run a VPN on my iPhone, my iPad, my Microsoft surface and it also works on SWMBO's Macbook and Samsung phone.  Or are you talking about setting up a VPN on the actual modem itself?

 

[Tukaram (Tim)]

2 hours ago, GeoffH said:

We have Globe at Home and I run a VPN on my iPhone, my iPad, my Microsoft surface and it also works on SWMBO's Macbook and Samsung phone.  Or are you talking about setting up a VPN on the actual modem itself?

 

On the router itself, so the Roku can use it... This router does not have the capability. Not much for the Roku here in the PIs.  My wife wants a TV Plus... time to look into that... 

[GeoffH]

I have not tried doing it but if it is possible to set the Globe modem into bridge mode, if it supports that you could add a router on one of the network ports that supports VPN use.

Edited December 6, 2018 by GeoffH

[Rayj]

Thanks for all the info ! Appreciate it 

[Gentleman.Jack.Darby]

On 12/5/2018 at 6:42 AM, Rayj said:

Hi, new here to this forum but not to Philippines. I have been about 10 times with my wife.

For my next visit in Feb I’m thinking I’ll bring about 10 DVDs with player to watch while I am there. Does anyone else do this? What kind of streaming choices might I have?  We are in the province between Tarlac and Cabanatuan. I don’t know the cellular service there. The wired internet service in the house is probably basic at best. Wouldn’t know if it’s 1Meg , 10 Meg, or .1Meg.   Thanks in advance.

One thing to consider that might 'lighten the load' a bit is that if you're bringing a newer laptop with an HDMI video output (most newer laptops, desktops, etc. have them), you could simply bring a portable DVD, or better yet Blu-Ray, player instead of a large(r) DVD player.

Connect the portable player to the laptop (USB 2, 3, or C) and use an HDMI cable to connect to the large screen - you can then use the laptop to play the DVD.

Of course, anything else you can do on the laptop, such as watch Netflix, Vudu, Amazon video, etc. will work that way as well.

As far as streaming goes, if you have a decent internet connection, you'll be able to stream video - Netflix only requires 6 Mb/s downstream to watch HD video; if you have a slower speed, you'll still be able to watch streaming video, just not in HD.

The trick is 'fooling' Netflix, Vudu, Amazon Video, etc into thinking that you're in the U.S. - that's easily done by configuring your router to automatically connect to your VPN service of choice.

The safest choice for a router that can be configured to use a VPN are those from Asus - their better routers will support VPNs, along with a whole lot of other neat things that most 'mainstream' routers, such as those by Linksys (Cisco), Netgear, TP-Link, etc. don't necessarily do.

Simply make sure that the router, in the configuration software, supports 'VPN Client' or something similar and VPN protocols such as PPTP, L2TP, and OpenVPN.

It's most important to ensure that your router supports OpenVPN protocol since that's generally considered to be the most secure protocol and some VPN services may not support the other protocols.

I know some other replies have mentioned changing the configuration of the cable or DSL modem, but it's unlikely that you will have or be given the password to get deeply into the internal configuration of the modem and, if you're using a VPN service, that isn't necessary anyway.

When using a router configured to automatically use a VPN, what happens is the modem connects to the VPN service using the internet connection provided by the modem (essentially just 'going' to the VPN site just as if you went to any other site) and the internet connection simply passes traffic to and from.

Also keep in mind that any device using the wireless router will appear to be outside the PI, which could cause problems if the device was trying to reach, for example, a PI bank and that bank won't accept connections outside the PI - sort of a Netflix problem in reverse.

And finally, from personal experience, I know that in some cases Netflix and Vudu won't accept connections from my VPN even though I'm using a U.S. IP address - there's a continual 'cat and mouse' game going on between the streaming services and the VPN services. The streaming services 'know' that my IP address belongs to a VPN service, so they refuse connections from any IP address that belongs to that service.

I could always choose a different VPN provider, but since I'm in the U.S., I simply don't use a VPN when I connect to streaming services - when I leave the U.S., I'm considering 'rolling my own' VPN service using Amazon Web Services so I won't (hopefully) have to be a part of the 'cat and mouse' game.

[Gentleman.Jack.Darby]

Actually, it was a poor choice of words to say, in my initial post, that '...Netflix and Vudu won't accept connections from my VPN...'

What I should have said was that, Netflix at least, will accept the connection; however, as far as my queue (list) of shows go, when I'm using a VPN connection, I only see a very small portion of my whole list, likely only those shows that are licensed for viewing somewhere outside the U.S.

 

[Rayj]

Thanks for that explanation. The DVD player I plan to bring is blue ray with a wired LAN connection . I haven’t used it with  internet yet but now I’ll have time to discover. I have to put a CAT 5 cable on my bring list.  I may hand carry it, not sure yet. I’ll pack  about 20 DVDs in baggies to cut down on space.

When I arrive I’ll see if the router has a vpn configuration capability and go from there . I can investigate if I can unregionalize the player if I have to. I won’t bring a laptop for weight consideration. I have an iPad for email and messaging. I have ear protection and an old Samsung android phone for a music player. I have the Samsung memory chip loaded with Gigs of music so I won’t run out. I’m hoping to pick up some clint Eastwood westerns and other popular favorites so that my wife’s parents may enjoy watching with me. Thanks for all the help

[Gentleman.Jack.Darby]

12 hours ago, Rayj said:

Thanks for that explanation. The DVD player I plan to bring is blue ray with a wired LAN connection . I haven’t used it with  internet yet but now I’ll have time to discover. I have to put a CAT 5 cable on my bring list.  I may hand carry it, not sure yet. I’ll pack  about 20 DVDs in baggies to cut down on space.

When I arrive I’ll see if the router has a vpn configuration capability and go from there . I can investigate if I can unregionalize the player if I have to. I won’t bring a laptop for weight consideration. I have an iPad for email and messaging. I have ear protection and an old Samsung android phone for a music player. I have the Samsung memory chip loaded with Gigs of music so I won’t run out. I’m hoping to pick up some clint Eastwood westerns and other popular favorites so that my wife’s parents may enjoy watching with me. Thanks for all the help

Generally speaking, it's much more difficult to make a Blu-Ray player region-free than it is (was) to make a DVD player region-free; the studios learned their lesson when folks started ripping DVDs way back when, so they developed encryption schemes for the discs that work in conjunction with hardware in the players and they threw in stronger region-locking mechanisms while they were at it.

Usually a Blu-Ray player requires some sort of hardware modification rather than just changing the software settings via a 'hidden' menu accessed by weird button combinations.

However, since you're bringing discs from home along with the player, those won't be a problem.

It's my understanding that it's no problem buying DVDs in the PI and it's rumored that a lot of them didn't come from the studios - if that's the case, I expect you'll have no problem finding plenty to watch because 'non-studio' discs have the region-lock stripped away as part of the 'manufacturing' process.

[Tukaram (Tim)]

On 12/7/2018 at 5:17 AM, Gentleman.Jack.Darby said:

Actually, it was a poor choice of words to say, in my initial post, that '...Netflix and Vudu won't accept connections from my VPN...'

What I should have said was that, Netflix at least, will accept the connection; however, as far as my queue (list) of shows go, when I'm using a VPN connection, I only see a very small portion of my whole list, likely only those shows that are licensed for viewing somewhere outside the U.S.

 

Sounds like your VPN is not set up right.  When I view my Netflix list, signed in from the PIs, the list is woefully short.  I VPN to the US and my full list shows up.  The movie offering here in the PIs is extremely limited.  Netflix, using the VPN, should show you the full US list, if it is working correctly.