Agreed, however Smartdnsproxy is free.
With unotelly do you need to logon to the site to activate your region unlock?
I find with Smartdnsproxy i need to first log onto the site to check whether it is active before i watch netflix.
-
Join the MyBroadband community
South Africa’s biggest forum. Discuss, discover, and connect with thousands of members.
-
Question of the Day: If you were buying a TV today, which brand would you choose?
Roku 3 tips and discussions.
- Thread starter Ronele
- Start date
Agreed, however Smartdnsproxy is free.
With unotelly do you need to logon to the site to activate your region unlock?
I find with Smartdnsproxy i need to first log onto the site to check whether it is active before i watch netflix.
Slamz
Expert Member
i have 2 roku 3's... 1 in the TV room and 1 in the bedroom... im using unotelly as my dns... yesterday i had a strange porblem....
Netflix in the bedroom wasn't working, i could use hulu+ of the same roku, but netflix kept saying the it has not come to this part of the world yet... i signed out, then signed in, same thing, i deleted the app then reloaded it and same thing... bearing in mind that netflix in the tv room was working fine....
i was initially using the unotelly(sao paolo and california) dns, and everything worked fine... then i changed it to jhb and ct after this issue and Netflix started working again...
any ideas why it could of just went off like that? the reason why i used overseas dns is it just worked better... when i used local, speeds went slow, quality dropped and lots of buffering, when using international dns... all perfect
Netflix in the bedroom wasn't working, i could use hulu+ of the same roku, but netflix kept saying the it has not come to this part of the world yet... i signed out, then signed in, same thing, i deleted the app then reloaded it and same thing... bearing in mind that netflix in the tv room was working fine....
i was initially using the unotelly(sao paolo and california) dns, and everything worked fine... then i changed it to jhb and ct after this issue and Netflix started working again...
any ideas why it could of just went off like that? the reason why i used overseas dns is it just worked better... when i used local, speeds went slow, quality dropped and lots of buffering, when using international dns... all perfect
@Ronele: You should be able to stream Netflix on a 2Mbps line - I know of somebody streaming via a Roku on a 1Mbps line using an MWeb 1Mbps Premium uncapped account. I would suggest that you first try a test account from a different ISP to see if there is any improvement. All of these ISPs offer test accounts. Choose those that don't require any credit card or debit order details.
http://www.afrihost.com/microsites/freegb/
https://www.axxess.co.za/testdrive.php
http://www.mweb.co.za/productspricing/2/Home/ADSL/Trybeforeyoubuy.aspx
http://www.webafrica.co.za/home/adsl/
If you did sign up for the Unotelly trial I would also switch back to that while you are running your tests as the DNS service can affect your streaming performance. You will not be able to access most of Netflix's international services apart from the US and possibly the UK (probably need to switch to a UK Roku account) using SmartDNSProxy. There is a lot of duplication amongst the different services but you will probably find a lot of movies and TV series of interest on the other services. You can switch between the different Netflix services directly from the Unotelly website and the Roku will automatically connect. SmartDNSProxy does not offer this facility as they presumably do not have servers in all of these countries.
You might have problems opening this link (SmartDNSProxy or Chrome problem?)
http://netflixukvsusa.blogspot.com/2014/04/alphabetical-list-k-mon-apr-21-2014.html
Use this site to find movies and TV shows - click the Netflix button to see where available (in this case UK and Ireland). Try to look for the TV series Suits etc.
http://www.moreflicks.com/search?ut...c-uk&provider[]=fox-us&provider[]=crackle-all
If you give us some feedback regarding switching to a different ISP test account we should be able to offer some other suggestions regarding your line issues. The lowest Netflix resolution only requires a bitrate of 235kbps which is about 1/8 of your current linespeed. You could also try the BBC iPlayer diagnostics to test the streaming performance of your line ...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/diagnostics
Look for a file on Netflix called Example Short 23.976. This gives the current bitrate in the top lefthand corner of your screen. It is supposed to slowly increase from a low of 235kbps to 375, 560, 750kbps etc. depending on the line quality.
http://www.afrihost.com/microsites/freegb/
https://www.axxess.co.za/testdrive.php
http://www.mweb.co.za/productspricing/2/Home/ADSL/Trybeforeyoubuy.aspx
http://www.webafrica.co.za/home/adsl/
If you did sign up for the Unotelly trial I would also switch back to that while you are running your tests as the DNS service can affect your streaming performance. You will not be able to access most of Netflix's international services apart from the US and possibly the UK (probably need to switch to a UK Roku account) using SmartDNSProxy. There is a lot of duplication amongst the different services but you will probably find a lot of movies and TV series of interest on the other services. You can switch between the different Netflix services directly from the Unotelly website and the Roku will automatically connect. SmartDNSProxy does not offer this facility as they presumably do not have servers in all of these countries.
You might have problems opening this link (SmartDNSProxy or Chrome problem?)
http://netflixukvsusa.blogspot.com/2014/04/alphabetical-list-k-mon-apr-21-2014.html
Use this site to find movies and TV shows - click the Netflix button to see where available (in this case UK and Ireland). Try to look for the TV series Suits etc.
http://www.moreflicks.com/search?ut...c-uk&provider[]=fox-us&provider[]=crackle-all
If you give us some feedback regarding switching to a different ISP test account we should be able to offer some other suggestions regarding your line issues. The lowest Netflix resolution only requires a bitrate of 235kbps which is about 1/8 of your current linespeed. You could also try the BBC iPlayer diagnostics to test the streaming performance of your line ...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/diagnostics
Look for a file on Netflix called Example Short 23.976. This gives the current bitrate in the top lefthand corner of your screen. It is supposed to slowly increase from a low of 235kbps to 375, 560, 750kbps etc. depending on the line quality.
@Yotch Thanks I will try all of these tonight and give you an update tomorrow.
@Yotch, I registered for a free Unotelly account, question is do i have to log onto my pc to turn on the dns everytime i want to watch TV on the Roku? Alos have you setup the cron job and does it work well?
Chevron
Serial breaker of phones
You only need to update your unotelly IP if you reboot your router. There is an app though if you don't wanna log in via your pc.
@Ronele: Unfortunately all these services require that you sign in each time that your IP address changes. I think that some ISPs do offer fixed IP addresses at an additional cost but you would need to ask them about pricing. You can use a cell phone to log in as mentioned above. I have not tried the 'cron job' but somebody else might have.
At this stage just test out several of the different services using their free trials and try to learn how to access the different international Netflix services. If you can't tell the difference between the different regions, just search Netflix for a region specific title like The Words which is only available in the UK to make sure that you are in the correct region. You can then decide whether or not it would be worthwhile to pay for your DNS service or to use a free one. It might be more cost effective to only use a paid service every few months when you want to watch something specific from a different Netflix region. You could also switch between Netflix and Hulu Plus every few months etc. to save money rather than keeping both accounts active or pause the service when you are away.
This is probably the cheapest paid DNS service with access to 10 international Netflix services. You need to ask them for a test account before signing up as they are located in Canada.
www.adfreetime.com
https://adfreetime.com/region-unlock/
Unblock-US also has a free 1 week trial ...
http://www.unblock-us.com/
I would also suggest that you create a different UK Roku account with a fake UK address while you are familiar with the process. You don't need to link it to your Roku but if you want to do this at a later stage it might be difficult to retrace your steps and some services might have disappeared. I think that you will need to use the free VPN that I mentioned above (www.getukvpn.com). If you have done this correctly your Roku account will appear in Pounds rather than Dollars.
At this stage just test out several of the different services using their free trials and try to learn how to access the different international Netflix services. If you can't tell the difference between the different regions, just search Netflix for a region specific title like The Words which is only available in the UK to make sure that you are in the correct region. You can then decide whether or not it would be worthwhile to pay for your DNS service or to use a free one. It might be more cost effective to only use a paid service every few months when you want to watch something specific from a different Netflix region. You could also switch between Netflix and Hulu Plus every few months etc. to save money rather than keeping both accounts active or pause the service when you are away.
This is probably the cheapest paid DNS service with access to 10 international Netflix services. You need to ask them for a test account before signing up as they are located in Canada.
www.adfreetime.com
https://adfreetime.com/region-unlock/
Unblock-US also has a free 1 week trial ...
http://www.unblock-us.com/
I would also suggest that you create a different UK Roku account with a fake UK address while you are familiar with the process. You don't need to link it to your Roku but if you want to do this at a later stage it might be difficult to retrace your steps and some services might have disappeared. I think that you will need to use the free VPN that I mentioned above (www.getukvpn.com). If you have done this correctly your Roku account will appear in Pounds rather than Dollars.
I got one brought over by a friend this very week. It cost 15GBP from Phones 4 U.
Quite possibly. The ones I saw ware at tesco and also included subs of different types. I bought the roku 1 instead.
Yeah, it came with a one day sports pass valued at 10GBP. I use Apple TV for Netflix and Hulu+, just NEEDED this to get a stable and consistent 4OD, and it works like dream
Channel 4 is the best TV channel in the world imho so 15 quid is a complete bargain if only for that.
Just had a flick through, don't see any YouTube channel on the Now box.
If you're looking for a way to get 4OD, I was watching on my Samsung TV smart hub (TV set to UK region) before I got the Now TV, but it was pretty inconsistent and buffered a lot. Sometiimes it was good though, other times it buffered a lot. Just FYI incase you weren't aware
Got my Roku 3 from Amazon today. Setup a UK Roku account using UnoTelly VPN and I have the UK channels installed. What's interesting is that I left NetFlix at UnoTelly on US so on my UK Roku I can watch US NetFlix.
Setting up a UK Roku account must be done via a VPN. Just using a DNS service does not work, it creates a US account all the time.
Setting up a UK Roku account must be done via a VPN. Just using a DNS service does not work, it creates a US account all the time.
@AdrianH
What kind of channels to do get when setting it up as UK? I am just interested to know.
The main reason I chose UK is because of BBC and NowTV (Sky). But I lost out on Hulu channel as it isn't available in UK. The best place to see which channels are available in UK is http://ukrokuchannels.blogspot.co.uk/, there a group down the side regarding the channels.
UK and US Channels I installed
Netflix (but still connects as US account with UnoTelly set to US Netflix)
YouTube
Crackle
UK only Channels which I installed
Sky News
BBC News
Demand 5
4oD
BBC iPLayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/
* Free
* Requires UnoTelly or similar
* Has 7 day catchup
- BBC1
- BBC2
- BBC3
- BBC4
- CBBC (6 - 12 year olds)
- CBeeBies (0 - 6 year olds)
- BBC News (Theres also a separate Roku channel for this)
- BBC Parliament (don't watch)
- BBC ALBA (don't watch)
* Paid 5 pounds per month for Entertainment package
* Requires UnoTelly or similar
- Sky1
- Sky Arts 1
- Sky Atlantic
- Sky Living
- Comedy Central
- Discovery Channel
- Disney Channel
- Fox
- Gold
- MTV
- ABC Studios (on-demand only)
...and there's a couple more I can't remember.
Thanks, I will play around with the location settings a bit. I have now registered with UNOTELLY and it's much faster and stability is great.
Your Roku account must have been setup as UK to get these channels though. And the only way I achieved this was to deactivate my old Roku account and create a new account via UnoTelly's UK VPN server. Without the VPN it always created a US account.
Will i be able to do it on another device? Like my PS 3 ?
@Ronele: You can have multiple Roku accounts but they each require a unique e-mail address. You need to do a factory reset of your Roku to attach to the new account. You won't lose any channels as they are linked to your Roku account but you will need to reenter your Netflix and Hulu Plus account details when you return to the same account.
You can take a look at what is available on the BBC iPlayer and 4oD services on a PC from these links. I think that the Roku only offers video on demand services and no longer live streaming but I could be wrong. The on demand content is just a copy of what has been aired over the last few days etc. You need to use either Unotelly or SmartDNSProxy to access these sites.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer
http://www.channel4.com/
http://tvlistings.theguardian.com/
You can take a look at what is available on the BBC iPlayer and 4oD services on a PC from these links. I think that the Roku only offers video on demand services and no longer live streaming but I could be wrong. The on demand content is just a copy of what has been aired over the last few days etc. You need to use either Unotelly or SmartDNSProxy to access these sites.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer
http://www.channel4.com/
http://tvlistings.theguardian.com/