Okay so I just recently got introduced to video streaming (tv shows and movies) and learned quickly that most (pretty much all) sites block Canada.

Not being scared off so easily I found a program called Hotspot Shield that will block my IP address and now I can watch HULU AOL.

Also I assume I can now sign up for netflix to view their streaming videos.


This is on my computer though... I had to download software etc... Is there a way I can enable this through xbox?

question.. does this knock your pc o your local network as well?

(my company VPN software does that.. when connected to the VPN, i can't connect to any other pc in my local subnet)

**edit** nope.. tried it and it didn't work for me... (well it WORKS, but it works the same as my company vpn, which is not good for me)

question.. does this knock your pc o your local network as well?

(my company VPN software does that.. when connected to the VPN, i can't connect to any other pc in my local subnet)

Not sure about connecting to specific PCs. But we use VPN through terminal server in my office to connect to our accounting program and i can connect no problem. I also can connect to other servers on my network... i guess in words im connecting to computers so I guess the answer to your questions is indeed that it works.

You can hide your IP address, but unless you have a credit card with a U.S. billing address you won't be able to sign up for Netflix. That was the only thing that stopped me.

I don't understand why television is so terrible in Canada. Even very basic cable networks are not available, or have some sort of half-assed Canadian equivalent. The last time I went to Toronto, the hotel I was at had "free premium channels", which apparently in Canada means... nothing, because what one would think of as premium channels in the US (HBO, Showtime, etc.) are simply not there.

You guys are really getting screwed.

Don't judge us by the service you get in a hotel room.

That being said, we don't get all the good U.S. stations either.

Why does media suck in Canada?

C-R-T-C

That's our version of the FCC. If you think the FCC is bad, you should look into the CRTC. Clueless, out-dated, and 100% staffed by people who have been awarded "thank you" jobs by our politicians. I mean, it's widely accepted here that it is a full-on corrupt, industry owned government body. Bleh.

You can hide your IP address, but unless you have a credit card with a U.S. billing address you won't be able to sign up for Netflix. That was the only thing that stopped me.

This is apparently a violation of the Credit Card TOS, and if you contact your credit card company about this practice, they will contact the provider on your behalf and have it .. corrected.

I did this with XM Radio when i realized that the US service has more channels at the same price.

This is apparently a violation of the Credit Card TOS, and if you contact your credit card company about this practice, they will contact the provider on your behalf and have it .. corrected.

I did this with XM Radio when i realized that the US service has more channels at the same price.

Huh, really? That's cool then. I'll have to try that out.

As a US citizen that recently moved to Toronto, I must agree that the television programming available here isn't as good as it is in the US. Even worse is that the government won't let you subscribe to US satellite tv services such as Dish or Directv. I wouldn't really care except I can't get ESPN up here and the HD channel lineup is atrocious. But they did get HBO Canada...

On the netflix side, I think you will have to have a US live account and a US billing address. Netflix won't let you activate your xbox or add movies to your watch instantly cue if it sees you coming from a Canadian IP address. You can connect through a US proxy server to get around this. I went through my work VPN which routes internet traffic through their NY proxy server. If you don't have acess to a US proxy server, you can find one on google searching for anonymous proxy or the like. I don't know how dodgy some of those sites are though.

I almost never watch TV. I am pissed about netflix through.
I think if you connected your xbox to your computer "fixed' your ip assuming you have netflix account and a US account it should work.


As for the CRTC I think they have mandate that conent must be 70% Canadian. Throught I'm having trouble finding figures.

I thought it was 30% Canadian. I can't even get some of the Canada stations in HD here!

1/3rd of all content must be Canadian Sourced.
Even when watching a US Station, (NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX) if a Canadian station is airing the same show at the same time, it gets subbed over the US broadcast.
AND our internet traffic is shaped, AND we can't use cable card systems, which means we are limited to using whatever box our provider happens to have on the shelf.

On a positive note, we do allow cursing and nudity on regular broadcast TV channels.

In yo face Uncle Sam! :p

On a positive note, we do allow cursing and nudity on regular broadcast TV channels.

In yo face Uncle Sam! :p

That is true. So many movies here are only PG something.

Just to be clear. I am using netflix in Canada so it can be done. Your xbox does not have to run through a proxy server, only the computer you are using to connect to the netflix site when you activate your xbox and add movies to your watch instantly cue.

I was surprised one night when I turned on the tv to some porn on a regular cable channel.

Just to be clear. I am using netflix in Canada so it can be done. Your xbox does not have to run through a proxy server, only the computer you are using to connect to the netflix site when you activate your xbox and add movies to your watch instantly cue.

I was surprised one night when I turned on the tv to some porn on a regular cable channel.

see others are frustrated too. I got the new update and I see "Video Marketplace" is that Netflix? I cant find the word netflix anywhere.

WHat you mean computer I am using? Im not using a computer, im using a modem connected to a router.

Koobs - I think you need a US base live account for the netflix stuff to show up in your dashboard. If you have a US based live account and a netflix account, you can get netflix to work in canada, but you will have to go through a US proxy server. Backing up, the way netflix watch instantly works is that you first have to activate your xbox as a netflix ready device. If you have a US live account, you would go to the netflix blade and click on the activate console link. This will cause an activation code to appear on your tv screen. You would then need to log onto your netflix account from your computer and enter the activation code. This will set up your xbox as a netflix watch instantly device. You then add movies to your watch instatntly cue from the netflix website on your computer. Netflix will not let you activate your xbowx or add movies to a watch instantly cue if it sees your computer connecting from a non-US IP address. To get around this, you need to go through a US proxy server. If your work has one, great. If not you will need to find one by googling. I believe you will need a US billing address to get all of this to work though as you may need it to set up a netflix account to begin with. I would think you could set up a US live account if you used microsoft points, but I don't know how you can get around the netflix account hurdles without a US billing address.

If i find a US proxy how do I set it up? I know i need one just done know exactly how it works and what fields to input. Give me a newb step by step. Others Im sure would benifit from this too.

Is there a way to change a canadian xbox live account to a US one? or do I have to pay another 59.99 and register a gold membership to a states address?

I don't think you can change your existing account.

If you google anonymous proxy, it will come up with a number of links. I think the first one is a website that you type the link for where you want to go. It then takes you there and you can do what you want. This works with netflix but I don't know how dodgy it is. There are other sites where you pay and they give you an address for their proxy service. They will give you a username and password. You would take the address for their proxy server and put it into your browser. If you go to tools»internet options»connections»lan settings, there should be an option to use a proxy server. If you check the box, you would then enter the address for the server. This routes all your internet traffic through this proxy. You would want to find one that is based in the US. I would try it out to see if it works with netflix before I paid anything.

Hopes this helps. I had to research this last week and I'm not very computer savy.

If i find a US proxy how do I set it up? I know i need one just done know exactly how it works and what fields to input. Give me a newb step by step. Others Im sure would benifit from this too.

Is there a way to change a canadian xbox live account to a US one? or do I have to pay another 59.99 and register a gold membership to a states address?

I don't know of any way of changing the account but you don't have to pay 60 bucks for a 1 year membership since you can buy the xbox live 1 year membership (it's actually 13 months) from amazon for $39.

You'll need to be able to use a friend's US address for it to get the Netflix stuff to work.

Koobs - are you trying to do this from your iphone? If so be aware that, at least with my iphone data plan, you are limited to one gig of data per month and they then charge you by the kb after that. They charge a lot. One movie over netflix would most likely blow you way over the data limit and might end up costing you a few hundred bucks. Be very careful. I know an HD movie on xbox live was around 4 - 6GB. Don't know how much the netflix movies are. I also can't remember how much rogers/fido charge for data over the one GB but I think its a a few cents per KB. Considering there are a thousand KB in a MB and a thousand MB in a GB, I would not stream via the iphone's connection.

Not to mention the quality would be crap through the iphone connection.

Koobs, do you have an American credit card? If not, give it up.

You can't even DL movie trailers from the US marketplace in Canada anymore,it just says it's not available in your region so I don't think that'd work anyway.

Not to mention the quality would be crap through the iphone connection.

some people need to stop speaking. how would an iphone connection make it ****** quality? even if I had 56k it would be the same.


I also have 6gigs on my iphone plan. so going over isnt an issue.

some people need to stop speaking. how would an iphone connection make it ****** quality? even if I had 56k it would be the same.


I also have 6gigs on my iphone plan. so going over isnt an issue.

dude the guy is just trying to help u.
face it u can't get netflix in canada period
here in the states u get to choose what u want instead of having it stuffed down your throat by you government

some people need to stop speaking. how would an iphone connection make it ****** quality? even if I had 56k it would be the same.


I also have 6gigs on my iphone plan. so going over isnt an issue.

I'm willing to bet that 6 gigs a month isn't going to be enough for watching Netflix on a regular basis.

I noticed that my bandwidth usage went up a ton when we got Netflix streaming through the 360.

Yeah, 14.9GB for October, 35GB for November.

some people need to stop speaking. how would an iphone connection make it ****** quality? even if I had 56k it would be the same.

I also have 6gigs on my iphone plan. so going over isnt an issue.
Netflix changes the quality on the fly based on your connection.

dude the guy is just trying to help u.
face it u can't get netflix in canada period
here in the states u get to choose what u want instead of having it stuffed down your throat by you government

I doubt this has as much to do with government as it does with legal and business reasons.

What am I talking about? Copyright laws. Where you can distribute your content. It happens on almost everything.
Books
CD's
DVD
HD DVD's
Blu-rays (thats why they have those damn region codes)
Plus digital distribution –tv/movies/music/games

One of the reasons for this is so that said company get the maximum value possibly for a product in a market. Such as selling a movie $20 in one country and then selling it for much less in a country with rampant piracy.

Another reason is company A may own the rights to distribute it in America and Company B might have distribution for Canada and company C has rights for Europe.


Also Netflix may not have wanted to become an international business which adds a lot of cost.

Also when releasing media content in any country, there’s rules and regulations for the content. And just for the record the Canadian media regulations when it comes to content are much more relaxed then American. You can see nudity and F-Bombs on the 6 o clock news. I saw a movie on the CBC at 8or 9 on a Friday night a of princess getting drilled by a line of her guards one after another.

some people need to stop speaking. how would an iphone connection make it ****** quality? even if I had 56k it would be the same.


I also have 6gigs on my iphone plan. so going over isnt an issue.

Who do you have your iphone service plan with? Rogers/Fido offered a max of 2GB when I signed up.

My point about the quality sucking is that netflix bases the quality of your download on your connection speed, with the slow speed of an iphone, you will get horrible picture quality. You certainly won't get anything approaching HD and probably won't even come close to SD quality.

Who do you have your iphone service plan with? Rogers/Fido offered a max of 2GB when I signed up.

My point about the quality sucking is that netflix bases the quality of your download on your connection speed, with the slow speed of an iphone, you will get horrible picture quality. You certainly won't get anything approaching HD and probably won't even come close to SD quality.

In case it's news to you, Rogers/Fido is the ONLY carrier to offer iPhone service in Canada. If you signed up right when the iPhone launched you got the promotional 6GB plan. It's gone now and I'll bet you cold cash we won't see that plan again for a long, long time, if ever. The 6gb plan was forced on Rogers by Apple to help launch the iPhone in Canada. Rogers normally likes to rape everyone in Canada with their data plan fees. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to NOT get raped by Rogers.

I see. You're right about the rapage. I was surprised at only getting 250 anytime minutes with no long distance or roaming for $60/month and even more surprised that I had to pay an additional $7 system access fee monthly (why isn't this included in the plan package if it applies to every package???) and even more surprised when they asked if I wanted the value package for $15 so I could have voicemail and caller id. Text messages? Extra... In the end, it was $82 a month plus tax for service that in the states should have cost no more than $30/$40. They should open up the Canadian market to some competition in wireless, internet and cable tv. I will also say that $30 for 1GB of data is pretty ridiculous considering I had unlimited data and text messages for $20month before.

Yep, sucks. I'm looking to upgrade my girlfriend's cellphone to an iPhone for christmas. Not sure how well she'll take the "gift" of her monthly bill going up from about $30/month to about $80/month. Not sure I'm gonna do it, still deciding...

I realize this is an old topic but I just wanted to bump it and see if people in Canada are still able to use there netflix accounts from the US and any tips as I have a gold USA account now and pondering getting someone in the USA to sign up for a netflix account for me,

You can hide your IP address, but unless you have a credit card with a U.S. billing address you won't be able to sign up for Netflix. That was the only thing that stopped me.

A way around this is to go to your local super market like save on foods, safeway or Like London Drugs or Shoppers Drug Mart and purchase a Visa or Master Card Gift Card. they come in like $10 up to $250 cards. Then once you have it you log onto the website to activate it and put in your mailing address. This is where you use a relative's address in the US or just some Joe Blow's address. The only reason the address is put on file is to verify the billing address when you charge the card. Nothing will be mailed there. You don't even get a statement, you just check the card activity by going online and logging in. I have set up like 5 pay pal accounts this way and many other things. They don't know the difference between the pre-paid credit card or a real one.

Hope that this helps your problem.

Cheers

jaimcnutt, thanks for the heads up on that! When I move back home in May I'm definitely going to have to give that a try. Although the US billing address would be settled, how do you stream the content if Netflix detects a Canadian-based IP? Does anyone have a step-by-step guide to get this working for Canadians??

Netflix now realizes you are connecting from Canada and will not allow you to stream on the Xbox. Rather annoying...

Yeah I used to watch netflix in Turkey with my US debit card and a PC (with Hotspot Shied proxy used on netflix.com to pick movies)

Now after the xbox dashboard update netflix checks for your IP, and refuses to play movies even if you are logged in and Netflix option is available on the dashboard.

Now I moved to Canada - no changes of course.

How can we get through this? An idea is to route your Xbox internet traffic through your PC (which would in turn be connected to the internet thru HotSpot Shied proxy). Do we setup a DNS on the Xbox network options? How can we do this? any ideas?

Anywhere a product or service is desired but not available you can be sure government is somehow involved.

Anywhere a product or service is desired but not available you can be sure government is somehow involved.

of course it wouldn't have anything to with profit forecasts:rolleyes: