Canada-Friendly Streaming Services/Boxes

[PhoenixEnigma]

I'm looking at cutting the cord in the very near future, and trying to sort out where my media is going to be coming from.

I already have the HTPC you see in my signature set up with XBMC and Netflix, and I'm trying to find (legal) ways to expand what I have access to.

Key points:

- I'm in Canada. This throws a wrench in a lot of things, and kind of kneecaps Netflix too.
- I'm more interested in knowledge/documentary shows than anything else, with sci-fi and drama also up there. I don't particularly care about sports, and timeliness is not a huge issue to me.
- Free is good, but I'm saving $25/mo as is, so putting some of that back into media is fine by me, either in hardware or for subscriptions to things.
- I've got a solid 10Mbps DSL connection, Cat6 to my TV, and no one else's bandwidth consumption to worry about.
- OTA TV kind of sucks here. I get two stations, and that's it.

It looks like either an Apple TV or Roku box might fit the bill, from what I've seen. A Boxee Box is also interesting, but I've tried using Boxee on a computer and not been very impressed. Are the boxes any better? Are there any good options I've missed?

 

[sdifox]

unless you are willing to use a proxy service to pretend you are in the states, you are shit out of luck on streamed content.

 

[Claudius-07]

I am in Canada. I unfortunately still pay for Rogers, Internet of course but also their Cable. My wife insists she needs all the crap channels. I however, run XBMC on a small computer and have all my movies ripped to a server. That takes care of that.

In regards to streaming, XBMC has plugins that I have found that work nicely to view content that is on the net. Now as you said, most crap is blocked in Canada but I have had success with some of their plugins, from news and even other content. The crap part is that I am at work and cannot access my HTPC to tell you which are available and work -- i wil post again tonight for you. There is one however that is amazing and you can get a lot of Discovery etc shows. Fox news, DYI network etc. Also and I am sure you know this, in theory, with that fast Internet connection you have, you "could" just download most shows and then just watch them through any media box.

In regards to OT, my dad has it and with his antenna that I bought off of Tiger Direct for roughly $75, he gets now between 8 and 10 digital channels. I mean he gets everything he needs for what he is interested in. Granted, no history or Discovery channel but the basics like CTV, TVO etc are there and in flawless HD.

 

[PhoenixEnigma]

sdifox: That's pretty much what I figured. Proxy services aren't entirely out, but I'd rather avoid them if I could.

Claudius: That would be wonderful - Discovery shows, in particular, are ones I'd miss. Having them integrated into XBMC would just be icing on the cake. I'm kind of jealous of people in areas with decent broadcast TV - Saskatchewan is kind of a gaping void in that regard.

 

[Claudius-07]

Ok the two plugins I use are NaviX and FreeCable. NaviX works wonders... I can get a load of Discovery etc. However the video quality is not always the greatest -- some times yes, some times.. err.. not. However in a pinch yah it works. There are others you can add, again Fox News, BBC etc. There are loads of .... uhmm... adult ones as well. However with this said, it all depends on what you are willing to give up. Like we all know, much of the goods is blocked in Canada. If you really wanted, you could run XBMC on a Windows PC, and use something like hot spot shield I think it is. My friend uses it and does just that. He also has netflix and when he enables hot spot it thinks he is in the USA and he gets a totally different neflix experience.

Anyhow NaviX as a pluging (and it works for other platforms of course), is the best right now for me.