Downloading TV episodes on iTunes

Mink

Has anyone here downloaded TV show episodes from iTunes, specifically the Irish store.
My head is completely wrecked. I've been trying to download episodes of True Blood from iTunes but it's saying not available in the Irish store, only UK store. To download from UK store you have to be resident there, ie with a UK billing address on teh payment card you are using.

I know True Blood shows on FX in UK & I guess you can get it if you have some Sky packages in Ireland, but for feck's sake why can't we get the iTunes download in Ireland.

Has anyone been able to get around this, legally?

notso-quiet1

i tried doing the same,as far as i can tell the only videos on the irish itunes you can download are the music vids and the pixar shorts. i think we are just behind the times on this which is usually the way it goes with us. im sure at some stage we will get them. i have fx but missed most episodes of true blood so far. would love to find a legal way too see them too

Mr E

I'm going to move this to the Apple Media Devices forum.
Those guys know all the ins and outs of everything Appley.

Mink

It's just so irritating. I've put in a request for them at the iTunes feedback form. I think I'll have to wait for the DVD at end of October but I don't want to have to wait then another year for the DVD of Season 2.

I've no idea how to make my DVD player Region 1 compatible so as to be able to get the US DVD. I did see a DVD on Ebay which is allegedly Australia & UK compatible, but I don't want to buy it & then it doesn't work.
Doh doh doh!!!!! :mad:

Agent Smith

Mr E wrote: »

I'm going to move this to the Apple Media Devices forum.
Those guys know all the ins and outs of everything Appley.

right down to the core...

i'll get my coat...

Purple Gorilla

Tv Shows aren't available here because Apple doesn't have the rights to distribute them. We're a tiny market so there's probably no profit in it for them to go through all the hassle of getting rights to distribute shows here.

Mr E

Agent Smith wrote: »

right down to the core...

i'll get my coat...

I was going to say "Those guys understand everything of a fruity nature", but thought better of it.

Mink

Purple Gorilla wrote: »

Tv Shows aren't available here because Apple doesn't have the rights to distribute them. We're a tiny market so there's probably no profit in it for them to go through all the hassle of getting rights to distribute shows here.

You think someone might realise the market is monopolised & then figure out a way to distribute in Ireland & other countries that have gotten boned by this rule

chrislad

It's very irritating. I have no problems paying for TV shows, but I end up having to download them, rather than keep to a schedule or wait 6 months after to get the DVDs. It's crazy. They are literally throwing away money by not offering them!

Purple Gorilla

They aren't throwing away money. I'd say the market in Ireland for such a service through iTunes is tiny and would barely, if at all, be profitable

The Big Gig

Get an american account.. its easy just hit sign in, put in a new email address and put your postal address in as a hotel in US. google one!
then dont put in any cc details. what you can do from here is buy itunes gift certificates. i have a guy who sends me the codes $25 for $27.50. pm me and ill give you his email address, he accepts paypal.

chrislad

Purple Gorilla wrote: »

They aren't throwing away money. I'd say the market in Ireland for such a service through iTunes is tiny and would barely, if at all, be profitable

How so? The majority of the work is already done. They are all encoded etc

Plus New Zealand, a country with a similar population to us, has an iTunes Video Store.

Purple Gorilla

chrislad wrote: »

How so? The majority of the work is already done. They are all encoded etc

Plus New Zealand, a country with a similar population to us, has an iTunes Video Store.

Getting distribution rights can be expensive and tricky.. New Zealand may have easier ways to get distribution rights?
I mean it's not like we're the only country that doesn't have an iTunes Video Store. There are only 3 countries in the EU that have a video store- UK, Germany & France

talla

To setup a US Itunes account download and install Itunes if you haven't already got it installed.

Make sure you aren't signed into Itunes. You'll also need an email account that has never been used for ITunes before.
Click on the Itunes store if its isn't displayed. Change the country to US.
Go onto hotels.com and get the Address and zio code of a hotel in California (0% sales tax, I used San francisco..)

1. Click to download a free Iphone app.
2. You'll be prompted to sign in or create a new account.
3. When entering you details, enter in the Hotel Zip code and address.
4. Select none as the payment method (don't try credit card, it will only accept US credit cards).
5. Click the activation link to activate the account.

To buy credit, go to this address:

http://itunes-express.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

Use paypal to pay, and they'll email you your voucher code within 15mins.

Then go back to itunes store and in the quick links on the right handside of the screen, click redeem. Just enter the voucher code that was emailed to you.

You can now now download TV episodes or rent movies.

fjon

talla wrote: »

Go onto hotels.com and get the Address and zio code of a hotel in California (0% sales tax, I used San francisco..)

Good guide, however California has the highest Sales Tax in the US.
Maybe choose Oregon instead as it is one of the states without it. I don't know if it makes a difference for iTunes purchases though.

Mink

The Big Gig wrote: »

Get an american account.. its easy just hit sign in, put in a new email address and put your postal address in as a hotel in US. google one!
then dont put in any cc details. what you can do from here is buy itunes gift certificates. i have a guy who sends me the codes $25 for $27.50. pm me and ill give you his email address, he accepts paypal.

Nice one, I knew someone would know how to get around this. Thanks

notso-quiet1

ive bought australian or region 4 dvds before and they work fine for me, i have a dvd player from tescos so its nothin fancy lol

Mink

Ok got my US iTunes gift card so will let you know how I get on. Really hope this works.

talla

Mink wrote: »

Ok got my US iTunes gift card so will let you know how I get on. Really hope this works.

It will work if you follow the instructions above and obtain the voucher from a reputable source (e.g. like the link I supplied above), there are a lot of dodgy / fake vouchers floating about ebay so my advice s to stay well clear. This is how I watch movie rentals from the US Itunes store on my AppleTV.

Dman001

Are you sure that crowd are legit. I never heard of them before and 99% of those selling the iTunes vouchers aren't legit.

I don't want to cause a panic or anything. I'm after legit sellers of iTunes vouchers and they are very hard to come by.

talla

Well have been using them for about 3 months without issues.
I believe they are legit for a number of reasons.
They are selling the vouchers for a slightly higher price than the retail price, the $15 voucher costs $18 and the $25 voucher costs $30. The fake vouchers available on ebay usually cost a fraction of the amount of the value of the voucher.
They do run out of stock occasionally e.g. at the time of the OS 3.0 launch, they ran out of the $25 vouchers for about 10 days.

Dman001

talla wrote: »

Well have been using them for about 3 months without issues.
I believe they are legit for a number of reasons.
They are selling the vouchers for a slightly higher price than the retail price, the $15 voucher costs $18 and the $25 voucher costs $30. The fake vouchers available on ebay usually cost a fraction of the amount of the value of the voucher.
They do run out of stock occasionally e.g. at the time of the OS 3.0 launch, they ran out of the $25 vouchers for about 10 days.

Yeah I suppose. I also foundd this website which looks pretty legit.

http://mikesay98.blogspot.com/

banquo

If this was available in Ireland, and you could subscribe to all content for a a fixed amount then I would, in one day, subscribe, and personally deliver my old television and crumpled up TV license to the head of RTE.

How long until they broaden the scope of the TV license to include computers?

Purple Gorilla

Isn't it soon? To any device capable of receiving programming or something like that?

banquo

Might be a worldwide license allowed, with prices adjusted for different territories/currencies.

Would be the sex.

Preset No.3

talla wrote: »

To buy credit, go to this address:

http://itunes-express.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

Use paypal to pay, and they'll email you your voucher code within 15mins.

Then go back to itunes store and in the quick links on the right handside of the screen, click redeem. Just enter the voucher code that was emailed to you.

You can now now download TV episodes or rent movies.

Thats expensive. Ive been using the same guy for about 3 months and $25 is $27.50. He also sends me the codes within an hour.

I bought apple tv, and am downloading on that so i can watch it on my tv. $2 for tv episodes, $4 for renting a movie.

I am a big fan of this.

Tom Dunne

banquo wrote: »

How long until they broaden the scope of the TV license to include computers?

Let's not open that can of worms on this thread.

Please.

banquo

J-blk

fjon wrote: »

I don't know if it makes a difference for iTunes purchases though.

It does. As Fjon said, make sure you select a state with no sales tax. I use Florida...

nulabert

You can now now download TV episodes or rent movies.

What are the file sizes like? Is the rental streaming video? I've a 1mb line, i reckon it would,t work to good!

Mink

nulabert wrote: »

What are the file sizes like? Is the rental streaming video? I've a 1mb line, i reckon it would,t work to good!

I downloaded a 52 min TV episode on iTune last night & it was about 500mb. I think.
My computer is very slow so it took guts of 45 mins to download.

Mink

Followed the advice on getting the US itune gift card as mentioned later in this thread & it worked fine. I probably paid about 30 dollars for a 25 dollar card & it went through legit & downloaded an episode of True Blood. Yay! Very happy now

J-blk

Mink wrote: »

I downloaded a 52 min TV episode on iTune last night & it was about 500mb. I think.

That's the standard definition stuff I think. HD content is somewhere over 1GB per 45 minute episode or so...

Mink

Next problem... (I can't believe how much trouble I'm having with this)

Downloaded the show & when I try to play it on my iTunes on my laptop it isn't playing properly. It shows a frame, freezes for a few secs, & then jumps about 10 frames, freezes & so on. Looks like a slideshow & obviously doesn't sync with the sound.

Any ideas anyone?

Dman001

Was it finished downloading when you tried to play it? Do you have an iPod or iPhone you could transfer the video to, so you could see if it is the video or your laptop that is the problem?

Fingleberries

It could depend ... If it's a HD video and your computer is old, it might be too much for it. My old PC was like that ...

banquo

+1 to what Fingleberries said. Could well be the the comp.

I'm around dublin with an ipod touch if you want to test it/investigate further.

/unemployed

nayorleck114

Mink wrote: »

Has anyone here downloaded TV show episodes from iTunes, specifically the Irish store.
My head is completely wrecked. I've been trying to download episodes of True Blood from iTunes but it's saying not available in the Irish store, only UK store. To download from UK store you have to be resident there, ie with a UK billing address on teh payment card you are using.

I know True Blood shows on FX in UK & I guess you can get it if you have some Sky packages in Ireland, but for feck's sake why can't we get the iTunes download in Ireland.

Has anyone been able to get around this, legally?

Yes its a bummer!, I mean to acutally want to pay to download an episode of Lost and yet its not possible. The only way to upload tv episodes to your ipod is to download from extv . it and convert to ipod format (its not too difficult). I prefer to download from the store, but in Ireland for some reason they don't let you.

Hobbes

Mink wrote: »

You think someone might realise the market is monopolised

You think that is bad, you should see the ebook market.

How long until they broaden the scope of the TV license to include computers?

Actually they tried a couple of years ago and it was shot down. They basically wanted a TV license fee for anything that was capable of showing video. However it meant that if you had a dvd player in your car, that would be an extra license (likewise with mobile phone). Also just owning a CD with Windows media player on it would of constituted a TV license (bit like the broken TV law).

The real can of worms is for RTE. The second they try to push further then it is now the realization that the public are going to drop kick it altogether. Especially when in a recession and it is subsidizing stuff that only your grandmother would be interested in.

mikeo

iTunes is something else i've been using a VPN connection with. I signed up with http://www.overplay.net so that I could watch RTE from Dubai whilst i'm out there, but it also means I can download from the UK/US iTunes stores. Really nice.

Oafley Jones

talla wrote: »

To setup a US Itunes account download and install Itunes if you haven't already got it installed.

Make sure you aren't signed into Itunes. You'll also need an email account that has never been used for ITunes before.
Click on the Itunes store if its isn't displayed. Change the country to US.
Go onto hotels.com and get the Address and zio code of a hotel in California (0% sales tax, I used San francisco..)

1. Click to download a free Iphone app.
2. You'll be prompted to sign in or create a new account.
3. When entering you details, enter in the Hotel Zip code and address.
4. Select none as the payment method (don't try credit card, it will only accept US credit cards).
5. Click the activation link to activate the account.

To buy credit, go to this address:

http://itunes-express.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

Use paypal to pay, and they'll email you your voucher code within 15mins.

Then go back to itunes store and in the quick links on the right handside of the screen, click redeem. Just enter the voucher code that was emailed to you.

You can now now download TV episodes or rent movies.

I'm having trouble with step 4. Credit Card are highlighted by default and I can't see an option for selecting none.

digitaldr

mikeo wrote: »

iTunes is something else i've been using a VPN connection with. I signed up with http://www.overplay.net so that I could watch RTE from Dubai whilst i'm out there, but it also means I can download from the UK/US iTunes stores. Really nice.

I'm pretty sure there's no need for a VPN connection to download from the UK/US iTunes stores. All you need is a US/UK account. I also have a VPN account from www.ukivpn.com €67/year - no Irish server and US servers blocked by Hulu at the moment but they're adding new ones in a few days.
Interestingly it's possible to download DRM free iphone compatible BBC programmes by pasting the URL from www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer into the program available here (you'l lneed a UK IP though).

J-blk

digitaldr wrote: »

I'm pretty sure there's no need for a VPN connection to download from the UK/US iTunes stores.

That is correct. Once you have a US account, you top up credit with iTunes gift cards and you can download freely - there is no IP location verification in place.

Oafley Jones wrote: »

I'm having trouble with step 4. Credit Card are highlighted by default and I can't see an option for selecting none.

I just tried setting up a new account by using the Skype app - none is available as expected:

Spiritoftheseventies

fjon wrote: »

Good guide, however California has the highest Sales Tax in the US.
Maybe choose Oregon instead as it is one of the states without it. I don't know if it makes a difference for iTunes purchases though.

Cant they check your location via the IP address?

J-blk

bayviewclose wrote: »

Cant they check your location via the IP address?

They don't seem to bother at the moment. My US account address is some random business address in Florida and it works fine...

Spiritoftheseventies

J-blk wrote: »

They don't seem to bother at the moment. My US account address is some random business address in Florida and it works fine...

Yes wonder why I Tunes dont release programmes that have already been shown in America.
Be curious to know what the demand for the facility is like. Know Channel Four ran a store like that for awhile but think its gone now.

aidan_walsh

Yes wonder why I Tunes dont release programmes that have already been shown in America.

Rights issues, essentially.

digitaldr

I reckon it's very unlikely that Apple will ever geoloacate your IP address as they want US citizens to be able to make purchases when travelling abroad.

The Big Gig

digitaldr wrote: »

I reckon it's very unlikely that Apple will ever geoloacate your IP address as they want US citizens to be able to make purchases when travelling abroad.

i think they might already. i downloaded the us open app through my us itunes account but was unable to use the video feature on it in ireland!

J-blk

The Big Gig wrote: »

i think they might already. i downloaded the us open app through my us itunes account but was unable to use the video feature on it in ireland!

That has nothing to do with Apple though - a lot of the apps available on the app store use IP geolocation to determine if you are "eligible" to view their video content or not. That's something the app creator/content provider puts in. On iTunes itself, Apple does no IP checking at all currently.

digitaldr

I think you'll find that it's the United States Golf Association/NBC that are blocking non-us IP addresses and not Apple as you were able to download the app from their servers. Checked it out over VPN - video quality is pretty poor anyway even over wifi.