Sunday, December 6, 2009

MAD WITH ASTRO.....HERE IS SOMETHING FREEVOLOUS.



I RECEIVED THIS EMAIL FROM HANTU:

HOI Z! If you reckon this is FRIVILOUS stuff, what I am sending you is a FREEVOLOUS breakthrough. This is especially for the legions of you who are mad at ASTRO. What follows is from one of my girl-friends who, until you guys can say that it works, will remain anonymous:

For those of you sick and tired of Astro and their nonsense, here is how you can watch TV programmes that you like when you like; with repeats only if you want a repeat; up to the latest season (sometimes within minutes of broadcast in the US) and most importantly, FREE.

Of course you need broadband internet services but that's less of a monopoly now so save your Astro subscription money and put it into higher speed internet services.

I cancelled my Astro subscription 3 months ago after I found out that TV shows on Star World and AXN like House, Prison Break and Dirty, Sexy Money were available online for free.

I was missing a lot of TV shows because of their broadcast time slot. Star World was not repeating prime time programmes in the after-midnight slot but instead from 11am the following morning and over the weekend. All during times when I was not going to be able to watch them. The Astro programme promos also made me cringe. I was resenting the fact that I was paying good money for rubbish while Astro was bragging incredible profits. Also, there Astro View only listed programmes from 7am to midnight. 24hour TV but no 24hour programme guide. The electronic guide was useless too, as was the online programme guide. Just not possible to check when a TV show I wanted to watch would be on.

Then I accidentally stumbled upon streaming videos online for free. I finally got to watch the TV programmes that I want, when I wanted. I'm currently watching the 2nd season of Chuck (re-runs ad nauseum of Season 1 on AXN). Everything that I want is available, up to the current season - Bones, Criminal Minds, Numbers, The Closer, Psych, Grey's Anatomy, the CSIs, House, Desperate Housewives, Reaper......

Surf The Channel, OVGuide and Cucirca as good sources of free streaming videos of TV episodes. Easiest way is to Google something like 'Bones, Surf The Channel' (rather than go to STC/ OVG to look for it). There will be a variety of sources for the streaming video eg Tudou, Youku, Megavideo.

Megavideo offers the best quality. There is a 72min limit per viewing for Megavideo (unless you subscribe to the premium service) but that is easily overcome by switching off your modem then switching it back on again. That will get you a new IP address which is how they track viewer's minutes. Once back online, refresh the page, cue it to the moment where it was cut off and resume viewing. Or just do it everytime before you begin watching an episode of a show.

These are all light viewing programmes but I've watched a couple of documentaries online too like the one about the tree man of Indonesia and also something about conjoined twins.

Google under "free streaming video". Some say free but there are still membership fees (pay fees then watch shows for free) - just ignore those. There are free TV shows available online. I found this out purely by accident while looking up info on how to download free music!!

Try it for a couple of weeks and if you don't find that it's better than Astro, I'd be surprised. At least it was free to try out!


  +++++


continue with Astro if you think this is freevolous



22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Almost everyone had gone through this situation. Imageine it's Manchester United v Liverpool live broadcast through Astro at Channel 811 on a Saturday nite. The heat. The passion. 3 vital points at stake. Then the rain came. Not in the Theatre of Dreams. Not in Anfield. But right in your home. The signal went dead. Kaput. 30 minutes of the game got washed out. You missed that score, that crucial goal. You never know who was flashed the yellow or red card. You never even know it was 10 v 11 on the field when the broadcast resumed. All thanks to Astro. Technology at its very best. In the presence of some mere raindrops. This is what ASTRO is all about. Wait till this happens in the World Cup on June 2010 when South Africa meets Mexico in the opening game.
malsia1206

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the info.. Ole` now I can cancel my Astro. It's full of repeats and I dont have to put up with those irritating repeated trailers. Those in charge have no idea there is a certain threshold people can put up with before they get mad and angry.

Anonymous said...

If you surf the internet and not far but local website you can get software to turn your pc to TV and get programs better then astro full package. Cost about rm20.

Anonymous said...

what makes u think our broadband services aren't slowed down partly also to protect this astro dungu?

shar101 said...

Hahaha! Welcome to the world of FREE entertainment, Z. Btw I think Hantu has been holding out on you on some juicy bits lately including this 'open' secret.

An alternative to watching on-line is to download content via accelerated download programs which are FREE as well. Check out CNET for download managers. My choice? "Download Accelerator Plus" which incorporates 5 simultaneous access through ONE connection i.e. it's like having 5 streamyx account for the price of one. Why pay more and make TM, the other behemoth, richer unless you're kiasu in wanting a 4MB connection so as to tell the next 'freeloader' that you can 'down-it' quicker.

Therefore, with a one-off payout, it's better to invest on a higher capacity external hard-drive (Buffalo retails at RM229 for 320 Gigs).

True, MEGAVIDEO has time limitation and changing your IP immediately may not work coz they HAVE WAYZ to make you wait. However, NOVAMOV does not. The rest are just crappy.

And the best websites for FREE streaming movies/videos are...

C'mon people, don't be lazy lah.

P.S. Err .. Z, I've developed a software that can put clothes on pornstars in their videos and it's targeted for the LMN crowd who frowns on nudity. Do you think Silicon valley will be interested?

Anonymous said...

cancel ashthrow but not max-sick pls. got share u know. :)

Anonymous said...

Uncle Zorro,

Try www.ppstream.com download the small program and u r only clicks away from almost anything that has been put on TV. Of all the net streaming sites out there, this is the best of all that i have tired. I have been using it for the past 3 yrs. The only thing that sucks is most of the movie name is in chinese. you would have to locate the movie via its chinese name... some can be pretty funky... hahaa... time to brush up on your chinese.... cheers

kenny

Anonymous said...

I have downloaded and installed such software from the internet. The site is AnyTV. The website is www.anyTVplayer.com.

However reception for me is not that good because my P1 Wimax speed is just like shit.

Anonymous said...

hey, why not cancel the internet. they cost a bomb compared to other nations!

Umar Rentaka said...

Just a small piece of advise. I have a OKU servant, who has his own astro subscription. He overcame the rain problem by capping the receiver at the dish with a plastic bag. That thing that hangs out like bud from the hand pointing to the dish, cover it with a transparent plastic bag.

You can watch astro uninterrupted during heavy rain. Courtesy on an OKU named Alagendran from Seberang Jaya

zorro said...

Shar101....you sinister sob....now you telling me all these devious get-about.

Anonymous said...

"switching off your modem then switching it back on again."

Unfortunately, you try to pull that stunt using WiMAX, and they'll give you the same IP address.

So....Potong?

"My choice? "Download Accelerator Plus" which incorporates 5 simultaneous access through ONE connection"

That's called, "hammering the server" by pretending to be five persons hunking down a server.

Very mean. The only reason why would you do that is that you paid for the server and they explicitly allows that.

"what makes u think our broadband services aren't slowed down partly also to protect this astro dungu?"

Take out that tinfoil hat; the Malaysian Internet is not malicious, it's just bad.

Anonymous said...

For the first time I wholly agree with you.
Your forte is this kind of social services writing.
When you write politics, you write nonsense.
Know why? Bcause you don't know much abot politics except reading from Malaysia Today or Malaysia Kini.

malai maniam said...

Unfortunately, streamyx for residential accounts cannot stream videos from overseas smoothly. Using multi download streams via software cannot overcome the fundamental bandwidth limitation of the ISP. The alternate of pre-downloading is more viable; but all in still a hassle if you only want casual and instant viewing.

Anonymous said...

Astro has become arrogant because it has crony rights and is the only one providing such service.

Did you noticed of late that there are more advertising in between the programs compared to a few years back? Just makes me boil when i have to pay Astro to watch advertisements. The ads runs for more than 10 minutes per hour of air time which is a rip-off.

I hope yr readers who are Astro viewers can voice their complaints to The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (or MCMC) at this address- aduanskmm@cmc.gov.my

Don't sit and wait, just do it. No Action will be taken by MCMC if it did not receive any complaints.

shar101 said...

Anon (7:56am),

Didn't you realise your 2nd riposte contradicts the 3rd.

Even 'bad service' has its remedy.

Using morally wrong but legally right or vice versa as an analogy, are you part of the solution or a willing contributor to the problem?

Don't just lie on your back and get screwed by the system, get even on your own terms.

Now isn't that the purpose of this posting?

zorro said...

Anon1104am....to each his own. Millions read MT and M'kini! You don't? Its a pity then.

Anonymous said...

Shar101:

Gah, everyone has its own way/morals of using the internet, just pick your method and start getting your objectives.

Then again, I never needed to use simultaneous connections to get the files and my internet is decent, which is almost impossible to fathom.

When will my internet starts to rot?

Yazz said...

As much as i do not like the monopoly astro is enjoying, I do have a problem with stealing/ cheating this companies that provide telecasts over the internet

"Megavideo offers the best quality. There is a 72min limit per viewing for Megavideo (unless you subscribe to the premium service) but that is easily overcome by switching off your modem then switching it back on again"

Come on, we are better than this. How can someone who appears learned and mature advocate something like this in his blog? It is not a faceless corporation you are stealing from. Behind those websites are probably hard working human beings who have families to feed.

If you want to watch online, then find somewhere genuinely FREE to watch it. If it requires you to pay, then pay for it.

cn said...

in my case, paying is never the issue.

Constants disruptions, ok lar, you can't control the weather.

But quality of shows? Come on. Constant re-runs?

It's the quality i'm getting out of it. I've been Astro 'free' for about 1.5 years now.

And it's good to know the money is being used for something better else like feeding stray cats & dogs.

Anak Perelih said...

A few years ago i used to watch streaming TV at http://wwitv.com/

but because the internet is so slow - 512k only I used P2P to download movies...

Anyway.. for good programs/movies... u can download it and burn it into dvd-rom - save it as u made file backup - hard disk had a lifespan of 5 years average...

BTW... anybody previously auto pay your astro bill automatically using credit card and found out that somebody else are using your credit card to pay theirs too???

Anonymous said...

Hi Uncle Zorro,

You should try out ppstream. Just download the application, and you are done. No need to change IP address and all that stuff. The only catch is, the software is in chinese. But the channels have English names on them...