Netflix - Canada, and UnBlockUS.com - a VPN

What do GWJers know about this website and it's ability to allow US content on Netflix?

It's a VPN, which, I guess tricks Netflix into believing you have a US IP address?

It strikes me as bit of a security risk.

What is this company getting out of letting people do this for free?

I use PS3s to tune Netflix in two locations.

We've been using UnblockUS for the better part of a year. First bit of clarification, it's not free. They have a free trial, then it's $5 a month. It's simply a different set of DNS servers you punch into your router (or the console itself if you don't want it on your whole network) that reports you as being from a US location. It is not a VPN and your traffic doesn't go through their servers beyond the DNS requests. I've had no security issues, nor have I heard of any from other users of the service. Netflix has no account boundaries so even if you sign in as a Canadian account, it thinks you're in the US and gives you the US catalogue. Some people consider this like a form of piracy but as someone who is very much against piracy, I personally don't consider it as such. You still have to pay for Netflix (we pay the same rate as US customers) and the owners of whatever content you watch still get whatever per-play fees they have negotiated with Netflix. Given how paltry the Canadian catalogue is, I wouldn't still be subscribing to Netflix if UnblockUS didn't exist.

You also get access to other US services like Vudu, Amazon and Hulu, though the latter two require a US credit card and billing address and Vudu works fine but movies on it are no cheaper than renting off Xbox Video or the PlayStation Store. We've used Vudu a couple of times (usually for exclusives) and I tried to use Amazon once with a $5 credit I got for pre-ordering a game with them but it won't even allow you to use credits if you don't have a US credit card on your account. We've never touched Hulu and don't care to.

One thing to note if you're using PS3 and rent movies from PSN: If you rent a movie there and try to play it with UnblockUS enabled, it will display an HTTP 403 Forbidden error and you won't be able to play the movie you rented unless you disable UnblockUS. UnblockUS is aware of the problem but it's due to the way PSN movie servers authorise purchases and they can't fix it. If you disable UnblockUS, play your movie and re-enable it, it works fine. Xbox movie rentals aren't affected by this.

I've been using UnblockUS for quite some time with no major issues. There's another similar service out there called Unotelly that I've also heard of. As PXA stated, it's not really a VPN, and thank goodness because that probably would make it too slow for streaming. Both now even provide the ability for you to quickly change region if there's something on the Finland version you want to catch later on, too. Speaking of which, while the US version selection is far superior (especially for television), I love that they added that feature because there still is occasionally some stuff on the Canadian Netflix that isn't on the US. Recently, I've been hanging out on the Canadian one to watch stuff like Community, Justified, The Descendants, Taxi Driver, and Tom Cruise's best film ever - Legend.

Also, for the record, you can use your Canadian credit card for Hulu Plus now as well. I also listen to Pandora a lot, subscribe to Hulu Plus (I like their access to Criterion Collection titles) and also find Vudu's video quality to be far better than either the PSN Store or Xbox Marketplace. Mind you, I don't subscribe to cable and I'm a bit of a film buff, so YMMV when it comes to worth for the service.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Some people consider this like a form of piracy but as someone who is very much against piracy, I personally don't consider it as such. You still have to pay for Netflix (we pay the same rate as US customers) and the owners of whatever content you watch still get whatever per-play fees they have negotiated with Netflix.

I admit you feel pretty sketchy entering in fake DNS information and then making a fake account under a fake address for everything and starting up a fake credit card for some services. But as far as grey zone actions go, I think it's pretty low on the totem pole. I'm not blocking the ads on Pandora or Hulu and I'm paying the proper legal price for Netflix as well as things I've rented/bought from Amazon Digital or Vudu (and not some lower price from Russia or something). When my alternatives for a lot of this content is either to willingly pay Rogers for their bad overpriced cable service or pirating, lying about my location but still getting content through technically legit means doesn't keep me up at night.

I have noticed that Netflix works quite well over my personal VPN from China--I can even watch 720p HD content when the connection is good.

However, I have also noticed that when my VPN disconnects for whatever reason, Netflix continues to play as long as I'm in the middle of the show. So I guess once it starts, it doesn't really matter how you're connected.

Second vote for Unotelly. UnblockUS was giving me issues with Netflix and Xbox live, but after a month on Unotelly I couldn't be happier!

Any quality issues?

I notice a lot of compression when the kids are watching cartoons. Cartoon give you a black line at the edge of a field of solid colour, which isn't moving. The black line is often very aliased.

It's much less noticable in live action. I can't really tell if it's a quality drop.

I changed my DNS, then reset my netflix on the PS3. I logged into netflix from the laptop this morning to make sure my quality setting was still at the middle one. I still can't tell if I should go to the top setting. 2.3 gb/hour seems like it could burn up a lot of my 300 GB quota, in a month.

I never have any quality issues to Netflix like the one you're describing, but I also never watch animated stuff.

I have it on the highest setting. Not sure what else you are using your internet for, but I think 300 GB is more than enough. You would need to watch over 4 hours of content every day of the month to pass the 300 mark, and that's assuming everything you watch is going to be in HD.

My girlfriend and I watch buckets of Netflix content between us, in addition to a ton of other downloads I do between Steam, console content and stuff she torrents. We rarely ever come close to our 300GB cap and are usually well under 200GB most months.

Is there a setting for the quality of Netflix, because everything I watch on it looks terrible. Youtube "HD" looks amazing in comparison (watching all through my blu-ray player, and haven't seen any settings on the blu-ray), is there something on the "Netflix site"?

I think there is a setting buried somewhere that allows you to set the maximum quality. It should default to the highest though. On my PS3, playback always starts in low quality but scales up to HD within about 10 seconds or so.

Wink_and_the_Gun wrote:

Is there a setting for the quality of Netflix, because everything I watch on it looks terrible. Youtube "HD" looks amazing in comparison (watching all through my blu-ray player, and haven't seen any settings on the blu-ray), is there something on the "Netflix site"?

Yes, you can control it in your account settings, but only on the PC. It lets you adjust the max speed you want to allow Netflix to stream to you. So as PA says, they start our low-res but get better after a few minutes if your connection is fast enough. Note that adjusting the setting on your PC will adjust it for any device you use to watch Netflix.

Okay, I don't know how it's happening unless Unblock-US's DNS is also able to lie about who the ISP is, but pretty stoked that we seem to have access to the 3D and Super HD features.