TV streaming options in Thailand

[Buckaroo Banzai]

Not retired Yet, so only spending a few months at the time in Thailand and not really watching any TV,
I watch Youtube, plenty of documentaries, seminars, ted talks, and Live CNN to keep me busy and informed.
I will be retiring in six months and will try living full time for a while in Thailand,, own a house there, good internet connection, so I am starting to think about my streaming options.
I see the term Cody mentioned often, What is Cody ?
In the US I have fire stick enabled TVs, Through it I access Amazon Prime, HBO, YouTube, Netflix,and Sling TV
Will a fire stick work in Thailand, will there be access restrictions to content?
When I tried to access my Amazon Prime account with my Laptop, I could only access some of the content , as it recognised I was abroad.
Should I simply get a VPN for my laptop and simply mirror the laptop on my smart TV
What do you all think would be my best Options in Thailand, don't mind paying a reasonable amount..

Thank you

[Buckaroo Banzai]

Oh !! an additional question, would my echo dots and Alexa controlled, outlets work in Thailand so that I can control some devices when I am away?

[Pragmatic]

Torrents for me personally.

[Headworx]

What sort of things do you like to watch?. The myriad of free on-demand movies and series apps will easily cover that side of things but I've found for live tv content with total reliability and an HD picture you do need to pay (despite the fact that they're probably stealing the feeds anyway ). I have about 110 live American tv channels in the package I use and can give you the contact details of the provider I use who'll give you a free 24hr trial if you like. Costs about 3-4k Baht per year depending on the package and if they're having a promotion of some sort at the time you join.

[DrB0b]

I see the term Cody mentioned often, What is Cody ?

Kodi. Streaming TV and movies from mostly pirated sources. Unreliable and a pain to set up and maintain, best avoided IMO. Plenty of cable services in Thailand, not too expensive, I'm sure others can you give you the latest on those. A fire TV is a good idea if you have the Internet bandwidth. Amazon video really don't like you using your account abroad and detect and block most VPNs. Shouldn't be an issue if you're moving to Thailand though, just change your address on Amazon.

[Pragmatic]

100% Legal - True Visions TV ? Official Site

And expensive compared to Netflix.

[Headworx]

100% Legal - True Visions TV ? Official Site

Worst. Service. Ever.

[Luigi]

HDPrime

380thb for 30 days. Buy a True Money care at the 7 and can pay with that. I use that live sports.
Torrents for movies and TV series.
Netflix is really good, with 1000's of movies and series etc. Think it's 400b p/m as I get it for free.

[Norton]

I have everything through True. Platinum TV package on 2 TVs and True ISP/home wifi. Also have Netflix. Very happy with the whole package.

[Dillinger]

Netflix is really good, with 1000's of movies and series etc

Says here that Thailand has 94 TV shows and 240 movies

Which if you scroll right down near the bottom, you'll see you only get around 4% of the movie content and 8% of the TV content of the American version.

https://www.finder.com/netflix-usa-vs-world-content

Hmm. Thats a few years old i see

[Dillinger]

Apparently if you are watching Netflix on a PC, you can enter codes to find specific stuff you want rather than their daft recommendations..

Just change the code at the end of the url below....

https://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/CODE

....to one of the codes here
http://ogres-crypt.com/public/NetFli...g-Genres2.html

[Norton]

Apparently if you are watching Netflix on a PC

[Dillinger]

I was talking to Lulu

I have everything through True. Platinum TV package on 2 TVs and True ISP/home wifi. Also have Netflix. Very happy with the whole package

Thats not a package man...I have 146 USA channels alone, Yeehaw.

[Dillinger]

How much do you pay for the True Platinum package nowadays?

[Norton]

2100 baht per I think. Wife pays all the bills.

[Dillinger]

Wow....Don't tell B0b, but you can get a specialised box for 20k a year on its own dedicated server with 1500 tv channels and 2 week catch up tv,, all the sports you couldn't imagine and pay per view stuff, with a concise porn, tv, movie and audio club updated daily.

[Norton]

Reckon tbere are all sorts of things available but I can't be assed with all that shit. Keep it simple. Go to True once a month, pay them and Netflix billed to my credit card.

All in about 3,200 baht.

[Buckaroo Banzai]

What sort of things do you like to watch?. The myriad of free on-demand movies and series apps will easily cover that side of things but I've found for live tv content with total reliability and an HD picture you do need to pay (despite the fact that they're probably stealing the feeds anyway ). I have about 110 live American tv channels in the package I use and can give you the contact details of the provider I use who'll give you a free 24hr trial if you like. Costs about 3-4k Baht per year depending on the package and if they're having a promotion of some sort at the time you join.

Thanks for that response.Please PM me the info for your provider.
I briefly wach news . CNN, MSNBC, Bloomberg Al Jazeera BBC , I recognise their bias and stay away from commentary , but IMO they are the only game in town as far as TV news are concerned.
I don't watch many movies on TV,I travel between the US east coast and Thailand often, 18 hrs in planes and if there is a movie I want to see, I probably seen it on the plane. LOL Anyway most movies are designed for s different demographic than me.
TV entertainment channels? Mostly TBS comedies, Big Bang Theory, Family guy, etc
70% of my TV viewing is YouTube , documentaries, news, seminars.
Streaming: Amazon prime original programing, HBO original programing, I derive most of my Netflix entertainment from looking for something to watch LOL (also not designed for my demographic) but my daughter has it and I get it for free, I enjoyed , Breaking Bad, House of cards, Better get Saul .

Mostly I am interested in unimpeded YouTube, if I got nothing else, I could survive on that, but live TV is appreciated, because access to it through YouTube is not reliable, channels that offer it get shut down often and new sources for news need to be found.
Now that I know what Kodi is, It's not for me.

any way, thank you all for your response, I am learning a lot.

[Dillinger]

It doesnt get any simpler than having everything on one box, Nort and downloading AIS Play on the ball and chain's tablet

[Headworx]

Good Value and 100% Legal.

Total rip-off for what you get, legal or otherwise. I had Platinum package for 15+ years but once I got into streaming and learned the ropes, couldn't fuck True tv off quick enough. They pretty much begged me to keep subscribing at a greatly reduced yearly rate (anyone paying them should tell them they want to cancel the service due to their shit content and see how much they offer to discount) but even if it was FREE I still wouldn't watch it because I get far better service elsewhere, much of it for free.

Here's a few screen grabs of what keeps me amused at home. Firstly for movies and series - of which I can find any of either ever made - here's just one of the FREE apps:


And here's some home screen options of the pay tv service I use with currently 5100 channels, a few of which I actually watch:







And Buckeroo: PM sent.

[Pragmatic]

2100 baht per I think. Wife pays all the bills.

And who pays the wife?

[Pragmatic]

I briefly wach news . CNN, MSNBC, Bloomberg Al Jazeera BBC , I recognise their bias and stay away from commentary , but IMO they are the only game in town as far as TV news are concerned.

Free Watch BBC News Live TV from United Kingdom - Online TV channel

[Buckaroo Banzai]

Apparently if you are watching Netflix on a PC, you can enter codes to find specific stuff you want rather than their daft recommendations..

Just change the code at the end of the url below....

https://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/CODE

....to one of the codes here
NetFlix Streaming by Alternate Genres

Thank you for that response, I did not know how to get around their recommendations, i will take a look at it when i have more time.
One of the thinks I don't like about Netflix is that they don't have a rating system like Amazon has, (three stars , four stars , five stars etc) I believe in the wisdom of crowds (for some things) and I find any contact with low ratings to almost always not to be for me.
With netflix, I would watch five minutes of a show , decide it is not for me and turn it off, next day, because you watched X (I hated X) here is here are more shows you will hate LOL
Can't they develop an algorithm to track how much of a show you watch? If a person watches only a couple of minutes of a show and turn it off and never go back to it, IMO it is to a large degree a true indication that they did not like it.

[Humbert]

Reckon tbere are all sorts of things available but I can't be assed with all that shit. Keep it simple. Go to True once a month, pay them and Netflix billed to my credit card.
All in about 3,200 baht.

I have a True Online and True Visions package. Unlimited wifi and a True Gold package. I have a Chromecast device that allows me to cast programming to my TV. I download movies and watch them on Videostream. Some of the free streaming sites recommended by folks on TD like First One TV are absolute shit. Netflix in Thailand has only a fraction of what's offered in the US.

[Buckaroo Banzai]

I have a True Online and True Visions package. Unlimited wifi and a True Gold package. I have a Chromecast device that allows me to cast programming to my TV. I download movies and watch them on Videostream. Some of the free streaming sites recommended by folks on TD like First One TV are absolute shit. Netflix in Thailand has only a fraction of what's offered in the US.

Amazon had the same problem while I was in Thailand, the content was very limited.
I was thinking using a VPN (i don't mind paying for a good VPN) on my laptop so that the source would not know I am in Thailand and cast to my TV , do you think that's an Option?
If it is an Option, it would be the best option for me, when i retire I plan to split my time between Florida, Greece, and Thailand, and I rather have one system that is portable.

Also I like to take this opportunity to express how pleasantly surprised and happy I am with this forum, as a great alternative to the corporate structure of TVF.
I joined TD about 10 years ago, but mostly stayed away because of what I considered undesirable behaviour. Perhaps it has improved, or perhaps the stick up my arse has gotten smaller over the years, but I find everyone here to be helpful and of good humor.

Thank you all!!