Ok kiddies, Uncle Primal thought he would share some of his free TV and movie knowledge with the rest of yous. Of course, Im sure many of you know most of this already, but I thought Id put it together on the off chance that someone here might get something out of it.

Here they are, in no particular order:

1/ Get a PC to TV splitter box:
This is a small box that you can connect a VGA card cable to and then connect the box from your TV to your Laptop (some laptops and I think Apple's, don't even need the box, merely a TV cable). You can get this box from any good Japanese electrical store, like Yamada Denki. My box is a "TVC-XGA2"

http://www.iodata.jp/prod/multimedia/tv/20...-xga2/index.htm

2/ Get a Headphone extension cord:
- With this little beauty, plus a headphone to speaker cord (perhaps just a long version of the latter), you can then connect your PC's sound to your HI-FI. Nice

3/ Video Signal Splitter:
This box will allow several audio/video leads (the red, white or yellow ones for your TV and HI-FI) to plug into your HI-FI and TV at the same time, meaning that you can watch multiple video signals on your TV without removing and replugging-in other cables from other sources, like your PS2, DVD player etc.

I have this one, but most shops have equiv or better models:

http://www.ring-g.co.jp/benri/msel-31.htm

Right, that's your jury-rigged hardware sorted out, now onto the software.

1/ Install Firefox:
Some sites claim that video-downloads and steaming works best via Firefox, so get to it:

- http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

2/ Install some video-downloading software:
Firefox has the beauty of allowing users to install "plugins", meaning that such delights as "Downloadhelper" (sic) are available to help you download vids from youtube and many other flash-based videosites:

- http://www.downloadhelper.net/

3/ Install an FLV Player:
There are many options out there. My own small player is unavailable at the moment, but here is one at softpedia:

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/FLV-...load-27852.html

Also, VEOH has their own multimedia TV and video viewing software here:

http://www.veoh.com/veohTV/getStarted.html

4/ What the sodding hell is the veoh player, Primal?
It's a jack-off all trades piece of software that allows you to view FLV, and other kinds of video files in the one player. It also allows you to download/stream myspace, yahoo, veoh (in fact veoh vids ONLY work via the player) and even Google/Youtube vids in FULL SCREEN with not even an annoying toolbar showing its ugly head while you are watching.

Veoh also has “channels”, which are links to other websites with video content, shown inside the player's skin. Mainly links to www.hulu.com (more on that site later). Oh and you can also use it to download video files via torrent sites too.

5/Download TVU:
TVU is another player, but this one allows you to watch a variety of legal and barely legal (ahem) live streaming sites from around the world. Although some channels are a pile of “Bungle's fingers”, others, such as “Nickelodeon”, “Sci-Fi USA”, “Comedy Central” and “Soccer” offer live streaming (or a few hours behind) shows from the country of origin. SCI-FI is usually about 5-10 mins behind the USA! They even have some Japanese channels.

WARNING: This software is FREE. Do NOT pay to download this:

http://www.tvunetworks.com/

You can also watch most of the channels via the website without the player but its a bit slow. Also be careful about the url. There are many copy-cat sites with similar urls.

6/ Streamick:
Streamick is the web-site rival to TVU (to the extent that TVU bans the word “streamick” in its forums), which offers many similar links to live streaming sites to that of TVU, but also offers links to the likes of MTV (3 different ones, which are miles better than their Japanese cousin), BBC News 24/World, NHK World, (NHK for the English-speaking world), local news stations, Ministry of Sound, Eurosport, ITN news and much more.

http://www.streamick.com/

7/OVG Guide:
With the sad demise of the UK-based “TV Links.co.uk”, a whole plethora of new sites offering identical services sprang up overnight, proving yet again, that bullying by big corps about copyright only makes matters worse. The link below is a site linking to almost every video-hosting or linking site on the internets. OMGROTFL!!!!:

http://www.ovguide.com/

8/Other Vid sites:
Although the above site is more than enough, my top three vid sites are below:
http://joox.net/ (was once a linking site the the sadly missed and technically brilliant stage6, although some sites have hacked the original stage6 divx player code to allow it to be used to watch alternate sites which host divx movies!)
http://movies.nabolister.com/ (the two search boxes at the top of the screen are pretty good)
http://www.sidereel.com/ (They have a very good and up-to-date selection of TV shows)


9/ IP Address Proxy Software and Hulu:
There are now some official TV and movie sites, released by public TV broadcasters and corporations. However, due to legal red-tape, many have shot themselves in their own feet by only allowing those in the same country as the TV shows to view them online (and as those self-same people can acces the shows via TV, the appeal for a domestic TV site is a bit lower than expected).

However, all is not lost, with an IP address proxy software doo-hickey, you too can join in on the fun! Basically, the software fools any online sites by letting you connect to a remote server in the USA (or country of your choice with some systems).

I have only found one that is fast enough to allow you to watch movies online, and its only a USA-based proxy, but its great for accessing hulu.com (via the website or even at a Veoh player channel). I haven't had much luck with sites like ABC's site but Hulu is pretty good.

http://www.hotspotshield.com/launch/ (Note: If you have firefox, their site has some probs with it, so you can also download it in the second link below)
http://www.download.com/Hotspot-Shield/300....html?tag=lst-1
http://www.hulu.com/

Oh, please be aware that hotspot shield has a “bandwidth limit” which will run out every month after you watch about 5-10 vids using the proxy. Its not a great but it's better than a kick in the bollocks.

10/ Another IP Proxy:
I haven't tried this one but it's worth a squirt. It is meant to get better if you buy bandwidth from them and might allow you to access such things as the BBC's notorious “video iplayer”.

http://www.your-freedom.net/

11/ Region-Only Vid sites:
One day, the lawyers and media producers will get things all in order and these sites will be a thing of the past, but in the meantime, some of you with IP proxies, clever IT know-how or even those IN the areas allowed might like to know about them:

www.hulu.com
http://abc.go.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/
http://www.fox.com/home.htm (requires additional software to view)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/southeasttoday/ (BBC Local TV news is available to anyone who misses it. The link I've given you is to “Southeast Today”, for the southeast of England. Other regions are available and all free to view all over the world, even if the quality and news content is p1ss-poor)

12/ Super Video Converter:
This pice of software will allow you to convert almost any video or music file into any other music of video file. So, if you can only find a mucic vid but you really want it as an MP3, then now you can have it:

- http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.http

(Their site is a bit of a maze but eventually you will find it)

13/ Region-Free DVD:
Although you can pick up a region free DVD player back home, or even in Akiba's Yodabashi camera (4th floor) for a mere 6-9,000 Yen, you can always just watch them on your PC, even if it has a region-protected drive. Here are some links to some great free software:

http://www.dvdidle.com/ (their software is free for 90 days and is regarded as the best on the market. And 90 days is a long time)
http://www.dvd43.com/ (This one is pretty good, so I'm told but sometimes, Sony DVDs and other notorious company's media won't work as the codecs or software isn't as updated as much as the CSS's)

14/ Media Player Classic set.
This player allows you to play Microsoft Media Player, Quicktime and even Realplayer files online by integrating their software with the aforementioned companies' codecs WITHOUT the need to download any other players:

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Player_Classic

Download it here:

- http://www.filehippo.com/download_media_player_classic/


Well folks. I hope this helps. Of course, if you have good torrent software then this might not be for you, but it is another option regardless. Enjoy!