MosesShtpole

And once again the loyal viewers in Canada get screwed out of being able to watch the season, without having to resort to "questionable" means to get CBS All Access. I don't even blame CBS. It's our cable providers (Bell and Rogers) that stop CBS from being able to give us access. They have the rights for broadcasts of all the shows on CBS and stop them from being able to give us access directly.

Can't say I'm at all thrilled about this "twist". I don't understand the need for the US version to constantly bring back previous players, as players (let's face it, there's no way they're not going to have them enter the game). Why not just use them as Guest Stars, like the other countries do, and let new people get a shot at the money. There are 10's of thousands of people applying. Surely, there are enough people to fill the stereotypes that cast each year. 

It just smacks of a weak writers room if all they can do is recycle ideas. They could have at least come up with a new way of bringing in previous players. How hard could that be? I think we're just going to be instore for another season of Big Brother. All the usual shots, comps, and drama. Don't get me wrong. I love my BB, but would it kill them to do something original? Our Canadian BB was great this year, and last, and they have a budget less than half of the U.S. version. 

And Audrey...please no...she wasn't even a decent player. Like you said, how can she be a coach? She couldn't handle it when things didn't go her way and acted like a spoiled child. Agree, she's just there for the drama.

If you're in Canada,  After Dark is on SLICE (Bell Channel 1601, or 601 - Not sure of channel number for Rogers) from 3am until 6am (EST). 

Thanks. I have the All Access account, you just have to have a U.S. based credit card, and a VPN (DNS Proxy) service to access the site. American Express Gift Cards work (the silver ones - if anyone is going to give it a try).

Yeah, it's a pain that we have to go through it and they're the ones that lose revenue, but I guess CBS has more money than they can shake a stick at, so they don't care. Alienating our "little" country means nothing to them.

At least we get to read Morty's for the people that don't get the feeds! 

Thanks for the news...sad though it may be. 

Oh well...time to take a trip to the store to get another AMEX Gift Card to get around the Geo-blocking like last year. 
 

M.

Hey Everyone,

Just wondered if anyone has heard if Canadians will be able to subscribe through All Access this year for the Big Brother Live Feeds? 

Hopefully we won't be forced to go through "back-channels" to gain access like we had to last year. 

Thanks in advance!

Sadly, it won't happen this year. The feeds this year are tied to the CBS All Access Pass and that gives you access to all of CBS' shows. You can watch all the old episodes and new ones with the access package. That's why no feeds this year for Canada.

Sadly, it's not even CBS fault that we can't view the feeds legally in Canada.

I'm sure they would like nothing better than to take our money and give us access to their library of shows. It all falls back on the broadcasters here in Canada themselves. The rights for certain shows are linked to different broadcasters here (Global has BB and CTV has Amazing Race for example) and that's where the problem lies. Global doesn't want you to have access to shows that they don't broadcast, and vice-versa. Also the Canadian market for the BB feeds is small in comparison to the costs associated with working out plans to have them available. 

So...we end up having to figure out workarounds and ways to gain access illegally. 

I'm at a very nervous 9 - Tomorrow will be the big test to see if Canadian viewers actually get access to live feeds, when they do the live cast introductions on the feeds. Everything seems to be working, as I can access all the other content, but until those little hamsters are running around my screen, I'm always a little twitchy...

I certainly hope they change up the format this time around as well. It is getting very stale. Having returning hamsters is fine, but please not coaches again. That was the weakest season, and the coaching thing was a joke.

I'd really love to see some "twists" that actually are twists. Canada did some great stuff this year, with the hidden room, and the mini-challenges that they gave to the houseguests (still makes me laugh thinking about Allison and John and their drinking challenge!) even the power they gave to Adel, although not really all that great, made for some great paranoia from the other houseguests as they tried to reason out how and when it might be used. I also agree that making them stay awake would be a nice change. As a feed watcher it's pretty damn boring when they all conk out at 2pm in the afternoon and you don't really see them agan until midnight.

At least it seems that CBS learned their lesson this year, and let us Canadians sign up for the live feeds right away. Last year was a pain in the ass trying to figure out how to get around the blocks (but we did!).

Moses, I dont know what a VPN is.... Where do I get one??

Hey Sheldon,

A VPN or DNS blocker/changer is needed to view the live feeds. Basically it's software that makes the servers at CBS think that you are in the United States instead of where you are located (in your case the Middle East).

I use a VPN service called STRONGDNS you can find them online at www.strongdns.com, or you could try a similar pay service like www.unblock-us.com. They aren't free though. Each one cost about $60US for the year. There are some free ones that Morty linked to at the top of this thread. You could try one of those first if you don't want to pay. The beauty of STRONGDNS (or a similar DNS changer) is that you can then get US content for Netflix, HULU and other online services. You still have to sign up and pay for them, but the selection (in Netflix's case is far superior - Canada - 900+ movies, US - 14,000+ movies).

You'll also have to purchase the feeds from CBS and create an account if you don't already have one. The signup says you need to be in the United States, but you don't. You can get around it by entering your name and street address and then using a special formula to figure out a city and zipcode that works for your area. Not sure how that works in the middle east, but in Canada you use a formula based on yoru postal code. Sure you can find a link somewhere on google. Once you've got your Feeds purchased you can follow the instructions that I previously posted about how to access the feeds.

It's not too difficult if you're familiar with computers and the internet in general. You just have to change a few settings and you'll be away to the races.

Instead of messing with VPNs, try this BB Viewer: This requires Adobe Air as Morty mentioned in a previous post.

Fuskie

Who believes most people have had success with it.

Absolutely...it works as well. Good call.

If anyone has any other work throughs please please post them. I tried both the other ones, and they didn't work. I'm deployed to the Middle East and reaaalllly want to watch the feeds!

Hey Sheldon,

What VPN/DNS service are you currently using? If you're out of the country you might need to use something stronger like StrongVPN instead of just a DNS changer like Unblock-US.

Moses.

I bought the feeds did the changes as listed all I get is loading screen, also I was logged out of CBS now it shows region restricted again. The other option of d/l that program did not work either just a black screen and the update would not complete as there was an error. I deleted the program amd i feel i have justed wasted my money on the feeds unless there is further help to these issues

Hey CupCake,

What VPN/DNS service are you using and are you located in Canada? Are you using Firefox to watch or another browser? You should still be able to sign in to your CBS account even if you can't get to the feeds. Did you change the cookies or delete them? If you delete them, it causes issues.

Am assuming that you were able to purchase the feeds with your credit card etc. beforehand.

M.

I'm in Canada and I'm having a heck of a time trying to get the live feeds. Any easy suggestions that might work. I've tried the previous topic how to do it but it didn't work out. Thanks for any info! I'm so sad.

Hey Penny,

Again, what VPN/DNS service are you using? Have you purchased your feeds and created your CBS account? Once you have that done, the steps I detailled above should work.

M.

Okay...it was my VPN client that had the issue.

The solution above works just fine.

Not as brilliant as I thought...

Currently I can see the chat, twitter, and links to the archived videos etc., but I can't see the live video feed.

I just get a loading screen...forever...like it's trying but can't quite get there.

If I find another workaround to this I'll post it.

Sigh...why you gotta make it so difficult BB.

Moses, I would love to know what you find out!

I have used Hotspot Shield for years on my other computer and never had a problem. I have downloaded that again. *sigh*

Maybe this is the BBCA revenge? We didn't share our feeds... maybe they should have lol

So far it seems to be working fine. The chat is up and running like it was before they blocked me out.

Of course you'll need to subscribe to the feeds first, before you even begin to do this or it won't work at all. If you can't get past the Sign-up screen, I have a work around for that, and you can use your Canadian Credit Card to pay, even though it says you can't. Have a work around for that too.

Here's what I did to get it to work...I'm using Firefox as my browser.

1. Under Firefox Add-Ons get the "Cookies Manager+" add-on (just search for Cookie Manager), install that and restart Firefox.

2. Under Firefox Options, go to Prviacy and Under History choose: Use Custom Settings for History

3. Select "Show Cookies"

4. Search for "CBS" (there are a bunch of them).

5. You want the one named: cbsgeoip

6. Select the little Pallette icon (the icon appears after you've installed the add-on) next to the Remove All Cookies button

7. It'll pop-up another window where you can search for cookies again. Find the CBS - cbsgeoip again.

8. Select it and choose edit

9. Okay...here's where you make the change: There's a line called "Content: CA" the CA is your country code (CA - Canada). You need to change this to US

10. Then click save

11. Restart Firefox

12. Go back to your link to the LiveFeeds (bookmark or however you get there) and it should load as it was previously without the "Region Blocked" notification.

NOTE: Whatever you do, don't delete your cookies for CBS. It will lose all the information you put in for payment and you'll have to pay again (trust me...I know...UGH!)

Hope this helps.

M.

Sorry to post again...but...

I believe I have work around for the VPN issues for Canadian Viewers.

I went in and edited the GEOIP Cookie that CBS installs in your browser after signing up and I no longer get the Region restriction message I was previously getting. You need to the change the Country ID to US instead of CA.

I'll know more once the feeds start later tonight/tomorrow, but hopefully this will help.

I can provide detailed instructions if anyone wants them.

Sadly, VPN doesn't seem to be working for the live feeds now.

I signed up a couple of weeks ago, made my payment (which was accepted and processed). I could access the live feed area and see the chat, watch the videos that were there, etc.

Today though, I get blocked when I try to access the area. The page loads and then a message saying: "This content is restricted in your area" is displayed.

Hopefully someone can come up with another workaround, or somewhere that the live feeds might be broadcast.

I am one PO'd Canadian!