Tunlr first look: watch TV worldwide on the Internet

Martin Brinkmann
Oct 27, 2015
Music and Video
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10

There is certainly no shortage when it comes to solutions to watching Internet TV that you are blocked from accessing because of your geographical location in the world.

The three main solutions that dominate the landscape are virtual private networks (VPNs), proxy-based solutions, and DNS-based solutions.

All offer advantages and disadvantages. VPN solutions for instance protect your IP address in all programs you run on the system while DNS-based solutions use your computer's bandwidth when it comes to the streaming part of the equation which often is faster than using a provider's bandwidth for that.

Tunlr is a DNS-based solution that is currently in Open Beta. The service requires sign-up before you can give it a go, and that sign-up is pushing it in terms of what you need to do to gain access.

While you can sign-up using email, you are asked to share the fact on Facebook or Twitter, or to invite at least one friend per email before you gain access to the service. That's however not entirely true, as you can skip that part without doing that and still gain access to the service's functionality.

Once you have signed up you may open the setup instructions for the operating system you are working on to enable the service on it.

This involves changing DNS servers that the connection uses. It is done quickly and the instructions are detailed. Windows users can use a program like DNS Jumper instead to make the process comfortable, as it is possible then to switch between DNS providers with the click of the mouse button.

Another advantage of doing so is that you may use it to enable the Tunlr DNS servers only when needed this way. While you can do so manually as well, it is more comfortable this way and faster.

The service's dashboard lists popular services on start. While there is no mention of it, it is likely that it is using the computer's IP address to identify users to provide that option and gain more control.

Available are a handful of services currently including Netflix, BBC, Fox, Pandora, ABC or Crunchyroll. There is also a vote going on that you can participate in to suggest new services to be added to Tunlr.

Once you have set up the DNS servers on the computer, you are ready to go. All you need to do is point your browser to the desired service's website, e.g. BBC, to start watching or listening to content provided by it.

This works without delays and well for all services supported even for the BBC which recently announced that it would start to block VPNs from bypassing its georestrictions.

Closing Words

Tunlr is free during the beta but it may not be free once the service leaves beta. It is possible that a free tier will be offered but the company behind the product has made no mention of it yet.

As is the case with all of these services, it comes down to price and availability. Considering that you can get access to VPN services that promise unlimited data for less than $3 per month, a price set too high could be the doom of the service from the get go.

Summary
Tunlr first look: watch TV worldwide on the Internet
Article Name
Tunlr first look: watch TV worldwide on the Internet
Description
A first look at Tunrl, a new service that enables you to access Internet TV and radio services from around the world.
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Comments

  1. Anonymous said on August 1, 2010 at 12:43 pm
    Reply

    Why not make use of the mplayer.conf?

  2. Mike J said on August 1, 2010 at 2:58 pm
    Reply

    Huh, I have never even seen this “font cache” pane; videos play at once for me, using VLC & XP SP3.

    1. Martin said on August 1, 2010 at 3:39 pm
      Reply

      Mike, in theory this should have only been displayed once to you, at the very first video that you played with VLC. The time this window is displayed depends largely on the number of fonts in your font directory.

      1. Mike J said on August 2, 2010 at 2:30 pm
        Reply

        huh, I lucked out for a change?? Amazing!!
        Apparently VLC keeps this info through version updates, but I didn’t see this message after a fresh OS install about 8 weeks ago, & a new VLC.

  3. myo said on August 1, 2010 at 5:52 pm
    Reply

    yes, yes, i have the same problem. sometimes, VLC crashes when it is playing .mov file.

  4. Kishore said on August 13, 2010 at 2:55 pm
    Reply

    Error:
    Buidling font Cache pop-up

    Solution:

    Open VLC player.

    On Menu Bar:

    Tools
    Preferences

    (at bottom – left side)
    Show settings — ALL

    Open: Video
    Click: Subtitles/OSD (This is now highlited, not opened)
    Text rendering module – change this to “Dummy font renderer function”

    Save
    Exit

    Re-open – done.
    Progam will no longer look outside self for fonts

    Source – WorthyTricks.co.cc

    1. Martin said on August 13, 2010 at 3:10 pm
      Reply

      Great tip, thanks a lot Kishore.

  5. javier said on August 14, 2010 at 1:50 pm
    Reply

    @Kishore, I’ll try your tips, but does this mean it will no longer show subtitles either?
    I do use subtitles, but the fontcache dialog box pops up (almost) everytime I play a file.

    Could this be related to the fonts I have installed? Or if I add/remove fonts to my system?

    I’ll try to do a fresh install also, if your tips does no work. I’ll post back here later…

    /thanks
    /j

  6. Kishore said on August 15, 2010 at 12:38 pm
    Reply

    @ Javier, The trick i posted will show up subtitles too. If not,

  7. Kishore said on August 15, 2010 at 12:39 pm
    Reply

    @ Javier, The trick i posted will show up subtitles too. If not,Dont worry, VLC is currently sorting out this issue and the next version will be out soon.

    No probs @ Martin !! Its my pleasure

  8. Ted said on October 22, 2010 at 3:57 am
    Reply

    Try running LC with administrator privileges. That seemed to fix it for me

  9. Evan said on December 8, 2013 at 1:48 am
    Reply

    I am using SMplayer 0.8.6 (64-bit) (Portable Edition) on Windows 7 x64. Even with the -nofontconfig parameter in place SMplayer still scans the fonts. Also, I have enabled normal subtitles and it is still scanning fonts before playing a video. Also, it does this every time the player opens a video after a system restart (only the fist video played).

  10. Mike Williams said on September 6, 2023 at 1:26 pm
    Reply

    Does that mean that only instrumental versions of songs will be available for non-paying users?

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