Many thanks for the TVAPP recommendation; it's awesome.

In case anyone is curious it hides channels from the country you're connecting from. While trying to access it from Japan it hides the Japanese channels, and displays American channels. When I connect from America via VPN, the Japanese channels are displayed and the American ones hidden.

As for why I'm using a program to watch Japanese TV on my computer in Japan uhhhhhhhhhhh

anotherjohn Wrote:TVApp looks very nice, and I'm pleased to report that the PC version works flawlessly in Linux under Wine, though I'm not seeing any Japanese channels, only Chinese(?). Is there something you have to tweak to get Japanese channels? Sorry if it's a daft question.

Scroll the list of channels using either your mouse wheel or the Page Down button. And no, it's not daft - I was befuddled at first by the lack of any UI scrollbar as well.

What speed of internet service does one need for TVAPP so that it is not choppy?

scooter1 Wrote:What speed of internet service does one need for TVAPP so that it is not choppy?

Probably about what you would need for a similar streaming service such as Netflix (https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306). This all appears to be SD transmission, so at least 3Mbps down.

gaiaslastlaugh Wrote:Scroll the list of channels using either your mouse wheel or the Page Down button.

Doh, thank you. Can't believe I missed that

Looking at the CPU usage it looks like I'm mining bitcoins for somebody, but it's worth it for that channel list :O

Let's hope it lasts

netflix has a good dynamic bandwidth system so 3Mbps down is fine. But TVAPP seems to run only at a fairly high definition, so 3Mbps is very choppy and unusable.

the high CPU usage for presumably "background" activities noted by anotherjohn is worrying.

scooter1 Wrote:netflix has a good dynamic bandwidth system so 3Mbps down is fine. But TVAPP seems to run only at a fairly high definition, so 3Mbps is very choppy and unusable.

the high CPU usage for presumably "background" activities noted by anotherjohn is worrying.

I didn't notice a spike. I watched FATE STAY/NIGHT on Netflix and compared it to the performance with TVApp, and my CPU stayed within the same range (25%-40%) for both. (FWIW, I'm running under Windows 10 on an Intel NUC with an i5-5250U, 8MB RAM, and 256GB SSD.)

I did notice someone here (http://freesoft-plaza.com/blog-entry-177.html, comments) saying that there appeared to be a large amount of data uploaded from their PC. I did see this through my router as well; sometimes, as much data was going out of my system as was coming in from the broadcast. The benign explanation for this would be that the software is using a P2PTV protocol - i.e., you are peering chunks of the stream you're watching to others. (That would actually explain the insanely high quality of this service.) The non-benign explanation is that it's slowly slurping the contents of your hard drive and scanning for passwords.

So, downloader beware - I found this on the Internet, and can't guarantee that someone in the Chinese Communist Party won't use your credit card to purchase a timeshare in the Carribean.

Possible reports (unverified) of the Android APK containing malware here: http://www.d-addicts.com/forums/viewtopi...p#p1732761

Might not be a bad idea to run Wireshark on your connection to see what the heck is really going on.

There's an interesting little subreddit /r/JTV that covers Japanese TV, too. That might be worth checking out as well.

Does anyone know of a service like this that'll run on KODI/OSMC? I might be tempted to use this on my Raspberry Pi, because if that got pwned, I wouldn't really care. (Just wipe the micro SD and reinstall OSMC.)

PS - to anyone looking for some Kansai programming there may be something for that.

Slight lag and low quality are the prices I pay to feed my Kansai addiction.

drdunlap Wrote:PS - to anyone looking for some Kansai programming there may be something for that.

Slight lag and low quality are the prices I pay to feed my Kansai addiction.

How about you dedicate all your free time to finding me people in Kansai to have language exchanges with. APPRECIATE IT, BRO.

rich_f Wrote:Might not be a bad idea to run Wireshark on your connection to see what the heck is really going on.

Ran Colasoft Capsa 8 Free briefly. Mainly, I see a lot of UDP traffic to t.tvapp.so, which is what I would expect from this type of app. If anything, the more questionable queries seemed to be coming from Windows itself. TVApp didn't add anything out of the ordinary to the equation.

drdunlap Wrote:PS - to anyone looking for some Kansai programming there may be something for that.

Slight lag and low quality are the prices I pay to feed my Kansai addiction.

By the way, mini-drama (4 episodes) that recently aired on WOW or whatever, 煙火 Gold Rush. Takes place in Osaka and I highly recommend it.

TheVinster Wrote:How about you dedicate all your free time to finding me people in Kansai to have language exchanges with. APPRECIATE IT, BRO.

SORRY, ALL OF MY FREE TIME CURRENTLY TAKEN UP GETTING INEBRIATED IN WAIKIKI.

If, however, you find yourself in need of tasty beer and good conversation in Osaka I can point you in the right direction.

Note that the Android version of TVApp is trying to access the internet even when it's not in use. I'm going to block it in my firewall settings when I'm not using it, just in case.

@drdunlap Ooh, thanks! That will come in handy. I should probably get more used to 関西弁, since it shows up a lot in media, and watching that channel looks like a fun way to do it!

Bokusenou Wrote:@drdunlap Ooh, thanks! That will come in handy. I should probably get more used to 関西弁, since it shows up a lot in media, and watching that channel looks like a fun way to do it!

I especially suggest the program called よ〜いドン！that comes on around 9:30am Japan Time and lasts about 90 minutes. Good times. Monday and Tuesday are the best! (円広志 is the best of the three they have doing the "となりの人間国宝さん" bit).

Looking into Android TV box + Uchi TV now.
The subscription costs 115$ at the cheapest place for 12 months (9.5$ a month!), which is a great deal in my opinion. I do not watch that much Dutch TV anyway, so I can cancel my Dutch cable subscription and just use Uchi TV.

Now I am looking for which Android box to buy, currently my eye on http://www.tinydeal.com/tronfy-px2y402-p-154403.html after researching for quite a while. It can play 1080p MKVs and other formats as well. Only 90$ dollarish. Just waiting on a bit more reviews, because it is a recently new box. The box can use Kodi (xbmc), which can almost play anything.

So this box can just become my Japanese media monster, playing my local files on usb storage, and watching Japanese TV with Uchi hehe As a bonus it uses less energy as my gaming rig as well, which I use now to watch movies etc.

@drdunlap Woah, thanks a ton! よ〜いドン！'s time slot is really convenient for me too, since it'll be on in the evenings here. I'll definitely check it out! ヾ(｡>﹏<｡)ﾉﾞ✧*。

[s0apgun]

drdunlap Wrote:

TheVinster Wrote:How about you dedicate all your free time to finding me people in Kansai to have language exchanges with. APPRECIATE IT, BRO.

SORRY, ALL OF MY FREE TIME CURRENTLY TAKEN UP GETTING INEBRIATED IN WAIKIKI.

If, however, you find yourself in need of tasty beer and good conversation in Osaka I can point you in the right direction.

No longer living in Japan?

s0apgun Wrote:

drdunlap Wrote:

TheVinster Wrote:How about you dedicate all your free time to finding me people in Kansai to have language exchanges with. APPRECIATE IT, BRO.

SORRY, ALL OF MY FREE TIME CURRENTLY TAKEN UP GETTING INEBRIATED IN WAIKIKI.

If, however, you find yourself in need of tasty beer and good conversation in Osaka I can point you in the right direction.

No longer living in Japan?

Temporary evacuation to Oahu. :d
I'll be here a few years, I suppose.

Any update on the funky CPU usage by TVAPP? I'd really rather not rebuild my OS any time soon... or give people any information that might be available from my computer.

Is TVAPP still working for anyone else? I've tried using it a few times over the past two weeks or so and it always says "connecting server failed, please check your network connection".

Flamerokz Wrote:Is TVAPP still working for anyone else? I've tried using it a few times over the past two weeks or so and it always says "connecting server failed, please check your network connection".

I have the same problem on different computers and internet connections. http://www.tvapp.so/ also seems to be down so I guess there's a problem at the other end.

I guess in the end it was too good to last...

justusperthes Wrote:

Flamerokz Wrote:Is TVAPP still working for anyone else? I've tried using it a few times over the past two weeks or so and it always says "connecting server failed, please check your network connection".

I have the same problem on different computers and internet connections. http://www.tvapp.so/ also seems to be down so I guess there's a problem at the other end.

Yep, they appear to have vanished. No more virtually watching スッキリ！with my Tokyo-based fiancee on Sunday afternoons. Sigh.

It's not nearly the same, but I find enough content on http://jp.pandora.tv/ to keep me entertained.

FYI, japannettv.com now provides its Windows and Android TV apps for a monthly subscription of $19 (less than the cost of TV Japan). It provides access to over 30 channels, plus access to the past 7 days of content on each channel. The sound quality could be better, but picture quality is very good.