HBO Now

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Webhead
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#1279756 9-Apr-2015 15:42

rokki: Does anyone know of an easy way to get credit on to a U.S. iTunes account for things like HBO Now ?

Buy iTunes gift cards. For example from http://www.cards4ever.com/ (Which I have had good experience with). There are several places that sell them. Or have someone you know in the US buy some gift cards for you.

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littleheaven

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#1279765 9-Apr-2015 15:48

dclegg:
rokki: Does anyone know of an easy way to get credit on to a U.S. iTunes account for things like HBO Now ?

We have our US iTunes account paired with our Air New Zealand OneSmart card.

Ditto. I also use it for my Hulu subscription. It gets debited as needed, so no requirement to put the iTunes account in credit. Oddly enough, iTunes Australia wouldn't accept it.

I've also used buyfrompowerseller and had no problems at all.

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lchiu7

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#1279772 9-Apr-2015 15:59

I originally posted this in another thread but was told (!) I should post here.

I am not an IOS person so at the risk of incurring the wrath of my wife who has an iPhone 6, I managed to download the app on iTunes and then, after much futzing around, got the app to the phone. I had to use Tunnelbear to see then app in iTunes even though I have Unotelly.

Anyway after getting the app on the phone when I start it up it and choose Start Your Free Trial with iTunes I get an error Regrant failed, please purchase the software application first at which point in time I gave up in case I broke her phone :-(

My iTunes account is US based with a US credit card (not a debit card)

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Dynamike

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#1279786 9-Apr-2015 16:19

I use http://itunesdirect.com.au

I bought a $50 US Card from them over Easter, cost $77.83 NZD. Other places are slightly cheaper, but itunesdirect seem to be an honest outfit to deal with.

I'm only getting HBO Now in Standard Definition on my Apple TV. Anyone getting it in HD?

rokki

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#1279846 9-Apr-2015 17:07

dclegg:
rokki: Does anyone know of an easy way to get credit on to a U.S. iTunes account for things like HBO Now ?

We have our US iTunes account paired with our Air New Zealand OneSmart card.

What is interesting is that if we forget to top up our US wallet, we can still rent a movie. Apple simply won't let us rent another one until our payment details have been updated once we remember to put more money on the card.

I have just had a Doh moment i forgot i had a one card so i have now got that set up :) We are off to the races so to speak

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datahawk

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#1279891 9-Apr-2015 18:05

Dynamike: I'm only getting HBO Now in Standard Definition on my Apple TV. Anyone getting it in HD?

Similar issue here. Quality is not good so far and a bit of buffering on both ATV and iPad. I have a pretty good VDSL connection and don't have any problems with HD Netflix or Lightbox streaming. Hoping it will get better.

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BuzzLightyear

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#1279941 9-Apr-2015 19:16

Streaming performance seems very average compared to Hulu or Netflix. Quite a bit of buffering. A quick Google seems to indicate a history or streaming issues with the older HBO Go. Hopefully hey are just teething issues that will get ironed out.

NonprayingMantis

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#1279943 9-Apr-2015 19:18

datahawk:
Dynamike: I'm only getting HBO Now in Standard Definition on my Apple TV. Anyone getting it in HD?

Similar issue here. Quality is not good so far and a bit of buffering on both ATV and iPad. I have a pretty good VDSL connection and don't have any problems with HD Netflix or Lightbox streaming. Hoping it will get better.

coudl be related to where the content is hosted.
Lightbox and Netflix will have their content hosted locally on laces like Akamai.

HBO Now is too new, and probably won't have enough subscribers yet, for the content to be seeded down to NZ akamai servers yet, so it's probably trying to pull it from somewhere in the states.

dclegg

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#1279974 9-Apr-2015 19:52

Very average picture quality. Stopped to buffer only once in the 60 minutes we've been watching, so too early to tell if that is going to be an issue.

But with the SD picture, I'm considering if it's worthwhile taking Neon for a spin.

Spyware

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#1279981 9-Apr-2015 20:10

dclegg: Very average picture quality. Stopped to buffer only once in the 60 minutes we've been watching, so too early to tell if that is going to be an issue.

But with the SD picture, I'm considering if it's worthwhile taking Neon for a spin.

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jarledb

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#1280015 9-Apr-2015 20:57

HBO uses MLB Advanced Media for their streaming (Same outfit that does a lot of sports streaming in the US). HBO started using MLB after HBOs systems melted when the 2014 season of Game of Thrones went on air. The very incident that made HBO shut down its own streaming operation which was headed by former Microsoft executive Otto Berks.

People in the US rave about how well MLB does their streaming. But how well it works on the other side of the pond.. well I guess I will get to see the next month.. :)

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Behodar

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#1280019 9-Apr-2015 21:09

dclegg: But with the SD picture, I'm considering if it's worthwhile taking Neon for a spin.

Getting HD at this end (watching in browser).

datahawk

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#1280730 10-Apr-2015 19:39

NonprayingMantis: HBO Now is too new, and probably won't have enough subscribers yet, for the content to be seeded down to NZ akamai servers yet, so it's probably trying to pull it from somewhere in the states.

There is certainly a blockage somewhere. I expected HD without issues but on our 45/10 Mbps VDSL Spark connection with Unotelly DNS, the quality is just plain bad on anything selected.

Pity because there is some very good content that I'm more than happy to pay for but only if it arrives in nice stable HD quality.

steve98

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#1280827 10-Apr-2015 22:27

Just signed up for the trial on Snap UFB connection and getting HD just fine. Wasn't going to get this service but it actually has very good movie selection - some quite recent releases. So I think it's actually OK VFM.

JeremyNzl

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#1281165 11-Apr-2015 17:36

Very happy with Hbonow quality and sound, Snap 32/10 vdsl running over a 3kms Ubiquiti 5ghz link.
Image appears Hd with 5.1 sound. Using Unblock-us
seems to be peaking at 12mbs on the router

Jeremy

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