Why I Use Hide My Ass! For All My TV and Movie Watching

Today, I’m going to introduce you to a service I’ve been testing this last month to watch Netflix, BBC, FOX and any national TV from anywhere, called HMA! VPN Pro.

It’s the best way to watch TV, movies and listen to service like Pandora that I’ve tried.

But before I get into the service and exactly what it does, there’s something I want to say….

Several times a week, I get messages from people asking me to help them figure out what TV package they can get to watch their favorite TV shows and movies from back home.  I’ve heard of many who spend upwards of $R250 ($125 USD) a month for cable or satellite TV at home in Brazil…

I’m not kidding.

A lot of times they have to subscribe to the bigger packages just to get some of the TV shows, movies and music they are used to from back home.

To those paying that much for TV in Brazil, I apologize.  To those not being able to find their favorite TV shows, movies and music in Brazil, I apologize.

It’s not that the Brazilian TV packages don’t give you a lot of channels, they do.

And it’s not that I don’t appreciate Brazilian TV, I do very much.

But the reason I needed to find another solution is because I had to.

I needed to put my children first and the sanity of my wife and I.  You see, the problem with Brazilian TV (or TV in any non-English speaking country) is that it’s usually dubbed!

While Portuguese dubbed cartoons are no issue if you or your family are learning Portuguese, it’s a huge issue if you are trying to keep your childrens’ English up.

Besides, it’s tough to take Portuguese dubbed TV and Movies serious, and that’s if I can even find the ones I like.

Could you watch a Portuguese dubbed Bad Boys 2?

Over the past month, I’ve been testing HMA! Pro VPN to see if I could get use it to get access to the TV, movies and music I’ve been after.

My dilemma was that I wanted to access to the thousands of titles on BBC’s iPlayer (to name one), but was met with this message:

Due to all sorts of licensing issues, if you don’t live in the same country as the service or network you would like to access, you will be locked out of it or limited to very few selections- like above.

Here are some examples:

  1. TV Network websites where you can watch full episodes of your favorite shows for free (FOX, NBC, BBC etc),
  2. Movie and TV services like Netflix, Amazon Instant Videos etc
  3. Music services like Pandora and Spotify

So, without a VPN connection, you will be forced to accept whatever overpriced services (or lack there of) available in the country you are in.

It’s not foreigner friendly, and it’s not fair.

What Is a VPN Service And What Does It Do?

You get a special address from your Internet service provider that is specific to you – called an IP address.

If your IP address doesn’t match the country the services or network are available in, you are locked out and left in the cold.

In other words, BBC and the other’s won’t let you log in unless you have an Internet connection from the UK (America for the other sites).

Here’s where a Hide My Ass! VPN Pro account comes in.

This VPN service allows you to reroute your IP address through another country of choosing, giving you the key to unlock the complete selection of Netfilx (instead of a limited local selection), FOX, NBC, BBC, Pandora and other’s.

The speed is great too, not choppy at all and awesome video quality independent if I’m connected to the USA or UK.

Here is the BBC after I switch my country to the UK from Hide My Ass!:

Note: Netflix is available in Brazil, but with a very limited selection of tv shows and movies with this VPN service you can get the full selection of tv shows and movies from the USA.  Alternatively, you are able to access Brazilian titles on Netflix from abroad too (with the same Netflix account).

HMA! Pro VPN Is Extremely Easy To Use

It’s much easier to use than other VPN services I’ve tried in the past.  All you need to do is choose your country and you can start watching instantly.

If you want to see the user-friendly interface and how I actually use HMA! Pro VPN to get access to thousands of instantly watchable TV shows, movies and songs, watch this video:


(Click here to watch on YouTube)

I wanted to try Hide My Ass! for just one month to make sure that it would work before signing up for a 12 month package, as that’s a big commitment if it didn’t work well (though half the price).

Not only was I amazed at the fast speed and reliability, I was able to connect to relatively ANY country!

This means that when my wife wants to watch Danish TV live (she’s from Denmark) she can switch to Denmark in the interface.

There are far more countries available in HMA! than other VPN services – 51 to be exact.  This means that if you come from a smaller country like my wife does, you too can watch live TV or videos from your home country.

My Sanity Has Returned!

On Saturday mornings, I’ve been able to stream live TV from Cbeebies on the BBC in the UK (you can rewind and replay) for my kids – for free.

They are watching the Little Engine That Could as we speak on Netflix.

This has been helping their English quite a lot.

My wife and I have plenty of TV shows and movies we can watch on demand, like White Collar as you saw in the video above.

I’m also able to stream Pandora and Spotify while I’m writing these blogs for you.

My “I can finally listen to Pandora” face!

Since signing up, I refuse to have any cable or Satellite services, waay too expensive and most of the big local channels are free anyways.  The only stuff I wanted in the first place can be had for a fraction of the price and on demand.  So as you can tell, I’m a pretty happy camper and feel that I’ve gotten a ton for my money’s worth…

Please note that links to HMA! in this post are affiliate links and I do earn a commission if you purchase through them. This is at no additional cost to you.  If you make a purchase, please send me an e-mail through my contact page so I can thank you and offer you help with HMA! if you should need it.

Like I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Hide My Ass! VPN Pro is a great opportunity for you to be able to watch TV shows, movies, Netflix, Pandora and the like for next to nothing.  If you aren’t living abroad or in a country where you can’t get these services, then keep this in mind for future use as it will benefit you greatly.

  • Brian

    Hi Kevin,

    Question for you. I live in Boston and am married to a Brazilian. We subscribe to Globo International and pay around $20 per month to our local cable provider for this service. Unfortunately, the service only includes one channel, and.. even worse… is only available in standard def (yes, Jo Soares ends up getting stretched and looks even rounder than in real life). Also frustrating is that the programming on Globo International doesn’t match what is being played on Globo in Brazil, which means we miss most of the good soccer matches.

    I know that globo.com allows you to watch the soccer games online if you are in Brazil, and was considering this VPN service for this reason. They unfortunately block it if you are outside of eir acceptable region. Do you know if Globo (or any other Brazilian television/programming) streams their content live online?

    I’d love it if I could cancel the cable service and get everything online instead. However, my wife loves the novelas. So I’d need to make sure we’d still have access to this.

    Thanks!

  • https://liveinbrazil.org Kevin

    Hey Brian,

    I feel your pain, I used to subscribe to Globo International and was stuck with the novela repeating for different time zones and all that…

    Lol, Jo Soares doesn’t need any additional stretching, that’s for sure!

    If I was you, I would sign up for Globo Media

    You can see everything Globo offers online there for 13 reais a month (about 7 dollars) including the soccer matches – on demand. The only thing you need is a CPF number to sign up (your wife should have one).

    VPN-wise, Hide My Ass! offers a connection in João Pessoa, which will remove any blocks for not being in an acceptable region. You could just pay for 1 month of HMA! and see if it works out for your use if you wanted.

    Another advantage with having a VPN connection to Brazil, is that if you have a Netflix account in the USA, your wife can use that same account to access tons of Brazilian movies and novelas there via Netflix Brazil.

    I hope that helps!

  • Brian

    Hi Kevin,

    Thanks for the pointers. I’ll be sure to check out the Globo Media website.

    Another question, if I stream Netflix content from Brasil (using HMA), do you know if it allows you to turn on subtitles? If I had a way to listen to Portuguese, and simultaneously read the Portuguese subtitles, this would be a great way to help me learn the language! Thanks again.

    Brian

  • https://liveinbrazil.org Kevin

    Hi Brian,

    My pleasure!

    It depends: if the movie is originally in English, you have the choice of Portuguese, English or Spanish subtitles. If the movie/tv show is in Portuguese, some have Portuguese and Spanish subtitles but some just Spanish. Either way, there still are a lot of options.

    -Kevin

    • Murray Finch

      I use it and it is good, but gives you a USA IP address…so not good if you want pretend to be in another country

  • Teri Dos Reis

    do you know if this would work for sweeps. Some sweeps are only good for US and therefore I am unable to enter. I am here in Brazil until October and I would really like to be able to enter these sweepstakes for all kinds of things (like cars). Would HMA work for this?

    • https://liveinbrazil.org/ Kevin Porter

      Hey Teri. Absolutely! Since it’s a VPN service and not a DNS, it moves you complete internet presence to the country you choose – as if you were physically there.

      Hope that helps!

  • Dominic

    Kevin I just got this through your link and I love it! It opened up a huge selection of movies on Netflix that I couldn’t get before. I had no idea about this. Thanks brother for posting this!

  • Murray Finch

    XBMC is free..but can require some technical knowledge, lots of movies ( current and old) and all the episodes of all the seasons of all the US, BBC ,ITV , networks

  • kayko andrieux

    I am having trouble getting the CW network in the US to stream on my PC and my ipad using HMA service and its making me nuts…any advice?

  • Arti.gav

    Thanks for the article KEvin. VPN is good if you want to hide your real location. However, about content streaming, I prefer the DNS option. Currently, I am using UnoTelly and have no speed loss which allows me HD streaming with my 10mbps connection.

  • http://invisibler.com/ anonymity

    I prefer because it doesn’t slow down your connection speed so it’s best for streaming videos and online games.

  • Kendra

    Thanks for the article Kevin. I personally use the UnoTelly DNS option. It’s ideal for content streaming because unlike VPNs, there is no internet speed loss when using it.