Remember to get the popcorn!
If you like movies as much as I do, then you may be worried about what you’ll be able to watch after moving overseas.
You probably don’t want to bring hundreds of DVDs with you, when you move. And it would be nice if you could also see the latest releases.
One solution to watching movies overseas is an online streaming video service, like Netflix.
In case you aren’t familiar with it, Netflix is a DVD rental service in the US, Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, the UK and Ireland. They send out DVDs through the mail, and also let you watch movies online.
If you’re living overseas, you obviously won’t be using their service to mail DVDs to you. However, you still may be able to use their online streaming service – even though there are a few limitations.
First, it looks like you need to be able to pay your monthly subscription with a credit card from your home country. So you’ll need to keep a credit card or debit card account active.
Second, there are some restrictions on what you can watch, depending on whether or not you are located in your home country.
If you use a VPN service, like StrongVPN (the one I use), you can have your computer look as if it’s in another country. If you do that, you’ll have access to all the movies you can watch in that country.
However, you may also be able to connect to Netflix without a VPN, from a foreign country. In my case, I am connecting to the website from Paraguay.
When you connect from another country, you may have some differences in service.
- You don’t have access to you queue of movies. Normally, you can save a list of the movies you want to watch later. If you’re connecting from a different country, you may not have access to that list.
- You won’t have the complete streaming library of movie to choose from. Due to licensing restrictions, you may not be able to see the movies you want to watch, without using a VPN.
- You may have unusual audio and subtitle options. I tried to watch the French movie Amélie. If I was connecting from within the US (or using a VPN), I would probably have the option to replace the audio with English and have subtitle options of English and French. However, connecting directly from Paraguay only gave me the audio options of French and Spanish, and the subtitle options of French, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese.
- You may get some extra movies and TV shows from the local market. Connecting from Paraguay gives me plenty of Spanish-language TV shows to watch.
So, if you’re a movie fan and will keep a credit card from your home country, you may want to subscribe to Netflix.
Just watch out if you pay for your Internet connection based on the amount of data you download. Movies are quite large, and you can reach your limit quickly.
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