It might have been mentioned already, but AbemaTV is a network that launched in Japan this past… - Feed Post by jc89
It might have been mentioned already, but AbemaTV is a network that launched in Japan this past April that broadcasts programs online.
There's abema.tv, which is region-locked (you have to use a VPN outside Japan). It has variety shows, dramas, anime, documentaries, music, sports, and even a couple English channels.
abemafresh.tv doesn't need a VPN, and features live and archived webshows. It's like a mix of Ustream and Twitch.
And they have a Youtube channel, AbemaTV, with clips of variety shows.
It's great stuff. It's a full-blown Japanese TV network, all on the Internet. What a time to be alive!
There's abema.tv, which is region-locked (you have to use a VPN outside Japan). It has variety shows, dramas, anime, documentaries, music, sports, and even a couple English channels.
abemafresh.tv doesn't need a VPN, and features live and archived webshows. It's like a mix of Ustream and Twitch.
And they have a Youtube channel, AbemaTV, with clips of variety shows.
It's great stuff. It's a full-blown Japanese TV network, all on the Internet. What a time to be alive!
posted by jc89
Comments 9
That's cool. I think I'll have a look into it.
It's a shame the video quality of the abemafresh.tv site seems so low that it's hard to even make out what you are looking at sometimes. There are moments where the quality picks up, but 99.9% of the time it seems to run at 240p or lower. At least this is what it's like for me anyway. Is it like this for you too?
I wish I could try out the main abema.tv site. I'm not having much luck finding a VPN with a free trial that actually works for Japanese sites, and don't feel like paying for a VPN just for this incase the video quality is the same as the other site.
I miss that NIJI Show software I used to use for watching Japanese TV online. This site is still around though:
http://wilsonjj.me/jptv/
One service I've thought about trying for a long time is the following one:
http://www.jpplayer.com/
It seems kind of shady (considering there are no company details) and is pretty expensive, but check out what it offers! It's been around for several years and people seem to have had good experiences with it, but still... ^^;
I use SoftEther VPN Gate to mask IP and it works to any VPN you want. It's made from Tsukuba University Engineering Team and is pretty useful (90% of times). Just install it and choose a Japanese IP in "VPN Gate Public Relay Servers" and it's done. Link: http://bit.ly/2cm73mp- @jc89, Oh wow! Wow wow wow! Now that I've finally gotten onto the main ameba.tv site I can see your post wasn't an exaggeration at all! That website is unbelievably epic!! Please tell me I'm actually awake—this isn't a dream, right?!! ^_^
@yoshitsukune, Oh, haha, I've used that same VPN client but on a different operating system. Well that made things a whole lot easier! I tried a few VPN earlier but it turned out none of them offered Japan IP addresses and I didn't want to end up wasting my entire day off looking. Thanks! ^^
(There seems to be something wrong with your link though...) 
Yeah, it's just unbelievable that it's all available for free (other than using a VPN outside Japan, the network is free with no strings attached). It's great for practicing Japanese comprehension, but language learning aside, abema.tv has enough content to consider abandoning your paid TV subscription.- I've been trying to figure out how I can have it running with the VPN while doing other stuff not using the VPN. Such as, I want to have it playing while I'm using JCJP but don't want my flag on here to be Japan...
Then I noticed there is an app for Abema TV, but it can only be downloaded on Japan PlayStore. So I finally figured out what I needed to do to switch PlayStore countries, and downloaded "OpenVPN Connect" on my phone, and now I can watch all the channels on my phone. The app is just as awesome as the site is—very smooth. And from this I can ChromeCast the video onto my TV, completely freeing up my computer to be able to continue using JCJP at the same time without being on a foreign country VPN. ^^ - Appears I got a bit ahead of myself, as I had lent out my ChromeCast and didn't have it on me at the time I wrote that last post. Now that I've got it back, I realise I can't actually use ChromeCast for this due to having to use a VPN.
For now I can just carry on doing what I was doing—watching on my phone on my desk next to my monitor—but I'm going to have to look into a much more complicated solution if I want to achieve what I previously described. I knew it seemed too straightforward to be true... 
@jc89 sounds awesome, thanks for sharing :)
@acidron, have you been on our conversation page recently?
