Show HN: I made an app that helps you find where to stream movies and TV shows

[danilotanic]

I often found myself searching for that one movie or TV show not currently available in my country. Whether it was on Netflix, Apple TV, HBO, or any other platform, the effort to pinpoint the precise country of streaming availability routinely became a burdensome task. Realizing the need for a streamlined solution, I created one. Now you can effortlessly find your desired content and simplify your entertainment journey beyond borders.

[serial_dev]

Improvement ideas: let the user set their country. If I live in Germany, and I don't want to bother with VPN, knowing that a TV show is available in Argentina and 30 other countries is not important.

Also, I don't think this takes care of the case where some seasons of a show is available but not the others. Maybe that's also the reason for false negatives in some cases (others mentioned this).

Another thing: be able to search by subtitles and audio. In our household, we speak three languages, and I can't watch shows in 2 out of 3 with the standard location. It's also great for people learning languages (common VPN pitch).

Overall, great stuff! The mobile view's information density is very low, I can see 1.7 tiles, so I always need to scroll.

Tapping on the tiles doesn't do anything apart from changing the background.

Some more preset selections would be nice like "Sitcom".

Recommendations based on the selected movie would be also great, for example when I'm watching HIMYM, I'd not mind seeing where Friends is available (it's basically the same jokes but a decade apart with different actors).

[foehrenwald]

How would it work as a NordVPN ad then - probably the only reason this site exists, with astroturfing HN comments to match...

[felsokning]

Along the same lines to your suggestion (thus, piggybacking): A filter based on principal language of the movie[s].

For example, if I want to discover new movies in German, Swedish, Norwegian, etc., I have to know the name, first, for the search operation; otherwise, I just movies with the term in the title (e.g.: Svenska returns Svenska tv-historier, Svenska fall, Svenska Hollywoodfruar, Barncancergalan - Det Svenska humorpriset, Svenska Truckers, and Svenska Powerkvinnor).

Which leads me to a suggestion, based on that:

If there's no steam available, don't return the result in the search[1]. The whole intent of the site to show "where to stream" but if there's no stream, returning a result with the message 'Sorry, we couldn't find any streaming information.' is a bit of a false positive -- in a "we have it but we don't" sense.

[1] - https://whereto.stream/tv/113371

[nervousvarun]

Definitely would be useful and worth adding but think the idea was to show other countries (for VPN IP-spoofing purposes).

Agree though it should have home country as the default (but also still show other countries in case your home country isn't streaming).

[noAnswer]

German streams only: https://www.werstreamt.es

[cpeterso]

> let the user set their country.

Or use GeoIP to assume a default country, but allow the user to change their country or clear the country filter. MaxMind has a free offline GeoIP database that’s good.

If the developer wants to keep the full country list, they could move the GeoIP identified country to the top of the list and/or highlight it for easy access.

[BerislavLopac]

JustWatch already has all that.

[hashtag-til]

Changing countries is very useful. You may want to have a look on "JustWatch" app.

[soci]

At first, I thought you built a justwatch.com clone. But, after a quick inspection I realized you solve a related but different use-case where the user already paid for the streaming service holding the rights to the media, but not necessarily match the user’s country location. By enabling the user to check in what countries the media is available you also unlock a new business model based on VPN affiliation programs (brilliant!) instead of streaming service affiliation programs like justwatch does. I wonder if both revenues models are complementary in the long run.

It’s nuts that watching media from another country for a streaming service I pay for is as easy as changing my IP to the desired country. Does it really work in this way?

Also, I hope you can provide some light on whether you are gaining any traction and unlocking vpn subcriptions revenue.

Suggestion: let the user select from what country it connects And/or automatically detect it. I’m in Europe and it’s confusing it offers me to stream from my own country using a vpn.

[GrifMD]

It's been a few years since I've used a VPN with streaming, but I recall some services not working well with it. I was in Australia with NordVPN to the US on a fibre connection.

[ant6n]

I used to pay for a service that only ran the Netflix country detection through a VPN, so we could switch countries easily. But Netflix cracked down on this service and VPNs about 5 years ago and it stopped working. Oh well.

[fastball]

justwatch.com lets you check different countries as well.

[jedberg]

> It’s nuts that watching media from another country for a streaming service I pay for is as easy as changing my IP to the desired country. Does it really work in this way?

Not anymore. Netflix will block your account if the same device jumps countries faster than is possible via normal travel. Also they block all the public VPNs.

[eps]

From what I see this looks like an affiliate link farm for NordVPN.

Every single movie I tried shows up as being not available in my country with "Stream with NordVPN" slapped next to it. Even though they are available just fine.

[zopper]

Seems like the best way to monetize this. Doubt anyone will regularly pay for the website and banner ads are annoying. Buying a VPN is the logical next step if you find a movie in a different country, might be nice to have multiple affiliate links but this seems like a win-win, it makes it easier to get a VPN for someone who isn't too familiar and the creator earns a bit for their work.

[INTPenis]

You don't have to obey every button online, you can make your own decisions and use your own vpn.

[oefrha]

> the effort to pinpoint the precise country of streaming availability routinely became a burdensome task.

Which is why bittorrenting, TPB and shit are making a roaring comeback (if it ever faded).

[me_me_me]

there was drop for year. A platform where you watch your fav shows, that remembers where you stopped watching, auto loading next episode, skip into, persistent subtitles and dub options.

All of those were winning them business from people who have money but no time.

But now if a friend recommends a show or movie to watch. In time it takes to figure out where can I watch it, subscribing etc. I could be already watching it from torrents.

I dont have to mentaly juggle subscribing and unsubscribing from platforms that make it extra difficult to cancell etc.

Its too much hustle.

[cess11]

I think there was a slump for a while. Usenet has probably been going relatively strongly through it though, but it comes with a cost which means it's not a direct alternative to torrents with their seeding-and-ratio-based communities.

[highwaylights]

This is really neat. I hope you dont mind some feedback as I’ve used a few web apps like this in the past and have a fair idea of my own needs as a user that you may or may not find useful:

I think your app would really benefit from letting me pick the country upfront (I.e. in the header). After this it would be useful to see the streaming options as soon as I’ve selected a movie or tv show with one-click, and with the free options at the top of the list.

Beyond that, it would be nice if you could link me directly to the streaming site’s player page so that I can begin watching right away.

Another really neat use for this would be an app for Android TV/Roku/Apple TV that lets me browse and link directly to content. They all have their own implementations of this but they’re pretty inconsistent when it comes to gaps in supported services.

[Staple_Diet]

Stremio (with add-ons like Watch Hub) does most of what you describe.

[askonomm]

It's funny, with all the saturation of streaming services and despite having more disposable income than ever before, I actually largely went back to what I did as a teenager - piracy. I don't have a problem paying for things, but I'd really like to actually own what I pay for, too. So if I can buy a film, I will, and store it on my portable SSD, and if I can't, I'll pirate it. But I'm not willing to pay rent fees to 5 different places and own nothing in the end.

[danilotanic]

We're exploring ways to bridge that gap, as it's a real problem that needs addressing. Thanks for sharing your experience, I really appreciate it!

[Mark_worship]

Why rent movies when you can just do monthly subscriptions and can stream whatever you want?

[frereubu]

Bit of immediate feedback - United Kingdom is out of alphabetical order, presumably because it's filed under Great Britain or GB. People from the UK always go for United Kingdom, so keep the label but update the sorting.

Edit: also, personal preference, but I really don't like it when there isn't a space on the page where my mouse isn't triggering some kind of rollover, in this case between the movie patches. I may be in the minority on that though.

[danilotanic]

We'll be updating the sorting order and work on enhancing the overall UX. I appreciate the input!

[fernly]

Suggestion: don't lose search strings. Example: in the search box type "Panda" -- a modal window pops up with 6 matches. Which one do I want? I click one. It fills the window. Nope, that is not the one. So I click the Back button-- and the search box is empty. I have to type "Panda" again. That is annoying.

Probably you should just repaint the main window, with the search string intact but showing only the matching selection of titles. Then one could alt-click to open a title in a separate window or tab, and not lose the search.

[danilotanic]

I'm noting this one down. Great suggestion!

[14]

It is funny how pirating is still by far the most convenient method of them all. Streaming services is becoming much like cable tv was and the various tiers of service. I simply use Yandex.com and type "x" movie stream and then can watch anything I want at a moments notice. I tried to pay for netflix and currently still have amazon prime but netflix stopped allowing my kids to use the account at their moms house so canceled. I just taught my kids how to stream free movies instead.

[Lewton]

https://whereto.stream/movie/8810?provider=hbo

Why does it claim that mad max 2 is streamable on hbo in denmark? Decided to watch the trilogy this weekend and had a laugh that only the first and the third was available here

[sunnybeetroot]

I also found it mentioned movies in my country yet they were not visible on Netflix.

[autoexec]

My wishlist for a service like this:

- Let me select a streaming service and get an A-Z listing of all available titles

- Show me if shows are censored/modified in any way or missing episodes

- Show me if shows are included with the price of subscription or if you have to pay more on top of what you're already paying (a huge problem with amazon)

- Work without JS enabled

[Suppafly]

>Let me select a streaming service and get an A-Z listing of all available titles

This 100%, maybe add the option for me to select which services I have, and then make the a-z list include all those I have access to.

[danilotanic]

We'll be implementing as a quick follow-up :)

[100721]

How is this different / better than justwatch?

[vundercind]

Justwatch’s UI has gotten a ton worse recently, I assume to make it more likely for people to click sponsored links. It’s getting really hard to use. Last time I used it it was bad enough I thought “hm, this has achieved enshittification, time to look for an alternative…”

[chrchr]

This is nice! At first I thought it was wheel-reinvented https://justwatch.com, but unlike that site, this one shows you which services in each country have the content you're looking for, so that you can watch whatever you want, simply by traveling internationally, or by using a VPN.

[danilotanic]

That's correct. Thank you for your comment!

[willhackett]

Love it! A possible addition could be storing the user's subscribed TV services and region in local storage in order to bias the returned search results. Additionally, on the results page, take the user's region and display icons for each service that they can stream or purchase from without them needing to click through!

[danilotanic]

Thank you for your feedback! Your suggestion is among the first improvements we'll aim to implement on the platform.

[moviet]

The first film that pops up for me, “Oppenheimer,” is shown as available on Netflix in the United States. I believe it is exclusive to the Peacock streaming service in the U.S.

How did this happen? Do you have a mixture of manually maintained data and data pulled from APIs like The Movie Database (TMDB) or IMDB?

[frankvdwaal]

Man, there are a whole bunch of sites that cover the Netherlands, but they always seem to be out of date or dog slow to the point of timeouts and ad-laden.

This is fast and accurate - just type it in and boom. Why can't the web be more of this? Made for people, you know?

[danilotanic]

Haha I appreciate your comment and I'm glad you managed to find what you're looking for!

[leetrout]

It had been fun to watch this idea come and go over the years.

An acquaintance of mine worked at the defunct Vunify

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/vunify

[Saepirist]

Hey, congrats on the launch. I noticed that you are using my API ( https://www.movieofthenight.com/about/api ) to get the streaming availability data, but I couldn't see any attribution regards to it. Can you please add an attribution as it is part of the Terms & Conditions ( https://github.com/movieofthenight/streaming-availability-ap... )?

[me_me_me]

> Realizing the need for a streamlined solution, I created one. Now you can effortlessly find your desired content and simplify your entertainment journey beyond borders.

Same here, but over year ago I just switched to private torrents.

I am done with platforms throwing obstacles for me to navigate in order to watch a show. Those companies can compete with torrents. Early netflix and HBO were winning subscriptions from torrent users. Because it was more convenient. Now they started fighting each other at cost of convenience - my convinience - so fuck you until you fix your service.

[andridk]

I'd appreciate a top-level country filter. It helps reduce noise, and can still allow you to put VPN affiliate links when there are no matches.

[danilotanic]

Implementing soon ;)