I've watched mlb.tv on a laptop w/VPN connected to a TV since 2017. I've watched hundreds of Cardinals games (a local team for me) this way and never had a blackout.

This weekend, I played around with VPN and my two new firesticks for the first time. I went from Mexico to the UK to Canada back to the UK. By about my fourth location, I started getting territorial restrictions errors on both devices. At this point, I couldn't stream *anything*, not even out-of-market games with my VPN disconnected. I had to reset (unplug power for 20 seconds) my firesticks to get them to start streaming baseball again, and I went back to watching the Cardinals.

I've decided I'm going to be in London any time I want to stream a game on either firestick. Hopefully that will prevent any more blackout nonsense, and I can't imagine I'll face any blackouts in England.

My apologies. Wrong board.

STAFF - PLEASE move this to the MLB board. Thank you

I nearly always have problems at the beginning of the year, just after the break and sometimes the playoffs. It's almost as if their contract has some language that requires some level of diligence and this is how they comply... it's probably more likely that their vpn search and blacklist team / 3rd party update the IPs on this schedule but it's certainly been the case for me the last 5 years or so. And across at least 5 totally different VPN providers.

Oh, I've used:

1. ProtonVPN - Works at mlb.tv if you try a few different servers. I had zero luck watching baseball with my firestick using proton.

2. Cyberghost - I used this for five seasons (2017-21) to watch games at mlb.tv and never had a blackout. Using my firestick, it worked at first, then all games were blacked out. This could only be avoided by daily firestick resets. As I have two TVs with two firesticks in my master bedroom, this was a PITA. There were a couple of times where one of the TVs was suffering blackouts, but not the other.

3. ExpressVPN - Using this now. I've used it for three days with my firestick and not had a blackout. My DirecTV Stream (w/Bally Sports Midwest) expires on July 27. I'm counting on ExpressVPN continuing to work. We'll see what happens.

free protonvpn netherlands servers work for me,, but i don't bother trying to cast, i just watch on a surface pro

I'm unable to watch the Cardinals/Cubs (on Apple TV) today with my MLB sub. I've tried ExpressVPN and ProtonVPN. I've tried on firestick and at mlb.tv. When I VPN to a country Apple doesn't serve (have tried Albania, Hong Kong, and Turkey) I do get a streaming link. I can never get the game though.

Firestick produces a broadcasting restrictions page of some type and the mlb.tv website says nothing more specific than an error has occurred.

Not upset about the Apple games as long as ExpressVPN continues to pull in the others (and on firestick).

EDIT - I used up my free Apple TV+ trial with a Cards game earlier this season.

https://www.homingsystems.com/

not a VPN, but a proxy that runs thru a residential internet connection. Makes it real hard for them to block.

It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure from that website how it works. It goes on and on about the product being for people who travel. As I live in Missouri, I'd say it's setup so that I can watch the Chiefs every Sunday afternoon no matter where I am on business.

But then it goes on to talk about being a better option than VPN because they don't use data centers, so they can't have addresses blocked en-masse. Does this mean that you get to choose what TV market your streaming comes from?

I'm not a big NFL fan. I'm not about to pay $350 for Sunday Ticket, but I would gladly pay $8 or $10 per month or whatever for all of the New Orleans Saints games. I clicked Signup, but stopped at the payment page. It was never clear if I got to choose the city/state where my IP address is located.

I've realized that it's far harder to watch w/VPN on my firestick than it is using a PC at mlb.tv. I'm assuming that MLB has built lots of security into their app that isn't on their website.

I'd been using ProtonVPN because I'm a Debian Linux user, and they have a nice Debian client. It wasn't perfect for watching baseball on my PC, but after trying a few servers, I could always get it to work. I couldn't get Proton to work AT ALL to watch games on my firestick. Because of this, I started reading firestick-specific reviews for VPN.

The consensus seems to be that ExpressVPN is the best, but overpriced, NordVPN is great and the most popular, and that Surfshark is the best low cost option. I also found out that NordVPN and Surfshark merged in early 2022 and are now under one roof.

ExpressVPN and NordVPN have command line only Debian clients and Surfshark has a beautiful-looking GUI. I think that when my month of ExpressVPN (which has worked flawlessly outside of that Apple+ game) is up I'm going to get a month of Surfshark. If it works well on my firestick, then I'll sign up with them longer term once my ProtonVPN account expires. ProtonVPN account is paid through early 2024.

Been using Surfshark for just over a year. They sponsor quite a few YouTubers i watch and I couldn't pass up 27 months of surfshark last February for $60. Been very pleased with them for in general but I still have to host hop a bit to get mlb to work. A site will work fine for months and then mlb won't load the next day… so frustrating that mlb makes it such a chore.

I'm strongly considering buying a month of NFL Sunday Ticket from DAZN Canada for $22.80 (at 76 cents on the CDN dollar). I'm curious how efficiently the NFL will block VPNs in year 1 of streaming. If it works well, I can buy all five months of the season for $114 total. MUCH more reasonable than what youtube is selling it for.

I know that Cyberghost (I currently have active memberships with three VPN providers) has dedicated servers for DAZN Canada.

Does that still require YouTube TV because they are incredibly efficient, as in nearly 100% of commercial services in my experience.

Here is the pricing as a new Youtube TV customer (I'll be signing up for service later today). I'm not willing to pay this kind of money though. And you can buy it as a non-YTTV customer, but I don't know the cost.

Non YTTV Sunday Ticket pricing.

dabo man said:

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I've realized that it's far harder to watch w/VPN on my firestick than it is using a PC at mlb.tv. I'm assuming that MLB has built lots of security into their app that isn't on their website.

I'd been using ProtonVPN because I'm a Debian Linux user, and they have a nice Debian client. It wasn't perfect for watching baseball on my PC, but after trying a few servers, I could always get it to work. I couldn't get Proton to work AT ALL to watch games on my firestick. Because of this, I started reading firestick-specific reviews for VPN.

The consensus seems to be that ExpressVPN is the best, but overpriced, NordVPN is great and the most popular, and that Surfshark is the best low cost option. I also found out that NordVPN and Surfshark merged in early 2022 and are now under one roof.

ExpressVPN and NordVPN have command line only Debian clients and Surfshark has a beautiful-looking GUI. I think that when my month of ExpressVPN (which has worked flawlessly outside of that Apple+ game) is up I'm going to get a month of Surfshark. If it works well on my firestick, then I'll sign up with them longer term once my ProtonVPN account expires. ProtonVPN account is paid through early 2024.

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Really? Been a piece of cake, but I don't use the mlb service. I use the local sports networks directly with NordVPN on the firestick using the local region location and get the local feed. Very very easy. Why would anyone bother with the mlb service and apparently the pain in the ass it creates, per this thread…? You still have to pay for a cable service with a local sports network, so it's not like you're not paying. I get the mariners games locally, but couldn't care less about them, so get nbc Bay Area channels with directv stream using their location with the vpn. From my perspective, it's a wash in terms of paying for a service, so IMO I'm paying for one of the sports networks with directv stream regardless, just not using the one from Boise. Or I can login to the nbc sports app with the directv credentials after setting my ip to San Francisco. Both work flawlessly. Even works with the iPad. But not with the Apple TV, as they don't allow vpns. I've also heard that some streaming services can block this way of doing things, but I don't have first hand experience with that. Since I travel all over to various regions, this combination works best for me, and I can take my channels with me everywhere.

Quote:

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Really? Been a piece of cake, but I don't use the mlb service. I use the local sports networks directly with NordVPN on the firestick using the local region location and get the local feed. Very very easy. Why would anyone bother with the mlb service and apparently the pain in the ass it creates, per this thread…?

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I've had a DirecTV Stream account that included Bally Sports Midwest (w/Cardinals and Royals games). I follow the Cardinals, so it worked.

This whole thing started because I realized I would save $27 per month by switching to YTTV. YTTV doesn't carry RSNs (most streaming services don't), but I can buy a full season of mlb.tv and still be way ahead money wise.

Yeah as far as I know you don't pick the market, so that could potentially be a limiting factor. The only way you could truly control it is if you bought two of their devices and set up one of them up as the gateway in another market.

I admittedly don't use it for baseball, but for football when I'm overseas. I seem to end up in a different place every time i re-up my subscription, and have over the years mostly been up and down the eastern seaboard; jersey, upstate NY, Baltimore, Florida, GA, and I think Dallas once. It's possible you could get customer service to put you somewhere specific though.

An update. Keep in mind I'm using an Amazon Firestick.

I've been using ExpressVPN since July. It's too expensive, and I plan to let it expire next week, but, outside of Apple+ games, it unlocks every game every time.

I recently bought a month of Surfshark. I've had really mixed luck using it on my Firestick. If I hop around enough, I can sometimes find a server that will let me watch MLB. But, if I hop around enough, eventually my Firestick starts producing a "territorial restrictions" error for every game, and even after I disconnect from VPN. The only way to fix it is to reset the Firestick.

Tomorrow, I'm going to buy a month of NordVPN and see how it works with my Firestick. Fingers crossed that it will unlock Apple+, but I'll be happy with all of the other games. NordVPN (long-term) is MUCH CHEAPER than ExpressVPN.

My final set of observations. If you're using a firestick and a mlb.tv subscription, there is no VPN like ExpressVPN. It's expensive, but (outside of Apple TV+ games) it works every time. Every other service I tried was hit and miss, and I found myself eventually having to reset the firestick to be able to watch any games at all.

I've enjoyed watching AAA Memphis so much that I'm strongly considering getting MLB At Bat only and giving MLB a rest next season. If I do sub to mlb.tv again, I'll have to bite the bullet and pay for six months of ExpressVPN.

With Surfshark I typically have to chose another country rather than just different US city. London worked for a few months, but stopped working something after the break. Since then Toronto has pretty much worked every day.

I forgot to mention. I VPN'd to Canada, went to dazn.ca, and tried to sign up for a month of their service to get all of the NFL games.

I tried four different VPN providers and got this result every time. I think I'd actually have to go to Canada to subscribe. DAZN has their sh** together!!