Does anyone have the same problem than I have?

First of all, I will begin by confessing how much I dislike regular TV channels, especially those in Switzerland, I simply cannot stand it, however I love to watch a few American TV series or good current movies, which of course I normally get through someone who lends me or sends me over the DVDs unless I decide to go through the hassle of buying them online.. I am not sure if it is just me, or every time I attempt to check the Swiss TV guide, the only options you have on Swiss TV are Season 1 reruns for lame series or documentaries on the Third Reich, besides all the lamest options of Swiss TV shows that I will not even bother to mention.

It is like a dream for me that once in my lifetime we will be able to have something like TIVO or netflix, where you can watch basically anything you like, in English language, of course in Switzerland.

Then last week, I receive this email.. in which I receive an offer to buy an Apple TV, Swiss online store...hmmm Apple TV in Switzerland? I saw myself a year back drooling over the Apple TV in Aventura Mall, FL and thinking.. nah what is the use to have one of those in Switzerland.... but then back to the present, I thought, am I dreaming?

Well, I decided to call customer service right away, after a short chat in which I received an introductory explanation from the nice "English Speaking" gentleman who assisted me... (yes you can listen to music online, buy movies....watch youtube blah blah) I finally asked the question which would determine my decision in buying the mentioned device:

"Do I have access to watch movies in ENGLISH?"
I even specified:
"Let's say, I would like to watch Inception in English, can I watch it, buy it rent it?"
I asked the gentleman.
He replied:
"Yes! Anything! you can go to the iTunes store and buy whatever you like!"

Hallelujah Bells rang in my head, and of course without hesitation I rushed and bought the Apple TV right after we hung up.

Last night, I get online on iTunes to see what sorts of goodness is waiting for me in the finally evolved Swiss online store, and well... major disappointment of course! I checked Inception..... and I find the comments... long list of complaints, the movie is only dubbed in German and French, people want the Original version, what is wrong with this country, am I missing something?

I don't mind at all to have changed my lifestyle, in order to adapt here, not to be able to have the vast choice of products we have in the States and settle for the atrocious copies of certain errr ... products... but as well do we have to stand the restriction the "original version" for movies and series on iTunes? Give me a break Swiss Apple Store. Really.

What are the "restrictors" afraid of, that people will find English cooler than the uhm "dialekt" spoken here (...) and will stop speaking it? Or is this just to make life difficult for the thousands of English Speaking community? How many "initiatives" will be needed in to change this and in which year?

Someone explain to me please....why?

sooo....the bells stopped ringing... the Apple TV of course arrived today... but for what? I could also watch youtube and listen to iTunes radio on my iMac...

Again I ask:

Does anyone have the same problem than I have?

Any ideas to change this? Do I need to stand at the Bundesplatz in Bern wearing an apple costume.... maybe an apple with a huge worm crawling out of it... iPicket anyone?

My mate says that ever since he has learned how to download torrents, he's watched very little TV ever since. He gets all the TV shows in AVI files.

He said the only thing he's had to do is install a torrent downloader, like Vuze, go to torrentz.com, type in a title, and start downloading the movies.... I mean TV shows. He can download a whole season in an hour, or a 2 hour movie in less than half an hour.

i know that on Itunes (the computer version) I have access to the Canadian and German stores. As long as you still have an American credit card and can provide some sort of address information you should be able to set up a US one as well. Or, have someone send you a prepeaid Itunes card from the US and you will be able to sign up with that.

Anyhow, once that is set up I don't see why you would not be able to access that store with your apple TV.

Now I should mention that I don't have an Apple TV and am not sure what the authentication processes are for setting up store accesses on it.

I'm not sure, but I think to be able to use a US gift-card, you will need a US iTunes account (not necessarily a US credit-card).
I wanted to gift a card to my mom but learned that it is only valid in the CH-store... which is pointless.

In Apple's defense, this is something required by the Movie-industry. They want to "stage" movie-rollouts through the world (so Europe can "profit" from the hype set up in the US). It's not a logistic problem to distribute some more copies.
BitTorrent works especially well for (very) recent TV-series. With a 5MBit DSL, you can almost download it in real-time.
Downloading something "historic" is next to impossible, unless someone has "seeded" it recently.

Ultimately, Apple might one day have the power to lift these distribution-limitations, as for Apple it does not make sense to limit the availability of a lump of data to a certain region in the world (they will just charge more here).

You can get a US or UK iTunes account if you have a US or UK voucher. All you will need in addition is an address based in the UK or US ( you can just put in a random address and it works ).

I have a UK iTunes account, and while it can be used to watch movies on apple tv, I just use the apple tv as a streamer for movies already on my computer.

The annoying thing about the apple tv is that the movies have to be converted to iTunes format and it will not really stream movies above 720p properly.

I see where you are coming from, however, with a little bit of effort it is not really difficult at all to watch american series or the latest movies in English.

I have the Apple TV and use the US iTunes store. Getting the account is pretty easy and a quick google will get you a simple explanation of how to do it. (I am not american, do not have a US credit card, and I used Microsoft HQ's address, etc.)

I only use the iTunes store to get shows that I missed, i.e., for some reason or other, I did not manage to record from the local TV here. Most shows are shown here a bit late (although some, like desperate housewives are shown here less than 2 weeks after it is shown in the US), but now, with the ability to record shows on your set-top box, it doesn't bother me anymore because after a few months, you can easily record more shows that you can watch. Most of the channels I am talking about are available either via cablecom or Swisscom TV.

As for the latest movies, I rent from netmovies.ch or frisbi.ch (weekly DVD or bluray rentals).

check out my posts on these threads, a bit outdated, but you see where I'm heading:

[Ways to get] American Television

Clarification about getting started with Sky...

I just researched the exact same thing before I move next week. A few of my American friends living in Bern were able to bypass the Swiss System by using an Xbox and an American laptop as a middle man. So far Netflix works great for them and they are also working on a private VPN to store movie and series content. When I get to Switzerland next week and figure out what they have been doing or how they exactly have been doing this, I'll message you with more info.

I use iTunes with a US iTunes account and rent the odd movie (in HD when possible) and that seems to work. Latest US movies, all in English.
I have been toying with buying an AppleTV for a long time and the new versions lower price will probably tempt me to do so. Just need that HD TV to go with it!

The question should be: what's wrong with Apple? As you can tell by all the comments and this poll here http://www.macprime.ch/news/article/...-itunes-filme/ the Swiss WANT original versions but Apple won't give them to us :-/

However, I've read some messages Apple sent in reply to customer complaints about it and it looks as though they're working on it. Sales seem to be pretty miserable here - they read the market wrong. Switzerland's been one of the few European countries that has always had a high availability of original language content both on TV and in theaters. People are used to watching content in the original language. Why Switzerland is the ONLY country where iTunes only offers dubbed crap, therefore, beats me.

For those considering a US iTunes store account, remember you can pay by paypal. And if you sign up for paypal in Switzerland you can link it to your Swiss creditcard and transfer funds from your Swiss account incl. Postfinance.

So Postfinance->Paypal->iTunes USA

Of course there'll be a little exchange conversion, but at least you can link a USD account to your main account if that helps, and keep track of it all using the iPhone/iPod Touch iApp.

the only problem with using US account from Switzerland is that Apple regularly locks those. Just make sure you don't use your main credit card with it or you won't be able to use that one again for a new Apple account

Peter

Wow.. that's an amazing coincidence.. my mate said exactly the same thing and he can't understand why people don't just connect a cheap, quiet pc to their hdtv.

You might want to read this extensive review before buying this thing.

As far as I know, it's quite useless outside of the US, because its main services like Netflix and Apple's own rental service "Watch Instantly" can't be used (even with a US account - it does checks based on location).

Why don't use a vpn service and pretend to be in the US (or anywhere you like), then you can use any service you want for watching movies.

There are some free VPN services but for a small amount you can get much better service.

A good place to start www.google.com

Let me know.

I've been watching instantly from iTunes US. No problems so far. I don't do netflix though.

I wanted to get an additional airport express to stream music. Then the appleTV became available for Fr.10 more and can stream video as well. The only thing it doesn't do is to extend your network. For me it was a no-brainer. Of course, if you are not interested in on-line rental from Apple (and the CH version sucks big time), then there are plenty of other alternatives with no restrictions on the type of video and 1080p as well. But even if iTunes doesn't have what you want to watch, it doesn't mean that you can't get the content via some other means and play it via AppleTV...

My mate says torrents are old hat and you should really move onto using newzbins or easynews.

Did you check video on demand from Cablecom or Bluewin?
Movies on Swiss tv are usually also available in the original language so video on demand is probably too.

Besides that, you don't have to buy the Apple TV

To everyone who answered my post : Thank you so much!!

I checked the a2btv and it looks fab...
as per the iTunes US account, I tried last night to open one via linked to paypal but it won't let me unless I have a US based funding source, now I need to try with the credit card, if it doesn't work, I'll see if any of my friends or family with us accounts would be willing to give me a hand on this, I have a US address but no account there.

Andi, I'm looking forward to checking out your information.. please pm me if possible, or write me an email:

pinkbonsai at gmail

best wishes to everyone!

I used to use a Mac Mini to drive the TV for a while, but now I just use my laptop plugged into the HDMI cable and VLC.

Swiss TV channels broadcast many shows and films in original language on the second audio channel. ( Were you aware of this? ).

It shouldn't be beyond the wit of even a technophobe, non-standard, proprietry loving company such as Apple to provide original language of films in Switzerland.