HBO GO

[Rochar]

Is HBO GO available on my new LG TV as an app?

[George Hofmeister]

1 hour ago, Rick Suntag said:

It's LG's product - if LG wants  to appeal to the broadest audience, they can cut deals with the major providers.  Leaving out HBO is huge.  I had been thinking about picking up an LG OLED to replace my now aging family room set, but there's no way I'm spending >$2000 if it doesn't include everything I routinely watch - Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO, SHO directly on the set without needed yet another box with yet another interface

And I refer you to my previous response.  Android is Google's baby, iOS is Apple's, but they do not produce apps beyond their own offerings.  Yes LG can strike deals with content providers, but it should not be assumed that they will.  That said I am not entirely defending LG, if I were them I would have reps knocking on every content providers front door I could think of, especially if they provide paid content.  I would be saying let us do all the heavy lifting of developing an app at no initial cost to you, all we want is a slice of that subscription fee.  

Most of the posters on the forum who complain that an app is not available made no effort before making their purchase to find out if said app/service was actually available, and moan after an ill researched buy.  Personally I only wanted a limited range of apps, UK terrestrial catchup channels, Amazon, Netflix and YouTube and checked that they were available beforehand.  I don't browse the web on my TV so I am not worried about the browser being so limited.  What I really wanted was decent picture and sound quality.

Would I buy another LG smart TV in the future probably not, but that is not to say I would buy one from say Samsung.  Instead I would buy myself a dumb TV and add a ROKU/Fire/Apple TV device. 

[Rick Suntag]

2 hours ago, George Hofmeister said:

Most of the posters on the forum who complain that an app is not available made no effort before making their purchase to find out if said app/service was actually available, and moan after an ill researched buy.  Personally I only wanted a limited range of apps, UK terrestrial catchup channels, Amazon, Netflix and YouTube and checked that they were available beforehand.  I don't browse the web on my TV so I am not worried about the browser being so limited.  What I really wanted was decent picture and sound quality.

Would I buy another LG smart TV in the future probably not, but that is not to say I would buy one from say Samsung.  Instead I would buy myself a dumb TV and add a ROKU/Fire/Apple TV device. 

I Normally do my research on electronics devices - this one was different...Ordered from a corporate gift catalog...Nothing else there that I remotely wanted and I needed a new TV for my bedroom.  So far, I'm not impressed with LG.  My first set came with a vertical line running top to bottom.  I was told that LG would not take it back - they'd send someone out to repair it or decide if it needed to be replaced with a refurb.  I had to scream that that was completely unacceptable for a brand new set before they sent me a new one - and even then, they made sure they had my DOA set back before they thought about shipping the new one...and I was also told - We did this (shipped a new one) as a courtesy - if the new one comes broken, you're basically out of luck and will have to follow the rules (ie, have LG send a repair person).

[Peter Mattaliano]

Well, It's more than a year later since the thread on the LG forum, and still no HBO app on my LG 43UK 6500, that I purchased 5 weeks ago.

It is important to have the app on my TV, so the streaming from another device is not an option.  Luckily I still have about a month to return it.

Please advise about how we should handle this

Thanks,

Peter M.

[treday630`]

I'm not sure if this is true or not as I heard about this from Reddit. But it sounds like in at least the US region, that Samsung has exclusive rights to have HBO GO as a "TV" app. Which would make sense, since it appears other regions have the HBO GO app while other regions don't. It was just reported that  per below that Latin was getting HBO GO on their LG TVs.

 

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[Ricardo Gozo]

On 4/4/2019 at 1:54 PM, treday630` said:

I'm not sure if this is true or not as I heard about this from Reddit. But it sounds like in at least the US region, that Samsung has exclusive rights to have HBO GO as a "TV" app. Which would make sense, since it appears other regions have the HBO GO app while other regions don't. It was just reported that  per below that Latin was getting HBO GO on their LG TVs.

 

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Apparently Samsung has exclusive rights for the HBO Go smart TV app in the US. I could install the app on my TV by changing the location to Mexico, but I got an error message saying "HBO Go is only available in certain areas of Latin America. If you are located in Latin America and you are having trouble accessing HBO Go please contact your distributor. IP address: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (US)". So even with the app installed, it won't work because their server identifies the location through the IP address. The only way is to have your TV connected through a VPN (illegal I assume) or with a compatible device (Chromecast, Ruku, etc) or via some stream apps (Amazon prime video, Hulu, etc).

[itaki]

On 4/15/2019 at 8:00 PM, Ricardo Gozo said:

Apparently Samsung has exclusive rights for the HBO Go smart TV app in the US. I could install the app on my TV by changing the location to Mexico, but I got an error message saying "HBO Go is only available in certain areas of Latin America. If you are located in Latin America and you are having trouble accessing HBO Go please contact your distributor. IP address: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (US)". So even with the app installed, it won't work because their server identifies the location through the IP address. The only way is to have your TV connected through a VPN (illegal I assume) or with a compatible device (Chromecast, Ruku, etc) or via some stream apps (Amazon prime video, Hulu, etc).

Yes, by changing your location to Mexico, you can easily install the HBO GO app (settings/general/location). You can even change it back when you are done and the app will remain. 

My router has Open VPN on it so I added a Mexico profile just to see if I could get it to work.

However, I figured out that I only have HBO NOW credentials, not HBO GO which is what comes with your cable service. I don't have cable, just an HBO NOW account which there is not an app for,  so I can't test this. My assumption is that it would work fine. But would be curious for someone who has an HBO GO account to try it out. 

As to the legality of this, I'm not sure that it's illegal in a way that would get you in any sort of trouble. You may be violating terms of service, but looking at it from an objective point of view,  LG as zero incentive to penalize any of their customers by spoofing their IP so they can install an app that they probably would love to install, but can't because of HBOs agreement with Samsung. Likewise, HBO has zero incentive to penalize a paying customer for using the service they are paying for. If and when HBO's agreement with Samsung ends, I'm sure all you'd have to do is update and the HBO GO app will appear.

[Rajdip]

here is the full guide for activate HBO GO on Android TV, Roku , Kodi App, Fire TV, Fire stick. if you are still looking for any of this, then read the guide and

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