posted in Asklemmy

APA Hotels in Tokyo censoring videos?

I was staying at an APA Hotel in Tokyo and stumbled upon this by accident.

When watching videos on Youtube via screencast on the hotel TV it seems like they are blocking specific videos related to WW2 and Japan. I even was using a VPN but it seems like they block it via the screencast.

Has anyone else expierienced something similar?

Replying to an earlier post

If it’s something like chromecast it’s not sending your screen locally to the device, it’s sending the source URL of the video itself, so VPN wouldn’t make a difference unless it was at the network layer the TV was using. That being said, did you try playing the same videos on your phone or computer without vpn? On cell? On their WiFi? If it doesn’t work at all on any it’s likely geo blocked as another commenter said. If it works on cell but not WiFi it’s likely their network is blocking them

Replying to an earlier post

Update:

So I checked via Wifi/Cell without VPN just on the phone and then youtube says the uploader did not make the video available in this country or skips it entirely, so I guess my original thought about the hotel actively cencoring something is wrong.

I did not know some casting services just load the video via the device you cast to itself. So if you are travelling you kinda really have to watch directly on your own devices only to get around geblocking I guess.