A question we hear asked all the time is “how can I watch German TV at home?” and while there are a few cable providers that offer select shows, the solution is either too costly or a hassle. The easiest solution has been to stream various TV shows or networks on your computer, but it is a lot nicer to be able to sit back on your couch and watch tv where it was meant to be seen… on a TV.
We have come up with a simple setup that involves taking the German content that is streaming to your computer and wirelessly displaying it on your TV. All you need is a $10 program called AirParrot and a $99 AppleTV, and this works on both Mac and Windows computers. If you are running Apple’s new OS X Mountain Lion operating system on a 2011 or newer Mac, you can do this without the AirParrot software by turning on AirPlay Mirroring.
Video Demo
Sources For Free German TV
As we mentioned in the demo video above, there are several decent websites that allow legal streaming of German TV shows in the United States. These sites are listed below and are all working at the time this article was written.
- MySpass.de – Episodes of popular comedy shows including sitcoms and sketch shows
- Deutsche-Welle – Live stream of the news network and their On Demand shows
- ARD – Variety of content including the popular TV show “Tatort”
- ZDF – Variety of news programs and series shows
- RTL – On Demand news programs. Their non-news shows do not playback in the US
What You Need
AppleTV ($99) – Digital media receiver that plays video from your computer, iOS devices, and more.
AirParrot ($10) – Streams content from your computer to the AppleTV
That’s all you need! For $110 you can enjoy hours of the latest German TV shows from the comfort of your couch and without any costly subscriptions.
