iPhone Chinese Entertainment Apps

xiaofan

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Other than using Toggle, SingTel TV Go, SingTel Cast, StarHub Go for a bit of Chinese entertainment, there are also many other apps from the official Apple App Store. However for quite some apps from greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau), they are Geo-locked, for example main stream apps like Tencent Video, QQ Music, Youku, 爱奇艺(iQiYi), etc.

I found a few alternative apps which are usable from official Apple App Store.

Updated on 6-Feb-2019

Free ones:
1) Mainland focused or generic

Some content may require VPN and may need VIP subscription for more services : Youku优酷,Tencent Video腾讯视频,iQiYi爱奇艺, MangoTV 芒果TV国际,搜狐视频,央视影音,风行视频,咪咕视频,爱奇艺PPS,土豆视频,360影视大全,etc

YouTube: many channels, CCTV, RTHK, etc. Not so much on live TV though other than CCTV 4 and some news channels. You can also search for Chinese/Cantonese/Hokkien contents.

Music: Xiami music 虾米音乐

Live TV: 华文电视,电视家,欧华生活
咪咕直播, CCTV 手机电视,央视影音

Movie/Drama: iDrama, 影视大全 by 360, 千寻影视

Short video sharing: Tik Tok 抖音国际版,西瓜视频

2) Hong Kong focused
Three free apps for Hong Kong related news stuff if you understand Cantonese

RTHK Screen, Live TV for two RTHK news channels

RTHK Go, many PodCasts, I personally like the 铿锵集 in Cantonese.

NowTV 新闻 by PCCW. You need Hong Kong VPN for the two live TV news channels

3) Taiwan TV program.

民视线上 is the free iOS app for seven live TV channels supported by ads for 民视, including Drama, news and info. Some of the programs are in Hokkien.

Fain TV got free live TV sections for Taiwan Live TV and paid sections

4) VPN for going into China for Chinese Entertainment
Transocks 穿梭
SpeedIn 快帆

5) Sports which may need VPN and subscription
腾讯体育
PP视频
咪咕视频
爱奇艺体育
央视体育VIP

6) IPTV player: just the player, you need to search for the source, for live TV or sometimes video as well. Use Google. Do not ask here.

7) rss player: just the player, you need to search for the source, for Video. Use Google. Do not ask here.
 
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ngsoonle

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I am using 千寻影视 now. Fortunately not geo locked.
Watched 延喜. Now watching 香蜜.
 

xiaofan

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More geared paid subscription service

1)TVB Anywhere SG (no live TV in SG)

ISPs like M1 and StarHub may offer cheaper bundle price for TVB Anywhere

Mobile only, no support of casting to TV

2) Vidfish

3) Viki/Viu
Viki/Viu not really geared towards Chinese content

4) StarHub Go Select

5) SingTel Cast Asian Plus
 
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xiaofan

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Paid music service:

Apple Music (my friends say it is pretty good, family sharing available)

Spotify (family sharing available)

Xiami Music (free/paid service available), best for free plan IMHO, paid plan not as good as QQ Music

QQ Music, if you pay for the membership through in-app-purchase, you can access the content without VPN. IMHO best value in terms of Chinese music content

Kkbox (family sharing not available in Singapore)

SingTel AMPed Music
 
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cnt

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Spotify leh? Can share account.
 

yotoden

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AM is still good for Ang Mo songs, Asian song lesser but improving.

Family Sharing up to 6 members, quite worth it if for 6.
 

adamxc2000

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I found a few alternative apps which are usable.

Free ones:

YouTube: many channels, CCTV, TVB,RTHK, etc. Not so much on live TV though other than CCTV 4 and some news channels.

Music: Xiami music 虾米音乐

Live TV: 华文电视,电视家,欧华生活

Drama: iDrama

What are your favourite Chinese entertainment apps? Or you prefer to use VPN (eg: Transocks 穿梭).[/QUOTE]

I'm using 快帆 speedin
they frequently have gift free hours to use. No restriction in get music and movie from China site and app.
 

xiaofan

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I
I'm using 快帆 speedin
they frequently have gift free hours to use. No restriction in get music and movie from China site and app.

From what I read 快帆 and 穿梭 are the two more popular VPN solution.

Did you pay for the VIP for 快帆? How is the speed?

SpeedIn快帆VIP:S$8.98 for 30days, S$19.98 for 90 days and S$51.98 for 360 days.

Edit: check promotions for SpeedIn, recently got buy 1 get 1 free promotions
 
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xiaofan

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Thanks man.... im looking for apps to see cantonese movies.... not drama. Dont like the 配音 ones.

Good question— 粤语 ones are better than those with Chinese 配音 ones. No idea about this one.

Not so sure what are the common VOD apps in Hong Kong like those in mainland China (腾讯视频,爱奇艺,优酷,etc). You may be able to pay for VPN and access those apps if there are such apps. TVB Anywhere SG seems to be more for TV series.

Another way is to search YouTube for “粤语电影” or similar and you will see a lot of movies in Cantonese but the quality may not be good...
 

xiaofan

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影视大全 by 360, got some tv series and movies, some content are Geo-locked but some are not. It also got live TV from mainland China.
 
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auzzuro

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If I were to purchase QQ music in China can I use it in sg ? Do I still need to use vpn ?
 

xiaofan

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If I were to purchase QQ music in China can I use it in sg ? Do I still need to use vpn ?

You can check the VPN thread. No need VPN if you pay for VIP.
https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/...st-vpn-provider-your-opinion-3807778-141.html

Are you using iOS or Android? This thread is about iPhone so I assume the answer is iOS. In this case, then you can just pay by in-app-purchase paying SGD.

If you use Android you can pay by WeChat Wallet (assume you have that) and no need to go to China.
 
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xiaofan

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Are you using iOS or Android? This thread is about iPhone so I assume the answer is iOS. In this case, then you can just pay by in-app-purchase paying SGD.

If you use Android you can pay by WeChat Wallet (assume you have that) and no need to go to China.

FYI, as a test, I just paid S$1.48 for 1 month of “付费音乐包” and it works. I can access VIP content and download SQ quality music now.

Seems to be a loophole to me as the terms and conditions still state that the service is for Mainland China only.

(六)用户理解并同意:腾讯公司向用户提供的服务,可能包含腾讯公司经合法权利人授权而向用户提供的相关服务,因此,由于该权利人对腾讯公司授权时间、范围、限制等的约束,所以,腾讯公司会对开通相关服务用户所在的地区以及用户具体使用服务的时间、地域范围等做一定限制,可能会导致用户在一定的地区或时间等情况下无法获得相关服务,包括但不限于目前付费音乐包相关服务仅限用户在中国大陆地区(不含香港、澳门、台湾等地区)范围内开通并使用相关服务,如果用户在中国大陆地区之外或者使用的是非中国大陆地区之网络/设备等,则无法使用/获得相关服务。对于因为前述原因或其他原因造成用户无法享有相关服务的,腾讯公司无需承担任何责任。

Edit to add steps for in-app-purchase

Launch QQ Music, log-in using your WeChat account (my WeChat account is linked to my SG phone number), switch language to Chinese (maybe not necessary but I did that, better to use Chinese language settings for WeChat and QQ Music).

QQ音乐 — 我的 — 会员中心 — click your name — 我的个人中心 — Pay for 付费音乐包 or 绿钻 or 绿钻豪华版

Or similar.
 
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xiaofan

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Copy from the VPN thread.
Just found out you can pay for Youku VIP and no need to use VPN to access the content.

**********
I just paid RMB88 for one year Taobao 88VIP membership since my wife uses Taobao a lot. It comes with one year free VIP for Youku and Xiami Music.

I already know that you do not need VPN to use Xiami Music (free or paid). And I paid RMB120 to get one year QQ Music VIP and then I do not need VPN to use QQ Music.

To my surprise I do not need to use VPN for Youku once I activate the VIP access. Very nice. Speed is fast, no more ads and I can have access to 1080p HDR for the movies.

I think RMB88 (S$17.6) is well spent. YMMV though.

BTW, my Youku and Xiami music account are linked to my Singapore mobile number. There is no problem to activate VIP access.
********
 
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