# Easy way to watch live Chinese tv? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 20, 2015, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-watch-live-chinese-tv/735299 "2015-10-20T23:45:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-watch-live-chinese-tv/735299/1 "2015-10-20T23:45:04Z")
I want to watch live streamed Chinese tv on my comp, however, it’s notoriously difficult to access. does anyone here have any good links or ways in which I can watch? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-watch-live-chinese-tv/735299/2 "2015-10-21T00:52:03Z")
**Moderator Note** I’m not sure that there is a legal way to do this. I’ll leave this open just in case there is. This is a friendly reminder though to keep all answers in this thread on the legal side of the fence, please. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-watch-live-chinese-tv/735299/3 "2015-10-21T03:29:34Z")
This is probably not what you’re asking for, but you can get a TV capture card for your computer and connect DirecTV’s Chinese packages ([http://www.directv.com/international/chinese](http://www.directv.com/international/chinese)). That’d just be using your computer as a glorified monitor, though, and not really streaming it. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-watch-live-chinese-tv/735299/4 "2015-10-21T03:42:21Z")
You can stream all the CCTV channels live [here](http://tv.cntv.cn/live/cctv1/). Were you looking for non CCTV Chinese channels? ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-watch-live-chinese-tv/735299/5 "2015-10-21T08:57:56Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > You can stream all the CCTV channels live [here](http://tv.cntv.cn/live/cctv1/). Were you looking for non CCTV Chinese channels? Yeah, legally, I’ve tried before, however it’s been stated that I have to install a widget for P2P viewing. I don’t know if that’s legit or not. ---
**Author:** ![Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Throatwarbler_Mangrove)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-watch-live-chinese-tv/735299/6 "2015-10-21T09:38:30Z")
There are a number of Chinese streaming sites, just off the top of my head, youku, iqiyi, [tv.sohu.com](http://tv.sohu.com), and others. Can’t tell you much about their relative merits, I don’t watch any of them much. They will generally not allow you to watch any American TV shows if they detect your location to be outside of China for copyright reasons, and since their advertisers generally are targeting Chinese viewers so viewers outside of China are a waste of their bandwidth - they might be other limitations in that respect but I haven’t noticed anything too bothersome. ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-watch-live-chinese-tv/735299/7 "2015-10-21T09:59:30Z")
I tried installing this CBox from this [link](http://cbox.cntv.cn/pad/index.shtml)(Which was from the CCTV link provided earlier) But it doesn’t work, it says I need flash.ocx. I’m not interested in watching US films etc, I just like to watch Chinese TV programmes. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-watch-live-chinese-tv/735299/8 "2015-10-21T10:11:06Z")
You can watch a live stream of Lotus TV from Macao [here](http://www.lotustv.cc/). Also, CCTV is not the only PRC outfit that streams TV, both live and on demand. For the others, you’ll have to search for them. ---
**Author:** ![Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Throatwarbler_Mangrove)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-watch-live-chinese-tv/735299/9 "2015-10-21T12:39:38Z")
> [@Ryan\_Liam](#): > > I tried installing this CBox from this [link](http://cbox.cntv.cn/pad/index.shtml)(Which was from the CCTV link provided earlier) But it doesn’t work, it says I need flash.ocx. I’m not interested in watching US films etc, I just like to watch Chinese TV programmes. You can watch the streams with just the browser, here’s the link for CCTV 1 , works for me. > **[CCTV-1综合频道高清直播\_CCTV节目官网\_央视网](https://tv.cctv.com/live/cctv1/)** > > CCTV-1综合频道直播页提供CCTV-1综合频道24小时高清直播信号，是网民全天候收看CCTV-1的最佳平台。 You can also download a PC client here > **[CCTV-1综合频道高清直播\_CCTV节目官网\_央视网](https://tv.cctv.com/live/cctv1/)** > > CCTV-1综合频道直播页提供CCTV-1综合频道24小时高清直播信号，是网民全天候收看CCTV-1的最佳平台。