Watching dutch TV online

[Trellum]

It's no secret I've been working very hard to learn this language the last few weeks!  Yup, finally!  It wasn't until recently I started to take the study of this language damn serious! 

I'm happy to report I've learnt quite a bit, but not enough to start a decent conversation with a dutch national and keep it going, but I know I have improved a lot because I understand most of what I read in dutch! How do I know that?  Well, because I watch Dutch TV!  I was amazed, but I understand most of the things they say, there are words I don't understand tho, but most of the time it's easy to deduct the meaning based on the context. 

Watching TV in dutch is giving me an idea of how low my levels are, that is good!  Because it tells me I need to study more and harder. So far my fav channels are children ones Those are so easy to understand, specially the cartoons!  My fav channel so far is ''Kinder Tijd''.

[KattenKatzen]

I'm on the same boat! Honestly, watching Dutch TV has been great to my learning process. Not necessarily sitting in front of the TV, in deep thought of deciphering some reality show, but letting it be there in the background at all times. When I'm at home, sitting in front of my laptop typing this, it's on and most of the time I'm thinking about it. Oh, I know what this means! I don't know what that means. What does that mean? It's great to actually realize how little or how much you know and you can definitely see improvement.

[Trellum]

I like mine to have subtitles, but that is not always possible, sadly   The subtitles can be so helpful when learning a language, because sometimes I'm not entirely sure I fully understood what the characters in the TV show said. That is why subtitles are so helpful, but can make you a bit lazy   I'd recommend using them not so often.

[宇崎ちゃん]

I normally use Horizon TV, but it requires you to have a subscription at Ziggo or UPC.

You could otherwise use one of the following:
http://www.npo.nl/live - This is the official Dutch TV station. It shows you NPO1 by default, but you can switch to NPO2 and NPO3 in the menu bar.
http://www.kijk.nl/ - These are the amusement channels, however this is all on demand.
http://rtlxl.nl/#!/ - Yet another on demand-only site, but this time those are the commercial channels.

All of these are official websites and most likely require you to use Microsoft Silverlight (or Moonlight if you use Linux).

I guess you'll need a decent VPN service to watch those.
If so, I can recommend HideMyAss.

I hope it helps.

[Trellum]

Thanks for the recommendations, I will surely be watching a lot Dutch TV  in a couple months.   Sadly my favorite channels in the Netherlands are American, but I like the fact most TV shows come with dutch subtitles. I will definitely check Horizon TV, we are getting a ziggo sub    By the way,  there is something that is still not very clear in my head... I'm talking about the sound of ''ij''.  Does it sound more like an american ''A'' or an ''I''?? Sometimes I swear some words make it sound like an american ''I'' but most of the times it seems to sound like an American ''A''. 

[宇崎ちゃん]

The American sound for "ij" would be close to "iy".
If you know the sound for "ei", it's the exact same sound as "ij", which leads to some confusion to even native speakers:

Leider → Leader.
Lijder → Someone who suffers.

Both sound exactly the same, but both have a completely different meaning.

[Trellum]

Thanks, this is something that has troubled me since the start. I have asked different persons about it, specially when I had just started.   I still get confused from time to time when I use my course, then I ask my fiance and he says some words sound like the are pronounced a bit oddly.