TV on the Internet - Fact or Fiction?

November 29, 2007 by sharky

There are a variety of ways to max out that high-speed Internet connection besides downloading illegal movies, huge games and an obscene amount of music - much to the chagrin of your ISP. At least they haven’t figured out how to throttle streaming media yet, as far as we know. Do ISPs think BitTorrent is the next-gen problem? - YouTube alone consumes over 10% of all Internet bandwidth.

Streaming Television

Some websites deliver ’streaming’ video of TV channels, shows and web/podcasts. No need to call the cable guy, but a blazing-fast Internet connection is essential. Other websites try to sell online packages for a one-time price for the same Internet content that is absolutely free. And others will try to sell you software that claim to be able to connect to these wonderful - albeit mythical - lands of 5,000+ free channels. And beware: Most of these packages consist of a list of outdated links that do not even work - all under the guise of fooling some schmuck into thinking he is going to get Cable or Satellite movie channels on the PC. This likely won’t happen anytime soon. The Television Networks do not want their stations to be distributed freely over the Internet, and they have big dollars to back that up.

Major Networks are starting to wake up to the fact that online streaming is the way to go, after all. The widespread use of streaming video has been made possible by high-speed internet access, which is improving online viewing. ABC, NBC, FOX and CBS all now offer some form of streaming TV (including entire episodes of popular programs), complete with embedded ads typically suited to a younger demography. So the future of online TV is not too distant, evidently.

Here are a few sites that DO offer free streaming TV (unrelated to the Networks), and rest assured it leaves a lot to be desired.

www.worldtvpc.com (I don’t recommend it; too many ads on site)

mediahopper.com (Better site, similar content but no ads)

streamick.com (Not too bad - has over 40 channels)

A couple of the better sites for ’streaming’ TV:

Miro - www.getmiro.com

Not a bad program, really. And it’s totally FREE. Users can browse “channels” to find videos, shows, podcasts and the like, and save them (unlike websites that only offer “streaming” video). Downloaded files are saved in your library for viewing at a later time. It’s fast, too! Content seems to be a little weak on TV shows, but has some nice variety. I wouldn’t call this ’streaming’ video though, everything’s a week old or more. Has some great footage of the Hubble Space Telescope, but it too is old. Then again, isn’t everything you see in space in the past?

Joost - www.joost.com

Video quality is very good on Joost considering this is a type of ’streaming’, with very little skipping. It’s as close as a website can get to being like watching real TV. And while we’re on the subject of comparing Joost to TV, here’s another major comparison: commercials and advertisements. Joost is full of commercials, coming right in the middle of the program. But it’s more difficult to change the channel on Joost.

There’s also a variety of software out there that offers streaming video feeds, shows etc. I’ve tried a few but I can’t say I was overjoyed. Here’s a short list of a few of them:

PP Live, PPMate, PPRecorder, PPStream, Sopcast, TV Ants, TVU Player, VGO, TVKoo.

My advice: Download your favorite TV shows from a torrent site or IRC. Or check with the official website of a network to see what they offer in regards to streaming video (i.e. www.cnn.com/video/).

Satellite TV Software

Three words I love? Satellite. TV. PC. Three words I hate together? “Satellite TV for PC“. The old adage, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” definitely applies to ANY and ALL software alleging to bring over 3,000 channels to your desktop. I’ve tried various programs for this and wasted hours of my life I’ll never get back searching the channel “lists” to finally find one or two that actually work. And in my book, reruns of “100 Huntley Street” don’t count as television shows. But if you REALLY need to see for yourself, search for it on P2P where you can find a registered free version (and save yourself the 50 bucks). And believe me, you WILL be disappointed.

There’s just one way to get Satellite TV for PC; that’s by plugging it into the video card on the back of your computer.

Streaming Movies

There are sites that offer movies through the browser (i.e. “streaming“) but most just don’t work well. Even with a fast Internet connection, the playback is choppy at best. And let’s not begin to discuss the quality. Everyone knows what streaming video looks like; just visit youtube.com. This is fine for viewing webcasts, podcasts and videos that people have uploaded to a server, but just not acceptable for full movies.

One such site is www.movieburst.org. Almost everything is older, but they are full movies, and it requires NO registration. Another site is www.movies-on-demand.tv/ that offers new stuff, but the quality is lacking.

Online movie stores such as Apple iTunes, Amazon Unbox, CinemaNow, Netflix and Movielink now offer videos for purchase and rental at costs that rival those of DVDs. But all of them incorporate some form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) that forbids the burning of these movies to DVD for the purpose of playing in a home DVD player, among other restrictions. Click here for a comparison of the major players involved in legal online movie downloading and rentals.

Download your movies using a P2P protocol, like BitTorrent, IRC or Limewire. You’ll have to wait for it to finish downloading first, but you’ll be glad you did.

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