Weekend Fun: Watch Television On Your PC With TVUPlayer
We've had a lot of fun with our series showing you all the different ways you can watch TV online… starting with reader favorite Joost, then last week's AnyTV, and today we'll take a look at TVUPlayer.
With TVUPlayer you can watch channels from all over the world including live channels… it's an easy application to run on your local machine or you can watch channels on their website. Note that a broadband internet connection is required.
Installing TVUPlayer
TVUPlayer works on both XP and Vista and requires Windows Media Player 9 or later.
With a file download of under 5 MB, installing TVUPlayer is a straight forward process. As of this writing the current version is 2.3.7.1 and is completely free. (Make sure you never pay for TVUPlayer) It is also a good idea to create an account so you can save your favorites, rate channels, and participate in forums.
You can also go to the TVU Networks Site and watch the available channels. Firefox users will need to download a plug-in. Internet Explorer users will need to install install the TVU web player component.
Using TVUPlayer
The user interface is very nicely designed. There is a nice easy to navigate toolbar at the top to check out different categories of channels. The ability to search channels, save your favorites, and scroll through all of the channels or specific channels based on your language.
Another feature is a cool TV guide that is on the collapsible side menu. Check out what programming is on while watching a current show. With the side menu you can also checkout station reviews and chat with other users.
Watching live television stations of course you will see commercials. Before other on demand video and other channels TVUPlayer will play a 30-45 second advertisement. If you are an Internet TV broadcaster you will want to check out TVU Networks Platform.
Another important feature to point out is TVUPlayer Mobile which allows you to watch TV on your mobile phone. Requirements for this is Windows Mobile 5, 6, or 6.1 a processor speed of 400MHZ, and supports 3G, UTMS, HSDPA, and WiFi.
Conclusion
TVUPlayer is definitely a fun online TV application, with plenty of channels to check out from all over the world with great video quality. The user interface is very intuitive and easy to use, and you can use it to watch TV on your mobile phone which is a definite plus. The player will also allow full screen viewing. TVUPlayer is a lot of fun and is a great way to watch TV on your PC.
Daily Email Updates
You can get our how-to articles in your inbox each day for free. Just enter your name and email below:
So, which of these three (Joost, TVU, AnyTV) can I watch live streaming tv? Like say I'm away from my home and my favorite show (The Office) is on television right now. Which of these can I go to a hotspot and watch this show as it is airing on NBC? Is this even possible yet? I know I can watch the streaming video on hulu or the like a day or so later, but what if I want to watch it right now?
@Benjamin:
The only one I have been able to actually watch live tv with is TVUPlayer. Not all channels though. I can watch Spike, SciFi, CBS, and Comedy Central.
You might try Justin.tv to watch NBC live … I am not sure … maybe others have recommendations?
@benjamin & mystic geek
i think if you want to be able to watch all the channels with a live stream, your going to need to pay for it… i dont think thats something they are just going to give away… im surprised spike and comedy central allow live stream… the tv companys would lose too much money if we could watch it on our computers for free…
and all of this is assuming there is even is a program to allow it…
anyTV is better ….
it has more channels, faster to load and you can filter by country…
Right now I'm using http://www.freetube.us.tc it's pretty much what I wanted when I first set out. It has live tv streams, but doesn't require any software like TVU Player requires - you just need windows media player or flash, and most computers have those.
It doesn't have huge channels asides from espn/cnn/discovery..but it has a lot of news channels and some cool movie and sports channels. But mainly I use it for news, I'm a big news and weather hound so I use it for that. I highly recommend it, it's quite good and it's free and from what I can see legal or so I like to believe.
The main reason I like it is because it's live, I mean those tv link sites are good but I know this sounds dumb but I like watching things as they happen with the ads. Sorta adds to the experience, maybe I'm corny or something but I prefer it live - so this fits the bill.
Dcw329, Spike and Comedy Central are not losing money from offering a free live stream. The bulk of their money comes from advertising and in a live stream, the commercials are still present. This means that they can actually count the people watching their channels online as additional viewers. Since they have more viewers they can therefore justify charging more for advertising since the price is determined roughly by the number of people that are tuning in. This is why SuperBowl commercials are so expensive. In essence, offering a free online stream allows a channel to make more money rather than lose it. The only channels that don't make money that way are the premium stations like HBO and Showtime that don't have commercials. They make their money from you paying them for their service.
But. But. How many of these options provide closecaptioning or subtitles — my guess = none.
The major problem with streaming, whether TV or movies is the lack of captions/subtitles.
That leaves torrenting and subtitlesource.org or some similar captioning provider.
More and more of us are getting deaf or hard of hearing (what?) and need CC/subs but those in the streaming industry don't seem to be getting it, probably because ipodiots haven't gone deaf. Yet.
Of course the requirement for media player 9 includes me out from the getgo.
Yes you can watch all live streams directly on your PC check out ZATTOO
question, could this program (or any program) allow you to watch television through vista media center?
@wykedengel: If you are talking about TV from the internet like this program provides then no I don't think so. You need a TV Tuner Card with Satalite/Cable TV/OTA to view TV in Media Center.
This thing made a mess in my system. Had to throw it out.
While I did try this out for a few weeks, it didn't deliver what I wanted. I ended up going with another software that allowed me to watch premium channels on my PC. Best choice I ever made!