I find it amazing that people are still doing the unthinkable: missing their favorite television shows because they “don’t have the time”. Oh come on! This is the age of TiVos. If you can’t afford that, then please learn how to program the VCR that is slowly going out of style. Of course, no one wants to take time out from their daily routine to learn how to program these new and old gadgets, but there is an easy, alternative way.
It’s called high-speed Internet. If you don’t have it, get it, because you won’t have any excuse for missing a major network show again. Most people are not even aware that many of the major networks including ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX have placed some of their best shows online. They are designed so that people like you and me can watch them, on our own time, with limited commercial interruptions.
ABC (www.dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing)
If you like Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Lost (when it isn’t on hiatus), or some of ABC’s newer hits, like Ugly Betty, then you should be glad to know that ABC has them available to watch. Unless they have special previews, you should be able to catch your favorite show in the next evening after its official airtime.
The downside to this is that ABC tends to have some downloading problems. ABC’s player is the one that usually freezes up the most. I always get really disappointed when the screen goes still, because it usually never goes unstill. The only way out is to just exit out and try again, but that usually doesn’t work. Also, the screen is very small, and that is with the Large function, which will only work if your computer is set up for HDTV functions.
Also, unless you missed recent episodes, you might not be able to see them. For some reason, the first six episodes of Lost for Season 3 are readily available, while only a handful of Ugly Betty episodes are there. I did catch the rerun of the Pilot and wished I could watch all of it. Looks like I’ll have to wait until all the reruns go online.
NBC (www.nbc.com/Video/)
NBC has some of its shows on here, but not all of them. For example, you can only get two-minute recaps of My Name is Earl and The Office, some of the funniest shows on the network. Oddly enough, you can catch up on the entire season of new hits like Friday Night Lights and Heroes. I remember when I was watching Heroes, I could only watch the episode that played last week. It looks like that rule applies to Studio 60, and I’m guessing after Heroes gets back from its hiatus, that will probably happen again.
The last episode I watched on this player had this annoying pop-up ad that showed up after every commercial. If this was deliberate, then it was shameless. I had to close it down and then start the episode at another section to eliminate this. However, I don’t recall any freezing of the screen or any other technical difficulties, and they’ve probably fixed this pop-up problem by now.
CBS (www.cbs.com/innertube/)
CBS is so far my favorite network to watch television shows from. I have especially liked their new show Jericho, and thanks to this service, I have caught every episode and I am begging for more. All episodes are still available, as well as shows like Survivor.
Some other shows like CSI (all cities) and Numb3rs have only the most recent episodes. To be honest, I don’t recall having any technical difficulties on this player, and I can easily go into full-screen. The reception is a little grainy, but hey, it’s free.
FOX (www.myspace.com/fox)
About the closest thing I could find to a video-player on the FOX website was a link to this myspace page, which has the latest episodes of Prison Break, Bones, and American Dad. To me, this seems a little sub-standard. Generally, I usually have an easy time finding the network’s episode player, but I only happened to find it because it was on a pop-up ad. Then it links me to myspace, for crying out loud! Not only that, it asks me to download some software, too, something that the other network players never asked for.
However, I have to admit the quality looks quite good. And the player didn’t take long to set up, and, as far as I know, has no viruses.
The CW (www.cwtv.com/video)
Sadly, the best I could get from this merging of WB and UPN was a player that would show just previews of the latest stuff. I was hoping that I could catch episodes of Smallville or Everybody Hates Chris, but no such luck. I’m not certain why they haven’t jumped on the bandwagon on this, but hey, give it time.
We are living in a new age of television where we do not have to watch any show when “they” tell you to. This is the way I prefer it. Why should we rearrange our schedules to gather around the television and watch a multitude of superfluous commercials when all I want is my show on my own time.
Of course why stop there? The technology is already here to download programs into my iPod nano or other Portable Media Player. Your average non-techie doesn’t hardly even know about it. However, as the technology becomes cheaper, soon everyone will have access to this. When that happens, say good-bye to television as we know it.))
