A Laundry List of Free Internet TV
Judging by the e-mails I've received, Internet TV and IPTV are intriguing. Cool, because I have 15 other sites for you to try.
But first, the reader question I was asked most often: "Is Internet TV the same as when I connect my cable TV to my special video adapter and watch TV on my PC?" The answer: you're getting a better deal that way unless you want content not available from cable. For instance, some Internet TV and IPTV services have wonderful drivel -- episodes of "Rubber Chicken" or "Metalocalypse" -- that you may not get on cable.
The other question I was asked was: "Am I watching live TV or recorded video?" Most likely it's recorded material, though on some sites you'll see both legal and illegal live feeds.
I talked with Joseph Lea, the CTO at Backspace, and he cleared up a couple of things. He said that it comes down to linear versus nonlinear content. Linear is content that's real-time and playing continuously, just as if you were watching from your living room TV. For instance, I watched a CNN broadcast on the little television set in my office, and saw the same image a few seconds later through the Internet on Backspace.
Nonlinear is archived content, definitely not live. The Comedy Central show I watched on Joost might be two weeks old.
Joseph also said that no major studios allow their linear content -- channels you see on satellite and cable -- to be distributed over the public Internet. Some content providers, such as Backspace, can do it because they deliver the content over what's known as a Walled Garden IP Network. That's a private network where subscribers access closed sites that aren't available through the public Internet. If you want to see how it works, tune into Backspace and click on Free Test Drive. (The balance of the content -- premium channels and VOD -- will cost you a monthly fee.)
It's easy to feel a little confused because you might also find live feeds of, say, CNN on any of the sites I've listed below. They're probably illegal; most likely these channels are submitted by visitors to the site -- someone finds a spot to pop into a CNN stream and they post it. Once CNN discovers it, the site is cut off.
Got it? Okay, now we can move on to the list.
The TV Laundry List
Here's a stack of other IPTV and Internet TV sites. Rather than my giving you a description, I thought it'd be fun for you to check them out yourself and decide whether they're keepers. And I know I'm opening a big can of worms, but I'll do it anyway: Let me know if you find any gems.
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"Rubber Chicken"? What is this "Rubber Chicken" you type of? If you mean that stop animation show on the [Adult Swim] nighttime section of the Cartoon Network, then that it ROBOT CHICKEN.
I'm a of both "Robot Chicken" and "Metalocalypse".
Don't forget Virtual Digital Cable at www.vdc.com
FreeTube is just awesome, great find. I guess doing the 'laundry' isn't so bad after all..lol.
A great website where to watch TV by internet is TVonline. No download, install or invites needed :
http://www.tvonline.2ya.com
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Lot of webradio & webTV by categories like :
Music : MCM, MTV ...
News : CNN, ABC, NBC, BBC ...
Comic/Funny : LOL TV, Youtube TV, Comedy channel ...
Sport : Eurosport, ESPN, Star games, NBA TV ...
Sciences / education : NASA TV, Research channel,
Documentaries / travel : Discovery channel, Animal planet, National geo, Globetrekker ...
Movie / cartoon : Cartoon network, Science fi channel, FOX, RTL9, TMC ...
Foreigner : TF1, BFM, Al jazeera, CCTV ...
Leisure / Various : Liberty TV, Netgamming TV, Astro TV, Pocker TV ...