As I recently made the transition from dial-up internet service to DSL, obviously, I have been watching a lot of TV online; what else is DSL for? I have used four different sites to view TV shows online. Each online TV viewing site provided me with different results. These results are chronicled below for your enjoyment and edification.
CBS.com (innertube)
I am not a huge fan of the show “Shark” but I enjoy James Woods and a recent episode feature another guest actor I like. I went to CBS.com on my lunch break one day, clicked my way into their easy-to access innertube page, where full episodes of “Shark” are available for viewing – along with episodes of the CSI’s, Numb3ers, Jericho, and many other programs. I pressed play, flipped to another screen and watched a bit of the show. But then the buffering began. Then I could watch some. Then there was more buffering. Then I could watch some – but – then there was more buffering. Friends, there was quite a bit of buffering in my first attempt to watch TV online at cbs.com. However, I have to say, eventually, the next day, maybe, I tried again and the show didn’t give me any problems. In short, while innertube caused me a moderate deal of frustration in my first run, it eventually was not a problem to load this “Shark” episode. Perhaps the speed of my dsl has something to do with it. Perhaps I just went online at a busy time. I’ll leave that to someone more technically savvy to figure out. I could fast forward and rewind pretty easily once the buffering ended- though each segment of the show has a commercial break which one cannot fast-forward through (though, obviously, one can flip to another web page and turn down the volume…). The picture quality in the small box on the page is fine, but once I expanded to full screen, it was a little blurry. My fault or CBS’s? I again leave that to the more technically savvy to figure out.
One cool thing, I bookmarked the page, and now, even though the episode isn’t still listed on innertube, I can still watch it. Not that it’s such a great episode.
I made a second attempt at viewing a full tv show on CBS’s innertube when I missed an episode of “Numb3rs”. I know what you’re thinking “That’s on on Fridays. Are you always home on Friday nights or something?” Uh, no comment. Anyhow, this episode gave me some trouble. The first three segments loaded pretty fast, but the last one buffered like crazy and would eventually just skip from wherever it ended to the fifth segment which was simply a “coming next week” preview ad. It took me a few days to get the final act of the episode to run completely. It was rather frustrating, but, then again, it’s only a tv show, so, whatever.
ABC.com.
I have to say I give a higher rating to ABC.com. I went to their site looking for the episode of “Desperate Housewives” and found it without much trouble- though some of the clicking here and there does seem redundant. There was a brief commercial announcement of the “this episode sponsored by” variety and then we were off to the races. The episode played seamlessly, save for one little moment where it got stuck. Picture quality was pretty good and really. Like CBS, ABC offers quite a few episodes on it’s site: Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Housewives, and plenty of others.
My main complaint though- and you knew I’d have one – is when I returned later to view some Ugly Betty episodes – which are advertised as being available on the site and are right there to click on – I got an error message saying the advertisements weren’t ready so I couldn’t watch them – any of them. This is bad for several reasons 1) the message is very techno-vague, giving the viewer no idea what’s really going on, or how and when or if it will be rectified so she can view. 2) it frustrates the viewer that the site’s presentation makes it look like it’s making every episode available like “ABC loves you” when in fact, nothing is available. 3) it reinforces an idea which ABC should try to keep on the DL, which is: it’s really about the ads for them. Sure, we’ve got five Ugly Bettys right here ready to go, but, whoops, can’t show you the ads, so, back in the box for them. Stinker. Speaking of boxes…
Amazon.com Unbox.
Until recently, I had no idea that Amazon.com was selling individual episodes of TV shows for $1.99. Now I know and own two Unbox-ed episodes myself. Getting set up to view your first UnBox episode can be something of a process. You have to download their player (of course) and install it and all that jazz. It took me a while. Then you have to purchase the show. The usual checkout process for Amazon.com doesn’t apply and instead you have to use “one click” which, I didn’t even know what that was, but, I did it anyhow. Downloading an episode of Fox’s “Bones” took me about 45 minutes, but I was able to start viewing the program before the download was complete. Picture quality is great, with a full-screen option available. It played without incident. My one complaint was the fast-forwarding mechanism is very slow. You can’t skip to chapters or scenes or acts but merely go through each scene somewhat slowly. It’s amusing for a minute if you leave the volume on and listen to them talk really fast, but then you just wish you could select a chapter or cut ahead to the next act or something. I was pleased overall with the fact I could view this episode from last season even though the box set hasn’t been released. UnBox offers a lot of different series including Morgan Sporlock’s “30 Days” and NBC’s “Studio 60” and shows from A&E;, HGTV, E!, BBC, and many others.
However, one note: Unbox is currently selling “fresh” episodes of this season’s shows for $1.99. Plenty of these shows can be watched for free on their parent websites. For example, the “Numb3rs” episode I watched at CBS.com is currently for sale. Why pay when you can get the episode for free? Strange.
YouTube.com.
Once I got dsl, I obviously had to view something on YouTube. So I punched in the titles of some favorite cancelled shows to see what I could find. The first show I chose was “Boston Public.” Remember that show? I found a few clips of varying quality. Some were substantial, some were short – clips from actors’ reels, for example, or thirty second episode promos. I’m not sure why anyone would want to watch episode promos, but, a lot of people would probably question my taste, too. Overall, though, I didn’t find any full episodes or anything really interesting for the tv show I searched. I do know that CBS has its own “channel” on YouTube where it posts – here’s that term again – show promos. I also know that Comedy Central and other networks have taken long postings of their shows off the site. So, maybe I just got there at the wrong time. There’s still great footage of cats doing stunts, though. And you can never get enough of that.
The bottom line, I suppose, is if you want to view tv online, you have many options. It’s insane, actually, how many options we all suddenly have – network websites, specialty sites, retail sites. It’s becoming an “on demand” world out there. On one hand, it’s a bit ridiculous that we can’t all just set our vcrs (or, I’m sorry, our dvrs and tivos…) and have tech geniuses spend their time researching technology for better purposes than catching up with the Housewives and Jack Bauer. On the other hand, this viewing tv online – it’s kind of fun, isn’t it?
