Filed under: Internet, Video, Windows, Freeware, P2P
TVU Player: TV for free
by Jordan Running Oct 18th 2006 at 1:45PM
TVU Player is a free Windows app that lets you watch a variety of broadcast TV channels over the Internet. Unlike a number of web sites I've seen that promise free TV, TVU Player actually has some channels you might be interested in watching: ABC, Fox, CNN, Cartoon Network, ESPN. All told, about four dozen channels, including a number of foreign channels. It's live TV, meaning that you get exactly what you'd get if you turned on your TV right now, including the commercials. So where do the TV streams come from? The software doesn't say and the TVU web site doesn't give any clues, but this review at Web TV Hub suggests that there are people out there using TV capture cards to capture the video and then stream it to TVU, and then people who watch also rebroadcast it a la BitTorrent or Skype. (I can't resist pointing out that this is the exact idea I had about three years ago but didn't have the gumption to pull off myself.) The software isn't perfect, taking some time to buffer a channel before you can watch it and having not entirely reliable streams, but as a proof-of-concept or a last resort for people outside the U.S. to enjoy our *cough* glorious American TV offerings, it is pretty cool. Of course, there's no telling how legal TVU Player is, since it clearly operates without the consent of the TV networks it broadcasts, but does include those networks' advertisements. So, the usual caveats apply, but TVU Player is definitely worth checking out if you're a TV fan.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
dennis parrott said 5:16PM on 10-18-2006
...and considering that TVUnetworks appears to be headquartered in Shanghai, China, having the TV network motorheads screaming "copyright violations" at the top of their lungs won't have much effect on this software and its availability...
...in fact, i doubt that there is much anyone can do about the TV feeds either if they are located offshore...
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Ian said 12:57PM on 10-19-2006
Fun for a few minutes, but rather low quality streams which break up a LOT.
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bb said 4:39PM on 10-18-2006
Similar thing has been available for a while at Tvants.
It was possible to watch live all games of the last world cup for example... Good enough quality to plug the PC in a flat screen TV and enjoy the TV channels without drop outs.
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sarah said 3:42PM on 10-31-2006
Is there a way to make TVU player work on macs? if not is there a similar alternative?
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Liew Keong Han said 12:46PM on 11-27-2006
the following is a introduction to TVants:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TVants
and more detail users guide:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:TVants
Han
Feel free to drop me an email if you do any any query, I will try my best to answer in my best english :D
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