Want To Watch TV Shows Online?

In limited cases, if you want to watch TV shows online you can see the show via the network's website. NBC, ABC and CBS have come to the party in a lot of cases with their top rated shows. They've come to realise that, for whatever reason, viewers will miss an episode and with shows like Heroes or Lost it can be enough to lose the thread of the plotline, and therefore the viewer.

Last year, ABC even put the remaining episodes of its series Day Break online after it was cancelled, giving viewers a chance to see the ending of the series. It was a way to keep faith with their viewers. After all, who hasn't felt the frustration of getting into a series, only to find it is cancelled before the end, so you never find out the end of the story?

Advantages:

You get to see the episode the next day, usually.

You can watch the episode at your leisure

Disadvantages:

The networks usually only keep the episodes online for a week.

They will make you watch ads before you can watch the show. No getting away from them.

They must be watched online, and cannot be recorded without special software.

If you are not in the country of origin for the network, you are out of luck. A TV show that airs in the USA, for example, will only be shown to US audiences on the web.

Cable TV is even more problematic. I'll show you why.

Cable works on a subscriber user base, and much of the programming is limited to those viewers, so it makes sense that if you want to watch cable tv shows online it may be harder to do so.

Their websites have an even more limited selection than the networks do. One or two programs at the most per cable channel. Yet, surprisingly, most cable channels stream their programming to the internet. They just don't tell you about it. So if you want to watch TV shows online, even cable TV, it can be done if you are in the know.

The cable companies websites do have the occasional program on them just like the TV networks. They have a very, very limited number of shows on their websites, as you can well imagine.

Advantages:
You can watch an extremely limited selection of shows per cable network.

Disadvantages:
Good luck in finding those programs on their websites.

Cable streaming clients are the best way to watch TV shows online.

In a nutshell, this is how they work: You download the client, and tell it what platform you want it to play on. For example, you might want to use Media Player or RealTime Player to watch TV via the Internet.

The client allows you to watch hundreds of cable channels that are already being streamed to the Internet, anyway. The client works in much the same way as a TV tuner does, allowing you to watch the TV shows you want directly on your computer.

Advantages:

Streaming usually flies under the radar of ISPs and colleges, allowing you to bypass any traffic shaping or blocking they may have.

You get to watch hundreds of different cable stations from all over the world, which means you are no longer restricted to just one market.

You don't have to be in the country of origin to watch a streamed show.

Disadvantages

The streaming client has absolutely no control over how the cable channel streams onto the Internet.This is true for any client where a third party is involved. In this case its the cable networks.

During peak periods it's possible that your images will become jerky because of the amount of traffic on the Internet. Peak period is usually during the day. If your surfing is slowing down, then so will the video streaming.

I have no idea why SoftwareGang priced their Web TV software so low. You get more for the price with this software than you do with the high-priced one that I purchased first.

The program works as it's supposed to work, tuning your player of choice into most cable channels easily and efficiently. The last piece of software I purchased was at around $50, and I thought it was okay...this software is so much better.

You see, SoftwareGang only put out one or two programs a year, so I found out, and they pride themselves on their reliability. Not only that, they have free upgrades. They don't make you pay for them. A feature other streaming software programs would be wise to replicate.

Before trying Web TV (and before the more expensive, and unnamed software) I downloaded a free client onto my computer, and ended up with Malware for my efforts. I didn't get to use the software, and was extremely grateful that my anti-virus software picked up the malware before it could be properly loaded onto my computer. I found out later it didn't get everything, and that was only after I reformatted my computer. If you want free software it's the risk you take, but you can if you want.

What I really like about WebTV:

It's reliable and what it says it will do it does.

The software comes with free updates, so you don't have to continually upgrade your software.

It's cheap to buy.

You don't have to worry about downloading viruses and other nasties onto your computer.

SoftwareGang Web TV does the job it's intended to do, and that's the best recommendation I can make for any software.

There are a many programs that make exaggerated claims, and don't deliver the goods, or are so hard to use that all you want to do is tear your hair out. If you want to watch TV online I don't think you'll be disappointed with SoftwareGang Web TV. I wasn't, and I think it's worth throwing down $20 for something that's worth a lot more, in my opinion.

When I originally set up this Squidoo lens I had been assured by some people that I trusted that watching streaming cable TV via a client was perfectly legal. I set up the lens on that assumption, but I had a niggling feeling that I should have studied the area more thoroughly. It kept niggling at me, and so I did. What I discovered was a morass of conflicting information about streaming cable TV to the internet.

I changed the lens once I discovered this, but the search engines appear not to have caught up. I wanted the people who surfed to this lens via its original title to understand the reason for the changes, and that I changed it to take out any claims of legality because it is such a grey area.

The legality of tapping into the cable TV and radio streamed every day onto the internet changes according to copyright and media laws in the countries where the servers reside, the laws within those countries and additionally, it seems, in the law in which the TV or radio is being recieved.

One of the reasons, it seems, that streaming TV in this matter is ignored where torrents are under constant pressure is that the TV program doesn't reside on your computer except maybe in the cache or temp files until it is cleared out.

Perhaps one day streaming will come under pressure, but for now it is the best alternative to torrenting on the web. It is a grey area legally, though, and should be treated as such.

Disclaimer
Copyright law changes from country to country. If you have any questions about the legality of watching online streaming via the use of a client, direct them to the appropriate authorities within your country. Joolushko is not liable for any misinterpretation of those laws, based on this Squidoo Lens. You should always independently verify information on subjects to do with copyright law.

Want to Watch TV Shows Online? Copyright 2007 by Joolushko, all rights reserved.