gHacks technology news » tv-over-internet http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:14:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 IPTV Guide http://www.ghacks.net/2007/04/19/iptv-guide/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/04/19/iptv-guide/#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2007 17:52:22 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/04/19/iptv-guide/ IPTV guides are rare on the Internet. You can access dozens of Internet TV guides which recommend services like Joost, Bablegum or those Asian P2P Internet TV clients such as Sopcast or TVUPlayer. The difference between IPTV and Internet TV is that IPTV is normally supplied by a broadband operator using a closed network structure. The most popular IPTV service that got worldwide coverage last year was ABC’s IPTV service that streamed popular TV shows such as Lost or Alias to United States citizens.

The service used an IP check to determine whether the show could be streamed to a client. You can generally divide the services into three different types. The first is a free service for users that have a certain IP range who can view the shows on a website. The second is a subscription based service where users from selected countries can view shows and events on a website and the third is a free for all approach where everyone in the whole world is allowed to watch the shows.


The following IPTV guide is mainly useful for US citizens who currently reside in the United States. The website Daily IPTV compiled a list of “100 of the best TV channels the Internet has to offer”. The channels are divided into categories such as Sports, Movies, Television Networks and Comedy.

Especially the Sports category has some advanced looking services that offer paid access to many major sport events and leagues including NHL, MLB, Golf and Tennis. Most can only be subscribed to by US citizens but some are free for all.

Check the IPTV guide out here.

Tags: , , ,

Related posts

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2007/04/19/iptv-guide/feed/ 0 Say Goodbye to Joost and Bablegum, here comes Zattoo http://www.ghacks.net/2007/04/08/say-goodbye-to-joost-and-bablegum-here-comes-zattoo/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/04/08/say-goodbye-to-joost-and-bablegum-here-comes-zattoo/#comments Sun, 08 Apr 2007 08:31:54 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/04/08/say-goodbye-to-joost-and-bablegum-here-comes-zattoo/ My participation in both the Joost and Bablegum beta phase has taught me several things about those social TV over Internet clients: They do add interactivity to the TV experience. Users can chat about a TV show they are viewing at that moment or rate shows for instance. Both TV clients have one big disadvantage though that weighs much more than the new interactivity. Joost and Bablegum stream pre-recorded tv shows only, at least in this stage. There is absolutely no live content and the content that is currently offered is considered by many as B-Movie content.

zattoo logoIf you are looking for high rated TV shows like Lost, 24 or Prison Break you’ve come to the wrong place. I was fortunate enough to get a temporary invite for Zattoo which is live TV on your computer. This is a different and probably the better working method for now to stream TV content over the Internet. Zattoo is a European company which already has more than 300000 subscribers to their service and will soon become available in many European countries including Germany, Great Britain and France.

I was able to test an internation version of Zattoo which was able to stream all tv programs currently available. Those are the same tv stations that can be seen in Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Switzerland using a normal TV. Some of the stations that are currently available include: BBC Prime and World, Canale 5, France 2-5, ARD and ZDF and Rai Une to Tre.

zattoo screenshot

Image quality of the shows is excellent, it takes a few seconds until all artifacts disappear but from that moment on it looks great. It is possible to watch the shows in fullscreen with a slightly better image quality than Joost or Bablegum offer at this moment.

zattoo

Zattoo is currently preparing launches in major European countries and if they will be successful they intend to expand to the American market as well.

I personally think that Zattoo is far more complete at this stage than Joost and Bablegum are. You can actually see live TV which includes for instance sports events like Champions League, the Olympics and Formula 1. It is also a great assistance in learning new languages. What could be better to learn French than to listen to French television ?

Image quality is far superior to other known p2p Internet clients such as TVU Player. Watchout Joost, Bablegum – here comes Zattoo.

Tags: , , , , ,

Related posts

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2007/04/08/say-goodbye-to-joost-and-bablegum-here-comes-zattoo/feed/ 50