ChrisTV Online is one more app for cord-cutters

Alan Buckingham
Dec 26, 2012
Updated • Dec 26, 2012
Software, tv
|
9

These days everyone seems to be talking about "cutting the cord", but while we all want to do it, it is more difficult than you think. That is why we talk about it, but few of us actually do it. Thankfully, it is becoming increasingly easier with more and more services becoming available to ease the transition.

Netflix offers affordable streaming of movies and TV shows, as does Amazon Prime and Instant, Hulu, PlayOn and Crackle (which is free). Redbox Instant is out in private beta and expected to be released in early 2013. There are also a plethora of other, less well-known apps out there, like ChrisTV Online.

This one is pretty interesting for several reasons. It not only provides U.S. channels, bit others from around the world and even lets users choose by location and language. The download is less than 6 MB.

The app installation is simple, but it does require you to fill out a brief survey. You will need several things to help you run the app -- Windows Media Player, Flash for Internet Explorer, the Veetle TV plugin, Sopcast filter and VLC. All of those may not be necessary, but not having them will limit your channel options.

christv online main screen

Once you open the app, you will find a channel list in a column down the right side of the screen. By default, the app groups channels by country, but there is a dropdown box on the list that allows you to choose from other groupings like language or channel type. You can also view by movies or TV shows.

Conclusion

While the free app provides quite a variety of video that will keep you occupied, there are some catches. The free version does not include US channels and many features have to be enabled with the paid version. That will provide, not only the US, but also many premium channels, as well as unlimited recording and no reminders to upgrade. The premium version retails for 25.00 US or 30.00 Euro.

Martin's take on the program

I thought I give ChrisTV Online Free Edition a try as well to see if I can add anything to the review. First thing that I noticed is that you need to monitor the installation dialog carefully as you will end up with third party offers installed on your system otherwise. The program tried to install Relevant Knowledge and Complitly during installation. If you do not want those, make sure you disable them.

The program itself displays the channel list on the right which you can see on the screenshot above. Channels are grouped by country by default, which you can change to language, category and a couple of other sorting options instead.

Icons highlight the channel type for each channel in the list. Channels with a white f on a red background for instance are all premium channels that you can't play using the free version. You also can't hide the premium channels in the list to avoid clicking on them.

A computer monitor indicates an official TV channel that is streaming contents, a web cam contents that are supplied by web cams, and a speaker radio channels.

I did receive "the channel is not available at the moment" messages quite often while browsing through the channel selection and would say that more than 50% of channels that I tried to play did not work.

Advertisement

Tutorials & Tips


Previous Post: «
Next Post: «

Comments

  1. Alex said on December 29, 2012 at 9:32 pm
    Reply

    I do not know what the paid version is like, but the FREE one is useless.
    A list of thousands of “channels”, with no indication which are premium and which are free. Once you start testing them, one by one, you find many blocked (as premium , not for the free version), and many just do not work (either connection problem, or not transmitting content during the time I tested). I managed to watch some seconds of some channels with awful video quality, before losing my patience and uninstalling the application.

    I know you included the warning in your review, but in my humble opinion it would be nice to have these lines in BOLD and STRONG YELLOW highlighting , so nobody misses them :

    “First thing that I noticed is that you need to monitor the installation dialog carefully as you will end up with third party offers installed on your system otherwise. The program tried to install Relevant Knowledge and Complitly during installation. If you do not want those, make sure you disable them.”

    I did not pay enough attention to the Relevant Knowledge warning, and only noticed it was installed after a week (my 1st reboot after ChrisTV installation, due to power failure).

    Relevant Knowledge: what is it, how it get installed and how to remove it
    http://cleanbytes.net/relevant-knowledge-what-is-it-how-it-get-installed-and-how-to-remove-it

  2. Terry said on December 28, 2012 at 4:17 pm
    Reply

    The Readon TV Movie Audio player is better or TVU for that matter.

  3. Morely Dotes said on December 27, 2012 at 12:39 am
    Reply

    What a useless piece of crap! Not ONE SINGLE CHANNEL is available in the free version (other than the same ones I can get for free on my Roku) in English.

    Who the Hell thought this was a good program to blog about?

    I am disgusted.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on December 27, 2012 at 1:21 am
      Reply

      A couple of channels worked for me when I tried the application. I do however agree that it is not the most reliable application.

  4. mike said on December 26, 2012 at 11:38 pm
    Reply

    I’ve been using the premium version for a while and it works really good. The free version worked OK too, but of course many of the good channels are in the paid version only.
    Also you can watch what people stream on Justin.tv and Veetle.com.
    Latest version has a movies tab where you can find latest HD movies and tv series.

  5. Transcontinental said on December 26, 2012 at 11:31 pm
    Reply

    Thanks Paul(us), but your information triggered my doubts! I love Roy Orbinson but the song I knew was sung by… well Sarah Vaughan indeed, or as well : http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/s/sarah_vaughan/dream.html

    And that ain’t no soap opera :)

  6. Paul(us) said on December 26, 2012 at 10:06 pm
    Reply

    Transcontinetal its from a Roy Orbison song called Dream.

    Dream, when you’re feeling blue
    Dream, that’s the thing to do
    Just watch the smoke rings rise in the air
    You’ll find your share of memories there

    So dream, when the day is through
    Dream, and they might come true
    Things never are as bad as they seem
    So dream, dream dream

    Dream, when the day is through
    Dream, and they might come true
    Things never are as bad as they seem
    So dream, dream dream

  7. Transcontinental said on December 26, 2012 at 9:26 pm
    Reply

    I don’t know how this one works, even in the paid version. I had at one time tested a few when it was the big fashion, always had problems, most of the time channels even updated being unavailable, or bad connection. Anyway, fun at work but otherwise nothing IMO is worth a home TV. I know, I’m old fashioned. Anyhow, I wouldn’t spare 25$ for this, even fully functional, unless — which is unimaginable — a magic network with true channels free of advertisements!!

    “Dream, as the day is through,
    Dreams, as they might come true” … Was it Sarah Vaughan?

  8. Lasse said on December 26, 2012 at 9:10 pm
    Reply

    Thank you for that information -but actually: the free version is absolut useless! Every (sic) interesting channel I tried was marked as “only available with premium version” and a lot of the “free” channels were “not available at this time -try again later” …
    Beside that: you have to be careful not installing a additional “marketing” software during setup!
    No go!

Leave a Reply

Check the box to consent to your data being stored in line with the guidelines set out in our privacy policy

We love comments and welcome thoughtful and civilized discussion. Rudeness and personal attacks will not be tolerated. Please stay on-topic.
Please note that your comment may not appear immediately after you post it.