5 Free Services to Replace Your Cable TV
September 1st, 2008 | Filed under Fun, Guest Posts, Lists, Tools.Guest article by Herbert Lui from CutEdge
With TiVo, PVR’s and TV tuners, we can see that computers and TV’s are coming together. Unfortunately, these three solutions all cost one important thing: mullah. Whether you’re rolling in it or strapped for it, I’m sure that we can all agree that cash is important: and as much as it pains us, there are times when we have to sacrifice our cash for services such as the gym, magazines, and…yes, cable TV.
Watch Free Internet TV Online
Until lately, I could have considered canceling subscribing to the gym or magazines — but not to cable TV. I don’t know why — perhaps I’m addicted, or perhaps it’s just the TV vibe. I found this unsettling, so I set out on a journey to the land of Internet TV to find free. I return with a list of five for everyone to enjoy — who knows, you might just cut the cable.
1. Joost
Perhaps the most famous of the five, Joost is already pretty popular amongst mainstream crowds. However, I’d still consider it pretty underrated — depending on your region, they’ve got tons of material available for free that your service provider would charge for. However, because Joost streams video, quality might be compromised for waiting time. I’ve given Joost a test run myself, and I’ve found each of its updates to be more and more impressive. If you’ve yet to try it, give it a shot!
2. AnyTV
Now usually I don’t endorse software that I haven’t personally tried, but I felt compelled to mention this one that I found in PC World - I felt that if it was good enough for them, it’d be good enough for the folks over at QuickOnlineTips.
3. Hulu
Hulu is definitely what I’d consider one of the neatest things since sliced bread. I once went on a trip to the U.S. recently, and had the opportunity to try it out: if I hadn’t been careful, I might’ve stayed all day at the hotel just to watch the shows on it! Quality was acceptable, load times were quick, and — best of all, they had The Simpsons. Unfortunately, Hulu’s still only exclusive to residents of the United States. As a Canadian, I feel totally deprived.
4. Fancast
If Hulu had acceptable quality videos, Fancast’s quality is definitely high-def. Although Hulu is the pioneer and did come first, Fancast is a close number-one contender: the video that I had started actually fit very gracefully onto my 1280×800px monitor by default! However, like Hulu, Fancast is also only available in the United States: which kind of bites for the rest of the world. I’ll throw in two words that I hope don’t get censored: proxy servers.
5. Miro
Miro is the crown jewel of our five: we definitely saved the best for last. Miro is available to the entire world, and actually, has already been mentioned a couple of times on QuickOnlineTips. I felt the need to bring it back up to do it some justice: you haven’t actually experienced Internet TV until you’ve tried Miro. Quality is excellent, GUI is reminiscent of a PVR, and download speeds are acceptable. I won’t rant anymore about Miro, since this should be a quick online tip, but if you’re curious about it, hop over to my post at CutEdge.
There you have it folks — although there are a few more services out there that offer Internet TV, I felt that these five were the ones most worth mentioning. Who knows, if I wandered a bit further into Internet TV territory, I might be able to come back with a few more jewels to share with everyone!
This guest article was written by Herbert Lui from CutEdge where he blogs about tech advice, resources, and reviews for the consumer, that will help you buy smarter, think smarter, and know more about products. Got a tip to share, you can also write a guest article on QOT.
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Comments
Try out http://www.freetube.us.tc which helped me watch some tv channels while in residence in college.
This is just what I have been looking for, I pay over $120 for cable every month, I will check out the links!
Thanks,
JR
Hi, thanks for noting Fancast. We think our content is second to none and your readers may like to take a look at the amazing library of totally free TV shows - more than 4,500 hours of streaming free full length content, with more than 5,600 episodes from over 100 video providers including top networks like NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox and WB - here
http://www.fancast.com/full_episodes
and movies here
http://www.fancast.com/movies
On the technical side, we have been listening to the comments from our viewers over the last several months and recently unveiled a brand new look, putting a lot of their suggestions to work, including an embeddable video player and a search sytem that we think you will find very useful.
Cheers,
Jim (for fancast)
Hi thanks for noting Fancast as a great place to see TV shows (and movies) online and FREE! I’m probably a little biased, but I think it’s one of the best and our content is second to none, especially if you’re trying to find or watch a show that isn’t even on the air anymore, because in addition to current hits like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, 24, The Colbert Report, South park, 30 Rock, CSI, etc., we have a great list of classics, including many of the great old CBS sitcoms of the Golden Era of Mary Tyler Moore, Dick Van Dyke, Bob Newhart, and tons more. We recently debuted a new look, and incorporated a lot of fan suggestions that have come in over the last few months, so I hope you and your readers check us out. And if your readers want to get a quick idea of the amazing library of shows, here’s the list
http://www.fancast.com/full_episodes
Cheers,
Jim (for Fancast)
i tried Joost and it works great
Thanks for this info! I love Hulu and Fancast but did not know about the others. Thanks a bunch.
There’s also something called LiveStation, there’s even Discovery§ Channel, but I never got it to work.
http://www.livestation.com/
I absolutely adore joost and have been using it for some time, but for when I want to watch something that’s not on there usually I find http://www.surfthechannel.com to be the best place, they have a great community too, so it’s definitely worth a recommendation.
funny that fancast is pulling content [the shows]from hulu
wow joost is pretty nice! sweet dude thanks.
Thanks for all the responses, folks. Glad to be of service.
@K: I hope to try LiveStation out very soon — it could be in a sequel to this post, who knows?
@Edd and Gorgon: The sites you suggested are great, but I am questioning their legitimacy. Perhaps I need to do a bit of research to see how legal they really are.
great, I tried joost, pretty good.
I’m a huge fan of Hulu. I’ve not heard of some of the other ones though. Very cool. Thanks for the list.
Sigh hulu and fancast are only for people in the USA >< sucks for us… but Jooost is pretty good
You could use a Free to Air Satellite receiver.
Joost its really cool and also i think miro its a good choice but i still learning how to use it
thanks
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