Tune in to a number of live streams from some of your favorite television networks
Tune in to a number of live streams from some of your favorite television networks
Pros
- Simple interface
- Lightweight design
Cons
- Most channels do not play
- Program links are outdated
- Relies on free links that can be watched without the application
The Online TV player makes it possible to watch a variety of broadcast and cable television stations over the Internet. The program is very small and installs in just a few seconds. The application cannot operate by itself, so it needs to have a functioning copy of the RealPlayer, Windows Media Player or another fully featured media player installed on the computer to work properly. Two versions of the Online TV player are available. The free version allows for basic viewing of programs, while the professional version includes more channels, faster connection speeds, free upgrades and free technical support.
The interface for the Online TV player is very simple. There is a viewing window taking up most of the screen, where the television programs are actually played. The left side of the window is a pane listing all of the channels and audio stations available, which are all technically free to watch. A box in the bottom left allows users to filter out stations by location, bandwidth or category of programming. There are some buttons across the top, but all they really do is change the program language, search the stations, open a file or give users the option of upgrading to the premium version.
One of the first things users are going to notice is that there is a diverse range of channels. There are a few hundred English language channels, but the rest of the stations are not in English. The majority of the programming is from other countries like Denmark, Ecuador and Thailand. Additionally, there are duplicate stations in most of the categories. This happens when there are multiple versions of a station in different time zones or if the stations are broadcasting at different speeds. The actual number of unique stations is far less than what is listed in the browser.
The Online TV player has a critical issue that cannot be avoided. The reality is that the large majority of the stations listed in the application are simply unavailable. The application itself does not give any salient reason why. Instead, users are presented with cryptic messages from whatever media players is being used about files not found, broken streams and other technical issues. The few stations that do load and play are largely niche religious or community information stations that have very little programming available. There is a live update option available in the program, although this seems to update only the language packs and not the channel selection.
Online TV player does not actually do anything special. It gives you a list of channels that is really just a collection of links from the official websites of different television stations that provide live streaming video. The links are passed to the appropriate media player when clicked. The program does not appear to have been updated in at least four years, and the links are mostly out of date. Although the concept is good, the Online TV player is not really a functional program any longer.
Pros
- Simple interface
- Lightweight design
Cons
- Most channels do not play
- Program links are outdated
- Relies on free links that can be watched without the application
