Web TV Wire » Free TV Sites

History Channel Review | Watch Full Length Historic Documentaries & Videos Online

RobM — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:44:39 +0000

The History Channel website offers a variety of full-length episodes that can be viewed in entirety online.

What the History Channel Website Offers

The History Channel website offers a number of interesting full-episodes of programs to watch online, such as “Hero Ships” and “Cities of the Underworld”. In addition, the site offers a interesting variety of clips and videos from other programs from their lineup.

Whether the offerings of the history channel really go above and beyond “sensational” history is another story completely – the impression I get is that a large volume of the supposed historical episodes have to do with UFOs, Nostradamus, and the unexplained.

Navigation and Finding Full Episodes to Watch

From the main page of the History Channel website, simply clicking on the ‘Video’ tab routes you to a comprehensive listing of all of the channel’s current show. Conveniently, the shows that offer full episodes are marked with a red “Full Episodes Available”, a nice touch when other sites (like Disney, for instance) make navigation to full episodes of programs more of a difficult task.

In addition, this main video page also breaks down the collection of videos by category, allowing you to find programs of interest based on topic (although “Mysteries and the Unexplained” seem to take up an unnecessarily large section of the categories. Well, whatever.)

Viewing Episodes Online

I selected “UFO Hunters” (as that was always my favorite aspect of world history in public school…) and was routed to the page for this particular series. Following a brief commercial, the first things broadcast were a short succession of video clips from “UFO Hunters”. You need to click another tab for “Season 1 Full Episodes” in order to get to full-episode segments, broken into 10 minute playtimes.

The audio and video worked fine for the video, and offered features such as full-screen and email sharing options. It’s just the selection of subject matter that remains a little questionable, and makes me wonder: if this represents history according to the History channel, then why did I have to learn about Louis XIV in school and not aliens and Mayan 2012 predictions?

History Channel Sample Programming

Other Features of the History Channel Site

The History Channel site also offers a guide to current programming, a large number of games and multimedia applications, a store for purchasing various episodes, and info about their magazine.

The site is comprehensive, and above and beyond the full-length episodes there is a lot of interesting content to check out.

The History Channel

You Might Also Be Interested In

ToonJet.com Review | Watch Full Streaming Looney Tune & Classic Cartoons Online

RobM — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 06:37:03 +0000

ToonJet offers a large selection of full-length classic cartoons that can be viewed online.

What is ToonJet?

ToonJet allows you to watch free online cartoons, with many full-length cartoons that can be viewed right within an internet brower.

An interesting feature of the site is the ToonJet Live feature, that basically allows you to watch the equivalent of a live cartoon channel as its streamed through the site. I was able to tune in and right away enjoy a Porky Pig cartoon already in progress, much like tuning into a live show.

Cartoons Offered

In addition to the live streaming cartoon, you can also select a tab to view cartoons for various categories such as:

Betty Boop
Felix the Cat
Looney Toons
Popeye
Superman
Tom & Jerry

You can also opt to receive content via RSS feed, so you can keep up with the new content being added.

Other ToonJet Features

You can create a user account with ToonJet, and use it to identify and save favorites, as well as befriend other ToonJet users.

ToonJet also offers a blog (with fairly outdated content as of this writing). I would have liked to see a little bit more, such as some image galleries or games, but as it stands, the video content of the site is plentiful and enough to keep me occupied enjoying classic toons.

Video Sample from ToonJet

A Repository of Classic Cartoons Online

As a big fan of the classic cartoons of long ago, ToonJet is a online treasure of toons such as Bugs Bunny, Superman and Tom & Jerry. The live streaming option is a nice touch, but it’s nice that there are categories of videos to select from if you aren’t in the mood for whatever the live channel is offering at the time.

ToonJet

CBS AdLabs Beta Review | Ad-Watching Gimmick for Free CBS TV Episodes Online?

RobM — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:57:03 +0000

CBS has an interesting gimmick going on at their Ad Labs site, in which you can view advertisements in order to watch CBS full-length episodes online. Will this trend take off?

Watching Ads for Free TV

To get up and running, you need to register with CBS, and the registration process runs fairly quickly, prompting you for a username and password along with other information. You can also log in with a facebook account.

Once you create an account, the CBS AdLabs page presents you with basically two options: watch ads or watch TV shows. Your current credit balance is also displayed on the screen as well. You start off, obviously, at zero credits.

Selective Ad Watching

I started out watching a few ads to grab some credit. Selecting the “Earn Credits” link routed me to a page in which I could select which ads I wanted to view, each earning 1 credit.

This sort of gimmickery reminds me of some of the “make money online” sites, that pay you something like the 100th of a penny for every advertisement you view, but in the case of Ad Labs, you’re just building up a collection of credits for viewing CBS programming.

The ads are fairly standard ones: luxury cars, blackberry devices and credit cards, etc. Nothing overly exciting, but they pass quick, and you can always flip over to a different browser tab while they run.

Thoughts about the Ads…

One of the nice things about this system, though, is the fact that you can select which ads you want to watch. You aren’t at the mercy of CBS but rather you can scroll through a long list of adds and view these for credit.

Truth be told, this could be a neat system if CBS included a few movie trailers in the mix, but instead the selection of ads isn’t the most exciting.

At least CBS does offer a feedback form at the bottom of the page, so if enough folks write in to suggest that CBS ad some half-interesting movie trailers (namely anything without Owen Wilson) there might then be some improvement to the site.

Watching Shows with Earned Credit

The shows are currently limited in selection to programs like NCIS, Numb3rs, and some of the CSI programs. So I selected ‘CSI: Miami’ (if for no other reason than to catch a David Caruso philosophical-sunglasses zinger).

An episode of CSI:Miami required two credits, so I needed to sit through two ads prior to proceeding, but once the ads were done and the episode was started, it was refreshing to be able to watch the full episode, totally commerical free (even if the episode of CSI was completely contrived.)

Other Thoughts…

Its fascinating to me the level at which television has mutated over the years. Gone are the commercial breaks inbetween segments of the show, and now we can “earn” our way around these ads by simply watching a few selective ads at our own convenience and then get rewarded with our show.

Although I wonder…

What is it, though, that keeps the viewer from starting the ad and then jumping to another tab? Or reading a book? True, “traditional” TV ads are no different: you can always get up and walk away from those ads too, so is this basically the same paradigm?

I have to wonder if this sort of system will catch on, or if this will just be another gimmick that never quite takes off because the same programs can be found somewhere else without the cost of commercials? It will be interesting to see what happens.

CBS Adlabs Links

You may also be interested in:

Hoy! Telemundo.com Review | Watch Full-Length Spanish TV Episodes & Videos Online

RobM — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:57:33 +0000

Telemundo offers a number of full-length Spanish television programs that can be viewed in entirety online.

Telemundo – Spanish Television

Even for the mildly-Spanish literate, the Telemundo website offers a number of programs that can be viewed online, in addition to various video clips from numerous Telemundo television programs. While the site offers no direct English translation, the navigation is obvious enough that you can easily access the video page to watch full-length Spanish television episodes.

Getting Started

From the main Telemundo site, if you select the “Shows” tab, you are routed to a page featuring a number of programs that can be viewed online. Some of the content is a little questionable, with numerous images and articles featuring scantly-clad bodies interspersed throughout the site… enough that I wouldn’t recommend Telemundo as ideal viewing for all-ages. Anyhow, on the right of the page you can select the program name that you would like, and then you’re routed to a page for that show, with links to articles, images, and extras. Clicking ‘videos’ will route you to a section with “All the videos” and there you can view full episodes (broken into 3-part segments.)

Playing the Videos

The episodes all started without any problems and the video quality is fine, as is the audio (translational differences notwithstanding.) The video player features the standard controls for play, volume, etc. Programs with full-length episodes available include:

12 Corazones
Al Rojo Vivo
Casa Cerrado
Levántate
Nitido

Telemundo Video Links

Rippol.com Review | TV & Movie Online Video Search Engine

RobM — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 02:21:27 +0000

Rippol is an video search engine for searching and rating various TV programs and movies online.

The Idea Behind Rippol

Rippol is a straight-forward search engine for finding television programs and movies online, with searches broken into various categories for searching. From my experimentation with it I found it to be a comprehensive engine yet still a work in progress that could use a little tweaking.

What Rippol is About

According to the site, Rippol works based on how users view and rate films, with content changing dynamically per user preferences. According to the site:

“Every video you watch, rate and review affects The Butterfly Effect Network which changes the order you and others see content in real-time. The Butterfly Effect Network cross references videos similar to what you like and have watched with the habits and opinions of your friends and demographics.”

It’s a clever idea, namely the idea of cultivating similar videos based on what others are doing, in addition to your own preferences. Makes me wonder, though, if your tastes are completely eclectic, are really going to find many similar cross references?

Getting Started with Rippol

Registration is required to get started, either via Facebook or Twitter account, or you can just create a Rippol account, which is what I did.

Following registration, I received an activation email, which I selected that led me back to Rippol to log in. I entered my user-id and pswd, and instantly received a popup box prompting me with “what do you like?” Once registered, you’re up and running!

First Search with Rippol

Well, I’m curious to find obscure 80’s programming like “Automan”, so I entered that as my search and hit “continue”.

The initial hits weren’t very close: I’d wager that with YouTube I’d have a couple screens of results, but here I got one, and it wasn’t even related to the “automan” television program.

Second Search with Rippol…

Not to be deterred in my quest for obscure 80’s television, I entered a new search of term “Manimal” which brought back two hits: one of clips from the show (a hit!) and the other for an unrelated musical band.

So my initial thoughts is either no one has really bothered incorporating nostalgic 80’s television, or Rippol is still building up it’s content, which is fine, as the site ran smoothly and quickly returned the results.

What Exactly is Buzzy?

The ‘Buzzy’ link, when selected, gives no real clue as to what it does, but presents a numebr of categories that can be selected, such as “Comedy”, “Music” and “Education”. I selected Education and received a bunch of seemingly random video clips on the screen.

Oddly, I don’t see the connection with a number of these videos to the category of “education”, but rather these just seemed like films that arbitrarily got tagged as “educational” (e.g. “Make $3275.70 before Christmas”?)

Full-length TV Episodes on Rippol

Selecting “TV Shows” from the header banner presents a large selection of categories on the screen, such as “Comedy”, “drama”, “action”, “crime”, “thrillers”, etc. I selected “History”, and was routed to a number of different programs.

I selected the “Biography” category, and within this were a number of full-length episodes. I selected a Biography episode featuring Drew Carey, and was routed to the full-length episode.

Controls and Features

In addition to standard video controls, the page offered a number of features such as the ability to offer reviews, see who else had watched the program, add as a favorite, and even mark the video as a like/dislike. Facebook and Tweet links are also offered for the videos watched.

Some of the video links direct to a Netflix login prompt (the Monty Pyton episodes did this for me) and, since I’m not a Netflix user, that was the end of the line.

You Call These Movies?

Next I checked out the ‘Movies’ page, and the films are far from impressive. “Steel Dawn” and “Attack of the Puppet People”? I haven’t seen titles like this since I was shelving films in the 2-for-a-$1 section at the video store.

I selected “The Giant Gila Monster” and watched a few minutes of this goofy gem, and like the TV Shows on Rippol, the movies offer the same controls and rating options.

Final thoughts

For a beta, Rippol is still pretty impressive. The navigation and controls can be a little wonky, and every now and then a button or link will appear half-visible on the screen, but otherwise I was able to easily navigate to several television shows and movies.

The ‘Social Stream’ on the left side-bar is a nice addition, reminiscent of what YouTube does in allowing you to see what other folks are viewing at the same time. I like the idea here on building content via ratings and other users, and think there could be a lot of potential to Rippol.

Rippol Online

Reeltime.com Review | Limited TV Channels & Video on Demand Movie Streaming

RobM — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:51:50 +0000

Reeltime.com is a site offering video-on-demand of diverse television programs and eventually movies. Its apparently pre-launch and content is still being added, but in fact the site has been around since 2004.

What’s Reeltime All About?

Reeltime.com (not to be confused with ‘reel-time.com’, an online resource for saltwater flyfishers) has a confusing home page at first glance and my initial reaction was, “What on earth does this site broadcast?”

Generic images flicker on the site, such as a family, some elephants, a sunset, a mountain? Initially I was wondering if this was a place for streaming video or was it just a generic clip-art site?

5 Years in Pre-Launch?

According to Wikipedia (and a citation is needed here) the site launched in 2004. Yet now in 2009 a ‘pre-launch’ notice is apparent on the ReelTime site.

According to a review on KillerStartups from 2007 it appeared that ReelTime was focusing on movie rental, including HD movies, but that focus seems to have changed since.

This makes me wonder if the site is ever going to officially launch. It’s typical for innovative start-ups to jump around with ideas and try different things, but after 5 years it still seems that ReelTime still has not found its footing, as the rest of this review will highlight.

Its also no surprise that the company has yet to turn a profit.

Navigation and Getting Started

The main page lists out a number of different “channels” with different topics, so to get started, I clicked on “1 ACTV”, which was arts and culture. This routed me to a list of interesting episode titles such as “ballroom dance healing”(?) and “Healing harp”(??).

Reeltime requires a registration before you can start viewing the videos, which I got through pretty quickly, and once you’ve completed this step and received your user confirmation email, you can begin viewing programs.

Channels Offered from Reeltime

I selected the option to view a program called “Trees Made of Glass” (if, for no other reason than the cool sounding title) and was routed to a page prompting for a Microsoft Silverlight plugin, which I installed fairly quickly through a link on Reeltime.

As far as browsers needed for Reeltime, I usually drive on Firefox, and this browser is supported, as well as IE and Safari. Windows and Mac 10 are also supported.

Some Technical Issues…

Once the Silverlight install completed, Reeltime told me:

Now, as an aside, I’m a software Quality Assurance Analyst full time, and nothing bothers me more than unearthing bugs on sites on which I don’t get paid to unearth them, especially if I’m NOT running a beta of a product, but an actual site.

However, clicking the, ahem, “1″ pop-up, cleared the message and I was on my way to learning about “glass trees”. The reeltime player worked fine, and offered a number of typical features like a full screen option, navigation buttons, and even a link for sharing the video clip.

Other Channel Offerings on Reeltime

My attention only being held so long, I decided to pop back to the main page to see what else Reeltime had to offer. Here are some samplings of what I found on the main channel map:

FTV – “Food Television”, with programs such as “Church Pie Ladies” and “Chinese Feast”
LTV – “Laugh Television”, featuring one program, “Speedy”(?)
RSFTV – “Reel Sci-Fi Television”, featuring one program, “The British UFO Files” (no Doctor Who?)
RLTV – “Reel Legal Television”, featuring “The Jaundiced Eye” (why have I never heard of some of these)

One of the channels, RTV-”Romance Television”, didn’t have any offerings, as well as some of the other channels, giving me the impression that this is a fairly new system and is still getting it’s footing.

Thoughts About the Programming

This looks and feels a lot like PBS broadcasts, or the type of programming you’d find on public television on any given day. Not overly thrilling material if you, like me, were weened on programs featuring cinematic space battles, evil aliens and robots.

Another thing that seemed strange to me was that the episodes I sampled capped off at about 2 1/2 minutes, with no continuation. Should there have been a ‘next’ button, or was that it, and shouldn’t the video have had a text message indicated something about the fact that I was only watching a trial? The few programs I caught, while not exciting, just ended after a couple minutes with no sense of completion. I had a hard time figuring out what was going on with this site.

Reeltime Store for Reeltime Items

Reeltime’s main page also links to a Reelstore where you can purchase things like hats, books, and health products, but much like the video selection, many of the departments are completely empty, such as the “Reel History Department”, which opens an empty folder stating “This department is currently empty. Please check back soon for new Products…” This site, and it’s store, could really benefit from a more robust inventory.

Premium Content with Reelclub

Reeltime also has a section for a reelclub that you can join. The offer includes discounts on merchandise from the stores, as well as a 10% discount on pay-per-view movies. What’s puzzling to me is that, all I can find on this site are television episodes. What movie’s is this talking about?

Apparently the site is in pre-launch, so it’s understandable if the site is missing some content or clarity, but it would have been appreciated if prior to putting this site online the folks at Reeltime had given a little more information about what this site is supposed to be about and when it will be offering full episodes of programs online.

Reeltime Links

BravoTV.com | Watch Full Bravo TV Episodes & Video Clips Online

RobM — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:11:41 +0000

The Bravo cable channel offers a number of full-length episodes that can be viewed online, including “Top Chef” and “The Real Housewives of Orange County.”

BravoTV Full-Length Episodes Online

Bravo is a cable channel offering a wide-variety of original programming. Their site, BravoTV.com, offers a number of full-length episodes, a large of video clips (over 7,000+) from a large number of their programs, in addition to other comments like image galleries, games and blogs.

Detailed Schedule of Bravo Programming

BravoTV also offers you a detailed viewing schedule of the day’s programming, with the ability to see two weeks worth in advanced. The schedule includes the name of the show, the broadcast time and a comprehensive description of the episode (enough of a description to let me know that I personally have no interest in viewing any of these programs in the first place.)

I know of the Bravo channel from watching “Inside the Actors Studio” with James Lipton from year ago, so it was interesting for me to research into Bravo online to see what else they are offering in addition to this. From the programming lineup, it appears the Bravo channel basically offers a large selection of original programming, some films, as well as repeats of older prime-time programs such as “West Wing”.

Full Episodes Available on BravoTV

Bravo offers some full-length programs on their site, and I checked out a few of these. Personally the sfull-show election seems a little limited, but all the same, it’s a fair sampling of some of Bravo’s original programming. Curiously, the first time I attempted to select a particular video I was routed to a blank screen and a “null: null” message, and as I’ve noted before, since my background is quality assurance, nothing irks me more than unearthing bugs that I don’t get paid to find (especially on high pagerank sites like BravoTV.com)

Regardless, I checked out an episode of “Top Chef”, and the episode loaded fine for me, with decent picture and sound. The episode starts, as you’d expect, with a quick advertiser message at the beginning, then a full episode plays with the standard navigation controls available on the site. Other than the initial “null” message, I was able to sample a couple videos, all of which ran fine but didn’t hold my attention for long.

BravoTv Clip of James Lipton Interviewing Hillary Swank

Other Features of BravoTV

In addition to online videos and episode guides, BravoTV also offers a number of, frankly, inane blogs. Unless someone is a serious fan of the programming and the actors from these shows, most all of these blogs are irrelevant and really didn’t hold my interest with any valuable content.

The Photos page of the BravoTV site offers a limited selection of images from Bravo programming (mostly dubious OC Housewife material), and the Games page of the site offers a selection of mostly IQ-style trivia games, again based on Bravo programming and that, if you don’t know the shows, the trivia is, well, trivial.

Final Thoughts…

In the quest to seek out new television programming viewable online, I have to say that personally, there is nothing whatsoever at all on Bravo that appeals to me personally, either in the programming or the site content.

Nevertheless, I’m sure that there are some people who will enjoy the full episodes offered online through Bravo. However, after browsing what Bravo has to offer I’m just left feeling that most of what they offer is shallow and superficial.