Any TVU Player users? Nice free program!

[delta_charlie]

Hi all, I was listening to the FTA show on Access America on 97W and they mentioned a free IPTV player called TVU Player. I googled it and found the download.

It works quite well and has quite a lot of free channels on it. I even found BBC World on it. I only have cable lite broadband (384/768) even with this limitation it was still able to stream the BBC World. The picture quality was not very good but what the heck the audio is excellent and when they show the news of the bus and car wreck I can still see the difference between the bus and the car

It is worth checking out for all the channels that are not available any other way.

Later, DC

 

[Jim S.]

I hadn't heard of TVU, but I'll certainly check it out.

I've been using Livestation | Watch instant, interactive, live TV on your desktop | Download the free Livestation player; it sounds like they both function in a similar way. One advantage to Livestation is that they have a Linux client; one advantage to TVU is that they say that they'll always be free whereas Livestation's TOS makes it sound like they're doing us a favor by letting us test it for free and they reserve the right to make it a pay service (although they already have a few pay channels, just like TVU.)

 

[Jim S.]

OK, I installed TVU. I prefer Livestation.

First, I had to manually open a port in my router's firewall for TVU. I don't remember having to do that with Livestation. No biggie for me, but it will confound network-illiterate users -- either that, or they'll turn their firewalls off.

Second. Ads? I don't remember seeing anything on the website about ads! So that's TWO strikes in one.

Third, Livestation maintains a professional presence on its support forums. TVU's forums seem to be inhabited by users who are very unprofessional.

As far as available channels are concerned, I see a few channels on TVU that weren't on Livestation the last time I checked. But I also see a lot more that obviously aren't there legally.

 

[delta_charlie]

OK, I installed TVU. I prefer Livestation.

First, I had to manually open a port in my router's firewall for TVU. I don't remember having to do that with Livestation. No biggie for me, but it will confound network-illiterate users -- either that, or they'll turn their firewalls off.

Second. Ads? I don't remember seeing anything on the website about ads! So that's TWO strikes in one.

Third, Livestation maintains a professional presence on its support forums. TVU's forums seem to be inhabited by users who are very unprofessional.

As far as available channels are concerned, I see a few channels on TVU that weren't on Livestation the last time I checked. But I also see a lot more that obviously aren't there legally.

Hi Jim, interesting - when I installed it I did not have to open any ports on my router. I also do not see any ads. Perhaps I don't see the ads because I did not install Adobe Flash. It keeps asking to install it but I keep canceling. As they say your mileage may vary

Later, DC

 

[Jim S.]

I found another TV-over-Internet service today:

Download Readon TV Movie Radio Player 5.5.5.0 - Watch and listen to thousands of TV and radio channels all over the world. Record your favorite MTV and radio songs to MP3. - Softpedia

This one has a truly enormous list of channels. Unfortunately, many of them don't appear to be working at any particular point in time. It'll be something to keep an eye on though.

My favorite for usability remains Livestation, despite the smaller list of channels compared to the others. Livestation uses a sort of peer-to-peer technology, sort of a realtime version of bittorrent, so that streams can't get bandwidth-choked at any point on the network.

 

[marco916]

Just checking out your posts, I really like this Livestation, the software, layout of the stations really cool, reminds of JoostTv. I'm running Livestation on a MAC PC. Some of the feeds are not availible, but you get some decent stations. I'm also using this Playon server to both my Wii game console and Western Digital Media Player, this is also another neat aveanue to get some IPTV streams. I've checked out the TUV player as well, little too much going on, some good stuff also

I hadn't heard of TVU, but I'll certainly check it out.

I've been using Livestation | Watch instant, interactive, live TV on your desktop | Download the free Livestation player; it sounds like they both function in a similar way. One advantage to Livestation is that they have a Linux client; one advantage to TVU is that they say that they'll always be free whereas Livestation's TOS makes it sound like they're doing us a favor by letting us test it for free and they reserve the right to make it a pay service (although they already have a few pay channels, just like TVU.)