Playonlater

[bhawley]

Just installed the beta and am trying my first Netflix recording, if this works it will be sweet. PlayLater: Record the future with PlayLater, the DVR for online video

 

[cgott42]

How well did it work?

thx

 

[bhawley]

Records from Netflix with little problem, quality is the same. Plays thru my WD Live using Playon. Can't complain except my trial period ran out.

 

[lparsons21]

I just tried it out on my Mac with windows 7 running under VMWare. I thought it all looked real good, but after recording it wouldn't play in Windows Media player which it insisted on launching.

And playon server didn't show up on any of my HR24s.

Seems strange as I used to use Playon server a long time ago in a virtual machine and it worked fine.

 

[lparsons21]

Followup : I got Playlater to work just fine on my Mac with VMWare and Windows 7. I was wanting to test it out to work with Playon and had installed that too. Turns out you can't do that. You load only the Playlater setup and it loads some of Playon. So the recording and playback works fine.

But, the HRs I have won't see the playon server. I'll test later today with something else to see if it will work with that.

 

[lparsons21]

Just some info. the .plv format that Playlater uses is compatible with Windows Live Movie Maker and you can load that file into it and save it as a wmv...

Just sayin'

 

[bhawley]

Just some info. the .plv format that Playlater uses is compatible with Windows Live Movie Maker and you can load that file into it and save it as a wmv...

Just sayin'

I can't get this to work, Movie Maker says not supported. Any secrets?

 

[lparsons21]

None that I know of. I just right clicked on the plv file and told it to open with Live Movie Maker and it took it no problem.

This on windows 7 if that makes a difference.

 

[lparsons21]

I went ahead and subscribed to the program. For those that don't know or haven't looked, the cost is $4.99/month for Playlater. When I signed up it charged that amount for one month. But that is supposed to be Playlater only meaning you can watch what you record on the machine the software is on. If you want to share it with a DLNA client on your network, it is supposed to cost a bit more, or at least that's what I thought. But mine is working and sharing fine.

A couple of followups.
1. For some reason, I wasn't seeing it on the HR24s (IOW, it wasn't showing media menu). But now it is and it works great. A bit slow in reacting to the remote, but once the video starts it is very good. IMO, I recorded Terra Nova Ep 3 and watched it via Playlater via my wireless network to the HR24 and the picture was every bit as good as it was on the broadcast in HD. I'm impressed!!

2. The plv format is compatible with Windows Live Movie Maker, BUT you have to right click on the file and select 'open with' and select WLMM. If you try to open the file with WLMM, it won't work. I have no clue why that is.

Playlater is worth it IF you watch a fair amount of IPTV from the sources that are available to Playon either by default, or by the plethora of 3rd party plugins. That is a pretty broad coverage.

 

[lparsons21]

A bit more followup.

This is really a great deal IF you were already using Hulu Plus, especially if Hulu Plus is irritating you because everything is not available. For less than the cost of Hulu Plus, you can get playlater and get and record all the video from Hulu! That's a good deal imo.

And there is an iPad/iPhone/Touch playon app that will allow you to see the videos from playon/playlater.

 

[meStevo]

If I'm going to pirate content I might as well just torrent it. This is against the ToS of all of the sites this works on.

 

[lparsons21]

I don't think you are correct in your statement. MediaMall is a legit company that has never hidden itself from those sources. And how do you figure pirate content has anything to do with it. All of those are readily available in other perfectly legal ways.

And in the case of a login need to make it legal for some sites, you have to configure that into playlater/playon for it to work.

 

[meStevo]

You're recording and saving licensed content from sites that prohibit exactly that. How else do you define piracy? If I'm going to bother with that then I'll just get a better quality and more versatile format for my time from a torrent.

I'm not sure how encrypting these files frees them from any liability, I am not really sure how Playon has gone this long without drawing the ire of content holders who voraciously protect the transmission of their content to devices they don't specifically intend to.

They claim that Playlater works like any DVR, that appears to be their legal shield... I think that will get tested. "Not everything with PlayLater is set in stone quite yet, but I do know that we'll be sticking with the DRM as not to create any animosity with the content holders." - their quote.

 

[mike123abc]

You're recording and saving licensed content from sites that prohibit exactly that. How else do you define piracy? If I'm going to bother with that then I'll just get a better quality and more versatile format for my time from a torrent.

I'm not sure how encrypting these files frees them from any liability, I am not really sure how Playon has gone this long without drawing the ire of content holders who voraciously protect the transmission of their content to devices they don't specifically intend to.

They claim that Playlater works like any DVR, that appears to be their legal shield... I think that will get tested. "Not everything with PlayLater is set in stone quite yet, but I do know that we'll be sticking with the DRM as not to create any animosity with the content holders." - their quote.

They are probably relying on the Sony Beta Max theory. They are just a VCR for content that you legally obtained the right to watch. This is probably why the content providers have not gone after them.

 

[lparsons21]

They are probably relying on the Sony Beta Max theory. They are just a VCR for content that you legally obtained the right to watch. This is probably why the content providers have not gone after them.

which is pretty valid, imo. With playlater you can't get video from places like Netflix unless you subscribe to Netflix, and that holds true at any other site that requires a login or a 'provider' test (like ESPN3).

 

[meStevo]

which is pretty valid, imo. With playlater you can't get video from places like Netflix unless you subscribe to Netflix, and that holds true at any other site that requires a login or a 'provider' test (like ESPN3).

The difference is you don't have a broad fair use license like you get with broadcast programs, you have a specific terms of use on those sites as that content has already been licensed for redistribution via that service.

IMO this is a broken DRM/lots of press from a house of cards losing its foundation, and why I've never been that interested in Playon to begin with.

 

[lparsons21]

As I said, they've been around for a very long time and none of the provided channel owners have sued them that I'm aware of. That in and of itself is a good indication that they don't think they have an issue that would stand up in court. If it is a house of cards, it is a well constructed one!

OTOH, I remember when boxee was trying to make Hulu run on their stuff and all the battles there. Hulu definitely didn't like the folks at boxee and made that really obvious.

 

[primestar31]

A bit more followup.

This is really a great deal IF you were already using Hulu Plus, especially if Hulu Plus is irritating you because everything is not available. For less than the cost of Hulu Plus, you can get playlater and get and record all the video from Hulu! That's a good deal imo.

And there is an iPad/iPhone/Touch playon app that will allow you to see the videos from playon/playlater.

I have PlayOn Premium, and was grandfathered in due to having the previous version when they went to a sub format. So, I don't pay continuing sub costs. Anyway, I'm not too sure I understand the use of PlayLater. Most of what you pull off the web, (Hulu free, Crackle, etc.) is up there all the time sitting on their website. So, since it's there for a long time, why the need to record it to watch later? You can go to their website at anytime, and just watch that.

Now, I guess I could see the use of this if you had an IP tv stream (like ivi tv WAS) to record that, but baring that specific reason, why would I also need PlayLater?

 

[lparsons21]

I usually only record one or two videos at a time and I start them the last thing before I head for bed. That is pretty late and I get much better and consistent bandwidth from my provider that way. Which results in a much better video stream.

The advantage of the recorder over just the streaming is that I can watch what I've recorded at any time and know that the recording will be fine. With streaming, that isn't always the case. If that isn't an issue for you, then the recording would have little value.

 

[mike123abc]

I have PlayOn Premium, and was grandfathered in due to having the previous version when they went to a sub format. So, I don't pay continuing sub costs. Anyway, I'm not too sure I understand the use of PlayLater. Most of what you pull off the web, (Hulu free, Crackle, etc.) is up there all the time sitting on their website. So, since it's there for a long time, why the need to record it to watch later? You can go to their website at anytime, and just watch that.

Now, I guess I could see the use of this if you had an IP tv stream (like ivi tv WAS) to record that, but baring that specific reason, why would I also need PlayLater?

The biggest advantage is for people with slow connections. They can get all the pauses for buffering over with and watch it without glitches.