VOE - Video Over Ethernet & On Demand
I’ve been using a couple of services now for streaming television show’s over the Internet. There are several services for UK People, they’re great for those episodes of your favourite TV show that you’ve missed. Most of them are online apps, requiring just a web browser.
- BBC iPlayer
- C4D - Channel 4 on demand.
- ITV Online
- 5Demand
Two out of all four of these are Mac compatible, annoying some mac-only households. With a complete lack of support for one of the most rapidly growing platforms, it seems a little unfair to offer these services to people who have Windows XP & Vista. I know that licensing can affect how companies distrubute their content but really need to think of the end user.
My Mother recently missed an episode of an a program on ITV1, which she missed to record on our SKY DVR. I told her about the ITV on demand service and off she went on her Laptop, navigating her way to the correct page, until she came back to me and asked for help.
The ITV service had asked her to install Microsoft Silverlight - I am not a fan of the app/platform but I know it works well in some situations. She had successfully installed it, and congrats to my Mother who is a bit scared of getting something wrong, especially with her Laptop. What had happened was that her Laptop had blue screened giving me a stop code, which I could not find any specific information on the code that was given unfortunatly. SilverLight is availible for the Mac giving the ability to watch the ITV service, which worked fantastic, no problems. Thumbs up for ITV.
After a simple restart everything was working well, until when she started to play the video. The audio was out of sync with the video, another restart of Firefox, and attempt to use IE fixed this issue. Seems like support FireFox is limited by Microsoft, unusual really…
Channel 4 is also in the same position apart from it uses Windows Media, and a DRM codec, and the same with Five on demand. Microsoft don’t offer any Windows Media player alternatives for the Mac, and Flip4Mac is incapable of handling such Codecs. Channel 4 have a really great service when on Windows. They allow you to download and keep old shows on your computer and availible to watch at anytime. The quality is poor when streaming, but once download it is fine. The library of programs on 4OD is fantastic ranging back to the very start of programs! Including every single episode of Shameless!
BBC’s iPlayer is only the real service that offers support to all most modern OS’s which have a Internet browser and Adobe flash installed. You can also use iPlayer on your iPhone & iPod Touch which is fantastic for when your sitting in bed and there is nothing on the television! The most recent use came to me when I was sitting in a Coffee shop waiting for a friend, but she was stuck in Traffic. I popped out my iPhone, connected to the WiFi that was there and i was away watching that weeks Mock The Week.
I had a workaround for the Windows Only services, and this was to open my virtual machine of Windows Vista and use it this way, this was tough even on my MacBook pro with 2GB of Ram, which really needs to be boosted up to 4GB If I was going to be doing allot of the time.
Another work around Is to spend a bit dosh, and purchase an EyeTV stick which uses up a USB slot but turns your computer into DVR, allowing you to schedule recordings ahead of time, and watching live TV. It also allows the videos that you have recorded to be converted and then synced onto your iPhone, iPod.. etc.
Overall, the services that a offered are aqudate to me, but overall are somethings pathetic. Some required fast internet connections, at least 2mb/s downstream. I want to see more compatibilty with services.
