Watch worldwide TV from your PC for free
July 13th, 2009 | Published on: Roundup
Watch worldwide TV from your PC for free
One of the many possibilities the internet offers is enabling users to play online TV channels and radio stations on our PC for free. This can be achieved without paying any monthly fees or buying an additional TV Tuner card. The only thing we need is an application developed for connecting to server channels or other users via streaming technology, thus being able to play TV channels on our own PC quickly and easily.
In order to play TV channels on our PC there are multiple options. We will now highlight the most popular Online TV Players pointing out their pros and cons. We introduce you to: PPMate NetTV, AnyTV, SuperTV, PPLive NetTV y PPStream.
PPMate
PPMate NetTV is one of the first to come out for watching television over the Internet. Its main peculiarity is that it allows you to play a file even before it’s finished downloading.
It offers users more than 200 channels, which are organized into categories such as music, sports, cinema, games, etc. and which are updated automatically. Best of all is that, the more people watching a channel at the same time, the better the load speeds and the smoothness of the video.
PPMate NetTV comes with several new features, including the ability to repeat content and to save the channels you like the most in the “Favourites” section. These channels can then be located using the search menu, making it easy to find them.
Despite all these advantages, however, the program has some issues, such as the fairly confusing and slow signing-up process and the fact that the majority of the channels on offer are from Asia.
AnyTV
Here is one of the simplest programs for viewing TV channels online. One really great thing about AnyTV is that, as well as providing access to more than 2,000 television channels, it also allows you to tune into around 7,000 radio stations, with a few simple clicks within the straightforward interface.
AnyTV allows you to save your favourite channels and, unlike some other programs, it has channels from more than 100 different countries, in various languages and in a variety of genres. Another essential feature is that it allows users to report those channels that don’t work correctly, thereby helping to get them fixed quicker.
Probably the biggest flaw in AnyTV is that it doesn’t have any live programs, meaning that it’s less interesting if news is your thing, and it is only available in English, which could be an obstacle to its popularity worldwide.
SuperTV
This is perhaps the most simple of the programs to use, thanks to the fact that its interface is extremely straightforward and well laid out. SuperTV has more than 300 TV channels sorted according to the country they come from. It’s worth highlighting that the list of countries offering channels is very varied.
SuperTV also allows you to tune into radio stations, but this feature is not very useful for most people since it only works with Chinese radio stations. One outstanding characteristic is the speed at which any of the channels can be viewed.
Compared to other similar programs, the number of channels offered by SuperTV is quite low, which somewhat limits its usefulness.
PPLive
PPLive NetTV is maybe the most popular of the programs covered here. This is for various reasons. Firstly, because it provides some of the highest quality images available, free from interference, making it stand out from the alternative programs. Secondly, its buffering speed is impressive, providing smooth, uninterrupted video.
Plus, PPLive NetTV has more than 300 channels – even if most of them are from Asia – and contains a wide range of channels from different countries and with different themes. An interesting feature is that, if you want to view a channel that isn’t in the menu, you can add it to the list simply by entering its URL.
Despite the inevitable complications caused by the interface being largely written in Chinese, it’s not too hard to work out the basic actions and you should be able to use PPLive NetTV without too much trouble.
PPStream
Although PPStream offers a wide range of channels, high-quality images, the ability to access different stations with a single click, and other tempting features, the fact that the only language available for the channels menu is Chinese makes it somewhat difficult to use.
On the plus side however, PPStream stands out for its clear, stable and interference-free signal, which makes it the closest of the lot to watching TV on a regular television set. It mainly allows users to watch Japanese anime films, American television series, and sports broadcasts.
PPStream can either be used from a web browser or from the desktop. Lastly, we haven’t been able to confirm whether or not this program is free from spyware.
As we’ve seen, all of these programs have their pros and cons. When it comes to evaluating a program, the most important things to bear in mind are the variety of channels which you can tune in and the image quality on offer. As such, we believe that the best choice is PPLive NetTV since it provides the best balance of these two essential characteristics.
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