The quest for free TV continues

Last time in the TV for free series I reviewed hulu . For test number two I tested out the method of watching from network websites. Yes I know what you’re thinking. Running around a bunch of different websites trying to find episodes of a show must be a time consuming hassle. Well yes it is. The good new is that nearly every network broadcasts it shows over the internet so there is a large selection out there, and I have a tool to help speed up the search.

Alright now lets go through each aspect of the grading: video quality, show selection, user interface, and commercial interruptions.

Video quality changed a lot as I went from site to site. Quality ranged everywhere from nearly as good as hulu on CBS.com to YouTube like with no full screen option on History.com. I did not find a website that completely filled my monitor.

Show selection for this method is fantastic since nearly every network publishes full episodes on their website. Possibly the only problem can be the slight difficulty in finding them sometimes.

The user interfaces also differs from site to site, but all the ones that I tried out were acceptable and easy enough to work with. Some of the site designs do make it difficult to find the videos though.

Commercials were usually shown before the start of a show or between the segments of a show (like on normal TV). Thankfully the commercials were only about 20 to 30 seconds long. The frequency of ads differs by site.

The major difficulty with this method of getting free TV is trying to find the shows on many different websites. Well if you have problems with this, this is your lucky day because I found a tool on the internet to relieve some of the headache. Meet Prime Time Rewind , a website which keep track of links to the latest episode of shows on seven major networks. Besides making it easy to find the episodes, you also get a sidebar which lets you comment on and rate shows.

At first the cube interface can be confusing, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a cool way to browse. Let me tell you the secret.

Spinning the cube horizontally lets you select by network with one network on each side (Seven networks on four possible sides. Hmm…). Spinning the cube vertically lets you select by category (Four categories on four side. That makes more sense.).

If you register you can even have your own side of the cube where you chose which videos are on there. You can even embed the cube on your own website which I tried. The cube showed up and the linking worked, but I couldn’t control it.

Prime Time Rewind is still under heavy development and is only in the alpha stage so expect to see a lot more refinement before it is complete. I strongly encourage you to try it out because it already a good tool for finding that elusive free TV.

My final thought on cruising websites to find free TV is that while there is a great selection of shows floating around in cyber space, some networks do it better than others. Sometimes I felt like I got what I payed for (nothing), and other times I felt like I got the deal of a lifetime.

In my next post in the TV for free series I will be testing out the next contender, Joost , so be sure to check back for my next review.