AOL In2TV - Broadband television has arrived!!

Bob Russell · 03-15-2006, 03:26 PM

Right now and today, you can watch good quality streaming television shows on your broadband internet connected PC! This is no longer just a promise, but it's available this very moment from AOL. And no, you don't have to be an AOL member. It's for everyone.

The service does show an ad in the beginning of your tv show. And selection is limited to a fixed set of shows. On the other hand, many episodes are available. Included are shows like La Femme Nikita, Babylon5, Wonder Woman, Eight is Enough, Lois and Clark, Chico and the Man, F-Troop, Maverick, The FBI, and the list goes on and on.

I've been waiting months for this to go from a splash page promising early 2006 to a full online service. So just to give it a try I picked the pilot of Babylon 5. I like scifi, but never really gave that show a look. Turns out that when I tried to view the show in FireFox, it objected. It asked me to download an ActiveX extension. I caved in and allowed it. Than I got an error saying that I needed a security upgrade for WMP. I said yes. Then finally, I got another error saying what they should have told me in the first place - you have to use the special AOL player.

At that point, it took me to IE anyway, so I went with the flow. Maybe someone will get it to work in FireFox, but I settled for IE to make my first attempt. It worked fine. You have to watch a blip about the service, and then a regular 30-sec commercial came on for KIA, and then the show started. At that point, I also had the option to see the program in full screen mode. A little blurry if I stay close to the screen, but if I scoot back a bit it's fine. Not HDTV by any means, but fine.

I did see a couple small blips for buffering hiccups at the beginning, but seems to be fine after that. All in all a great, great looking service even with the requirement to use their viewer.

Now if they would only come up with some pda/smartphone clients! Maybe this is one more reason to go with Origami!

Bob Russell · 03-15-2006, 03:45 PM

A bit more info is available here...
http://cdn.digitalcity.com/_media/hi...ula_popup.html

And interestingly, it turns out that they allow you to seek to a new location in the show without having to watch commercials all over again.

Requirements include:
* Windows XP (not 64-bit Professional x64 Edition)
* IE 6.0
* WMP 10

So it's not surprising FireFox didn't work for me.

minimalposter · 03-15-2006, 03:58 PM

I looked at this yesterday and I was just about to cancel my $100 cable monopoly subscription. It would be great -- If I wasn't a Mac user

Bob Russell · 03-15-2006, 04:06 PM

Some more info (for Windows users, sorry)... here's what seems to be a list of the programs available:

Adventures of Brisco County Jr.
Alice
Babylon 5
Beetlejuice
Chico and the Man
Dark Justice
Eight is Enough
F Troop
Falcon Crest
Freakazoid
Freddy's Nightmares
Growing Pains
Hanging With Mr. Cooper
Head of the Class
Histeria
Kung Fu
La Femme Nikita
Lois and Clark
Maverick
New Adventures of Batman
Perfect Strangers
Pinky and the Brain
Scarecrow & Mrs. King
Sisters
Spenser for Hire
The F.B.I.
The Fugitive
V
Welcome Back Kotter
Wonder Woman

And they offer dvd sets of the shows for sale, which may bring in part of their revenue to support the service. The advertising should be lucritive. So should the increased brand awareness, publicity and good-will for AOL in general.

I'd love to see this succeed, and much more of these sorts of shows become readily available for a long, long time.

Bob Russell · 03-15-2006, 04:24 PM

And in case you hadn't heard yet... ABC will soon be streaming shows online with commercials included, available about 8hrs after broadcast.
http://www.paidcontent.org/pc/arch/2...5.shtml#054107

Alexander Turcic · 03-15-2006, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobR

...La Femme Nikita...

Great show! I used to watch it a lot while I was still in college!

rmeister0 · 03-15-2006, 04:32 PM

Frankly, if you have to use their viewer, and this isn't something you can use from within Media Center, it's not very good. Requiring an Active X control is incredibly 1990s and a very bad idea from a security point of view.

To say nothing of all the Mac and Linux users out there.

TadW · 03-15-2006, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobR

Requirements include:
* Windows XP (not 64-bit Professional x64 Edition)
* IE 6.0
* WMP 10

So it's not surprising FireFox didn't work for me.

Bummer. Why would they want ppl to use IE 6.0 when everyone makes the switch to Firefox?

Chaos · 03-15-2006, 10:07 PM

Linux & Mac only here... So no dice. Also, is it just me or does the interface seem unnecessarily confusing?

Snappy! · 03-17-2006, 12:16 AM

Actually it works on my machine running firefox. It did ask to install a plugin. The adverts ran without a glitch ... but it just stops there after. *bum*

EDIT: oh, and I think Youtube.com does it better. Although its content is somewhat you know ... not that In2TV is any greater if you ask me.

03-15-2006, 03:26 PM	#1
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	AOL In2TV - Broadband television has arrived!! Right now and today, you can watch good quality streaming television shows on your broadband internet connected PC! This is no longer just a promise, but it's available this very moment from AOL. And no, you don't have to be an AOL member. It's for everyone. The service does show an ad in the beginning of your tv show. And selection is limited to a fixed set of shows. On the other hand, many episodes are available. Included are shows like La Femme Nikita, Babylon5, Wonder Woman, Eight is Enough, Lois and Clark, Chico and the Man, F-Troop, Maverick, The FBI, and the list goes on and on. I've been waiting months for this to go from a splash page promising early 2006 to a full online service. So just to give it a try I picked the pilot of Babylon 5. I like scifi, but never really gave that show a look. Turns out that when I tried to view the show in FireFox, it objected. It asked me to download an ActiveX extension. I caved in and allowed it. Than I got an error saying that I needed a security upgrade for WMP. I said yes. Then finally, I got another error saying what they should have told me in the first place - you have to use the special AOL player. At that point, it took me to IE anyway, so I went with the flow. Maybe someone will get it to work in FireFox, but I settled for IE to make my first attempt. It worked fine. You have to watch a blip about the service, and then a regular 30-sec commercial came on for KIA, and then the show started. At that point, I also had the option to see the program in full screen mode. A little blurry if I stay close to the screen, but if I scoot back a bit it's fine. Not HDTV by any means, but fine. I did see a couple small blips for buffering hiccups at the beginning, but seems to be fine after that. All in all a great, great looking service even with the requirement to use their viewer. Now if they would only come up with some pda/smartphone clients! Maybe this is one more reason to go with Origami!

03-17-2006, 12:16 AM	#10
Snappy! Addict Posts: 260 Karma: 4256 Join Date: Feb 2006 Device: SHARP Zaurus C1000	Actually it works on my machine running firefox. It did ask to install a plugin. The adverts ran without a glitch ... but it just stops there after. bum EDIT: oh, and I think Youtube.com does it better. Although its content is somewhat you know ... not that In2TV is any greater if you ask me. Last edited by Snappy!; 03-17-2006 at 12:26 AM.

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03-15-2006, 03:45 PM	#2
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	A bit more info is available here... http://cdn.digitalcity.com/_media/hi...ula_popup.html And interestingly, it turns out that they allow you to seek to a new location in the show without having to watch commercials all over again. Requirements include: * Windows XP (not 64-bit Professional x64 Edition) * IE 6.0 * WMP 10 So it's not surprising FireFox didn't work for me.

03-15-2006, 03:58 PM	#3
minimalposter Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2006 Device: TX	I looked at this yesterday and I was just about to cancel my $100 cable monopoly subscription. It would be great -- If I wasn't a Mac user

03-15-2006, 04:06 PM	#4
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Some more info (for Windows users, sorry)... here's what seems to be a list of the programs available: Adventures of Brisco County Jr. Alice Babylon 5 Beetlejuice Chico and the Man Dark Justice Eight is Enough F Troop Falcon Crest Freakazoid Freddy's Nightmares Growing Pains Hanging With Mr. Cooper Head of the Class Histeria Kung Fu La Femme Nikita Lois and Clark Maverick New Adventures of Batman Perfect Strangers Pinky and the Brain Scarecrow & Mrs. King Sisters Spenser for Hire The F.B.I. The Fugitive V Welcome Back Kotter Wonder Woman And they offer dvd sets of the shows for sale, which may bring in part of their revenue to support the service. The advertising should be lucritive. So should the increased brand awareness, publicity and good-will for AOL in general. I'd love to see this succeed, and much more of these sorts of shows become readily available for a long, long time.

03-15-2006, 04:24 PM	#5
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	And in case you hadn't heard yet... ABC will soon be streaming shows online with commercials included, available about 8hrs after broadcast. http://www.paidcontent.org/pc/arch/2...5.shtml#054107

03-15-2006, 04:32 PM	#7
rmeister0 Addict Posts: 270 Karma: 298 Join Date: Mar 2005	Frankly, if you have to use their viewer, and this isn't something you can use from within Media Center, it's not very good. Requiring an Active X control is incredibly 1990s and a very bad idea from a security point of view. To say nothing of all the Mac and Linux users out there.

03-15-2006, 10:07 PM	#9
Chaos Evangelist Posts: 418 Karma: 281 Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Canada Device: Assorted older devices	Linux & Mac only here... So no dice. Also, is it just me or does the interface seem unnecessarily confusing?