Back in September, I wrote an article titled Where to turn when your DVR can’t keep up. At the time, I was truly excited about the opportunities presented to all of us that might want to use the web as a supplemental resource for our digital video recorders (DVR). Seven months have now flown by and we find ourselves nearing the end of the “traditional” TV season. Lost only has 5 episodes left and the discussions on which shows will be returning next season are already underway or completed. These last few weeks will be a bitter-sweet time for fans of any program as we approach the inevitable cliffhangers and finales. Unfortunately, some of our recommendations in the September article were simply bitter.
We are a 2-DVR family and both of our units were put through some serious stress-testing this season. Every so often, bad weather or a power outage caused one or both of our DVR units to miss a show, or at least a portion of it. Being the true television fans that we are, we didn’t want to miss out on important plot-lines and details, so we headed out to the world wide web, in search of the episode in question. In almost every situation, we found the solution on the web site of the television station itself. There were however a few situations that required additional searching. That’s where the fun really started.
Episode Failure 1: Smallville
Description: Our DirecTV DVR only recorded a portion of a critical episode, so I headed out to CWTV.com. Their site does allow users to watch full episodes of some programs, but only stores the 2 most recent at any given time. I am not sure what the reasoning is, but it meant we couldn’t watch our missing episode there. I decided to try the Playstation Store (from Sony) next. The PS3 needed a quick update, but a few minutes later we located our program and had to simply decide on SD (standard definition) or HD (high definition). Since the HD version was $2.99 and I thought it would take longer to download, we opted for SD at $1.99. We were able to begin viewing the program as it downloaded and the service worked perfectly!
Verdict: The Playstation Store experience was great. The SD program was amazingly crisp and clean (nearly HD) and it only took a few minutes to begin watching the show. I highly recommend the PS3 and the Playstation Store.
The Playstation Store on PS3
Episode Failure 2: Big Bang Theory
Description: Our favorite new comedy on CBS this season is a must watch. Due to an operator error (my fault), we missed an episode. I immediately went out to the CBS web site and found the page for the show. To my surprise, CBS did NOT offer full episodes at all. Off to Amazon.com, then iTunes, then some intense Google searching.
Verdict: FAIL! FAIL! FAIL! I couldn’t find a legal method for watching the episode, paid or not.
Episode Failure 3: The Mentalist
Description: Just like the Smallville recording, we only got a portion of the program. Not very helpful for a crime solving mystery. Off to CBS.com I went again and then on to Amazon.com, iTunes … Nothing. Finally, through some Google searches, I found a site called Yidio that provided a link to www.watch-mentalist-online.com. I’m not sure if this site was operating legally, but we took a chance and watched the show anyway. Unfortunately, the quality was so bad that we could barely make out the faces of the actors. At least we got the storyline.
Verdict: FAIL! FAIL! FAIL! I couldn’t find a legal method for watching the episode, paid or not. The site I found filled the void just enough, but I feel like I did something wrong by watching it.
Overall Verdict
Being able to watch TV online just seems logical. For the most part, the programming I want is available, but you can see that there are still some holes. Until Apple, or some other mega-company, makes some serious changes, I will have to hold onto my satellite and DVR boxes and give up on my dream of just buying the shows I want to watch online. For now, there just seems to be a lack of information on where to go when I want to watch a show. I couldn’t find a single site that provided information on every show and what sites you could buy it from (there is a FREE business idea for some lucky soul out there). TVGuide.com did provide valuable information on where to buy some shows, but fell short on the 2 programs I was looking for.
@CBS – I am not sure what is going on, but it seems to me that you are missing out on a HUGE market. You have some great programs and there are millions of us who think so. Why are you not taking advantage of any of the services available to distribute your content? You missed out on at least $4 of my money. With 110 million TVs in the U.S., you are probably giving up on quite a bit of money. Yes, I might buy a series on DVD/Blu-Ray, but I can’t get that until a year after it is shown on TV. That doesn’t help me much. We are a nation of “here and now.” You should probably take advantage of that instead of banking on media that will begin to fade as quickly as it came to be.
Tags: Amazon.com, Big Bang Theory, CBS, episode, episodes, Google, HD, iTunes, Online, playstation store, programming, PS3, SD, shows, Smallville, Television, the Mentalist, TV
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