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An expensive jumbled mess of a product that only the most technical user will enjoy. It's not a software tool but a help guide. Didn't live up to the hype on it's homepage.
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PRODUCT SCORE
24% |
| Date reviewed: | 13th September 2006 |
| Product Name & Link | I PCTV TV |
| Price | $39.95 |
| Number of channels | 9000+ |
| What does this software do? | I-PCTV lets you watch TV on any desktop or laptop computer without any additional hardware. After installing and running it you get a webpage with links to TV stations you can watch, as well as information on how to watch many other stations. You view the channels in Windows media player and the Real player. |
| Buying notes | This product is sold through a company called Paydotcom. They've been around for a while and are reputable. You can use your credit card or, if you have a Paypal account, you can pay with Paypal.
I've got to say I'm not a huge fan of Paypal. I much prefer to fill out a short credit card form to get my products. I did eventually manage to buy this product but it involved a long form and getting through some security questions. (I can never remember my Paypal account details). Compared to competing products, this is the longest, most tricky buying process so far. |
| First impressions | I was even more excited than normal to review this tool because it claims to offer 8000+ stations for under $40 dollars. Not only that, it also promises access to stations like MTV and HBO. So I was really keen to see if it lived up to the hype on it's homepage.
After I'd bought it, I was taken to a page where I was given a username and a password. I was then prompted to click on a link that took me into a special 'Member's Area'. You don't actually get any software as such here. What you're paying for is the work the creators of this product have done in finding thousands of stations you can watch online. There are many links to places on the web where you can watch TV as well as information on different ways to view TV online. You've got several main options once you've paid. 1) Direct connect - a series of links in the member's area to pages showing TV video. This is served up from the I PCTV site itself. This wasn't a bad way to watch TV. There were maybe 100 stations listed here. Although nothing I hadn't seen before. 2) Web Based - this is a long list of TV stations ranked by Country. From Albania to Zimbabwe. These are a series of simple links which when clicked launch the channel in Windows media player. There's a ton of stations listed here but, as with other products, there's a lot that are not in English. 3) Links to satellite frequencies. This is the Linksat page that I've talked about before. It's available for free on the web and I don't think it's a great inclusion here. It's complex to use and I really don't like it. |
| What I liked | Some good stations listed in the member's area
There's some pretty good channels up for grabs listed on the member's area here. Informative things like BBC headlines, ABC news and ESPN. Using these channels was pretty easy and straight forward. |
| What I didn't like | Not a complete software product
This is the second product I've reviewed where you don't get any actual software. (Although this offering is slightly better than the similar Live PC TV I reviewed previously). Although a lot of work has been put into this product, it feels like it's lacking something. Like you still have to do a lot of leg work to do for yourself. It just takes a lot of fun out of it when it's just a boring member's area. 9000 Channels? Hmmmm... Sometimes if something sounds too good to be true, it is. This product promised 9000+ stations but it feels like a lot less. Huge ugly logo on every page There's a simply monster image looming at the top of every page here. It's really awful to look at and takes up loads of the page. Under that you've got some huge buttons for things like 'Email' and (for some strange reason) 'Join'. So every time you click a link you have to then scroll down an additional page. And while I'm complaining about the design, the page doesn't fit horizontally on my monitor. |
| Strengths |
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| Weaknesses |
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| The verdict | So, what's the verdict?
I was disappointed with this product and I certainly wouldn't buy it. On the whole it's slightly better than Live PC TV, but not by much. I was hoping for something special here as it looked really good from the home page. But I-PCTV definitely does not live up to the hype. Save your money and get Online TV Network instead. |
| Refund details | They offer a complete 60 day refund for this product if you decide it's not for you. |
Click Here To Order I PCTV
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