A lot of people would say that they use something like TV Guide channel listings or even TV.com. But one – they probably do not watch international television and two they always have a data connection up and ready. I do find myself watching TV via many methods from other countries and parts of the world. And I often find myself in a rural location with no internet when I am on vacation.

Even when I can’t watch TV, I want to know what is on so I can grab the torrent at a later time. Or maybe your TV is up and running but your internet is not.

So by using TVBrowser I can download my TV guide channel listings for the week and have the data already in my laptop so when the internet outage hits, we are already prepared. (TVBrowser available both for Mac and Windows)

I downloaded a 2.63MB file from this link over here. Install it with the normal next, next next and a finish.

If you use a proxy server to get to the internet you will need to check the check box below in step 1 of 4. See the screen shot below if you have any doubts.

When everything is completed the application will test your connection. You’ll want to see this screen:

Click next and continue on and you will see a progress meter like so:

Then it will show you what it found and is trying to download:

Awesome ““ there are our channels. And here they come.

From the grid above, add channels that you want to the right hand side. You use the green arrows in the middle to actually transfer them to the right or left side. Hit next when you are finished adding channels. I added 4 for this example to speed up the download process.

You will then see this screen:

Now we can close the set up assistant and download our channel’s TV guide channel listings

Hit update now and let us configure what we want to download and how. Drop down the box for Update program for: to download more than one day of shows. This is great for downloading a week or more at a time to take away with you. When you are done configuring your options hit update now. You can also allow for automatic updates when the program is opened or even when it is not.

That’s it! Let’s see what we have accomplished. You should now see a TV grid like in my screenshot below:

Awesome. You can move left and right to see the different channels and programs. You can click on an individual listing for a TV show and display its properties or associated information like so:

You will find genre, description as well as actor and actress listings. There are hyperlinks which will take you to Wikipedia pages. I clicked on Kevin James and was taken to his Wikipedia page. Very very cool!

We have previously covered some other websites and apps for finding out television programme schedules -

Two Ways To Never Miss A Television Episode – David
Socialize Your Television Experience With TIOTI – Tina
The Best Sites For TV Show Episode Guides & More – Tina
Fancast ““ Get TV Listings & Watch TV Shows Online Legally – Jimmy

Do you have another favorite application that does all this? We would love to hear about it – share it with us in the comments!

In their own words, Clicker positions itself as – one part directory, one part search engine, one part wiki, one part entertainment guide, and one part DVR.

In short, Clicker tries to be the sum of lots of parts. I guess it tries to take the best search experience and match it with an online viewing experience à la Hulu. The ultimate goal is to be the last stop (or at least a necessary one) for online TV entertainment where you can view TV shows online.

So let’s explore the parts and arrive at the sum.

Clicker As A Search Engine

Unlike a generic video search engine or even Google Search, Clicker does not trawl the entire web for your video. What it does is look into its massive itemized database and return very relevant results. Clicker has cataloged 6,000 shows with a total of over 450,000 episodes. It follows 1,200 networks. Not only TV episodes, Clicker has indexed 50,000 music videos from 20,000 artists along with thousands of movies.

The search engine is very friendly as it displays close suggestions when we type in the name of a show. The results page returns all available videos as well as media reports from other news and entertainment channels. Filters to sort the results make narrowing down on the one to watch quite easy. For the sake of organization, you can create a playlist of your shows which update automatically as more shows become available online.

Related videos i.e. shows which are similar to the one you are searching for, also offer interesting finds.

Clicker As A Directory

A better top down approach to explore a genre would be use the directory organization of the site. You can start from Shows by Title, browse them By Source or By Show. You can also go to them using the huge scrollable Shows by Category list. Shows by Media lets you filter result by TV Shows, Web Originals, Movies and Music. Within each, the Trending section features what’s hot and current on the site.

Clicker As A Wiki

Each show or episode has the gist with it. You have a brief description, pictures, cast members info, ratings, external links, related shows etc. You can also add your own two bits in the form of memorable quotes, other tidbits and even edit the main description to something more fitting.

Clicker As A Video Player

A click on Watch Now and you are taken to the hosting site where you can view TV shows online. Remember, Clicker does not host the content itself but merely acts as an indexer to all the content that’s online. So, viewer restriction policies might apply for some shows. For instance, some (like shows in Hulu) may not be viewable by people outside certain geographical areas like the U.S. Or for instance, to view Netflix movies, you must have a Netflix account. Depending on the terms of use (like, Free), some shows can be viewed on the site’s embedded player.

Clicker As An Entertainment Guide

The huge database itself is an entertainment station. Clicker keeps everything indexed with what’s running offline and online. New shows get added and if you have a playlist, it gets updated automatically. Clicker has source partners from YouTube to Amazon, from internet streaming movies to VOD for-purchase movies. On the homepage itself you can directly go to what’s new, what’s hot and shows that are recommended.

The Sum Of All Parts

Arranging all that mine of information itself is a huge challenge and Clicker does it seamlessly. The search doesn’t overwhelm the user with thousands of mish-mashed results like a general search engine but delivers trimmed down, on the button results. The content is indexed well as felt from the fast auto-suggestions and the search results. The site seems to be updated frequently as I didn’t get a dropped link. That’s an incredible achievement when you have a site which has content drawn from so many different sources.

One or two additions down the line would surely help. For instance, you can sort the videos by popularity but there doesn’t seem to be a rating system like we see in IMDB. Links to critic comments would also help.

The site has just come out of beta and so it’s still going to be a work in progress and the blog says that very thing.

But first impressions surely will make you keep clicking.

The internet has opened up a range of new ways to experience TV and to enjoy shows whenever you want.

Alongside, the web also provides possibilities to discover shows, catch up on previous episodes and connect with fellow fans.

We went out to find the best online TV show episode guides for you. Naturally, these sites supply much more material, for example tv show air dates, episode list for each show, background information or social components.

Have a look at what we picked…

1. LocateTV

LocateTV is superior because it takes advantage of many features the internet has to offer.

From the frontpage you can search for TV shows, actors and movies, see what’s hot, directly access new seasons and episodes summaries, browse TOP 5 lists and a lot more. Users from the US, UK and Ireland can set their local TV provider to view personalized airdates.

From a show’s dedicated page you can see when it will run on TV, whether it’s available on DVD, discover where you can watch it online and of course view the episode guide. The best part is that you can discover new TV shows and movies based on your picks.

All components are integrated with ease of use in mind. Personal picks and settings are saved through cookies and the site doesn’t offer a membership. However, you can share your favorite programs and actors with friends through a URL or embed a series or an actor on your website or profile. LocateTV also offers a search bar addon for Firefox and IE.

2. Wikipedia

Wikipedia is an excellent source for all sorts of information. Hence, it comes as no surprise that it also has tons of material in store on TV shows.

But the link above will not simply take you to Wikipedia’s start page. Instead you’ll land at the “List of television series episodes category” from where you can further specify your search. Of course you can always search for a show directly.

Don’t be alarmed by the many (0)s behind the subcategories. These numbers merely denote the number of sub-subcategories and by no means indicate how many series have been listed under the respective subcategory.

Wikipedia has to be the most practical database. Unfortunately, the A-Z list of all TV shows appears to be out of date, so one always has to go through the subcategories to browse and discover new series.

3. Television Without Pity

This site is different! It’s hilarious and offers tons of extras besides providing excellent recaps, i.e. episode guides. Humanoid humor absolutely required for mental digestion!

The amount of shows is limited, but includes all the hottest and latest TV productions. Additionally, each show has its own forum where members can discuss various topics. Beware of spoilers and mean comments!

US users will appreciate the TV listings, some shows have their own blog and members can edit the Wiki. There is a lot to discover on Television Without Pity and it’s a bit overwhelming and maybe even disturbing at times. But browsing the site is great entertainment.

Runners Up

epguides & TV.com together run a huge database of over 4,100 TV shows. On epguides, each show has its own page with basic information and a list of seasons and episodes. A detailed episode guide including summaries is usually provided through TV.com. From the frontpage of epguides you can search shows or browse from A-Z or by topics. All updates are made through TV.com. However, even though TV.com is way more advanced than epguides.com, providing a membership option and the possibility to add changes, epguides is easier to navigate if you’d like to browse shows randomly.

We have previously reviewed Tioti. It’s a social media platform for television shows, with a touch of Wiki-ness. On Tioti you’ll find information, links and ways to to interact with fellow TV lovers. You can log in using your Facebook account.

SideReel is similar to LocateTV also offering a forum for discussion and thus also a site membership. Members can add information, such as reviews, links, news or discussions. It’s a very interactive site. However, the episode guides aren’t thorough and are usually linked in through other sites, which makes them difficult to use.

We have previously reviewed services that let you view your favorite shows online! If you haven’t done so yet, check out Jimmy’s article How To Find All The Great New TV Shows Online, or Aibek’s post on 7 Excellent Destinations to Watch TV Shows For Free.

Which sites do you use to find your TV show episode guides?

i.TV (iTunes Link) is a wonderful little iPhone App in the App Store that will manage all your movie and television listing needs. On top of this it provides great user account options for keeping track of your favorite shows.

Let’s start off with the TV listings, which are what I use most frequently. By selecting the icon at the bottom, you’ll be presented with an interface that sorts your local listings by day and time. How does it know your locality? Well, either manually or by allowing it access to your location, the App will give you a list of cable service providers to choose from. After that is done, it will remember that provider from then on.

The TV listings for your area may be quite vast, so when scrolling through them you can either do a standard flicking motion, or, to move hundreds at a time, you can drag the right edge slowly. This is a short and simple add-on, but it makes a big difference when you need to get down to channel 532.

When you click on a show, i.TV brings up that show’s specific page and gives you the name and synopsis of that show’s next episode (and other vital statistics such as its content rating). There are star ratings and reviews from other users and an opportunity to give the show a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down.”

The rating you give the show is actually fairly important, because a positive one will put it into your favorites category.  The favorites screen is useful because instead of hunting down every show you like each time you want to watch it, you can simply do a quick reference in your favorites instead.  They are organized alphabetically for easy location. This process works for not only shows, but movies and other media as well.

Speaking of movies, the App actually does a great job helping you find movie information and showtimes. Simply click the “Theaters” tab at the bottom and it will bring one of two panes. The first gives you the list of every current movie. As there are many more than you probably realize, the same kind of scrolling action is possible as before. The other pane will give you a list of every movie theater in your area (as it still remembers your location).

The movie pane is especially nice because of two things.  First of all, clicking on your desired flick will bring up a full synopsis along with the familiar rating options.  Second, clicking the “play” icon will open up that movie’s trailer.  The trailers I have watched thus far have been fairly grainy, but this might just have been because of the particular source of each trailer.  I
would bet that i.TV doesn’t really have much control over that factor.

The ratings and favorites options do require a user account, but i.TV makes signing up pretty effortless. Just go to the appropriate page in the options and fill out your vitals. The App will automatically send it to its central servers and send a confirmation email to you. Once you click their link, the App will validate your account. It took me about 3 minutes while multi-tasking.

The last thing I’ll say about i.TV is that it is really a nice piece of software to handle. It’s not often that an iPhone App is funtional, attractive, and well-built all at the same time. I love the options on i.TV, it has a really nice way of rendering show/movie art, and it hasn’t crashed or fragged out on me even once. I actually plan to “MakeUseOf” this little App for some time to come.

How do you handle your television and movie information?  Anybody still using the newspaper out there?

The most significant difference between Fancast and other video streaming services is its all-encompassing nature. Hulu makes specific deals with providers in order to bring in content and lets you watch full episodes of your favorites TV shows for free. Fancast isn’t as concerned with specific partnerships and brings in legal video from wherever it can. 

On top of this, Fancast learns your location and preferences in order to sync up with what you normally watch on TV. In a sense, the site tries to amplify your current usage habits instead of making you switch over to digital completely.

Normally I would try and walk you through the process of using Fancast, but it’s really much too vast for that approach.  Each user will have different features they like the best, so I’ll try to point out the most important ones here:

Show Listings and Access Options

The thing I’ll probably be using the most is the TV listings guide.  While these are easily obtainable at TVGuide and the like, Fancast will remember your location permanently (as it is tied to your account), and always bring up the television schedule according to your local channels.  Also, from your preferences and your ratings of individual shows, it brings up a likely nightly schedule for quick access.

Another rather innovative thing about Fancast is its access options.  Each episode specifically displays tags for the different ways you can access it.  If it is a current show, it tells you the next time it will be on TV (along with channel info).  If it is part of their strong streaming video library, there’s a link to it.  It’s also possible to find the show on DVD or On Demand through their paid download service.

Streaming TV Shows (Legally)

As I said, the number of streaming videos they have is pretty staggering. Many of the newer shows are directly from the networks or other similar sources. The older shows, like the Highlander episodes I’m working my way though, are simply ports from Hulu.  The interface for the player is fairly simple.  The slider is fairly blocky for some reason, the volume controls are incredibly basic, and generally it’s very hard to switch away from the awesomeness that is the Hulu player.

One episode that I watched and then returned to later did ask me if I wanted to start from the beginning or pick up where I left off.  This scored some points with me as I’ve had browser windows crash on me frequently during streaming.

Movies and Trailers

Another interesting aspect of Fancast is the movies section.  Their list of full-length movies isn’t incredibly small, but it probably won’t replace your Netflix subscription any time soon.  The player is essentially the same and will remember your place.  I would say more about the video viewing itself, but 1984 decided it wasn’t going to play any video for me at all, only the sound track.  Clearly there are some bugs to be worked out.

I do like the fact that they have trailers on the site because it might help with their community building.  While full-length movies don’t generate much discussion, trailers provide a lot of fodder for bloggers and users alike.

Fan News and Blogs

The blogs that live on Fancast are pretty decent reading.  They clearly have a staff of dedicated fans.  In fact, it’s evident in the way the site is designed.  Instead of locking everything down from the start and slowly expanding, Fancast has tried to give you everything and will hopefully improve their quality over time.  The blogs are few in number, but I assume that will grow over time.

Gripes

There were some things about Fancast that I didn’t particularly like.  First of all, the service not only prompts you for your location to customize it, but also because it wants to limit you to the content you’re already able to receive from your provider.  In fact, if you’re outside the United States, you’re not allowed to view the videos on Fancast.

Another gripe for me was the video player and the way it was formatted.  The player is simply too basic to compete with its competitors.  It’s obvious that they either wrote their own player and didn’t put a lot of time into it, or they bought one that was pre-constructed.  Either way, it is generally very short on features and the playback didn’t seem very stable at all.  In fact, the player even does that irritating thing where the slider bar will jump back to the beginning if you pull it too far to the right.

My last gripe is the overall page layout.  It is a fairly attractive website, but it has too many elements on the page and it is consequently very slow to load.  The page architecture is simply too complex and even the simplest flashblocker or adblocker completely breaks the functionality.

Overall, I think Fancast has a ton of potential.  They already have the content, the channel integration, and the seeds of a community base.  The main areas for them to work on are the player and the page layout.  While it’s a nice design, it’s always a mistake to choose form over function.

[rating=3]

What do you think?  It was you, the commenters, who suggested Fancast, so please defend or defile it as you see fit!

Note: To stream most of the channels without any lag you’ll need in my opinion at least 500kbps connection speed, which shouldn’t be a problem for most of European and US folks.

Channel Directory	Number Of Channels	Language	free?	Full Screen Mode	My Rating
	1820	International	yes	yes	4
	313	English only			3
	700	English, Dutch and Hindi			5
	250	English only			3
	151	English only			5
Live-Online-TV.com	120	International			4

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As long as your connection is good you shouldn’t experience any problems with playing stuff, in case you’re try following;

• close all programs and downloads that may keep you connection busy
• if Windows Media Player is set as default .wmv player make sure you have latest version (latest version)
• firefox users – ActiveX may be needed
• Mac OSX(Safari) – click here to install Flip4Mac.
• Linux : install mozilla-mplayer and w32codecs

Technorati Tags: tv, wwitv, online, stream, channels, freetube, channelchooser, chooseandwatch, streamick, live-online-tv, cable