Software

An overview of the software we use to watch tv and videos online...

Google Chrome - This seems to be the fastest of the main 3 browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome) and it has some extensions that make it, in my opinion, the best. CoolIris is one extension that compiles videos (tv shows included) from across the Internet and displays them in an easy-to-view format. The main shortcoming of Google Chrome is that it doesn't play every single type of video. I've also installed Firefox to cover what Google Chrome can't (which has only been one website so far). I mention my browser because obviously, we will do some watching of video through websites.

Boxee (beta) - This is my "go to" video watching app right now, mostly because we are watching all the old episodes of LOST through Netflix. It works great and compiles online TV shows, your local media (mp3's, movies) and has numerous apps like Netfix, Pandora, and others for you to watch video. One thing I really like about this program is that you can create a queue. Basically, you can make certain TV shows favorites and any time a new episode is posted, it will add it to your queue. This is basically like DVR, which is really convenient. Another nice feature is that it organizes your own mp3's and video so you can watch them through Boxee as well. Because it's a beta, it does mess up sometimes, but still, its a must have.

Hulu desktop - Fairly obvious; this is the desktop version of Hulu that I really just downloaded so that we have quick access to every major program out there.

Picasa - From Google; for viewing/organizing our photos on the TV

iTunes - Another obvious choice for some movie and TV show viewing and music

Windows Media Center - This came standard on Windows 7 Home Premium. It gives us access to a number of TV shows from various locations across the Internet. It is sort of the same thing as Boxee but just has access to different videos/tv shows and that's why I am including it. I'll probably begin using this app more now because of some extensions I've downloaded that integrate Boxee and Hulu desktop into WMC.
--SecondRun.tv - this is a free download from the secondrun.tv (thats the actual website) that adds a ton of shows to WMC. Like I mentioned, WMC already has a number of free shows but adding secondrun.tv adds a lot more.

So that is the software setup on our computer. There is some redundancy as far as access to shows, but as far as I can tell, this gives us access to most of the free shows on the Internet in the simplest, easiest form. (If you went through and really scoured each program, you might realize you don't need all of them to access TV shows- for instance, WMC might have everything Boxee does, I don't know.) The real advantage is compilation- this software scours the Internet (the legal websites at least) and puts CBS.com, ABC.com, hulu, etc. all in one place which makes TV watching a lot easier (which is really a major goal when you're trying to make watching TV on the Internet as easy as cable AND sell your wife on this idea). If you want more detail on any of the programs, feel free to e-mail me or post a comment.