PlayOn – Home Entertaining

Disclosure: In any review for a product or service, products or compensation may have been provided to me to help facilitate my review. All opinions are my own and honest. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC Guidelines. Please see “Disclose” and "Terms of Use" tabs for more information.

Disclosure: The below was provided to me to help facilitate my review. All opinions are my own and honest. I am disclosing this in accordance to FTC Guidelines. Please see “Disclose” tab for more information.

In the current world of downsizing and cost cutting there is always a new way to shave a dollars off your expense.  One such way is your entertainment costs.  Specifically TV.

In our house TV is used usually at night while unwinding.  Not only is TV good for watching those great new shows but also its a good way to just get lost in a show.  My grand idea is to cut the cord with the cable company. The main issue being the TV has two uses, can a replacement be found which fits both of these difficult niches?

We gave PlayOn a try.  PlayOn is a service provided which gives just about any DLNA- compliant devices including: Playstation 3, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Google TV, brite-View CinemaTube, and Sony Bravia DLNA-compatible HDTV.

PlayOn works by unlocking TV channels from the internet.  There are tons of channels, with hours of TV shows ranging from old TV shows, to newly released movies and music videos.  By downloading new  Plugins new channels are opened to you.

The process is quite simple as well.  First download the software to your desktop.  Next download a few plugins and start up the software.  After teh software is running turn on your TV connected device and find your media stream.  Then watch your show.

The software works just as expected, giving you access to everything you would hope for.  There are a few drawbacks though.  The first is your computer must be on in order to have access to the channels.  This might not be a bit deal to many because your computer is on almost all the time anyway, but to some this is a big deal.  Secondly the interface is based on menus, lots of sub-menus and selecting.  This opens up options but when just looking for a cop show to throw on while clipping coupons it is easy to get lost in the sea of great shows.

I was personally astounded by the number of shows available including cartoons which we grew up on and local TV channels.  There are even international channels which unlock all new realms of entertainment including European, Asian, and South American TV.

All this is available for the cost of the license, which go on sale often.  Your options are paying monthly or getting a lifetime license and paying all up front.  Check out the Fall Bundle Sale for deep discounts and good deals.

In our particular situation PlayOn worked quite well, but in a way which we didn’t think of.  Instead of replacing the current Cable TV service.  PlayOn is the prefect complement in our house.  When we want to watch something unique/ international/odd PlayOn is the way to go.

Recently PlayOn have released their new PlayLater service, which acts as a DVR for online videos, so no long will you miss an episode when the internet cuts out and unlocks an offline capability which is very useful.  Nothing is more odd then watching silly cat Youtube videos on your TV offline.