Filed under: Video, Odds and ends
AOL's In2TV not for Mac
AOL's free, online vintage TV service, In2TV, is ready
for prime time -- but apparently not on Macs. According to the In2TV beta site, Windows XP is the operating system
required for viewing In2TV. TV Squad confirms
that Mac users, as well as Linux users, will be out of luck. Come on AOL. What's up with ignoring Macs? This is a major collaboration of two powerhouse Time Warner units, Warner Brothers and AOL, which has been in development for over two years. So it's not like the powers-that-be just didn't have time or resources to develop a Mac version. If this is an attempt to take over the nascent online TV market or to steamroller iTunes, where's the logic in leaving Mac viewers out of the mix?
In2TV is reportedly scheduled to open to the public tomorrow. Windows users will be able to stream, but not download, full-length episodes from classic TV series free and on-demand. The lineup includes thousands of episodes of oldies but goodies from Warner's huge TV library, like Welcome Back Kotter, Sisters, Beetlejuice, Lois & Clark, La Femme Nikita and Growing Pains. Shows will be organized into six channels: comedy, drama, toons, horror and superheroes, action, and vintage shows. In2TV is being billed as the largest offering of popular television shows ever available on the Internet. Why should it be just for the masses who are into TV, but not into Macs?
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
arkowi said 5:09PM on 3-14-2006
In somewhat similar news, NBC recently had all their little clips like the Narnia Rap and the Natalie Portman rap pulled from places like youTube and has made their own site for their viral videos. At first they did not work at all on Macs, but they swiched over to a flash based player and all is well.
Perhaps In2TV will see the problem in their thinking and fix this. But if not, well, I am not all that worried about watching Growing Pains over the internet...
Reply
spencer said 7:24PM on 3-14-2006
funny coincidense that they use a mac cursor on the logo?
Reply
Scott Falkner said 7:46PM on 3-14-2006
I duuno. Being locked out of free downloads of Beetlejuice and Growing Pains doesn't exaclt make my blood boil.
I'm reminded of a review of cheap PCs in a local free computer rag a few years back. One of the "Cons" for the iMac was that it doesn't run Windows. That's a con?
Reply
JW said 8:20PM on 3-14-2006
Stick it to the man!!! How many people remember that TUAW.com is in the Weblogs Inc Network, which is owned by AOL?
Thanks for telling your bosses how it should be Jan! The readers won't forget!
Reply
Clark said 8:52PM on 3-14-2006
Macs or no Macs, why would you want to stream TV to a computer?
Reply
joe said 2:38AM on 3-15-2006
theres a plugin for mozilla browsers that works on firefox on windows. this doesn't work on a mac?
Reply
Ian Charles said 7:16AM on 3-15-2006
Duh, Mac owners dont count.
Reply
penginkun said 10:36AM on 3-15-2006
Oh please! As if any of you really wants to watch streaming tv on your Mac! If they'd made it, you'd all be complaining that it wasn't full screen, DVD-quality video and that you couldn't burn the shows to DVD.
You know perfectly well what the format is: DRM'ed Windows Media. There is no way to play that on a Mac. If you want to complain about something, complain about that. Look at the system requirements if you have any doubts:
"Media Player: Windows® Media Player version 10.0"
That's why there will NEVER be a Mac version.
Reply
Jay said 4:05PM on 3-15-2006
Call me a cynic but I wonder if Microsoft is funding this thus the Windows XP only thing.
I know that MSFT is funding/sponsoring a broadband trial for providing cable, phone and data service to the home in Germany (T-Home Speed). Hence my cynicism regarding AOL's offering.
Reply
fluxam said 5:22PM on 3-15-2006
It is a beta, fer crysakes. Starting the 11th, subscribers could download to local disk 440mb WMV files which could be viewed in AOL's player built atop Windows Media Player 10; files expire June 1. The player goes online only to get the DRM license. The player doesn't even permit real full screen or pan and scan. But 43 min episodes took only a half hour to download and were only slightly poorer than 350 mb XviD quality.
Reply
Microdot said 5:54PM on 3-15-2006
can't say as i'm real upset about it. the shows i 'want' to watch, are all in itunes. however, i dont really watch much of those either.
any wagers on how long it takes before a script kiddie finds something to exploit on it? it is, after all, aol.
Reply
JG said 8:07PM on 3-15-2006
Surely it should be PCs rather than just "Macs" that you are concerned with, PCs run a variety of modern OS's. AOL should take a modern approach which allows In2TV to support all modern OS, "Macs" included.
Cheers
JG
--
Homepage: http://jguk.org/
Blog: http://jguk.org/blog.rss
Radio: http://jguk.org/#radio
Reply