SitcomsOnline.com's In2TV System Review
By: skees53 on 03/13/2006
Service: In2TV
Website: http://in2tv.aol.com
Launch Date: March 15, 2006
Features vintage Warner Brothers Television programs
and bonus items related to them
Introduction:
In2TV puts a new twist on something that has become
the new way of delivering media (even if it hasn't
FULLY caught on yet) over the past couple of
years--the whole concept of video-on-demand. The "new
twist" with In2TV is that, rather than presenting you
something like that episode of Survivor that you
missed last night and just HAVE to see now, In2TV
provides episodes of some of the great television
programs of our past. These aren't just programs that
you can turn on the television right now and watch.
These are programs that, for whatever reason, are not
currently shown on television (with some minor
exceptions). You don't need to live in a certain
geographical area (unless you live outside of the
United States) and hope that your cable company adds
the service, because In2TV is available online, not
through any cable service. And the best part about
In2TV? Everything is (minimally) supported by
advertising, and thus is free!
Programs and Episodes on In2TV:
It is important to remember that In2TV is a service
that is presented by Warner Brothers, so if it isn't a
show that Warner Brothers has the distribution rights
to, it isn't going to be on there. So you will not
find shows that are distributed by Paramount, Sony,
Buena Vista, or any other company on there. And unless
some bizarre circumstances take place, such non-Warner
programs will never appear on In2TV. The best that you
can hope for is that those other companies will create
their own similar service.
In2TV presents their programming through a variety of
"channels." These include "LOL" (comedy), "Drama Rama"
(drama), "What a Rush" (action), "Vintage TV"
(classic), "Heroes Horror" (sci-fi), "Toon Topia TV"
(cartoons), and "Pilot Theater" (first episodes).
There are other "channels" that will be discussed in
the next section.
Since this is Sitcoms Online, our main focus will be
on "LOL." This is where you'll find all of the
sitcoms, although some episodes of some shows do
overlap onto the other channels as well. These are the
shows and episodes that are available for the launch
of In2TV:
Alice Launch Episodes ("Vintage TV")
#1 "Pilot" 24:16
#2 "Alice Gets a Pass" 25:35
#3 "A Piece of the Rock" 25:32
#4 "Pay the Fifty Dollars" 25:33
#5 "A Call to Arms" 25:04
#6 "The Last Review" 25:33
#88 "My Funny Valentine Tux" 24:42
#115 "Who's Kissing the Great Chefs of Phoenix?" 24:48
#126 "The Wild One" 24:47
#179 "Alice's Hot Air Romance" 24:54
Chico and the Man Launch Episodes ("LOL TV")
#1 "The Man Meets Chico" Pilot 23:27
#4 "New Suit" 25:53
#6 "E Pluribus Used Car" 25:50
#9 "No Room in the Garage" 25:45
#10 "The Letter" 25:50
#16 "If I Were a Rich Man" 25:34
#37 "The Hypnotist" 24:32
#47 "Chico Packs His Bags" 24:38
#59 "Chico's Padre" 24:37
#62 "Ed Talks to God" 25:21
F Troop Launch Episodes ("Vintage TV")
#1 "Scourge of the West - Pilot" 25:32
#2"Don't Look Now, One of Our Cannons Is Missing"
25:34
#3 "The Phantom Major" 25:33
#4 "Corporal Agarn's Farewell to the Troops" 25:33
#5 "The Return of the Bald Eagle" 25:22
#35 "The Singing Mountie" 25:22
#36 "How to Be F Troop Without Really Trying" 25:23
#37 "Bye Bye Balloon" 25:24
#38 "Reach for the Sky, Pardner" 25:19
#39 "Great Troop Robbery, The" 25:25
Growing Pains Launch Episodes ("Vintage TV")
#3 "Jealousy" 24:06
#4 "Carol's Article" 21:52
#6 "Mike's Madonna Story" 23:56
#42 "Born Free" 23:49
#59 "The Marrying Kind" 24:19
#72 "Birth of a Seaver" 24:14
#79 "The Nanny" 24:30
#84 "Feet of Clay" 23:48
#138 "Not With My Carol You Don't" 23:49
#159 "Menage a Luke" 23:24
Hangin' With Mr. Cooper Launch Episodes ("LOL TV")
#45 "Call Me Irresponsible" 22:43
#46 "My Bodyguard" 22:43
#49 "Matinee" 21:45
#50 "Mo' Money" 22:05
#51 "Instant Replay" 22:05
#52 "House Guest" 22:14
#53 "My Achy Breaky Back" 22:14
#54 "True Romance" 22:15
#55 "Clothes Make the Man" 22:00
#57 "Coach" 22:09
Head of the Class Launch Episodes ("LOL TV")
#1 "Head of the Class" (Pilot) 24:24
#2 "Back to the Future" 23:31
#4 "Love at First Byte" 23:02
#6 "The Teacher's Teacher" 23:16
#7 "Volleyball, Anyone?" 23:27
#8 "Critical Choices" 23:10
#9 "Cold Turkey" 23:31
#10 "You've Got a Friend" 23:22
#18 "Valentine's Day" 21:35
#55 "Arvid's Sure Thing" 24:17
Perfect Strangers Launch Episodes ("LOL TV")
#3 "First Date" 23:59
#7 "Hello, Baby" 25:21
#8 "Hunks Like Us" 25:25
#15 "Can I Get a Witness?" 25:20
#16 "The Rent Strike" 25:18
#18 "Dog Gone Blues" 25:21
#21 "Beautiful Dreamer" 25:21
#23 "Ten Speed and a Soft Touch" 25:19
#24 "Snow Way to Treat a Lady, Part 1" 22:14
#31 "Sexual Harassment in Chicago" 24:19
Welcome Back, Kotter Launch Episodes ("LOL TV")
#1 "Welcome Back" Pilot 25:31
#3 "Basket Case" 25:31
#4 "Whodunit?" 25:11
#6 "No More Mr. Nice Guy" 25:11
#10 "Barbarino's Girl" 25:11
#11 "The Reunion" 25:10
#18 "Follow the Leader, Part 2" 25:12
#22 "Father Vinnie" 25:11
#32 "Sweathog, Nebraska Style" 25:10
#85 "Bride and Bloom" 25:07
There doesn't seem to be a set standard for how to
pick episodes, other than episodes that are considered
the "best" episodes and those that feature certain
guest stars. The random selection is actually already
proving to be a bit flawed; observe, for example, that
episode 24 of Perfect Strangers is part 1 of a two
part episode, yet part 2 is missing. Even more
frustrating, episode 18 of Welcome Back, Kotter is the
SECOND part of a two-parter with part 1 missing. They
probably should have been a little more careful in
selecting that. Perhaps a smarter way to select
episodes would be to put the episodes out in order,
like having starting with the first six episodes one
month and four "special" episodes, and rotating on a
model like that every month.
Additionally, the episodes are mostly unedited--but
read that carefully--MOSTLY unedited. It seems that,
like some DVDs released by Sony, a few edited episodes
have slipped through on this. I can't really prove
that some of the ones that I'm suspicious about are
syndicated copies, but the Growing Pains episode
"Carol's Article" is definitely edited, as there are
scenes there that are not in the Complete First Season
DVD set. Fortunately, this seems to be a minor problem
here and there, and not widespread.
Another thing to note about the episode selection is
that supposedly, the episodes will change every month.
The plan is to remove five episodes each month, and
replace them with five different episodes.
So, make sure to watch the shows that you want to
watch when they are put up--you never know how long
they'll last!
Other programs are included on the In2TV launch
include The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., Babylon
5, Beetlejuice (cartoon), Dark Justice, Eight is
Enough, The FBI, Falcon Crest, Freakzoid, Freddy's
Nightmares, The Fugitive, Histeria, Kung Fu, La Femme
Nikita, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,
Maverick, The New Adventures of Batman, Pinky and the
Brain, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Sisters, Spenser: For
Hire, V, and Wonder Woman.
Bonus Items on In2TV:
The bonus items aren't too great, but they are nice
little extras. "TV Karaoke" allows you to sing along
with the theme songs from all of your favorite In2TV
shows. "Star Play" lets you see the best guest stars
from episodes on In2TV. "Betcha Didn't Know" gives you
fun facts and trivia about the shows. "Punchline," as
the name suggests, is a bunch of short jokes from the
episodes. "Retro Runway" is a series of clips from
episodes about fashion disasters of the 70s. Honestly,
none of this is really exciting, but the episodes are
the main point of In2TV anyway.
How to Use In2TV:
In2TV is available at http://in2tv.aol.com. When
you go to this website, you will be greeted with a menu
that gives you a myriad of options--there is no
algorithmic way to explain every single option that
you can choose. At the top, you can select one of the
channels. On the right hand side, you'll find the
Creme de la Classic menu's listing of the "best"
episodes of various shows.
To be as general as possible, however, I'll discuss
how to play episodes using In2TV. The selection of an
episode using this is very simple. You just find the
show and episode that you want, and click on the
episode. You'll get a menu where the episode begins to
stream (whether you want it to or not) and an episode
description of the episode. You can select to play
using Hi-Q Video from this page, and you can also
select episodes on this menu. If you have high-speed
it is recommended that you use Hi-Q. The episodes
download at a very fast pace and you can watch the
episodes over and over again without re-downloading.
This option has no buffering and no
advertises--can't beat that! You can also get to
these episode menus using MANY other methods; however,
it is not possible to discuss all of those here.
Technical Requirements for In2TV:
The bare minimum requirements for In2TV are as
follows: an Internet connection (if you are reading
this, then you obviously have that one), Windows XP,
and Windows Media Player Version 10.0 (download it for
free at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/AllDownloads.aspx?displang=en&qstechnology=)
and of course, unless you don't want audio for some
reason, speakers.
The In2TV website says that you will need Macromedia
Flash Player 8 too (download it for free at
http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash),
but that seems to be mainly so that you can use
certain menus on their website. Internet Explorer 6.0
is needed if you want to use the AOL Hi-Q video
player. It will NOT download on Mozilla Firefox
unfortunately, but Firefox can be used to watch the
streaming episodes right on the website via the AOL
Video Player.
For an optimal experience with In2TV, it helps to have
a high-speed internet connection (cable modem, DSL,
etc.), a good sound card with good speakers, at least
a 1 GHz or better processor, and 1024x768 monitor
resolution. If you are lacking one (or even all) of
these, don't worry--you can probably enjoy In2TV as
well, it is just that your experience will not include
video and audio quality that is as good as those that
have those.
Video, Audio, and Service Quality:
Generally speaking, these factors will all vary
depending upon your personal technology. If you are
using high-speed Internet access, you are going to
enjoy seeing the shows in a flawless (well, almost
flawless) manner. But if you are using dialup, your
audio and video quality is going to be kind of
rough... unless you have tons of patience and can wait
several hours for high quality video to download.
For those using high-speed Internet access, there are
two PRACTICAL ways of watching In2TV programming. You
can stream the video using the AOL Video Player, or
you can download the video (don't get too excited
about the possibility of "downloading," it WILL
eventually expire on your hard drive) by using AOL
Hi-Q Video. By using the AOL Video Player, you can
watch the programs instantaneously with fairly high
quality video and audio quality, but you'll have to
deal with advertisements and buffering as your
connection speed fluctuates. Hi-Q Video does not have
any advertisements (although I am willing to bet that
once they figure out that this needs to be included,
they'll include it...), allows the video to stay on
your hard drive until it expires, and it does not
require any "buffering" while the video plays.
However, it does require several minutes to download
(about 10 minutes for a half hour series); each
episode will take up substantial hard drive space
(nearly 300 MB per half hour episode), and "full
screen" mode is available by double-clicking on the
video. All the downloaded videos will save in the
"My Videos" tab in the Hi-Q player, so you can
watch at any time without re-downloading, like
mentioned earlier. It is hard to say exactly which one
is better; it is really more of a personal preference.
The video quality on both of these is comparable to
watching a DVD on the computer (which of course is not
nearly as good as watching a DVD on television) and
the audio quality is very loud and clear, but from
what I have experienced, it tends to all come from one
speaker, which means it is extremely mono.
If you are using an Internet connection that is not
high-speed, such as 56K, your best option is to use
the streaming video for sure. The video will play
instantaneously, just as it does with the high-speed
connection, but you aren't going to get very good
video or audio quality. In fact, the video and audio
quality is about comparable to a webcam. The video is
extremely blurry and the audio sounds like somebody is
talking into a tin can. But, if you want to see the
episodes, they are perfectly watchable in this mode.
You can also use the Hi-Q Video to download the
episodes if you are using dialup, but that is a very
bad idea. You'll be waiting an entire day to download
one half-hour episode!
The bottom line about both of these, though, is this:
the video and audio quality is adequate, but in a
world where some people are so demanding that they
have to have a certain specification on their
television, require special speakers for their TV, and
have other picky habits about their viewing standards,
this is like going back to a 13 inch television from
the 1980s with a decent VCR. Not that that should
bother you, many people were happy with such standards
back then (and some, like myself, can even be
satisfied by such standards now), but this is not the
high-definition standard that some people demand these
days.
As far as the reliability of the service itself, that
is usually pretty good, but not necessarily perfect.
One problem that I noted quite frequently is that
sometimes episodes will just freeze up on a certain
picture frame while the audio will continue playing.
I've also noticed this problem with the whole episode
just stopping at some random point within the episode
on some episodes. Certainly, there are some flaws to
be worked out, but this is all new, so hopefully these
issues will be worked out.
Final Comments:
In2TV is a very good service, and I hope that it leads
to bigger and better things, both from Warner and
other companies that haven't tried this yet. The
biggest area that needs improvement, I think, is the
episode selection. The episodes need to be selected
more wisely than the "dartboard" manner in which many
were chosen (which is even odder considering the fact
that the episode selection for some shows is very
random, but at the same time, biased toward earlier
seasons of the show). This is a great service that,
despite how you are connected to the Internet, you
should use and enjoy.
Recommended!
Links:
In2TV
SitcomsOnline.com News Blog In2TV Preview
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