RSS Feeds
communicate
Livestation Brings Streaming TV To All Platforms
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 12:07 AM on October 7, 2008
Windows/Mac/Linux (all platforms): Livestation, the previously invite-only streaming television player, has released its free desktop client for all platforms. The app cites an available 1,275 channels, but the majority are—how should we say—not essential viewing. Still, there's live CNN, BBC, NBC News, Bloomberg, and a smattering of local stations. (Many of the US stations are blocked to international viewers.) The full-screen "carousel" view is pretty slick, as is reducing the player to a corner and having it always stay on top. After creating your account, you can also watch live streams from Livestation's web site, and send twitters marking what you're watching. All in all, a pretty decent solution to quickly pulling up news and information while you're at your desktop. Livestation is a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems; requires a free sign-up to use.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Jash Sayani
Posted 1:42 AM 7/10/08
Very few channels and slow buffering....
Jash Sayani
turniptable
Posted 2:11 AM 7/10/08
I was so excited when I saw you can get animal planet on this thing... Then I realized its in German! Nooooooo
turniptable
Navin R Johnson
Posted 2:25 AM 7/10/08
How can you advertise 1,275 channels and have people say there aren't a lot of channels, are they all if foreign languages?
I'll go look, but it doesn't sounds promising.
Ever since Netflix hooked up with Starz I'm getting plenty of streaming content now :)
Navin R Johnson
urmston
Posted 2:23 AM 7/10/08
Sadly a little too buggy to be effective on Linux. Buffering is also very slow, but overall the concept is fantastic. It's only a matter of time before all TV is available for live streaming.
urmston
zoomZAP
Posted 2:19 AM 7/10/08
I watched the Biden-Palin debate on Livestation. I couldn't get the client app to work (it just never connected, and I turned off my firewall and tried everything else I could think of), but the embedded web channels were good enough. There's not an overwhelming quantity of channels, but there are a few good ones so it's something I've bookmarked for future use.
zoomZAP
Mostro
Posted 2:50 AM 7/10/08
is this US only?
Mostro
georgexu316
Posted 3:52 AM 7/10/08
Helpful tip: if you want to view stuff on the website, after you select your channel, right click and click properties, and copy that .asx file and paste it into your browser. Windows Media Player should pop up and the speed is much faster
georgexu316
Free as in Rick
Posted 3:39 AM 7/10/08
if this becomes a plugin for xbmc, sign me up.
Free as in Rick
sisya
Posted 3:56 AM 7/10/08
I use Cox 7 mbps connxn. Do they have a cap? Do I run the risk of running out of my bandwidth quota for the month if I watch livestation 4-6 hours a day?
sisya
navigator99
Posted 4:31 AM 7/10/08
Has no one learned from Joost and the bad idea of desktop clients?
navigator99
Deadhacker
Posted 4:21 AM 7/10/08
Slow, tiny video size, BBC America is audio only, and it's a CPU hog.
I'll stick to BitTorrent and NetFlix, thanks.
Deadhacker
zoomZAP
Posted 4:47 AM 7/10/08
@navigator99: I agree, but sometimes Firefox times out or has other glitches and has to be restarted (especially with video sites or other Flash content). And because Firefox still doesn't have that Chrome magic of making each tab a separate process, that means that I have to restart all my browser tabs/windows if this happens. I thought that opening Livestation in its own app would save me from that issue, but it just didn't work for me (so I used Opera instead).
zoomZAP
LD
Posted 5:02 AM 7/10/08
How stupid is the preview? They have a Mac client but require Windows Media Player to watch the station previews on their website. How dumb.
LD
sisya
Posted 5:00 AM 7/10/08
@zoomZAP: Firefox has the magic of "profiles" though. Use different profiles for Livestation and general browsing. That way if Livestation crashes, it doesnt bring the house down with it.
sisya
MarkONeill
Posted 7:22 AM 7/10/08
I'm Mark, the guy who wrote the Make Use Of review.
I don't understand those who say it's slow. I have it running on my computer all day every day and it's VERY fast. If it's slow on your computer then have you looked at your firewall configuration? How many other programs do you have running? How old is your computer?
And for the record, it is NOT a CPU hog!
Yes, a lot of channels are crap but there are some good channels there including CNN, the BBC, MTV, the Discovery Channel and a cartoon channel. There's also a science-fiction channel. OK, it's not breath-taking but it's free so you haven't lost anything have you?
MarkONeill
XerxesGesh
Posted 2:23 AM 7/10/08
No really good feeds (stations)
XerxesGesh
Ben J
Posted 8:26 AM 7/10/08
It's good for news. CNN International and al-Jazeera English are both available. The channels start streaming as fast as any stream - a little slower than youtube. Quality is pretty good.
Ben J
JerryA
Posted 9:29 AM 7/10/08
@Navin R Johnson: Also, if you are using a flavor of Windows Media Center, there is a great plugin called "MyNetflix" that integrates it all into your media center to be browsed via remote from your couch ;)
JerryA
eskiz
Posted 4:45 AM 8/10/08
i tried it last nite... to tell ya all the truth i was pleasantly surprised =) have channels that actually WORK!
eskiz
DonDiego
Posted 11:34 PM 8/10/08
Works well here on a 1.6Mhz cpu with a 6Mb broadband. Livestation and Zattoo are my favorite Live TV softwares, though Zattoo is nicer, loads *much* quicker, but is only available within a few countries of which not USA
DonDiego
Ayanami
Posted 6:37 AM 10/10/08
Great service, but the client is pure fail. No true fullscreen support. Fix please!
Ayanami