PlayLater

It's a simple yet compelling proposition: You've got Netflix and Hulu accounts that let you watch shows on your desktop or laptop PC, but what if you want to take those to a smaller screen like your phone or tablet, or to a larger screen like your HDTV? And what if one of the devices doesn't have an Internet connection, like when you're on a plane? To the rescue comes PlayLater, a follow-on app and service from the folks who brought us PlayOn, a streaming server. The service and software costs $24.99 a year or $49.99 for a lifetime license. Though PlayLater lives up to this billing, using it is not as instantaneous a process as we've become used to in our media consumption, and there are simpler alternatives.

Setup/Signup
You get started with PlayLater by downloading the Windows software?sorry Mac fans, there's no Mac OS X version at present. When you run the installer program, it actually downloads and installs PlayOn first, since PlayLater relies on PlayOn functions. PlayOn lets you stream video from your PC to a device such as an Xbox, Roku , or iOS tablet. The installer adds icons for both apps to the system tray from which you can show the app's main windows. I had to allow PlayLater access through my Windows firewall before it would work.

Interface
When you start PlayLater, its main window shows a grid of 46 video sources, such as Netflix, HBO Go, PBS, and pretty much every TV provider that has a Web streaming site. But there's a big one missing?YouTube?and you can't simply add any website with video content you like. There is a "plug-in" feature, but the link to information on this offered no help. The simple interface has but four buttons across the top?Guide (which shows the same network grid), My Recordings, Settings, and Help.

Recording Shows
Naturally, you have to log in to the video site you want to use. I chose Netflix, which showed a long button saying "Please set Netflix login in PlayOn Sett?" Pressing this button didn't open the settings, but when I clicked the main Settings button, and then chose the Channels tab, I saw the option for Netflix login, along with those for the rest of the 46 content providers. A Test button let me check whether my login was working.

When I tried Netflix, I could browse genres, new arrivals, and my instant queue, but my "Suggestions for you" picks could not be found. Even without logging into Hulu, I could browse genres, see new arrivals, see show and episode listings, and actually start recording them. I clicked on the M.A.N.T.I.S. entry, and then Full Episodes. From here, I downloaded a show episode, and I could also add more shows to my download queue. To my relief, the show didn't have to be playing on my PC to download it: the download happened in the background, though it did take nearly as long as watching the show would have.

Downloading my 45-minute test show took 37 minutes on a reasonably fast cable network, and the resulting file weighed in at 740MB?so not the most efficient codec is used: A half hour show can look fine with 250MB in some formats. After this, its status in My Recordings changed to Recording, so there's more to it than just downloading. This step took another 17 minutes and ballooned the file to 965MB.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/BlyHTXVbd_I/0,2817,2410102,00.asp

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