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back to article Copyright-bothering web TV outfit rises from the grave

TVCatchup.com, a web-based TV recording service which was shut down last year under pressure from broadcasters, has returned, and this time it assures us it's legal. The original service allowed members to stream shows on all the main channels for up to 60 days. If a member forgot to set his account to "record" a particular …

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  1. Mo

    Sounds a bit like Zattoo

    …except as a web site instead of a (rather good) standalone app.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Looks good

    Shame that using it for more than half an hour will probably prompt my ISP to use 'traffic management' on my connection.

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  3. zedee
    Pirate

    Licensing?

    The BBC licencing mafia should be all over this.

    With this, every recent mobile device has been made capable of receiving live broadcast television. (the transmission medium doesn't matter does it? cable or radio waves...)

    But - it's battery operated so exempt.

    But - don't plug it in to charge or you'll need a TV licence!!!

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  4. Anonymous Hero
    Paris Hilton

    Only for some UK customers.....

    Upon trying to register for the beta all I got was:

    "Sorry ENTANET Customers ...

    Your ISP (ENTANET) does not currently support TVCatchup.

    In order for you to use the TVCatchup site for free, your ISP must have a free peering connection with us.

    We encourage you to email your ISP’s support department requesting them to set up this free peering connection. Full details of the steps they need to perform are located at http://www.tvcatchup.com/isps/.

    Once your ISP has established the connection, you will be able to watch the full selection of television channels online."

    I can't see this working out real well especially when you look at their peering arrangements

    http://www.db.ripe.net/whois?form_type=simple&full_query_string=&searchtext=as31715

    I don't see that many popular ISP's listed.

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  5. Eddie Edwards
    Pirate

    I think you mean ...

    "Like the BBC's own streams, TVCatchup's services is restricted to UK IP addresses ("at great expense", says Parsons), to avoid violating copyright licensing deals between broadcasters and producers."

    AIUI, a basic rule of tort is that 3rd parties can't be bound by contracts which they aren't party to.

    They don't care about the deals between broadcasters and producers. What they care about is that their service would (presumably) be illegal if it retransmitted UK TV outside the UK.

    The "great expense" is surely a necessary component of their legality, not an extra they add on to keep the broadcasters happy.

    Weasel words strike again.

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  6. Scott
    Thumb Up

    Never used it before...

    .... and I had a look just now.

    It puts iplayer et al to shame - I can't get anything but BBC where I live (damn trees :| ), and this is a perfect replacement - it's really not all that much different to live freeview tbh, and if the PS3 is happy to stream it (don't see why not)... well, job done. Who needs a TV aerial?

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Catch-up?

    I'm not saying it's no good, but how is it "TV catch-up" if it only streams shows as they are being broadcast?

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  8. Colin
    Thumb Up

    Been using tvcatchup for a while

    I can't get freeview here and will not get the full line up of channels when analouge is switched off. Works great on o2 broadband.

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  9. Jess

    @as - "Catch-up?" & License

    Catch up with those households with full digital coverage maybe?

    I think it would be sensible for the service to require registering a TV license, (and if the license is monochrome, sending a black and white stream.)

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Easy to get access

    "Like the BBC's own streams, TVCatchup's services is restricted to UK IP addresses ("at great expense", says Parsons), to avoid violating copyright licensing deals between broadcasters and producers."

    Works a treat over here in NON-UK land.

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    so much effort and pain...

    to duplicate the already hugely successful and financially unbeatable, bittorrent ;)

    They only things that come close are mythtv, tivo and sky+

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  12. druck Silver badge

    Catchup?

    How is re-broadcasting live streams in any way a catchup?

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  13. George
    Thumb Up

    TVCatchup is great

    No comparison with bittorrent, who wants to wait an hour to watch something on their tv and risk getting busted for it?

    MythTV is just that, an unreliable myth, tivo is not available in the UK and Sky+ is a subscription service. When the application launches this is going to be a world beater

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