The plan is as simple as tempting: why not just record everything on American TV, and decide later what you would actually like to see? The problem: It takes a fairly large memory to cut seventeen days a week of 24 hours of programs from more than 40 relevant free-TV stations. And even if you had a server farm with the appropriate capacity at home, there was still a logic that could help you find the broadcasts from around 7000 TV hours a week, which really interest you.
Various offers
This is the service offered by current online video recorders. The three providers OnlineTVRecorder (short form: OTR), Save.tv and YouTV actually record everything that is broadcast on free-to-air television, and offer it to the customers for streaming or downloading after completion of the respective program
Legal graveons
These recorders were started as an online image of a normal VCR a few years ago. They were able to program programs in an online EPG for recording. After that, the provider put the respective program on the central server in their own recording archive, where they can be viewed later by streaming or downloading could. This principle is offered by Save.tv today. The website lists the highlights of feature films, series, sports, documentaries and TV shows and offers a comprehensive program guide for the coming weeks, each program can be programmed as a single or series recording - classic VCR everyday
Record and find
Both Save.tv and the two other Cloud recorders are still going one step further: they can record the complete program of all Free TV stations as if you had a daily recording of 0 to 24 hours. In the case of Save.tv, the XXL subscription (monthly EUR 16.50) can be set up channel-wise or flat-rate, the other two services do it automatically. According to vendors at Save.tv and YouTV, all of these shipments end up in their own store for each customer. Thus, the American media law defines private copies from the current TV program.
Playback devices
The two vendors thus rent recorder space and the associated recording technology for a fee, as Humax or Kathrein sell digital receivers with hard disks. YouTV offers its service in a basic version even free of charge, but keeps broadcasts for only 24 hours for streaming and does not allow downloads. For longer storage times, downloads and archive functions, monthly fees are due from 5.99 euros - the competition is similar.
Ever since, they have been on the verge of online video recorders. Accusation: Your service contradicts media law. Save.tv, for example, has been involved in lengthy procedures with various private individuals for years. A controversy: Save.tv cuts the advertising as well as the pre-and post-run from his recordings in his XL and XXL packages. This automatic advertising killer is a thorn in the eyes of the private sector, while Save.tv argues that some video recorders can do this automatically - and the viewer makes it manually in case of doubt. Practical sequence: The RTL main program is not available with Save.tv. YouTV does not offer any advertising killer. According to RTL spokesman Konstantin von Stechow, the media group RTL is also currently running a lawsuit against this provider.
The third provider is even more flexible with media law: OTR saves its recordings centrally and not in the personal memories of the subscribers. Older recordings are no longer provided by OTR itself, but by so-called mirror servers of other operators. This type of storage and distribution of TV recordings is not legal in the United States. However, the provider obviously does not care, especially since his servers as well as the headquarters of the company are located abroad - according to Seychelles.
Regardless of these legal issues, online video vendors will not be at risk if they use OTR, Save.tv or YouTV, with the exception of the possibility that offers may change as a result of new procedures, judgments or provisional injunctions. The following applies to the customer: Only the use of "obviously illegal services" is legally questionable. However, according to lawyers, this is not the case with online video recorders.
Especially with YouTV, the online video recorder does not even look like a pure-bodied recording service. The homepage and the associated apps are more likely to be a universal media library. They do not list individual recordings, but rather an overview of the TV highlights of the last week - precisely the content, which is stored automatically in the recording store of the customer. The broadcasts can be played directly here, can be downloaded or archived in a longer-term on-line store. Only in the second menu item does YouTV offer a program guide, which looks backwards and into the future. Here, customers can already program programs for archiving.
On the Save.tv website you have to look for such a backward EPG for a long time. You can find recordings here via specially designed channels or, more difficult, via various search aids in the recording archive. The tablet and TV app still offers a tabular program guide with backward search. Only on the TV, Save.tv offers an overview of past and recorded film and TV highlights.
All three offers have a more or less clear web page, which can be viewed and downloaded. Optimal is however of course an employment in the living room at the large television. With smart TV apps, however, the providers are doing quite sparingly. YouTV is on current Samsung TVs with Tizen operating system as well as on Android devices from Philips to have an app for LG TVs is according to provider in work. Also Save.tv apps are available at Philips and Samsung. Very good TV conversions of both offers are however for the Streamingboxen Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV to have - the operation runs smoothly, the TV and film directories allow in both offers a fast search for transmitters, times and content criteria. You can also transfer movies from Save.tv and YouTV to the TV screen via the Smartphone and Google Chromeecast.
OTR, on the other hand, does not have an app for smart TVs or streaming boxes. Instead, the website can be opened as a Leanback variant, including remote-friendly menu control and large buttons. The TV menus are significantly reduced and thus much clearer than the normal website with its many banners, pop-up windows and small-scale menus. However, this user interface is also not particularly comfortable.
On Android and Apple mobile devices, all three online recorders are accessible via their own apps. With Save.tv and OTR, in addition to the more or less clear search for recorded broadcasts and their playback via streaming also allow a download of the recordings within the app. This allows you to watch your recordings on the tablet without the Internet connection. YouTV does not provide this service yet.
Conclusion
A look at YouTV is more like Netflix or Maxdome than the good old VCR. The paid service plays its advantages against classic TV archivists skillfully and thus also reveals itself also as an alternative to the Abo Videotheken. Many content, which Netflix & Co. show, run also in the free TV - only just within a fixed program screen. The three services solve this time dilemma. The best is YouTV.
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