Technology News

SAN FRANCISCO - If the idea of ​​being stuck on a plane for hours without access to movies in your Netflix queue fills you with fear, software that lets you record streaming videos on the web and watch them later on your laptop can be an attractive solution.

That's the idea behind the play distillates, which describes itself as "DVR for online video." It can record content from a variety of online sources - including Hulu, YouTube and Netflix - and save it to your computer. It costs $ 5 per month or $ 50 per year. New users can try it free for two weeks before you pay.

If you buy or rent more than a couple of Digital Video, Amazon.com, Inc. or Apple Inc. 's iTunes Music Store every month, sounds like a game then to save money. And even if it is a potentially useful product, must be improved long before I would be willing to pay for it.

Included is also possible that sites like Netflix to find a way to prevent a game later. They probably will not, because they do not jibe with the way they do business. In general, streaming movies are sold with the download, so both sites, and the studios risk losing the game later. Web sites do not want you to jump on the ads, either.

It is unlikely that the Web sites and film companies have legal recourse against the parent and its distillates play MediaMall Technologies Inc., as it was determined that digital video recorders (like TiVo) are legal, but you never know. A spokeswoman said Senar MediaMall are associated with certain companies whose content it streams.

In principle, the software works this way: When you click on the video to play within the application and save it on your computer, there will be a video hidden in the Internet browser and copy it from there.

This means that copies of the real-time video streaming, so you have to allow about 93 minutes to save the pilot of David Lynch in the TV movie 90's "Twin Peaks". If you save a video that includes advertising, will be there, too, but you will be able to jump ahead of them when seen.

The software, which currently works only on computers running Microsoft Windows, is easy to download and install PlayLater.tv site. It operates in 30 sites, or "channels", which vary Netflix, YouTube and Hulu is the Cartoon Network, ESPN, Comedy Central, and Internet radio service Pandora. For password protected sites, like Netflix, you must enter your login information.

The software is easy to navigate, but it is ugly and difficult with lots of text and pictures. In general, you have to click through multiple levels of tabs to find the video clip, movie or TV show you want. Fortunately, some of the channels have a search bar, and if there is one I found was, it is generally easier to use it to find what I wanted.

The resulting video, which played in Windows Media Player, were somewhat blurred and the colors fade significantly - probably the result of copying software and the transmission of compressed video and then compressed again. The logs look good when viewed in a smaller window, but have not been strong in the full screen mode. The recording technology is only slightly better than aim a video camera to a television screen, and it shows.

And I can not wait to watch these videos on the tablet PC or Smartphone just yet, they are stored in file format, which can only repeat what the computer software. This is intentional - the company does not want to spread all over the recorded video. But by the end of the year, the company hopes to repeat the iPad.

And while MediaMall also offers a software called Playon, which can be used to view recordings in other places, such as an intelligent computer or tablet, it requires an Internet connection and costs several dollars more per month ($ MediaMall offers two 8 per month or $ 70 per year).

Watch videos PlayLater my PC, I had a series of questions, perhaps indicating my laptop is also taxed to handle playback, record and other programs at the same time. Many times I tried to watch a video while recording another, I could hear the sound, but only saw a bright pink screen. And my computer crashed three times when using the program and the other at the same time. Error in installing Windows 7, and another, not saving Netflix.

There were problems with the registration, too. Senar play several times that he recorded an entire TV show, when in fact he did not. In cases recorded only part of an episode of teen drama "clumsy". MTV. Another time, the software works as if it had recorded a whole episode of "Glee" to Hulu, but could not because the show was only available to paying subscribers to the premium Hulu Hulu Plus service.

As much as I love to watch movies online and fast forward through commercials, PlayLater is not the right tool in its current state. Of things I can not see now, I'll pay for play downloads later.