what a deal. shift TV has been offering a annual subscribtion service for 60 euros a year for a total capacity of 20 hours. even though 60 euros converts to about $85 it still is one heck of a deal. I have been using shift now eversince German TV went away, and i am acculy much happier about it.

better learning with shift...

Shift.tv is great, because you can watch american films that have been translated to german. if an american (i.e. english speaking) is familiar with the original version of the film, then that person can learn how to speak german, if they watch the translated version.

German TV did not offer american programs translated to german. it is also interesting to observe the translation of humor in some programs like the simpsons

oversea TV is now shipping

I just got an e-mail anouncong that over sea TV is going to start shipping out recievers this moth. they are going to be releasing 1000 units for now. I am not going to order it, because i am quite happy with shift.tv. I am also a bit sceptic about the service, since i did not read any reviews about it yet. they are offering two ways to subscribe. one is a rental for the reciever for $30/month. or a purchase of the reciever for a one time fee of $500. in either case, a $10 discount is available the the coupon code "promo10" more info

Download Manager for Shift.TV

"FlashGet" is a great download manager that works with shift TV. All you have to do, after you installed "get Flah", is to right-click on the download button in the shift.tv iPVR, and select "download using flash get". FlashGet will break the file up into up to 5 streams, and then will download each stream at the same time, this way it will download faster. the good thing about downloading your shift.tv contend with this utility is that if your download ever breaks, it will automaticly reconnect with the server and resume the download where it left off. FlashGet

IPTV?....Oversea TV

my friend told me about this one. sounds like a good service. but the website lacks technical information about their IPTV reciever. in a nutshell from what i can gather is. you pay a deposit for the reciver (dont know how much)and $30 per month for the service. you get 8 german TV Channels (plus russian, polish, ukranian, ect...). if you want tocancel the service, just return the reciever, and yhou get the deposit back. the reciever hookes up to your broadband internet connection. that process is explaind very well on the website. at the moment they are still in a test run with 50 recievers. but in march they are going to release 1000 units. if you want to try this service, you haved to register to be put on a list. www.overseatv.com

A Shift Test drive

I went ahead and signed up for a 3 month subscription for shift TV and i am sadisfied with it so far. so far it was pretty reliable with recording the programs i selected. the stream is solid. I did however lost the stream a couple of times on my MAC, but on the PC it is reliable and solid, even full screan. if you are using a wireless card, you may also have streaming problems. I would recommend viewing the contend with a direct broadband connection.

A Alternative to German TV

shift TV is a online video recorder. It allows you to record your favorite TV shows from German most over the Air Channels to a server. After the program is recorded, you can download it. The service is 10euro + TAX€ per month for 10 hours of server space. Checkedd out the free trial version, that lets you record only up to 30 min.Alll you need is windows media player 9 and a broadband internet connection.

The Video and Audio is acceptable. The stream broke up whenIi tried to play the file back in full screen.Whenn you subscribe to the full service, then you can download the file before watching.Thatt may clear up the broken stream issues.Thee service needs some polishing, but it is only a beta service that is worth checking out www.shift.tv