I’ve discovered a new pastime – Internet TV courtesy of the Participatory Culture Foundation’s “Democracy Player” software. It lets you subscribe to video feeds (“channels”), and obviously play them back after they’ve downloaded. So this is definitely something for which you want to have uncapped broadband!

My favourite channel so far has got to be Terra, a nature documentary series. It stands out from the crowd for being close to TV production quality – real, interesting documentaries, for free. Lots of the other channels are just computer geeks with a camera and no producer in sight, so I tend to avoid them. The daily Rocketboom is also fantastic, and worth subscribing to. While most channels are available elsewhere (on YouTube or wherever), it’s much better to subscribe to them all in Democracy Player, let the high-quality versions download, and watch them when you want.

A quick work about the software – for me, it crashes all the time. It crashes between videos. It crashes on startup, it crashes on closing, it crashes while browsing the channel guide. It’s by far the least stable and least polished piece of software that I use. It’s a little bit rubbish. But it’s completely worth putting up with for the content – from documentaries to comedy to music videos to current affairs. Try it – it’s open source, and all the channels are free.

Read on for my list of recommended channels. Continue reading →