RecordTV: Complements XinMSN

It’s no longer cool to just watch TV shows on the TV anymore. The increased demand for shows anytime, and anywhere, have seen the improvement of services such as Toggle and Xinmsn. As an alternative to Xinmsn, there’s RecordTV which offers a Digital Video Recording (DVR) service in the cloud / internet.

RecordTV works by allowing you to choose the shows you want to from Channel 5, 8, U, NewsAsia, Suria, Vasantham, & Okto. The server would then do the recording for you. Basically, there’s no need for downloads or hardware. Just a browser and a Net-connected device. It’s like having a DVR that’s shared by many users on the internet. Once the show has completed, you could then playback your favourite TV shows on your iPhone, iPad, Samsung Galaxy, PC or TV.

What’s the advantage as compared to Xinmsn? Largely, Xinmsn restricts you to the locally produced shows, which excludes the foreign dramas, movies, etc. There’s also a bit of a time lag before the show is available on the portal for viewing, approximately one day. In comparison, RecordTV does allow you access to the show immediately after it has ended the broadcast on the TV, so if you missed the CH 8 9M drama, you could quickly get up to speed later on the in the night.

For RecordTV, a couple of disadvantages. The show only stays available on the server for approximately 10 days or two weeks. Another issue is that you would actually have to click record before it is made available to you. Process is slightly simplified for a TV series, as there’s an option to record the entire series automatically.

If you were wondering why RecordTV are allowed to operate and if they infringe on XinMSN, well The Court of Appeal had found in favor of online startup RecordTV in 2011, which was sued for offering a service that national broadcaster MediaCorp said infringed on its copyright.

Thus, I wouldn’t consider it an alternative to Xinmsn, but it does complement the service quite well, allowing you to record shows for watching immediately and also to catch on those that are not available on the Xinmsn portal as well. And with a service like this, why bother with an actual DVR? I am quite most people do end up recording shows and not finding the time to watch them.