I finally got around to installing Joost this past weekend. It’s perfect for when there is nothing on TV, which is a majority of the time these days. I watched a few episodes of Fifth Gear, an automotive program from Europe that I can’t get with my sparse cable setup. Watching a Porsche 911 speed around racetracks is an excellent time waster for me.

You can browse program listings as the show plays in the background.

The install was painless but I do find the interface a little clunky and slow. Some of the icons in the interface are not very intuitive so it takes a little while to get your bearings. The on-screen controls (shown below) can be hidden by clicking on the screen.

Of the channels I tried to watch, only Fifth Gear played smoothly over my connection. The National Geographic Channel preview was very choppy and I could only stand to watch for a few seconds. I’m sure that this was more of a connection issue than a Joost problem.

The quality is good in windowed mode (800×600, I believe) and I didn’t notice any significant artifacts in the picture. But as expected the quality deteriorates when set to full-screen on my 1680×1050 display.

The episodes I watched had only a few 15-second commercials, not a bad deal for free programming. The commercials were all from the same sponsor during the span of the episode.

As someone who doesn’t have a high-end cable or satellite TV setup, I think Joost and other IPTV options serve as a welcome compliment to traditional television. But I still prefer watching TV on my TV, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

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