I'm still looking for a good “TV over the Internet” solution. Zattoo offers a useful method to watch TV over the Internet, but due to the flash streams is the image under Linux is anything but smooth. The performance, the poor picture quality and range of the thin channels in Germany Zattoo do not really interesting.

As an alternative I have a look around so after network-based video recorders. Law is known onlinetvrecorder.com yes, but this page is a usability disaster. I can not understand why this page is so popular. So I was happy to have discovered Bong.TV. Although the service is free of charge, for ad-free, cross platform and very comfortable.

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BONG.TV?

Bong.tv is “just” an online TV Recorder for the service does not violate the rights of the TV stations have to be marked in advance of the broadcast recordings for recording. Live streams of the current program are not possible. Unfortunately, the stations are not just about this video recorder for the next generation happy. RTL News has filed a lawsuit against BONG.TV so that RTL had to be removed from the program. Otherwise, all really interesting channels are available.

The selection of items is quite convenient. A TV-guide programs can be selected with one click recording. Periodic broadcasts can be recorded automatically, so no one missed episode of a beloved series. Who remembers the way, he forgot that a shipment is to program that can do the BONG.TVmobil page or make up an iPhone application on a smartphone.

To use

BONG.TV you need to have an account. Prices vary depending on length of subscription and booked space between ~ 5 and ~ 10 € € / month. The top package includes 30GB space and will run for 12 months. However, you should not buy a pig in a poke: Man BONG.TV for 7 days unlimited use, without the necessity to cancel the trial subscription.

About

The coupon code “LinuxUndIchSpecial” You can extend the trial period to five days. You must enter the code just in your profile. Tips to give the support pages of BONG.TV. So you can test BONG.TV twelve days, without having to worry that her standing there with a paid subscription.

Texted Enough! What BONG.TV good for Linux?

The general introduction, the question is: how good the service is good with Linux? Browsing on the BONG.TV page on Linux no problem. Almost the entire page does not require Flash, but who wants to play a program recorded on the website, which must have installed the Flash plugin from Adobe. Unfortunately, however, suggests it here with me again to the slow flash. In the full screen is choppy video played.

However, one must not necessarily play the recordings using Flash in the browser. BONG.TV one can also download the created private copy. So you can archive the DRM-free recording, copying to another computer and easily play on Totem / Kaffeine / VLC and Co.. The recordings are encoded with H.264/AAC and are available in two grades. VLC spits out the following data for the recordings from …

LQ:VIDEO: [H264] 320×240 24bpp 25.000 fps 352.1 kbpsAUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 93.4% kbit/6.08HQ:VIDEO: [H264] 544×576 24bpp 25.000 fps 1424.3 kbpsAUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 125.3% kbit/8.16

Download programs goes pretty fast vonstatten. A 162MB large recording was downloaded to me in less than two minutes with around 2.1 MB / sec. You have to wait so long not until the recording is on the plate.

However, it may take a few minutes before a recording is available for download. In my test, read a 30-minute program, which began at 22:45 download only at 23:45. The preparation of the shipment takes so probably around 30 minutes.

BONG.TV Community

Around BONG.TV seems to form a community that develops applications for the service. One of these programs would be the BongLoader that automatically download recordings of BONG.TV and can delete it on the webspace. So you can automatically empty your space and create space for new recordings.

Since the program was

Written in Java, it runs on Linux. The program is divided into a client and a server. It therefore offers the BongLoader run on a small home server, and let off via BongRemote and to set things right.

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