PPStream
Saturday, September 19, 2009 by hwan162
A few months ago I found that my friends from Taiwan were discussing about Gossip Girl, and I was surprised and asked them how they got to see it as the American series haven't actually been aired in Taiwan yet. They introduced me to this 'PPS' (PPStream), which seemed like a software you download like the windows media player but is connected to this online database where you can find all sorts of viewing materials, such as movies, tv dramas, anime, news, and entertainment shows. Its homepage was in simplified Chinese so I could tell that the software is from China, but apart from local productions it included channels from East Asian countries such as Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Singapore and also some from the West mainly being America.
[This is what PPS looks like, on the left is the list where you select what you want to watch and on the right are ads and updates.]
I have to say that since I have gotten PPS I no longer really need TV so much anymore. Viewing full screen on my computer with PPS is really not that much difference from watching TV apart from a smaller screen and its fairly lower pixel quality. But despite that, not having to fit my timetable with the TV schedule, no more constant interruptions of advertisements, and getting to choose what I want to watch from such a rich database of texts all at the ease of a click on my mouse has really made me make my choice with this PPS over my original preference of television.
[This is what PPS looks like, on the left is the list where you select what you want to watch and on the right are ads and updates.] I'm actually not really sure how this thing works but I would say that it is probably something that stands in between downloads and online video streaming, and combines advantages of the two. Now you don’t have to wait for the whole document to be fully downloaded before you can watch it like the BT downloads which may take days. Nor do you have to waste time searching for what you want or having to choose a new clip to watch every 10 minutes like on YouTube. Almost every viewing text that you look for should be there - from the latest episode of Naruto, classic films or recent ones still in theatres, to Friends season 1~10 - all clearly categorized and all Chinese subtitled, free of charge and there for you to watch whenever you wish.
I have to say that since I have gotten PPS I no longer really need TV so much anymore. Viewing full screen on my computer with PPS is really not that much difference from watching TV apart from a smaller screen and its fairly lower pixel quality. But despite that, not having to fit my timetable with the TV schedule, no more constant interruptions of advertisements, and getting to choose what I want to watch from such a rich database of texts all at the ease of a click on my mouse has really made me make my choice with this PPS over my original preference of television.
(Click for the link to the homepage of PPS for anyone interested but unfortunately it does not yet offer an English version)
Great example of the "Daily Me"! :)