Best Free Internet TV Software and Services to Search Channels and Shows

If you decide to forgo cable or satellite TV in favor of Internet TV, you may find yourself navigating a labyrinth of disorganized links to various different websites which offer free TV shows. The good news is that there are several different free software programs and services that will allow you to organize your favorite Internet TV channels and shows so that you can search and browse them more easily. You can personalize and customize these software applications and services so that you can quickly pull up TV shows you want to watch or even play them automatically. To watch Internet TV using these programs and services, you will need a late model computer with at least a 1 GHz processor, 512 MB of memory and 1 Mbps or faster broadband Internet service. You will also need to install the latest version of Flash, an updated web browser and ensure that Javascript and cookies are enabled on your computer.

Boxee

Boxee's free software allows you to organize your favorite Internet TV shows and channels in a user-friendly graphical interface. You will need a free Boxee account to use the software. Boxee software works with a remote control or with a mouse. You can also download a Boxee remote app to your iPhone or iPod Touch. You can search for your favorite TV shows by title or keyword, or browse for TV shows by genre. You can then add specific episodes to your queue or add shows to your TV Show Library within Boxee. Boxee also supports a wide range of Internet TV apps which play content from different websites. Some of the best TV apps in Boxee include Netflix, YouTube, MLB.tv, NASA, NHL GameCenter, CNET.tv, Google Videos, SPEED, Blip.tv, LiveStation, NBA.com and Vevo. While the apps are free, some of these TV services may require a fee. Boxee requires at least an x86 computer with a 1 GHz 32 bit Intel or AMD processor and 512 MB of memory. Windows-based computers must be able to run DirectX. Your computer must also be able to run OpenGL 1.4 and GLSL and support at least 32 bit color.

Hulu.com

Hulu.com has a free service which allows you to organize TV shows and episodes that are available for free Internet streaming. You must sign up for a free account on Hulu to use this service. You can place individual TV episodes or groups of episodes to your queue quickly and easily. You can also subscribe to your favorite shows to place new episodes in your queue automatically. You can also choose to receive email alerts when your queue is updated from TV shows in your subscriptions and when your subscriptions expire. Hulu.com allows you to search for TV shows by keyword or browse by TV show title, genre, network, subchannel or decade. Hulu provides both full episodes of TV shows and clips from TV episodes.

Hulu Desktop

Hulu Desktop is a free application that organizes and plays TV shows that are available for viewing on the Hulu website. You can also log into your account in the Hulu Desktop software application to access your queue and list of subscribed Internet TV shows. You can also search for Internet TV shows and episodes within Hulu Desktop and browse for shows in the "Popular," "Recently Added" and "TV" sections. Under "TV" you can also look at shows in alphabetical order, by channel, by network and shows with full episodes available.

Hulu Desktop requires a computer with an Intel 1.8 GHz Core Duo processor (2.0 GHz if you're using a Mac or running Linux), 2 GB of memory and Adobe Flash version 10.0.22. On a PC you will need Windows XP or later, on a Mac you'll need Mac OS X version 10.X or later and on Linux you must have Fedora 9 or Ubuntu 8.04 or later. For optimal streaming quality, you should have a broadband Internet connection of 2 Mbps or faster.

For more information on this topic, read Best Websites to Watch Free Streaming TV Shows Online, Best Ways to Watch Internet TV and Movies on an HDTV and How to Stream Netflix Movies and TV on an HDTV.

Sources:

"Boxee Hardware Requirements." Boxee.com
"Help Main: Hulu Desktop: System Requirements." Hulu.com