PlayOn is, at its most basic, a way for you to organize and consolidate your streaming media. It also offers options for downloading and recording streaming media, although you have to pay for those features. PlayOn purports to offer more flexibility for people who are overwhelmed by the streaming options currently available. It's not a huge name in the business, so you aren't alone if you're asking, 'What is PlayOn?' Read on for the Cordcutting.com review of the PlayOn software.
PlayOn Cloud Downloader for Mac and Windows now out. Posted by 4 months ago. PlayOn Cloud Downloader for Mac and Windows now out. Happy to see a downloader.
User Experience
- Download PlayOn, the Desktop PC app that lets you stream, cast, and record your favorite streaming sites like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO and more from one place.
- There are many other ways to run Windows program on a Mac. Here is a comparative table to understand the advantages of our solution. PlayOnMac Bootcamp Virtual machines (Parallels, VMWare Fusion) Price: Free: About $200 Licence Windows: $200 to $300 Licences: Windows licence: Unneeded: Required: Required: User friendliness.
PlayOn is available in two basic forms: PlayOn Desktop and PlayOn Cloud. The desktop app only works with Windows computers, so Mac users are out of luck in this case. I have a Windows laptop, and I found it easy to get to the download page on PlayOn's website. The cloud app is exclusively for smartphones.
The desktop download is a pretty simple process, although there are constant reminders of what you're missing out by not upgrading to the paid version. Once the download is complete, you can go to the channels tab and start linking your other streaming accounts to PlayOn's media player.
You can connect to the big players like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. If you're a cable subscriber, you'll probably find your cable company listed under channels as well. HBO Go is also listed, but like pretty much every other channel, you must have an existing HBO GO account before you can start queuing up Game of Thrones. There are some free episodes offered (see the Content section for more), but this mostly a pay-to-play (on) service.
Switching between channels is a smooth process, but then again, it's also a smooth process on my Roku TV. Even going from Netflix to Hulu on my laptop isn't exactly complicated. I did find that the PlayOn app did a decent job of transferring my streaming profiles over from other sites. But it looks very much like a transfer rather than something organic. On other streaming sites, the shows are displayed in a more seamless way. PlayOn displays them like folders on your computer's hard drive.
Playonmac For Mac
The video player is mostly fine. I had to wait a few seconds for my show to load, which gave me time to wonder why I wasn't watching simply Brooklyn Nine-Nine on Hulu instead.
Content
PlayOn has a PlayOn Picks channel that promises 'totally free movies.' There are seven of those as of this writing. Some notable titles are Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, and The Hurt Locker. To be fair to PlayOn, the channel updates every month. If you want to try streaming, casting, or recording videos with the free plan, you can only do it with the movies available in PlayOn Picks.
If you're thinking, 'That's all?' Well, so did I at first. Luckily, it's not all. By my count, there are also 12 'subscription-free movies' available for free, including titles like the 2010 remake of True Grit and the romantic comedy classic Four Weddings and a Funeral. There's more free TV available than movies, as the basic desktop version lets you access to the most recent episodes of shows like Riverdale and The Big Bang Theory.
In most cases, you'll get access to the last five or six episodes, which is about the same number of episodes you can watch for free by going to the CW and CBS websites, respectively. There were some exceptions, though. I noticed a lot of Late Night with Seth Meyers episodes available, for instance. So if you can't get enough of the 'A Closer Look' segments on YouTube, knock yourself out.
The 'most recent episodes' model reminds me of the early days of Hulu, back before it was a purely paid service. You won't be able to binge watch an entire season of The Good Place, but you will be able to catch up on the last few episodes of Season 3, for instance. According to the company, they have content from networks including NBC, ABC, Fox, SpikeTV, Comedy Central, VH1, and MTV.
The FAQs for PlayOn can sometimes sound a bit defensive. There's a lot of questions like 'I already have Netflix and Hulu, so what will PlayOn add?' It mentions recording shows and then skipping ads, but again, you can only do that if you spring for one of the paid versions.
You can also use PlayOn to stream to additional devices, but only with the paid version. If you want to download shows to watch later, then guess what? That's right; you're going to have to give PlayOn your credit card info.
Streaming Quality
The quality on my laptop was fine. It was nothing to write home about. Except for the longish loading times, it seemed roughly comparable to the quality on the streaming sites themselves. But for a company like PlayOn to succeed in the long run, I'm not sure that's going to cut it.
Platform
As mentioned before, the Desktop app only works on Windows laptops. The cloud app is compatible with both Android and Apple mobile devices.
Beyond that, the company says that 'PlayOn is designed to work with most streaming devices.' It mentions Roku and Chromecast, but also says it works with consoles like Xbox, Playstation and Wii. I didn't see a full list of compatible platforms on PlayOn's website. The company does invite you to email support@playon.tv if you aren't sure if your device is compatible.
Price
PlayOn really wants you to pay for either the Cloud or Desktop versions. With the Cloud, you pay on a per-recording basis. In fact, you can pay $29.99 to get 150 cloud recordings. If you really wanted to, you could use PlayOn Cloud to record every episode of Perfect Strangers in existence (if you did not know Perfect Strangers is available for streaming, well, neither did I until about 30 seconds ago).
Playonmac Compatibility
If you're looking for unlimited recordings on your desktop, then you'll want to check out the paid Desktop plan. The normal price is listed as $69.99 for unlimited recordings, but as of this writing, the site is offering it for $29.99. As long as that deal is still around, there's no reason not to get unlimited recordings if you're determined to pay for PlayOn's service. Other desktop recording plans are available through PlayOn, but none as good as that. Visual studio 2013 for mac os x.
Playon On Mac
The recordings are stored on the cloud for just 7 days. You can buy cloud recording and storage plans if you want to keep those Perfect Stranger episodes on the cloud for longer before transferring them to another device.
On your desktop, recordings won't expire. PlayOn says that 'unlike a traditional DVR, recording capacity isn't capped.' It is capped, however, by the amount of room available on your computer's hard drive. They won't disappear after a set number of days, but at some point, you will have to delete some files if you want to make room for new downloads.
Verdict
The biggest issue with PlayOn is that its basic plan doesn't offer much that you can't get elsewhere, and its paid plans also don't really distinguish itself. The free version is basically a media player. The paid plan is a decent option only if you have too many shows already recorded on another service's DVR.
Just about every streaming service lets you record video for offline viewing nowadays. It's typically part of the monthly subscription plan. PlayOn requires you to pay an additional fee on top of that. If you're planning on doing a lot of recording, it's not a bad option, but right now, it feels like a redundant choice for most streamers, myself included.
Why Stream TV? Cordcutter Microsoft office 2013 for mac free download utorrent.
- Save Money
- Watch on all devices
- Greater flexibility to change or cancel
Start right now
Cordcutters save $100/mo. on average. Click below and use our channel finder tool to find the best streaming service for you. Buy the service, cancel cable and start saving serious cash.
Find Your StreamInstalling the PlayOnMac© Windows Emulator to Run S & S Software on a MAC Computer
Click on the Mac Download button on the product webpage (for SewWhat-Pro, SewArt, or SewWrite). This will save the software installer package(s) to your MAC computer. Then follow the steps below to install the PlayOnMac Windows emulator. After installing PlayOnMac, you can repeat the necessary steps to install additional software packages as required. Top strategy games for mac.
Before installing PlayOnMac, go to your MAC System Preferences. Select Security & Privacy. Select the General Tab. At the lower left of the dialog box (see figure below), you will see a padlock. If the padlock is locked, click the lock to unlock it to allow you to change the security settings. You may have to enter your login info. You will see 'Allow apps downloaded from' in the Security & Privacy dialog box and three choices to select. Click the radio button 'Anywhere' to select it and close the dialog box.
- Go to PlayOnMac© to download this free emulation software on your MAC. (You must use the MAC Download buttons on our webpages.) PlayOnMac allows you to easily install and use software on your MAC that was designed for Microsoft Windows©.
- Once downloaded, install 'PlayOnMac_X.XXdmg' on your desktop by double-clicking the file. Follow installation instructions and finalize the PlayOnMac Installation.
- Go to 'Configure' by clicking the gear icon on the top bar (shown below).
IMPORTANT: This tutorial uses SewArt as the S & S software being installed with PlayOnMac. To install any other S & S Mac-compatible software (for example, SewWhat-Pro or SewWrite), just replace the SewArt example used here with the appropriate other software product.
- Create a new virtual drive by clicking on the New button:
- This will launch the virtual drive creator wizard. Click 'Next' to start the drive creation.
- Select 'System' and click 'Next'.
- Specify the name for the virtual drive (SewArt_on_Mac in this example), being sure to NOT include any spaces in the name. Click next and wait for the virtual drive and WINE to configure. This may take a few moments to complete.
- Once the virtual drive is created, you will be returned to the virtual drive directory list where you will see that your new virtual drive is listed. Select it ('SewArt_on_Mac' for this example). First click on the 'Wine' tab (2) and then the 'Configure Wine' button (3). At the bottom of the 'Applications' tab window set the default Windows version to 'Windows 7'. Click on 'Apply' and close all the Wine configuration windows.
Having returned to the PlayOnMac main configuration window, click on the 'Install components' tab. This is the tab where you will select dependency libraries to install.
- Select dotnet45 and click the 'Install' button. Repeat this step for the following required framework libraries:
Base Library Support
–- Microsoft Core Fonts
-– vbrun6
-– vcrun2013
-– vcrun6
— msvc100
— mfc42
Additional Font Support
— FontsSmoothBGR
— FontsSmoothGrayScale
— FontsSmoothRGB
— RegisterFonts
Additional Graphics Support (it is mandatory to install this dll)
Content
PlayOn has a PlayOn Picks channel that promises 'totally free movies.' There are seven of those as of this writing. Some notable titles are Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, and The Hurt Locker. To be fair to PlayOn, the channel updates every month. If you want to try streaming, casting, or recording videos with the free plan, you can only do it with the movies available in PlayOn Picks.
If you're thinking, 'That's all?' Well, so did I at first. Luckily, it's not all. By my count, there are also 12 'subscription-free movies' available for free, including titles like the 2010 remake of True Grit and the romantic comedy classic Four Weddings and a Funeral. There's more free TV available than movies, as the basic desktop version lets you access to the most recent episodes of shows like Riverdale and The Big Bang Theory.
In most cases, you'll get access to the last five or six episodes, which is about the same number of episodes you can watch for free by going to the CW and CBS websites, respectively. There were some exceptions, though. I noticed a lot of Late Night with Seth Meyers episodes available, for instance. So if you can't get enough of the 'A Closer Look' segments on YouTube, knock yourself out.
The 'most recent episodes' model reminds me of the early days of Hulu, back before it was a purely paid service. You won't be able to binge watch an entire season of The Good Place, but you will be able to catch up on the last few episodes of Season 3, for instance. According to the company, they have content from networks including NBC, ABC, Fox, SpikeTV, Comedy Central, VH1, and MTV.
The FAQs for PlayOn can sometimes sound a bit defensive. There's a lot of questions like 'I already have Netflix and Hulu, so what will PlayOn add?' It mentions recording shows and then skipping ads, but again, you can only do that if you spring for one of the paid versions.
You can also use PlayOn to stream to additional devices, but only with the paid version. If you want to download shows to watch later, then guess what? That's right; you're going to have to give PlayOn your credit card info.
Streaming Quality
The quality on my laptop was fine. It was nothing to write home about. Except for the longish loading times, it seemed roughly comparable to the quality on the streaming sites themselves. But for a company like PlayOn to succeed in the long run, I'm not sure that's going to cut it.
Platform
As mentioned before, the Desktop app only works on Windows laptops. The cloud app is compatible with both Android and Apple mobile devices.
Beyond that, the company says that 'PlayOn is designed to work with most streaming devices.' It mentions Roku and Chromecast, but also says it works with consoles like Xbox, Playstation and Wii. I didn't see a full list of compatible platforms on PlayOn's website. The company does invite you to email support@playon.tv if you aren't sure if your device is compatible.
Price
PlayOn really wants you to pay for either the Cloud or Desktop versions. With the Cloud, you pay on a per-recording basis. In fact, you can pay $29.99 to get 150 cloud recordings. If you really wanted to, you could use PlayOn Cloud to record every episode of Perfect Strangers in existence (if you did not know Perfect Strangers is available for streaming, well, neither did I until about 30 seconds ago).
Playonmac Compatibility
If you're looking for unlimited recordings on your desktop, then you'll want to check out the paid Desktop plan. The normal price is listed as $69.99 for unlimited recordings, but as of this writing, the site is offering it for $29.99. As long as that deal is still around, there's no reason not to get unlimited recordings if you're determined to pay for PlayOn's service. Other desktop recording plans are available through PlayOn, but none as good as that. Visual studio 2013 for mac os x.
Playon On Mac
The recordings are stored on the cloud for just 7 days. You can buy cloud recording and storage plans if you want to keep those Perfect Stranger episodes on the cloud for longer before transferring them to another device.
On your desktop, recordings won't expire. PlayOn says that 'unlike a traditional DVR, recording capacity isn't capped.' It is capped, however, by the amount of room available on your computer's hard drive. They won't disappear after a set number of days, but at some point, you will have to delete some files if you want to make room for new downloads.
Verdict
The biggest issue with PlayOn is that its basic plan doesn't offer much that you can't get elsewhere, and its paid plans also don't really distinguish itself. The free version is basically a media player. The paid plan is a decent option only if you have too many shows already recorded on another service's DVR.
Just about every streaming service lets you record video for offline viewing nowadays. It's typically part of the monthly subscription plan. PlayOn requires you to pay an additional fee on top of that. If you're planning on doing a lot of recording, it's not a bad option, but right now, it feels like a redundant choice for most streamers, myself included.
Why Stream TV? Cordcutter Microsoft office 2013 for mac free download utorrent.
- Save Money
- Watch on all devices
- Greater flexibility to change or cancel
Start right now
Cordcutters save $100/mo. on average. Click below and use our channel finder tool to find the best streaming service for you. Buy the service, cancel cable and start saving serious cash.
Find Your StreamInstalling the PlayOnMac© Windows Emulator to Run S & S Software on a MAC Computer
Click on the Mac Download button on the product webpage (for SewWhat-Pro, SewArt, or SewWrite). This will save the software installer package(s) to your MAC computer. Then follow the steps below to install the PlayOnMac Windows emulator. After installing PlayOnMac, you can repeat the necessary steps to install additional software packages as required. Top strategy games for mac.
Before installing PlayOnMac, go to your MAC System Preferences. Select Security & Privacy. Select the General Tab. At the lower left of the dialog box (see figure below), you will see a padlock. If the padlock is locked, click the lock to unlock it to allow you to change the security settings. You may have to enter your login info. You will see 'Allow apps downloaded from' in the Security & Privacy dialog box and three choices to select. Click the radio button 'Anywhere' to select it and close the dialog box.
- Go to PlayOnMac© to download this free emulation software on your MAC. (You must use the MAC Download buttons on our webpages.) PlayOnMac allows you to easily install and use software on your MAC that was designed for Microsoft Windows©.
- Once downloaded, install 'PlayOnMac_X.XXdmg' on your desktop by double-clicking the file. Follow installation instructions and finalize the PlayOnMac Installation.
- Go to 'Configure' by clicking the gear icon on the top bar (shown below).
IMPORTANT: This tutorial uses SewArt as the S & S software being installed with PlayOnMac. To install any other S & S Mac-compatible software (for example, SewWhat-Pro or SewWrite), just replace the SewArt example used here with the appropriate other software product.
- Create a new virtual drive by clicking on the New button:
- This will launch the virtual drive creator wizard. Click 'Next' to start the drive creation.
- Select 'System' and click 'Next'.
- Specify the name for the virtual drive (SewArt_on_Mac in this example), being sure to NOT include any spaces in the name. Click next and wait for the virtual drive and WINE to configure. This may take a few moments to complete.
- Once the virtual drive is created, you will be returned to the virtual drive directory list where you will see that your new virtual drive is listed. Select it ('SewArt_on_Mac' for this example). First click on the 'Wine' tab (2) and then the 'Configure Wine' button (3). At the bottom of the 'Applications' tab window set the default Windows version to 'Windows 7'. Click on 'Apply' and close all the Wine configuration windows.
Having returned to the PlayOnMac main configuration window, click on the 'Install components' tab. This is the tab where you will select dependency libraries to install.
- Select dotnet45 and click the 'Install' button. Repeat this step for the following required framework libraries:
Base Library Support
–- Microsoft Core Fonts
-– vbrun6
-– vcrun2013
-– vcrun6
— msvc100
— mfc42
Additional Font Support
— FontsSmoothBGR
— FontsSmoothGrayScale
— FontsSmoothRGB
— RegisterFonts
Additional Graphics Support (it is mandatory to install this dll)
— gdiplus
Optional Installs (not required but suggested)
— amstream
— atmlib
- Close the PlayOnMac configuration window. Once you have returned to the normal PlayOnMac applications screen, click on 'Install a program'.
- This will launch the PlayOnMac install menu. Click on 'Install a non-list program' at the bottom left corner.
- This will launch the PlayOnMac Wizard so that you may begin installing the S & S windows application (SewArt in this example). Click on the next button of the following information screens until you reach the 'Manual installation' wizard screen. Click on 'Next' to start the setup.
- Select 'Edit or update an existing application' and click 'Next'.
- Check the box next to 'Show virtual drives'. This will display all the virtual drives on the system. Among them will be the one you created in Step 7. Select the virtual drive you created ('SewArt_on_Mac') and click 'Next'.
- The next screen will ask if you would like to perform any actions before installing your software. If you followed all the steps above and installed the correct frameworks then just click 'Next'. If you missed anything select 'Install some libraries' and then follow the prompts and select what you wish to install. (We will assume that the installation up to this point is correct and doesn't require further libraries.) Finish this step by choosing 'Select another file' and click 'Next'.
- Click on 'Browse' and select the installation file InstallSA-Mac.exe (for SewWhat-Pro, this would be InstallSWP-Mac.exe, for SewWrite it would be InstallSWR-Mac.exe) which you must have previously downloaded from the S & S Download webpage. Click 'Open' to begin the installation process.
- The SewArt installation screen will appear in a moment. Follow the installations instructions (just as you would on a Windows system).
Playon For Mac Os X
- Once the installation is complete, the virtual (Wine) drive will be reconfigured (which may take a few moments). You will then be asked to select a file ('SewArt.exe' in this tutorial) for which a PlayOnMac will create a shortcut. After selecting 'SewArt.exe' from the list, click 'Next'.
- You will then be asked to name the shortcut. You may enter whatever you wish here (it is purely for your reference). We used the application name and the virtual drive name SewArt (SewArt_on_Mac). Then click 'Next'.
- You will be returned to the shortcut creation screen and asked if you want to create another shortcut. At this point select the option 'I don't want to make another shortcut' and click 'Next'.
- This will return you to the PlayOnMac application list with the newly-created icon (for Sewart) on the right and the name you gave it in step 19. Double click this icon to launch SewArt. A virtual wine-drive configuration window will popup to configure the drive and eventually launch the SewArt application. Although the application is running in an emulated Windows environment, you will still be able to access files in your standard OSX file system. To access USB storage devices, browse to /Volumes/ in the File->Open dialog.
Running Installed Windows Applications using PlayOnMac
If your PlayOnMac is not currently running or closed after the installation process described above, you must launch PlayOnMac through your LaunchPad or Applications folder in Finder as indicated below. It is necessary that PlayOnMac be running to launch the installed Windows program(s) (in this case, SewArt).
Once PlayOnMac is running you can launch SewArt by double clicking, or single clicking and selecting run, the shortcut icon previously created in the application list shown above in installation step 21.
