14 DAY TRIAL // You have to admit to this being a killer combination as it is very close to the essence of entertainment. Generally, you have to call on different applications in order to benefit from all these, but there is one software that gathers them all under the same roof. Although the name is Ziggy TV, the application provides myriads of radios all over the world as well as some of the most entertaining games you can play at the office if there is no eye on you.
The application incorporates all these three sources for making the most out of your pastime without fumbling on the Internet in search of something to kill some time with. The paid version ($19.88/1 year) offers unlimited HD movies, music videos and TV shows download, over 2000 games, music downloads as well as unlimited technical support and free updates.
It goes without saying that running the application requires an Internet connection and the larger the bandwidth, the better. Main application window wraps up all the fun in three easy to use modules: Watch TV, Radio and Games. Suffice to access one of them and you will be displayed a list with the most popular items for each category.
TV channel list is quite something, offering stations from around the globe, live-streaming from important ones such as Fox News or Sky News, TV shows and generally all television related content, but there is one catch: not all of them are available outside the US. Actually the best of them are restricted to non-US use due to copyright laws. Thus, stations like MTV or Fox On Demand will not play unless you have an US IP address.
Still on the downside, lots of the channels listed will actually display weblinks to stations that offer the content for free or just run video content free of charge on the official website. In the case of ESPN, the same videos can be watched either in Ziggy or on the official website. The same goes for the vast majority of movie stations in the program.
In the case of radios things are not as complicated as the application is simply a medium for different radio stations streaming. There is plenty to choose from as there is a good cover for all the genres, from the urban jams, love music or reggae sounds to the goldies of the '70s or some other decade, jazz tunes, country, new age or techno. Any user can find a favorite in here with the utmost ease as Ziggy can display them by genre, by country (although not all countries are covered), or location as well as sort them out alphabetically, by users' vote, quality or rating.
Games section is composed of myriads of arcade games ready to entertain you all day long. These are old games, but entertaining nonetheless. JewelQuest, Bubble Shooter, Drag Racer, Age of War, Mah Jong, Super Mario, Texas Hold'em, Chess, Flash Sonic, Street Fighter 1, PacMan, Taxi Driving School, all these are old ones you can still get a kick out of. Sure, nowadays generation won't appreciate them properly and their interest in them would be quite undeveloped, but it is a great collection nonetheless.
Just like in the case of TV and radio stations, the games can be arranged by genre, type, country or sorted according to the most popular in the list, alphabetically, by vote, rating or quality. However, not all criteria is relevant and listing them by countries will not provide you with results at all times. During our testing doing this caused nothing but trouble as the application would not respond to country selection. The same behavior was recorded with radio stations and the only section to react was Watch TV.
Setting the application up is piece of cake as there are only four options to configure. When switching from one module to another (e.g. Watch TV to Radio), you can be prompted to decide whether to keep the TV channel/radio station/game playing or not (there is such an option for each module, so this covers three of them). Users can allow for "R" rated content to be displayed or not.
Balancing the services provided by Ziggy TV and the cost of the application as well as the way it works, I would say there is much to be improved. Some of the stations feeding you live streaming are part of TVU Networks, a P2P solution for online TV streaming, used by TVUPlayer. The same station powered by TVU Netoworks will not play in both Ziggy TV and TVU player (this is just a heads up).
Ziggy TV is simply a container for online services, either free or paid, from where the user can choose what to watch. US users may have a blast out of it provided that enough bandwidth for smooth streaming is assured, but for the rest of the world, access to some TV stations/services is restricted.
The Good
It gathers plenty of online services that can be accessed with a single click by the user, at the same time providing a set of arcade games to nostalgics.
The Bad
The application fails to provide the user with a search function for specific items and category, genre, country and sorting are the only ones to help in case you're looking for a station or game. Not all countries are covered when it comes to TV stations over the world.
Some online video streaming services may take a lot of time to load or they may be down and with others the same free content available by accessing the online page is accessed via Ziggy TV.
The Truth
Ziggy TV would be an extraordinary application given that all content would be properly streamed to users' computers. Provided all of the above mentioned the application does not rise to it annual subscription, especially for users outside the USA.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
