First look at SyncTV video download service

SyncTV is a spinoff for Pioneer Electronics, focused on providing a video download service that gives customers far more control over how they purchase and view videos than any almost any existing service. We first told you about SyncTV back in November, but over the weekend I got a chance to check out the service which is still in private beta.

The software client does pretty much everything you'd expect. You can browser through several existing channels of content, download, and view programs. There's no HD content, but videos are encoded with the H.264 codec and look decent enough in full screen mode on my 1280 x 800 pixel display. You can watch a video shortly after you start a download and download speeds seem pretty zippy.

What really sets SyncTV apart from the competition is that you can subscribe to channels of content and watch any content in the channel. Or you can purchase individual episodes which you can watch at any time, even if you stop paying your monthly subscription fee. Or you can purchase an entire season of episodes. Unlike many online video stores SyncTV aims to host every single episode of the series it distributes.
SyncTV is also probably the most cross-platform service I've seen. The client software is designed for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Unfortunately I ran into some problems with the Linux version. While the software installed easily enough, when I tried to find and download content the player abruptly closed. Hopefully the bugs will be worked out before the software goes public. But the company still gets points for developing a Linux client in the first place.

The biggest problem with SyncTV at the moment is a lack of decent content. The service has episodes of Showtime's Dexter and Brotherhood. But aside from that, the most exciting stuff you're going to find are old episodes of I Spy, My Favorite Martian, and Highlander: The Animated Series. SyncTV is actively seeking additional content partners, so it's not really fair to judge the service based on its existing content library. But I certainly hope there are more programs worth watching once the service goes live.