Seinfeld online for Windows only: TBS (Time Warner) hates the Mac or can’t work it?
TBS is now streaming full episodes of the classic TV show Seinfeld on the network’s web page, but the site’s player is not compatible with Mac OS.
As of the writing of this post, there are currently four full Seinfeld episodes available via TBS online, but fear not fans! Though few are available right now, many more are expected to make an appearance on a rotating basis, says Media Daily News. It is unknown exactly how many will become available at the same time, but hopefully it’ll be more than four because that’s really a meager offering.
Unfortunately, Mac OS users cannot take advantage of this wonderful, new online resource, which gets us wondering: Why doesn’t TBS support the Mac? Does the TV channel underestimate the power of the operating system’s user base?
It turns out TBS is owned by Time Warner, which also owns TNT. TNT’s online video player also doesn’t support the Mac OS, but it’s only offering Charmed, which we’ll happily hand over to the Windows crowd. All jokes aside, the pattern here is clear. Time Warner chooses not to support the Mac, and the company says it’s because of a DRM issue — a Windows Media DRM issue.
Our agreement with the content distributors stipulates that their content (mostly the full episodes) must be protected with DRM software. And despite its lack of support on Mac systems, Windows Media Player is more widely used than other platforms like Quicktime and Flash Video for distributing protected content.
We found the above statement in their help section, but we can’t buy into it. There must be something bigger at play. ABC, Hulu, and others have no problem supporting both operating systems, so either Time Warner can’t figure out how to use DRM on a Mac or the company has its own reasons for skipping Apples.
Is it a bribe? A Microsoft payoff to use its DRM? Is this our final weakness? It seems the Gates Council of Evil has been hard at work… again.
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April 23rd, 2008
Nice! I wonder if they’ll be the complete episodes as originally broadcast or the butchered syndicated versions. If they’re the shortened, butchered versions…SERENITY NOW!!!
April 24th, 2008
[...] Windows Media Player is more widely used than other platforms like Quicktime and flash video for …http://mac.blorge.com/2008/04/22/seinfeld-online-for-windows-only-tbs-time-warner-hates-the-mac-or-c…A NYCC News Round-Up… of SortsWhen you hit up a comic book convention there are many things to see [...]
September 24th, 2008
There is a good reason. The TBS site is a pile of garbage it even coughs on XP. I tried it on both SP2 and SP3 and both them puke their guts out. SP2 makes it look like bootleg Sega CD game, while SP3 gives a clear picture, but my browser crashes less than 2 minutes in the video. It is by far the worse flash / wmv mutated abomination of a media player created and the moron who coded or tested it should be shot. Honestly I have seen student made movie players built in VB6 that were more stable and useful.
October 28th, 2009
10/26/2009
It still blows
March 29th, 2010
Right, MS is bribing them to show all of 5 or 6 episodes and only a couple new ones every 2nd week it seems just to piss off a few Mac fans. Boy, that is some pretty effective way of pushing their software! LOL.
What is there plays nicely on my Win 7 PC though but the frequency of new shows SUCKS!