PlayOn received coverage in G4 this week.  X-Play’s Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb host television's most-watched gaming show, with everything you could ever want to know about videogames.  We are so excited and wanted to share the video clip with you.  A huge thank you to G4 and all of our awesome PlayOn users.

Our first guest blogger, Jamie Harrington is an author, mom and PlayOn user. After reading this, go check out her blog where she is giving away a free PlayOn Lifetime License and a $50 Visa card. 

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Let me say first that I am not some tech wizard. I am a mom, an author, and I sometimes have trouble getting the laser printer to work. So, when I was looking for software to put my internet TV, that I've grown to love so much, on my living room television, I had to find something that even a squirrel could make work.

PlayOn was exactly what I was looking for. 

I first downloaded PlayOn when I was looking for a way to watch Hulu not on my computer. You see, I am quite obsessed with internet television because a) I suck at remembering to DVR my favorite shows and b) even when I do remember to DVR something, it almost always cuts off the last two minutes, and then I want to throw things at my television.

And I love my television. It would be rude to throw things at it.

I'd pretty much stopped watching television in the living room, and had resorted to watching internet streaming shows on my laptop or desktop with things like Hulu, and Netflix. The thing is, when you're watching a show on your computer monitor, you're probably watching it alone.

Where's the fun in that?

I did some reading, and everyone was talking about this great software I had to try that would stream all the stuff I was already watching on Hulu to my Playstation.

Hulu? On My Big TV? I was so in.

So, basically, all I had to do was go to the free trial page, download the software, and it showed up on my internet enabled PS3. I did it all myself, I didn't even have to ask my husband to help me get it to work.

Now we use the heck out of PlayOn, it live streams Netflix without me having to find that stupid DVD I'm supposed to put in my PS3 every stinkin' time I want to watch a show, and the interface is beautiful. It basically integrates right into my already awesome PS3 stuff, and I never have to worry about whether or not I remembered to move something around in my queue, record it on a DVR or anything else like that.

Hands down the best reason to use the PlayOn is the quality.

I have a 55 inch flat screen HD Television. That's a pretty big tv, and I was worried that when I streamed Hulu from my PC to my TV it would look like crap. It doesn't, it looks great.

You can barely tell the difference between streaming Hulu through PlayOn and watching DVR'd stuff on Dish Network.

So, if you're tired of sitting in front of your tiny computer monitor to watch television, then you should download the 14 day free trial from PlayOn. Trust me, you'll be glad you did.

A Premium Preview of NHL is in our latest release.  If you already have a NHL subscription all you need to do is go to your PlayOn settings and update software to the newest version.

If you are not already a huge hockey fan here are some reasons why you should love hockey.

Reason #1: Hockey Fights…duh. 

#2: Playoff Beards – I am not quite sure where this phenomena started, but it seems every season around playoffs hockey team are sporting full on lumberjack beards. 

#3: Crazy fans with posters.

#4 Penalty Boxes.

#5: A Hat Trick – all the fans throw their hats onto the ice when a player scores three goals within one game.

Many of us PlayOn users, myself included, buy the PlayOn software and never take advantage of the plugins available. Well this is just crazy! I decided to take a little time this past weekend and install some plugins. There are third-party plugins and an official PlayOn plugin through Revision 3. I had set aside some time at the beginning of the weekend. That was a blow to my productivity. The rest of the weekend I was glued to the TV watching Discovery Channel and Food Network. The Revision 3 plugin was also pretty cool and worked well on my new laptop, but you might be out of luck if you have a dinosaur of a computer as it will not be able to keep up with the video transcoding.

I learned a valuable lesson this weekend....STOP PROCRASTINATING. If I had looked at these plugins when I bought PlayOn, nearly a year ago I would know so much more about zombies attacks thanks to the Syfy plugin and I might have immaculately decorated home thanks to HGTV.

http://www.playon.tv/playon/plugins

*PlayOn has no official affiliation with the third-party plugins.

Archer, an animated comedy series on FX premiered in January of this year and has been gaining popularity for its rapid fire dialogue. Set at the International Secret Intelligence Service, Archer works with his domineering mother, who happens to be his boss, along with his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. At the spy agency ANY crises is an opportunity to challenge, deceive, confuse and royally screw each other. The whole series is available on Hulu and can be streamed to your TV with PlayOn. So if you find yourself bored this weekend, check out an episode and see what you think.

Enter our contest for a chance to win a PS3, 1 year subscription to Netflix and a lifetime license for PlayOn.

Being a Sci-Fi fan is easy with PlayOn.  Here are some of our favorites available to you through PlayOn:
•  Full series of Lost and Firefly on Hulu
•  Stargate Universe, V, and Caprica available on Hulu!
•  All 10 seasons of Stargate-SG 1 on Hulu (through May 15, 2010)
•  First 3 seasons of Star Trek and Twilight Zone on CBS
•  Full series of X-Files on Netflix Instant Queue

In case you're not familiar with PlayOn here is how it works.

PlayOn Premium is coming! We will release PlayOn Premium on July 15th, 2010. It will include: Comedy Central (including South Park), NHL, TV.com, MTV.com, VH1.com, and more. It will be sold as an annual subscription -- $39.99 for the first year and $19.99/year thereafter. Your subscription will entitle you to all new content services over the course of the year (and we plan to release a lot), as well as functionality improvements (including a greatly enhanced and integrated Plugin experience, Gold version of the Wii, and much more). We will also be releasing iPhone support for PlayOn Premium which may carry a small additional fee.

Starting on May 20, 2010, we will no longer sell PlayOn as a lifetime license for a single fee. We will start selling PlayOn as a subscription ($39.99 for the first year and $19.99/year thereafter) on May 20, 2010. Customers who purchase PlayOn on or after May 20,2010 will automatically receive PlayOn Premium upon its launch on July 15th, 2010.

We will continue to honor the lifetime licenses for those that purchased PlayOn prior to May 20, 2010 (which we are now calling PlayOn Basic). Your PlayOn Basic will continue to work with the existing non-beta content (Hulu, Netflix, CBS.com, ESPN.com, CNN.com, YouTube, MyMedia and Plugins) as well as Amazon VOD, MLB.tv, and Pandora. After July 15th, 2010, The Daily Show and the Colbert Report will no longer be supported in PlayOn Basic as these are being launched out of beta as part of the full Comedy Central integration in PlayOn Premium. PlayOn Base will continue to receive new features and development support, but no new content will be added into the core (though you can always add more plugins).

To thank our loyal customers, if you purchased PlayOn prior to May 20, 2010, we will be offering a founding member discount for PlayOn Premium. You may upgrade to PlayOn Premium for only $4.99 for the first year ($19.99/year thereafter). Once you purchase the upgrade, you will receive a new license key which will unlock the new PlayOn Premium content. You may also cancel your subscription at any time, and go back to PlayOn Basic (be sure to save your original license key). We are sure you will enjoy the new content and features so much, you will never want to go back.

Between now and July 15th, 2010, you will see a number of content services in PlayOn listed as “Premium Preview” – this is to give you a sneak preview of some of the content that you will have access to as a Premium subscriber. Please note that this content will no longer be accessible after July 15th 2010. We hope you enjoy these previews and encourage you to upgrade on July 15th.

Why are we doing this? The annual subscription fee will fund continued development and support. We want to ensure that we can always give the latest and greatest content and service to our entire user base. The on-going subscription fee will allow that. Give it a shot – we think you’ll like what you see.

If you have any additional questions, please contact us at support@playon.tv

Money Magazine is kind of a big deal and recently wrote "100 best money moves you can make."  It's their annual guide to the best stocks, credit cards, career moves, retirement strategies and much more. Sounds kind of boring, but it's not so give it a read. Who doesn't like saving money? The ideas are fresh, based off current trends and pop culture. Here are some of my favorite money moves:

5. Best buy-and-hold blogger

 
Recently the Government Accountability Office spent a year studying how piracy and illegal counterfeiting affects the United States. The GAO has said that data used to quantify piracy is not reliable. In addition they said, "Estimates of economic losses resulting from counterfeiting cannot be substantiated due to the absence of underlying studies. Each method (of measuring) has limitations, and most experts observed that it is difficult, if not impossible, to quantify the economy-wide impacts." The GAO continued by saying, "Some experts we interviewed and literature we reviewed identified potential positive economic effects of counterfeiting and piracy." The GAO admits that piracy is running rampant and that it could be harmful, but cannot accurately estimate a dollar amount.

On another note, the head of the International Actors’ Federation said, “To me, piracy is something adventurous, it makes you think about Johnny Depp. We all want to be a bit like Johnny Depp. But we’re talking about a criminal act. We’re talking about making it impossible to make a living from what you do.” Okay I cannot help myself from laughing at this quote, we all do want to be a bit like Johnny Depp, but I do not see the clear association between the two.

As for a general pulse, it seems like people fall everywhere regarding views on piracy. There are 3 major groups: "the it's morally wrong group," "the I hate large corporations over charging and I am going to teach them a lesson group" and "the I understand both sides group." Most people can agree that piracy is running rampant and that it does not seem like it is going to slow down anytime soon.