Ziggy TV

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on April 09, 2013

Ziggy TV is an all-in-one YouTube downloader and file converter with some extras, including a Net radio player, streaming Internet TV, free movies, and online games. It searches for music and videos on YouTube and plays or downloads and converts files to audio formats such as MP3, AAC, and even FLAC, as well as video formats. It's compatible with most versions of Windows, including Windows 8. While it's freeware, it's the free version of a "Pro" shareware app that offers higher quality conversions and more formats, so some of its premium features may be disabled.

Ziggy TV's tabbed interface accesses a lot of features: Music, Video, Convert, My Files, Watch TV, Radio, and Games, each with a variety of search tools and other sub-tabs. The menu bar includes some interesting extras like Skins and Chat as well as the more familiar View, Tools, and Help selections. Ziggy TV opened on the Music Search tab, so we entered the title of a song and pressed Search. We clicked the first of the results, and the tune played; clicking Download let us save it in one of several formats. But the audio quality was typical of tunes posted on YouTube -- pleasant, but lo-fi. We also tried the YouTube downloader and converter, which worked well. The Radio tab actually embeds Radio-Locator, the Internet radio search tool, so no complaints there. But users expecting to be able to watch top-quality TV shows and movies will find Ziggy TV's offerings a mixed bag. The Watch TV tab let us choose from a huge list of countries and genres, but the offerings skew heavily toward public service TV and similar fare. The Free Movies are all hosted on YouTube, though many other sites offer full movies for free. The games are a nice extra.

Ziggy TV basically ties together a lot of free resources in one busy interface. While you'll encounter lots of opportunities to upgrade to the Pro version, we suggest trying the free version to see if the all-in-one approach suits your tastes. Ziggy TV certainly has a lot to look over, even if you don't use all of its features.

Ziggy TV - Download and convert videos, free movies, mp3 music, and live TV shows - Download Video Previews:

Publisher's Description

From ZiggyTV:

ZiggyTV - Video Converter: Download and Convert free videos, free movies, mp3 music and live TV shows, and movies. ZiggyTV is an award winning YouTube Video to MP3 Converter that allows you to download videos and convert them to MP3s, including HD and HQ videos. Also allows conversion to other HD video formats. With ZiggyTV you can download free mp3 music downloads, watch TV, movies and play free games. ZiggyTV also includes precise categories and genres, popularity and voting tools, making it easy to find and enjoy the entertainment youre looking for.ZiggyTV uses sophisticated and proprietary under-the-hood technologies to optimize and accelerate download speeds.

ZiggyTV is easy to use, just search for the video or music you want, then just click Download. The software also allows you to convert downloaded videos for iPod, iPhone, PSP, Cell Phone, Windows Media, XVid and MP3. Also provided the ability to auto-import into iTunes the songs and videos you have downloaded. ZiggyTV is spyware and adware free, and provides the industrys most aggressive protection to block harmful content, keeping you and your computer safe. Along with its fresh, intuitive interface, ZiggyTV combines powerful YouTube download and conversion technologies with effortless live channel streaming to give you the worlds easiest entertainment experience with the least amount of hassle. Judge for yourself, test out a free version of ZiggyTV YouTube downloader today.

What's new in this version: Version 4.2.2 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.