Chrome TV for Windows

Programs like Chrome TV seem like a great idea; there's a whole world of televised entertainment out there, and it seems reasonable to expect that you could access much of it on the Internet. But, like many browser extensions and other applications in this genre, Chrome TV fails to deliver. If you want to waste a bunch of time looking at advertising but rarely accessing any actual content, it's just the program for you. Otherwise, skip it.

Like most Chrome extensions, Chrome TV installed without issues, appearing as a small icon to the right of our address bar. Clicking the icon opened a small window with a television graphic and a message advising us to "Click here to watch TV World."

We did, and the program launched a separate browser window that displayed buttons representing various categories of programming, such as Business TV, Educational TV, Entertainment TV, Movies & Docs, and Music. There were two buttons labeled "Play Now," but no indication of what would actually play if we were to click them.

We attempted numerous channels in different categories, and had success with only two; we were able to view streaming CNN programming within some other Web site, and the program directed us to MTV's site, where a variety of full episodes were posted for viewing. Every other channel we tried resulted in an interface that looked like Windows Media Player but never actually played anything.

In the end, we found Chrome TV to be a waste of time; it didn't give us access to anything we couldn't find ourselves, and it virtually always led to a dead end. We recommend that you steer clear of this pointless extension.