TV Anywhere . . . Sort Of

So, my excuse is admittedly a lame one.  After having been away for five days over Thanksgiving break and with only limited time to watch TV last week, our DVR has gotten pretty full.  In an effort to avoid recording any additional shows, last night our TV was turned to CBS in order to watch 2 Broke Girls and Mike & Molly in real time.  Now, I know what you're thinking.  First: who watches sitcoms in real time anymore?  Second: 2 Broke Girls and Mike & Molly?  Really?  And third: What about Giants at Redskins on Monday Night Football?  Well, desperate times call for desperate measures (and yes, a full DVR classifies as a desperate time), CBS is America's most watched network for a reason, and thanks to Time Warner Cable's TV Anywhere app I was able to watch the first half of the Giants' crippling loss on the iPad.

This summer I bashed Time Warner Cable on this blog, and I stand by that bashing: Their channel selection is terrible, their services are overpriced and their TV quality is spotty at best.  All of that being said, I've been relatively impressed by the TWC app for the iPad.  In an effort to avoid turning into a zombie, I've resisted the urge to put a TV in the bedroom.  When there's competition for TV time, I've started using the iPad as a second, portable TV screen.  Partly because the iPad screen is pretty small, the picture quality on the TWC app is extremely good, and the application is relatively user friendly.  You can watch live TV and stuff from your DVR, and it all loads pretty quickly.  Yes, the NFL viewing experience is far superior on a larger screen (though I guess "bigger is better" applies to 2 Broke Girls as well), but there are benefits to watching sports on the iPad.  I'm not going to say I watched the Eli Manning-to-Martellus Bennett touchdown pass while on the toilet, but I'm not going to say that I didn't, either.

The TV Anywhere app might be TWC's best product, but that's not saying much.

Before I go and give too much credit to the TWC app, it's important to highlight its (many) drawbacks.  Primarily, despite the fact that it's called "TV Anywhere," it only works when connected to your home wireless network.  So while it's good for watching NFL games on the toilet, you can't watch TV while riding a WiFi-enabled Bolt Bus from D.C. to New York, as I tried to do a few months ago.  Thus, the universe of instances where TV Anywhere is useful is most certainly a finite one.  I understand why this is the case - local market restrictions, concerns over cannibalization of traditional television, etc. - but it doesn't make it any less frustrating.  Because the video content is designed for a large TV screen, some of the graphics on the ESPN broadcast were also difficult to read - again, I don't blame this on ESPN or TWC, but it's a fact.  So TV Anywhere should probably be renamed "TV Anywhere Inside Your 800 sq. ft. Apartment."

Would I watch a sporting event on my iPad again?  Absolutely.  It's certainly not ideal for a game that you really want to focus on, but it's great for passively watching something while you're also walking around doing other stuff or restricted to a room without a TV.  Now, if we can get the TWC app to truly work anywhere, that would be something different.  Either way, next time I get kicked off the coach because Mike & Molly is on, I'll have my iPad ready to go.