A couple of weeks ago we showed you how to Stealthfully Watch Television at Work , and today we continue the TV theme with NBC Direct beta which allows you to download, subscribe, and stream favorite NBC programs.
The first thing you need to do if you haven’t already is create a My NBC account which is NBC’s social networking site, also still in beta.
After installation is complete you will be asked to sign into your account before going to the NBC Rewind videos page.
NBC Direct launches your default browser (Firefox & Internet Explorer are officially supported) to the site where you can choose which show and episode you want to check out. Then just click on “Download Episode” located on the screen. The video will download in FLV format and HD quality is available to start viewing about halfway through the download.
You can also watch an episode online while organizing your downloads, subscriptions, and preferences. This menu is available by clicking the download tab on the left side of the screen.
The files are DRM protected and can only be played on the PC originally downloaded from. I tried to go into the directory where the videos are stored and play them with VLC and it doesn’t work. You will have to watch the episode with NBC Direct. After downloading a video to watch later, you will find it again by launching NBC Direct and going into your library. You will also notice that there is an expiration date on the episodes so you will want to watch them before then.
NBC Direct makes it easier to watch episodes of programming a lot more efficient than streaming them one at a time. Hopefully they will include a separate desktop player / organizer in the future as development progresses. It would also be nice if the programs were not DRM protected, but being able to watch episodes of The Office on your PC at your leisure is pretty cool.
Download NBC Direct Beta for Windows
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