posted by mameige on September 20, 2012 | 14 comments
In one lesseon, maybe it was At the movie store, Brendan recommended PPTV for watching Chinese tv on the iPad. Can anyone explain how to find a news program on there? I used to have PPTV under Windows, and the characters are too difficult for me to find out what I'm seeing. I now have TVU on Mac, and here I select the language, Chinese, and then I can see I have about 8 channels, and they are labelled in English, like CCTV News. I can now understand a lot more of that than I used to (although still not much!). I see I can get TVU Anywhere for the iPad, so I'll try that. But maybe I can get more on PPTV - I did locate a silly quiz show. So what's the way to navigate the site, Brendan?
Ah, as you were, I've got it now - I get a page with previews of sport (snooker and football etc.), then news, lots of news programmes. I still don't know how I got there, but it looks great.
Glad you found it. I haven't actually got an iPad, so was probably recommending PPTV on the basis of friends' recommendations. (Personal loyalties also compel me to plug Youku.) There are also radio apps for the iPhone that will presumably work on the iPad -- 北京广播电台 has got one with streams of all of their channels, in case you're jonesing for the taxicab radio experience.
murrayjames on September 21, 2012 | reply
@Brendan,You don't have an iPad? I don't believe it! I remember from other podcasts here that you're an Apple fanatic, secretly buying Apple stuff when the missus isn't looking...
I know! I am, personally, unbelievably impressed with my ability to not buy an iPad. Will almost certainly cave at some point, but so far I just haven't been able to justify it to myself.
Thanks, Brendan. I'm not sure that we jones for the taxicab radio experience in the suburbs of London but I can probably interpret that with the help of the Web. I find the pictures help.I did download a paid app for TVU. Although the choice on PPTV is much greater, every 30 seconds or so it shows an ad! Do your friends know how to get rid of those? I feel there must be a paid version that will get rid of those, otherwise I will stick with TVU. But it's great to get them on the iPad.
@mameige,I use the PPTV free version too on iPad, but don't seem to have ads problems like you mentioned. Are you saying the ads will jump out when you are in the middle of watching a show? --Echoecho@popupchinese.com
Oh, I get it - 'jonesing' was a problem. You mean I can listen in to Chinese taxi companies talking to their drivers, or else the quality of the radio sounds like that. English is so difficult.
There's a sub-station of Beijing Radio, 交通广播, that is on in just about every cab in the city -- and if you're missing this, you can now replicate the experience, minus the garlic odor, via the iPad app. A taxi company radio scanner app would be super cool, but taxi companies in China tend not to use radio dispatch.
Echo, I kept getting the same ad every 30 seconds, no joke. It was just a static page. I have a version called PPTV HD, new version on 8 September 2012. I read that there is an English version too, but I can't find it and maybe it's not for the iPad. Today the stations aren't loading properly. I get another ad with app.pptv.com and pptv.com, but if I go there, my Chinese is not going to be good enough to understand what's going on.Perhaps these programs are OK in China but not outside (I'm in Germany).Maybe I will ask on Chinese Forums.
murrayjames on September 22, 2012 | reply
@mameige,Maybe I'm missing something, but I always assumed this content was available in China only... The media on Chinese music, TV and movie sites are often blocked overseas for copyright reasons.
I'm sure you're right about that. I shouldn't have believed what I heard on that Popupchinese lesson, and from someone without an iPad no less! I will stick to CCTV news on TVU - it's very good. Much better on the iPad than the laptop because I can hold it nearer and see the characters flashing past better.I didn't think I'd get an iPad either. But the iPod Touch is so good for Pleco. The iPad is better than Kindle (non-touch-screen at least) for books because I can enlarge tables and also see colours!Thanks for the information, everyone.
@mameige,I can confirm that it used to work abroad (at least from the United States). Sounds like they decided to tighten up access, probably because of the IP issues. Thanks for letting us know.--dave
But maybe it's just for watching films, not news? I saw a video on YouTube but it only shows how to watch movies.
clement.augustra on December 11, 2012 | reply
hello, why can't i have the newest movies on pptv in iPad, though update my pptv already. someone help me please.