Shout! TV’s website is pretty basic, although you now need an account to view content. The main page features a large carousel that rotates through movies, shows, or curated catalogs, such as AAPI Heritage Month. Beneath that, you’ll find live channels, newly added videos for the month, and other highlights. Along with the search bar, the top navigation links to films, TV, live channels, and events. Each also has subcategories where you can search through specific genres, such as Animation or Werner Herzog.
Since it’s free, you can stream Shout! TV on an unlimited number of devices, and playback was smooth over my home Wi-Fi connection (60Mbps download). I recommend upping the resolution to 1080p for the best picture quality. Listings show related videos, and you can add videos to a watchlist or share them through social media. The experience is smoother than it used to be, but still very basic.
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In testing, the commercials were surprisingly infrequent. In fact, I didn’t encounter a single one while watching a half-hour episode of the 1970s Kamen Rider series. Meanwhile, the Johnny Carson live channel had two-minute-long ads promoting the channel itself.
The mobile app is essentially a shrunken-down version of the website, visually similar and with the same functionality. Unsurprisingly, you can’t download videos for offline viewing, a perk found in more premium services like Hulu and Netflix.
(Credit: Shout! Factory/PCMag)
