We told you about NBC Direct earlier, but essentially the service promised to allow users to download NBC shows absolutely free, direct from the source. Well, the service has unexpectedly gone live, and early reports are indicating it was not worth the wait.
NBC uses a proprietary player, which is a hassle to install and set up. The player only works with IE, which must have the most current security update. Everyone else is out of the free viewing loop. If you do indeed meet the prerequisite criteria, you can download full episodes of your choice from a bank containing videos that are only seven days old or less. Once downloaded, the video validity period starts to tick away—you have 48 hours to view before your show self-destructs. Further, as yet, you can't take the video on the go, which really brings the point of the service into question. Hopefully, with a lot more tweaking, this may become something to shout about, but we wouldn't hold our collective breath. [NBC Direct via Mashable. Thanks, Pete!]