Content:  

Fancast has just about anything you’re looking for, mostly because Fancast pulls the majority of its content from Hulu. There are shows from most of the major networks, although you might not find every episode from your favorite show. Often, there will only be episodes from the most recent season, or just a random sampling of episodes.

However, one of the nice things about Internet TV sites is that you can find some of your favorite shows that aren’t on the air anymore. Fancast has some shows that even hearken back to the black-and-white era of the 50s. You’ll be surprised what you can find on Fancast.

One of the advantages Fancast has over Hulu is content from the ABC network. You can watch some of your favorite shows from ABC, although you will need to download the special ABC player to watch it. Nothing of the sort is required to watch the other videos.

Fancast also has a multitude of content besides full episodes. Even if you can’t find full episodes of a particular show, there’s bound to be a few clips for you to watch. There are movie trailers, actor information, movie reviews and even show schedules to help you find what shows are on your actual TV, as old-fashioned as that sounds–what with internet TV sites popping up everywhere.

Ease of Use:  

One of the virtues of Fancast is the simple design of the site, which makes it easy to navigate and find what you’re looking for. The main page identifies the most popular shows available to watch, which are currently on the air, along with a list of the most watched videos on the site.

Searching for shows or actors is very simple. The search function is comprehensive and brings up video results with an easily-clickable play button. It’s nice to be able to play videos without having to sort through a couple of menus to start them.

The viewing pane is exceptionally simple. While this makes the player very easy to use, it also narrows the selection of features. It’s got the volume controls, time stamp and full screen option. While you have the option to pop the view screen out to a new window, it’s a really tiny window. Really tiny. But this tiny screen can be useful if you really need to reserve screen space for other programs.

Advertising:  

The advertising model on Fancast is similar to those of other Internet TV sites. There are video commercials that interrupt your video at intervals. Usually, they are 30-second ads just like the ones you’d see on television. The one advantage, of course, is that you only have to watch one commercial per break.

One thing we like about Fancast is the integration of text and image ads. Instead of having the image ad ever-present next to the viewing pane, the Fancast player uses most of the screen. Then, when one of the video advertisements starts, the viewing pane shrinks, providing room for the image advertisement. The image ad just happens to magically match the video ad, but such is the wonder of technology these days.

Features:  

Most of the standard features you expect from an Internet TV site are present on Fancast. A great search function is key to helping you find your videos. Fancast has you covered there. Once you find the video you want, Fancast provides all the details about the episode. In fact, Fancast also makes recommendations of other videos and information pages that will help you learn more about the show you're watching or the actors in it. These extra information pages are actually one of the most interesting aspects of Fancast because they make it the site than just a video player.

Fancast allows you to make the video pane fullscreen or pop out to a new window. Unfortunately, the pop-out window is exceptionally small. This wouldn’t be a problem if you could resize the window and enlarge the player, but you can’t. It’s ideal if you need to maximize the available space on your screen while you watch, but it’ll also cause eyestrain.

You can embed the Fancast videos in other sites or recommend them to friends by email, all from the viewing pane. You can even save a video to your list of favorites, although this involves creating a user account on the site.

One thing you won’t find on the site is a user community, or much of one anyway. You can rate videos, and your rating will form a composite score along with the ratings of others. But there are very few other ways to interact with other users. You can’t post comments and there is no forum to find other users on. There is a Fancast blog, and you can post comments on it, but its topics are varied and, frankly, a little vacuous.

Help/Support:  

Fancast is running a little light in the customer support category. There is a very limited FAQ available to help you with basic questions, as well as a way to contact Comcast by email. But nothing more than that.

Fancast is a great site with a lot of great content. However, it rests firmly on the laurels of the #1 site, Hulu. It’s got a lot of interesting information about movies, shows and actors, but if you’re only concerned about watching the videos, you might as well cut out the middleman and go to Hulu.