Popfly invite

May 26, 2007 at 9:41 am · Filed under Programming, Alpha

In the recent Joost Private Beta invite drought, I opened the floodgates and was handing them out like candy…

Can anyone return the favor with a Popfly Alpha invite? I’d love to get my hands on one. If you have one to give, please send it to my sdmca[at]hotmail[dot]com email address!

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Silverlight streaming video quality

May 2, 2007 at 9:35 am · Filed under Video

WOW. I was very, very surprised by how high the quality of streamed video is that I’m seeing in Silverlight. I downloaded the latest plug-in (the 1.0, not the 1.1 Alpha) and navigated over to the FOX Video Browser example. The video quality is unbelievable. Go to the demo, install the plug-in (if you need to), start a video, and then double click in the video to go full-screen. It’s impressive.

I’ve also been using Joost for several weeks now, and have been giving the quality the benefit of the doubt because I felt it was reasonable that quality be constrained by bandwidth and codec limitations. Well, the Silverlight streaming example utilizing Microsoft’s codec is far better at this point.

Full disclosure: I am having a problem with the plug-in and Safari (I’m viewing the samples in Firefox). I’m not sure what the issue is and am going to see if anyone here from Microsoft can provide some advice.

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Joost invites - come and get it

May 1, 2007 at 11:03 am · Filed under Video, Beta, Applications

Well, if you hadn’t heard yet, and you’re looking for a Beta invite to Joost, the latest Beta client allows unlimited invites to existing Joost testers.

There’s more content (available now or by the end of the month) on Joost now also, including:

• Anderson Cooper (CNN) and Aqua Teen Hunger Force (Cartoon Network)
• National Hockey League
• Sports Illustrated
• and, wait for it: GI Joe

If you’re still in need of a Joost invite, just ask (please provide your email address-several people have asked for a Beta invite, but haven’t left their email address… I will not publish it if you leave it as a comment to this post).

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Joost Beta review

April 15, 2007 at 11:28 am · Filed under Usability, Television, Peer-to-Peer, Content, Video, User Interface, Applications, Beta, User Experience

I’ve been using Joost now on and off over several weeks.

A few thoughts:

• Video Quality: VERY good for the Internet. What the Joost team has done with Internet video quality is nothing short of remarkable. That said, it’s not ready for a high def set, however.
• Streaming: Fair to Good. At work I have a better experience than home. My home setup is broadband delivered wireless (Pre N). I experience streaming delays once every few to several minutes that last anywhere between 5 and 20 seconds.
• Usability: Good to Very Good. The user interface works well, but not great. On some of the menus, I have sluggish responses when navigating through lists of channels or shows. UI elements make sense to me for the most part, but I don’t think that the average consumer would understand it as readily.
• Overall Experience: Fair to Good.

In its current incarnation, Joost isn’t for me. Why:

• I want to watch video on a television. I don’t want to watch it on my computer.
• Video quality is important to me. While the quality of video is impressive for the Internet, the quality I’m looking for is better.
• The social networking aspects aren’t all that compelling at this time.
• Performance matters. Whenever the service stops to buffer video, the content consumption experience is abruptly interrupted.
• Dynamically inserted commercials (in the middle of viewing video content—not the bookend static ads that previously existed) are implemented poorly, derailing the consumption of content without warning. They also make it feel like… well… watching television.

Does Joost have promise? Absolutely. Why:

• Bandwidth and video compression technologies are improving rapidly.
• Whether it is a scramble to try to understand the streaming landscape and not miss the boat entirely, or, because they know more about Joost than we do, several premium content providers have announced content provision via Joost. Desirable content will bring advertising, and advertising revenue will enable continued improvements.
• If the service takes off, it will naturally be brought into the living room.

What else could propel Joost forward?

• A feature that is new and innovative; something that simply doesn’t exist right now at all which would allow a very different take on the way that users interact with video. For example, what if transcripts of all the video that Joost offered was indexed allowing more advanced ways of finding content and consuming it.
• A well thought out partnership. While the UI isn’t as polished as one coming out of Cupertino, it certainly feels Apple-esque. What if Joost was another option on the Apple TV interface? Joost would make it to the living room, and Apple TV owners would have access to FREE content.
• Killer content. What if Joost delivered new movie releases two weeks prior to DVD releases?

I’ll keep watching Joost, but that ‘watching’ will likely be in terms of reading the press to see what is happening as opposed to firing up Joost to watch video on my computer. I won’t be surprised, however, if next year I’m watching Joost in my living room and experiencing content in a whole new way.

Note: I’m currently viewing Joost on a MacBook Pro with 2GB of ram, utilizing the current version of the Joost client (0.9.2). At the time of writing this I have zero invites to give out.

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Joost upgrades client, adds channels to catalog

April 3, 2007 at 12:41 pm · Filed under Peer-to-Peer, Television, Video, Beta, Applications

Joost has upgraded the beta version of the Joost client to release .9. An email was sent out to current Joost testers notifying them of the release. I’ve only tinkered with it briefly this evening, but here is what’s new at a glance (from the Release Notes):

• User Registration and Login have been updated to use a user name as opposed to an email address. The client also retains your user name and password so you need not login each time you launch Joost.
• The Invitation System used to send invites to friends to participate in the Beta has been made a part of the user interface.
• Standby minimizes the Joost to the OS taskbar. The Power button pauses the the video, suspends the application, and minimizes it to the taskbar.
• Reception quality has been improved and streaming is more tolerant to poor network performance.
• The UI has been updated for ease of use, including the Channel Catalog.

There are several other features in the release notes which I have omitted. Oh, there’s one more thing—more Joost channels in the Channel Catalog including:

• MTV (Laguna Beach)
• VH1 (Hogan Knows Best, SoNoTORIous, Breaking Bonaduce, Two-A-Days)
• Comedy Central (Stella, Freak Show, Dog Bites Man)
• BET (American Gangster, The Christies, Beef: The Series, DMX: Soul of a Man)

Overall, the application seems to be evolving well. I’m still trying to gauge my affinity level for Joost, but regardless if it is for me or not, I think it will definitely be rattling some cages.

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