Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Joost Screenshot Gallery: Does Internet TV Live Up to the Hype?
Joost has come out with version 0.9.2 of their much-hyped internet TV initiative. Started by founders of Skype, Joost promises to upend the cart for cable and satellite TV providers much like Skype did for telecom companies, but does it live up to the hype?
Like the open-source Democracy player, Joost requires you to download and install software onto your computer before you can begin watching. Taking a more professional approach to video content, Joost has signed up mainstream content producers like Comedy Central and National Geographic to upload clips of their shows onto the service. Just today, CBS announced new content deals with several online video sites including Joost.
Joost's video quality is very dependent on the speed of your internet connection, and videos are filtered based on where you live so some viewers will get errors when trying to watch certain videos. The user interface isn't too easy to operate when you first start using Joost, but it grows on you. There are about four main controls you can use to navigate the user interface, letting you access the channel directory, gadgets, player controls, and feature description.
The gadget section is called My Joost, which essentially takes Microsoft's new Vista sidebar and replicates it inside Joost. You can access a clock, instant messaging window, news ticker, and more. This is also the place where you can chat live with other Joost users who are watching the same videos as you.
Interestingly, there's also a parental/age filter setting in Joost. Video content has "age-appropriate" tags, which means that if you're a parent, you can set permissions for what level of content your kids can watch. You set an age and enter a PIN to enable the option.
In many ways, Joost doesn't compete with the likes of video sharing sites like YouTube. It offers a different experience for watching media on your computer and clearly offers more potential for broadcasters looking to put longer form content onto the web. The slick user interface and social features of the client are interesting, but more content (and more users) needs to be on Joost before it's clear how Internet TV is going to work.
Check out the screenshots below for more of an idea of the Joost experience:
Tags:
Like the open-source Democracy player, Joost requires you to download and install software onto your computer before you can begin watching. Taking a more professional approach to video content, Joost has signed up mainstream content producers like Comedy Central and National Geographic to upload clips of their shows onto the service. Just today, CBS announced new content deals with several online video sites including Joost.
Joost's video quality is very dependent on the speed of your internet connection, and videos are filtered based on where you live so some viewers will get errors when trying to watch certain videos. The user interface isn't too easy to operate when you first start using Joost, but it grows on you. There are about four main controls you can use to navigate the user interface, letting you access the channel directory, gadgets, player controls, and feature description.
The gadget section is called My Joost, which essentially takes Microsoft's new Vista sidebar and replicates it inside Joost. You can access a clock, instant messaging window, news ticker, and more. This is also the place where you can chat live with other Joost users who are watching the same videos as you.
Interestingly, there's also a parental/age filter setting in Joost. Video content has "age-appropriate" tags, which means that if you're a parent, you can set permissions for what level of content your kids can watch. You set an age and enter a PIN to enable the option.
In many ways, Joost doesn't compete with the likes of video sharing sites like YouTube. It offers a different experience for watching media on your computer and clearly offers more potential for broadcasters looking to put longer form content onto the web. The slick user interface and social features of the client are interesting, but more content (and more users) needs to be on Joost before it's clear how Internet TV is going to work.
Check out the screenshots below for more of an idea of the Joost experience:
Tags:
Labels: Technology
