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On Demand

December 1st, 2007

Joost now shares space for other services on my media machine connected to my television. It's been joined by Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, VeohTV, and now, Hulu. I would say one of my better decisions when I bought my replacement television last year was to get one that would work with my PC.

Joost

Joost is an interesting service, with an eclectic mix of shows and channels, but the offerings for the US have not kept up with the offering for the UK. The few Paramount movies were all z-listers and haven't been updated; while the folks living in the UK, France, and Spain have been enjoying bigger hits and more variety. The problem is even worse in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Canada, in particular, seems to be restricted from 90% of the content for some reason.

The shows that got many of us interested, such as Max Headroom, have not been updated and other promised shows, never materialized.

CBS has moved much of its lineup over to the service–CBS is happy to share its shows in almost any venue–but only this year's shows, not past seasons. Having the shows on Joost does provide an alternative to having a cable or satellite subscription, and that's a big positive in Joost's favor, not to mention the network's. Discovery and National Geographic, and the History channel have all contributed some shows, but nothing in a consistent manner.

The service has improved, but still does freeze at the worst times. The quality of the image has improved, and the interface polished, though, I sometimes miss the text based titles over the little screen hogging thumbnails. Joost's ads are fast, and relatively infrequent, and even at times, clever. Regardless, they don't detract from the shows–not like watching network television where it seems that the show is squeezed in between commercials. I haven't taken advantage of any of the 'social' options associated with the service. I'm not even sure what they are, other than being able to blog about a show.

Joost's biggest problem is content: there isn't enough. Most of the content does seem focused on the young crowd, primarily men, and what content would appeal to someone like me has not been updated frequently enough. Joost is in real danger of losing its earlier momentum if it doesn't start refreshing stale channels.

iTunes and Amazon's Unbox

NBC had a snit and left, but iTunes still has several channels. The quality of the recordings is good, the download times fast, and the price is consistent. However, the point the studios made, about old shows being charged the same as new is a good one. That's where Amazon's Unbox comes in.

We had problems with Unbox when it first came out because of privacy concerns and some problems with connectivity. Amazon has, since, fixed most of the privacy issues and been open on the other connection issues. Unbox is still dependent on the Amazon technology, and Windows, but the quality of the downloaded videos is excellent. I bought a couple of old Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episodes, and the picture was very good, though the effects still incredibly cheesy.

As for the DRM issue, of course it doesn't matter when renting a movie and that's one thing Unbox provides and rumor has it, iTunes will have, eventually. Online movie rentals aren't cheap–being about three to four US dollars–but when you're bored, want to see a movie, and a freezing rain is pouring outside, it's better than going out for a show.

I feel the same about the television shows. iTunes charges 1.99 a show, Amazon the same or less. Anything I buy from either service I'm buying either because I don't have access to the show, I want to watch the show without commercials, the quality is better through my computer than through my cable, or a combination of reasons. If I wanted a series to have forever, I'd buy it on DVD, not online. I treat purchased television shows, and movies when it comes to that, as long term rentals. Because of this, DRM issues don't concern me as much as they probably should.

Netflix

The Netflix Watch Now capability was an interesting twist. From a performance perspective, it was one of the better right from the start, except for color shifting problems when the signal wasn't quite as good. Interesting mix of shows, but I think it was adding new, and older, television shows that made the difference.

Recently, there was a story about Netflix running Heroes, season 2. The story was a puzzle, because I'd been watching the new Heroes season on Netflix for a couple of months. Netflix also has the hit Showtime series, Dexter, though I haven't tried it yet. Too anti-hero for me.

Netflix's biggest problem is the same one facing Joost: content. Some good movies, many bad; some good TV shows, other bad. Inconsistent seasonal offerings, too, such as providing access to part of a season on Watch Now, but you have to get disks to see it all.

veohTV

Of all the offerings, veohTV has the most from a 'open social' perspective. Most of the site content comes from uploads from regular folk. it's been interesting to watch how people classify or name movies in order to bypass copyright protections. I've seen a few Godzilla movies, but most were poor quality.

The site offers channel offerings from CBS, NBC, and others, including ABC, I believe who is almost a no show in the online world. However, I had to unload the application when a recent update completely took over the audio on my system, disabling it for access via other video offerings, such as iTunes and Joost. When I reported the problem, I got a form response from a person who obviously did not read, or comprehend, what I wrote and assured me that they were working on the quality of their shows.

update I just tried the newest version of veohTV and it does seem to be playing better with the other kiddies, now.

Hulu

Yes, I finally got my beta invitation for Hulu, NBC's and News Corporations new offering. Well, I must say, I am impressed. I now know where all the missing content is from the other services. Not only are new NBC corp shows featured, but also those from Sci-Fi, Fox, Bravo, O, USA, and other channels–both new and old.

Browsing through the offerings, one page has the new Bionic Woman and Heroes, as well as Eureka; the next has old episodes of Buffy the Vampire Killer, Remington Steel, Hillstreet Blues, and Airwolf; another page has 24, and the new Battlestar Galatica. I discovered Burn Notice, a show my roommate recommended, and finally had a chance to see the pilot. I agree, it is a good show.

Interspersed throughout the shows were movies, such as the Breakfast Club, The Crow, Phenomenon, and October Sky.

The videos stream, and I only had halting problems during one show. The quality is a little rough with some of the older shows, but passable, or more than passable for the newer shows. I don't sit right next to my TV, which means I'm not bothered by minor or even moderately light pixeling. The shows feature ads, but just as with Joost, they're singletons, and relatively unobtrusive, though without some of the European flair of the Joost ads.

Most importantly, unlike many of the other services, Hulu videos work on both my Windows PC media machine and my Mac OS Powerbook.

(I have also tried NBC's NBC Direct, which is a 48 hour download service for NBC shows, only. The quality if superior, of course, since the shows are downloaded. However, the interface is confusing, and I'm not sure how it fits with the new Hulu service.)

The BBC

I wish I could say something about the BBC's iPlayer, but unfortunately, it's use is restricted to the UK. Too bad, too, because I am a big Doctor Who fan, and would love to see the episodes I tend to miss here in the States. I was also curious about other purely British offerings.

I don't know whether the service has failed, but I think the BBC needs to get its arse kicked for being so parsimonious.

Summary

We're no longer at the mercy of Cable, which is the best you can say about internet television. That, and being able to play what you want, when you want. Well, within limits.

The downloaded movies and television shows are a higher quality than the streamed video, but the streamed video can be quite decent. It helps to have a good PC connection for your television, and not sit too close to the screen. If you want to watch the shows five inches from the screen, you're not going to enjoy the quality. Joost is, by far, the best when it comes to streaming quality, followed by Netflix. Joost's service is also the most fragile, crashing one time out of every three or four starts.

The pay services and Netflix do a better job of providing access to multiple seasons for shows, though I hope the free, ad-based offerings will offer more, over time. For the free, streaming services, veohTV doesn't know who its audience is, and certainly doesn't know how to create software that plays well with others. Joost and Hulu both provide a decent selection of content, though Hulu is targeted at an older, American-based audience, while Joost is most definitely European, and younger. Where Joost lags is letting channels get stale.

Hulu requires no installation of software, and is the best for right out of the box service. No 'open social', but that's not going to bother us anti-social curmudgeons. As mentioned, veohTV had conflicts over audio with the other services and was banished, while iTunes and Joost continue to battle it out over registry entries. They don't conflict, necessarily, but a new version of Joost usually means iTunes has to be updated the next time it runs. It's a pain, and one I've reported to Joost.

Customer support is iffy, at best, for the services where I have reported problems. I noticed that the Joost employees are now responding on the Joost forums, which is a good thing. However, taking five months to respond to a bug report is odd, at best. The service would be better to not respond, at all. The veohTV response was laughable.

The biggest concern I have is the amount of non-content among the content. For instance, Hulu has several shows but many don't have all the episodes or seasons. In fact, several only have one show, leading one to wonder whether the show was a teaser to buy the shows on DVD, or just a new addition that hasn't had new entries uploaded. Joost also had a lot of "special minute" shows, which are more ads than show. It's a little like eating fast food: you think you're getting a good deal, but then you realize most of what you're getting is filler, and nothing more than empty calories.

The problem with content highlights the problems with online offerings: the networks control when you access shows in a broadcast environment, but you control access online. It's not going to be unusual for a person to sit through five or ten episodes of one show, watching one right after the other. This behavior isn't necessarily a problem from an ad-driven perspective, and definitely not a problem for the paid services, but it could be a problem with services such as Joost and Hulu, as they scramble to keep their offerings fresh.

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