Yahoo Go TV, The Future Is Now

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Om’s got the scoop on Yahoo Go TV being released a mere week after Meedio announced they had been acquired. They weren’t kidding when they said they’ve been working on this relationship for awhile…

Here are some pics after my initial install. Don’t expect a comprehensive review anytime soon, I’m having too much fun playing. Will this be a Windows MCE, BeyondTV, or Front Row killer? At the very least the price of zero dollars makes it very competitive.

Yahoo says: Take back your TV

Now you can see all your Yahoo! stuff, such as photos, video clips and music videos, up on the big screen. Plus, your own DVR gives you the freedom to record and manage all your TV shows – no set-top boxes or monthly fees required.



Be sure to check out Eirik’s in-depth first take and product timeline!

17 thoughts on “Yahoo Go TV, The Future Is Now”

  1. I don’t know, it looks like Yet Another PC Based DVR Solution to me – only ‘free’. You still need the same PC hardware. And since Windows XP MCE is shipping as standard on so many PCs, that’s effectively free too. If someone has MCE, is there a big advantage to this? Let alone Vista which will be incorporate all the media center features standard?

    I suppose for people really into the other Yahoo services this is a way to get a bundle on their PC. I’d be more excited by it if they did something with TiVo so that it could use your TiVo as the recorder and TTG/TTCB the content so the PC doesn’t need to be cabled to the TV.

  2. You’re bringing me down man. ;)

    You can use all the media center features either on a computer monitor/LCD or a TV without having a tuner card (sort of like Apple’s FrontRow). What interests me is the video section… at what point are they going to offer me movie downloads?

    I’m a little disappointed in the Flickr plugin so far – it only displays community photos, rather than my personal collection.

    I do think you’re right though… it’s hard to compete with a full-featured MCE install on XP or Vista which will bundle those features.

  3. A better approach to Flickr via MCE is to install the program Slickr. You can then point Slickr to your favorites stream, your own stream, your favorite Flickr member (hint Thomas Hawk), etc.

    Slickr will then act as a screen saver for where you point it. But what it also can do is pull down high res images of whatever you point it to at Flickr. These then get saved in a Slickr folder that you can just point MCE to for Flickr type slide shows.

    http://thomashawk.com/2006/03/hot-donkey-introducing-flickr-plug-in.html

  4. I wanted to build a MCE pc and ended up going against it because of the specific hardware requirements for MCE. Only specific video cards will work with the setup and that is just the beginning. For new machines I can see why this isn’t necessarily a big deal, but if you want to convert an existing and powerful system to a media center without having to replace perfectly good hardware, this may be the way to do it. I can’t wait to get home tonite and install this!

  6. David and crew:
    its Patrick Barry from Yahoo!. We really appreciate the comments. A couple of important points to make here from the Yahoo! perspective.
    1. It?s a true BETA. We considered long and hard whether we should release a version of the product in its current unfinished state, and elected in the end to put it out there so we could gather the very useful feedback we are now getting from the community. Of course its hard to read criticism sometimes, but we are really honored that you are all taking the time to look at the product and write about it. Keep it coming! We want the product to improve as much as you do.
    2. We acquired Meedio for its strengths, and we are going to use them. As you all know, the Meedio platform had some really compelling strengths, including its openness and flexibility. In upcoming releases you will see more of that expressed. We are moving quickly and plan to regularly upgrade our offering.
    3. Our focus. We want to make PC/TV products consumer friendly (I know, we’re not there yet) rather than just support the power user–but that doesn’t mean we can neglect features that will make Go for TV a powerful product. Again, hang in there because I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
    4. Connected v. local. Yes local content is always going to be critical, but we think that content and services delivered from the cloud will play an increasingly important role in the home media experience. We will be using Go for TV as a platform to prove that proposition out going forward. Baby steps for now, but give us a little time.
    5. Stay tuned! Many of the comments posted here are being directly addressed in upcoming releases, including enhancements to the products capabilities with respect to local and LAN content, customization, hardware support, and internationalization.
    Keep the comments coming. We’re listening!

  7. This seems to me similar to the Galleon software for TIVO.

    Any plans to build on this package above-and-beyond the functionality I have with Galleon/TIVO?

  8. I think this is great.

    I use Yahoo! for my TV guide and the fact that there are no video card requirements is excellent.

    I’m sure to install it this weekend.

    Can it record to WMV and Divx?
    My current card can record to these formats and adding the Yahoo! TV Guide through this software is a great.

    Are there any location free-like options to stream to other PCs through a home network and home firewall? Similar features to Orb and Slingbox?

    Thanks.

  10. Unless you’ve got one of the 4 or 5 TV Tuner cards supported you’re out of luck. Count me out of luck for now.

  13. I have been uisng MCE for year and I have two complaints, big drv-ms files and power eater..
    I hope yahoo will solve my problem

  14. I just read about this now and will have to play with it when I get off work. My concern is having it support firewire changing and recording through my cable box. That is the main reason why I use MCE because it was so simple to setup with a 3rd party app. If this does it then I think I would charnge. And along with supporting the MCE remote and hardware.

  15. You guys should head over to the Meedio forums if you’re interested in integrating the extremely configurable Meedio backbone to the newly released Yahoo Go TV. You’ll get most of the great plugins for Meedio as well as the Yahoo stuff, plus way more flexibility than MCE could offer.

    http://meedio.com/forums

  16. I am one who will use anything except Microsoft when there is an option. My little protest against MS because of their years of crushing smaller companies and stealing their technology. With that said I am building a HTPC and was looking for the software to power it. I have found it in the Yahoo Go product. I would not consider MCE because of the restrictions MS has now built into it which keep you from recording whatever you want to. They plugged in the digital rights crap even though the Supreme Court has ruled you can copy, for your own use, whatever you purchase, just no selling. BYW Tivo has also implemented the Macrovision restrictions on their units along with Comcast’s DVR. The Yahoo Go product is Meedio. When you run the executable a software firewall like ZoneAlarm will ID it as Meedio. I have my ABM (Anyone But Microsoft) solution.

  17. Hi there, I was really excited when I first knew its release. However, I couldn’t get it work after the installation. I got an error message saying “Failed to open configuration file called configuration.xml”

    I thought there’s something wrong with the configuration XML file, therefore, I renamed is as .bak and reloaded it. It generated a new configuration.xml but it got stuck right afterwards.

    Does anyone know the reason behind? I really want to get it work!!!! Thanks in advance.

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