Video

JetBlue (DirecTV) versus Virgin America (Dish)

Over the last two years, I’ve flown probably 20 round trips between the DC Metro and Bay Area. My choice of airlines with non-stop flights is limited to United, JetBlue, or Virgin America. United offers the most favorable rewards program, especially considering their global reach (when cashing in). However, they’re usually the most pricey and I’ve become hooked on in-air live TV. Which leaves JetBlue and Virgin America.

While both airlines offer seat-back entertainment and services, for this post let’s focus on the free television programming experience. JetBlue provides DirecTV programming, while Virgin America “Red” serves up DISH Network. JetBlue clearly offers more channels than Virgin America, perhaps twice times as many. Additionally, JetBlue offers some of the “locals” – such as NBC. And a portion of channels you think Virgin America might tune brings up a post-installation DISH video or subscription screen – surprising after a year in service. So, on the content front, JetBlue provides more choice and a better viewing experience.

In terms of control, JetBlue television interaction is limited to a fixed panel on an armrest… which a seatmate may accidentally lean on, adjusting your volume or screen brightness. By way of comparison, VA’s armrest controls reside in a cubby mostly protected from inadvertent elbow channel changes. Additionally, the controller is tethered and can be removed from the armrest. However, VA provides a more natural way (in this day and age) of interaction by providing a touch-sensitive screen. Regarding those LCDs, JetBlue’s appear to be 4:3 while Virgin America uses a larger widescreen. Add in Virgin’s programming grid guide and VA wins on the interaction front.

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What’s up with Vudu? Other than the layoffs.

Just a few week ago, Vudu expanded their content library with the introduction of adult titles. And in just a few weeks, Vudu will announce the availability of 1,000 HD movies. However, between the here and there rumors of Vudu’s demise have sprung up. While it appears true nearly 20% of their staff was laid … Read more

Hulu on Mobile Devices?

No doubt, Hulu‘s been kicking butt in growing their web audience by providing legit, mainstream television content. And word is they’re now considering international expansion. So Engadget’s ‘Best portable Internet device‘ query has got me thinking… Are there any mobile devices capable of streaming Hulu shows? Let me start by saying “best” is a relative … Read more

ZvBox Unboxing

While I spent some time with a pre-release ZvBox in NYC not so long ago, the folks at ZeeVee have provided me an eval unit for a more comprehensive look. In following the coverage, it seems that “localcasting” is the best descriptor: ZvBox ($500) streams PC- or web-based content from a computer over coax to … Read more

Kaltura Launches Open Source WordPress Video Plugin

Kaltura hit the online video scene with a TechCrunch People’s Choice award last year, and has since signed an impressive array of commercial partners and customers including Wikipedia, Pepsi, Coca-Cola Blasbeat, and MLB.com. On Friday Kaltura launched its first video plugin for WordPress, allowing WP bloggers to publish video, edit and remix content, and enable … Read more

Davis Freeberg’s Top 20 Web Video Creators

One of the complaints that I often read about YouTube is that it’s just a bunch a cat videos. While it is true that the feline community has found their special crazy place on the site, this statement is an injustice to all of the hard working innovative filmmakers who are pushing the boundaries of the web. Don’t get me wrong – there is a ton of junk on YouTube, but there are also some really talented people who are redefining the relationship between an artist and their audience.

So to celebrate TiVo’s support of YouTube, I’ve put together a list of 20 of my favorite web video creators. You won’t find many cat videos, but you will get a glimpse of the future of the entertainment industry. My tastes can be a little eclectic, but hopefully you’ll be able to find at least one or two new shows that are of interest. If you know of any good web series that I left out or if you happen to make your own web videos, feel free to leave a link in the comments.

1.) You Suck At Photoshop – The series is dark and twisted, but is very very funny. You get the feeling that sometimes Donnie is pulling his “hypothetical” examples from real life experiences, but his obsession only adds to the comedy. Even if you don’t like Photoshop, this is worth watching.

2.) PurePwnage – I discovered PurePwnage about two years ago and was instantly hooked. The show follows a pro-gamer around and films him embarrassing himself and others. While it’s shot in an amateur documentary style, it’s clear that Kyle has a ton of talent. The series is cleverly edited and offers a humorous glimpse at the video game sub-culture.

3.) Pretend We Don’t Exist – Most of the videos on YouTube are filmed for the web, they are quick and funny, but they also tend to be unpolished and gimmicky. The videos that PWDE creates are a breath of fresh air compared to the rest of YouTube. Their clips tend to be much longer and are focused on deep and dark subjects. The humor is much more subtle and is driven by the characters in their films. The filming and editing looks amazing and represents cinematography at it’s finest. There are more popular artists on YouTube, but more than any of the other videos, PWDE’s content deserves to be seen on a big screen television.

4.) ./ Shutdown – If you’ve ever wondered what really goes on in your IT department, ./ Shutdown is the series for you. They celebrate all things geeky and offer an entertaining and humorous look at anything nerd related. Their videos can go from quirky to awkward, to just plain mind boggling, all in a single episode. I don’t know how their videos would do with a mass market TV audience, but I’m not surprise that they’ve built a following online.

5.) Mondo Mini-Shows – Not everyone will appreciate the humor in Mondo Media’s videos, but if you like the itchy and scratchy episodes from the Simpsons, you’ll love these animations. By combining the right amount of cuteness with hair raising violence, they’ve stumbled onto a winning formula for the web.

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Limelight Networks Interview: Streaming the Olympics

The Olympics aren’t supposed to start until tomorrow, but they officially began online last Tuesday night. Take a trip over to the NBC Olympics site and you’ll see video of early soccer matches, including a full replay of the US women’s defeat at the hands of Norway. Except for the defeat itself, it’s a beautiful thing. Thanks in no small part to Limelight Networks.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I’ve recently started doing contract work for Limelight, a content delivery network (CDN) service provider. So take these thoughts with a few grains of salt. However, when I sat down to interview Limelight SVP Dave Hatfield, I wasn’t interested in Limelight, per se, but the bigger story around the Olympics. Limelight Networks is delivering all of the NBC Olympics video streams (Akamai is supporting delivery of static objects), and I figured the folks there would have some interesting insights into how NBC is going to pull off this monumental task: NBC intends to deliver 3,500 hours of coverage online including 2,200 hours of live streaming video. It’s literally mind-blowing, and certainly unprecedented. Here’s what I learned about how they plan to do it.

The Player

Before getting on the phone with Hatfield I checked out the early videos on the NBC Olympics site. The Microsoft Silverlight player is sweet. You can watch four video streams at once and turn on features like live text commentary. There is also no latency. Zero. Click to any point within a stream and the video instantly switches to that frame. I asked Hatfield about that lack of buffering and about the bandwidth demand created by allowing a single computer to access four streams at once. Regarding the latency, he talked about how the Limelight CDN is structured. The CDN plugs directly into the access networks of ISPs all over the globe, and Limelight’s private fiber network is used to transfer content at the speed of light between massive server hubs whenever necessary. It’s a great story, but the proof is in the application itself. Did I mention the zero latency? I’ll be curious to see how that holds up once the actual Games start.

Regarding the bandwidth, Hatfield didn’t seem to be the least bit concerned. The scale of the Olympics is new, but streamed events are becoming more common, each Web event tending to break the record set by the one before it. Unfortunately, we can’t predict how much bandwidth the four-window application will actually use because we don’t know what bit rate NBC is using on its videos. By using an adaptive bit rate, NBC can transfer video at whatever rate a viewer’s ISP can handle. But as far as I can tell NBC hasn’t disclosed the highest bit rate it’s using for the fastest connections.

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