Zatz Not Funny!

EchoStar Licenses Tru2Way

Guess that DOCSIS 2.0 cable modem with integrated Slingbox functionality we unveiled at CES was just the beginning… EchoStar (split from DISH Network) has just licensed Tru2Way – the evolution of the CableCARD experience. solidified its commitment to providing innovative products and technologies to the cable industry with its recent signing of the tru2way™ Host … 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.

Netflix Discs with ARccOS Copy Protection

I was running through my Netflix Queue this morning and noticed an interesting warning on one of the movies. If you add Casino Royale, Crossover, Open Season and other DVD’s (total of 13) to your Queue, you’ll get the following Notice Message from Netflix: NOTICE: This DVD is not compatible with some DVD players. This … Read more

Crunching Feedflix Stats for Netflix Trends

A few months ago, Raghu Srinivasan launched a website named Feedflix that analyzes your customized Netflix RSS feeds to track how you’re using your membership. The site can tell you things like how much you spend per DVD rental or the typical number of days that you hold onto your DVDs before sending them back for new ones.

While having someone automatically calculate this data is helpful to me, when I first used the service it didn’t really tell me anything new about how I use Netflix. Since I enjoy number crunching, I had already been tracking this info and know I’m spending about $3 for every DVD rental.

What Feedflix did offer me, though, was a way to compare how I used the service in relation to other Netflix customers. When it first launched, I didn’t think that Feedflix would have enough members for a legitimate sample size, but with the service growing over the past few months, I wanted to check back and see what it could tell me about how others are using Netflix.

How Long Do Customers Keep Their Rentals?

Feedflix doesn’t answer this question directly because they break the data into separate groups, but if you do a little bit of math, it’s not too hard to estimate the average rental. What I found surprising about the results was that, even with 75% of the user base returning their DVDs within 10 days, the drag from the other 25% of users brings the average rental period to 9.55 days. In the past, Netflix has said that people who don’t rent as many movies have a tendency to churn at a higher rate, but this data would suggest that they contribute to the lionshare’s of Netflix’s profits before they drop off completely.

At Last, SlingPlayer 2.0! (neutered)

Originally demo-ed at CES 2007, SlingPlayer 2.0 for Windows has finally been released (as a public beta). Unfortunately, SP 2.0’s launch is most notable for what it lacks: Clip+Sling. Clip+Sling, plus the associated Sling.com video portal, was intended to allow Slingbox owners to capture and share memorable television segments online. However, Sling didn’t want to … Read more

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.

A Cablevision Win for Network DVR, AKA Cloud TV

Cablevision has emerged victorious from its latest day in court. If it chooses, Cablevision now has the green light to start introducing Network DVR services. A court of appeals ruled yesterday that Network DVR does not violate copyright law, overturning a decision from March 2007 that pronounced the technology illegal. The ruling should not be … Read more

The Meandering LG, Sony, Blu-Ray, Netflix Post

Last week, Netflix and LG unveiled the BD300 – a Blu-ray player capable of accessing Netflix’s streaming content and expected to ship in September for less than $500. At $400 or more I expect integrated WiFi connectivity, but LG’s betting the target audience has hard-wired their living room. Statistically, they may be right. But why … Read more