All PVR

I have been playing with Joost during the last few days, so here are my impressions thus far. I only noticed minor quirks, but since it’s Beta version, those are expected. Still, here they are:

• It had a minor glitch on my Windows Vista machine during initial installation. Joost officially supports Vista, and ended up working fine after restart. Before that, however, it complained that it needs DirectX 9.0c (and my Vista has 9.0c, I confirmed), and it had some sound issues.
• Video playback over wireless seem to be problematic, with more frequent video playback hickups and degraded quality, or so it seems. However, it could be due to particular wireless hardware or some other issues…
• Quality overall is disappointing. It is full screen, but compression artifacts abound. It sure seems to me that it can stream much better quality and maybe it’s scaling back until more Joost users (and thus P2P nodes) are out there

Now to the positives:

• It’s COOL! The Interface is clean and done well, with many translucent components and big clear icons.
• It has integrated Search, which is very important! You can search shows across networks using simple keywords. Once found, click Play and enjoy!
• Good content is coming from major networks, though right now it’s still scarce, now while it’s still in beta.

Overall, I am impressed. It’s TV over the Internet with potential to disrupt, as it really should. I am also thrilled that it seems to be Free and Advertisements supported by design. There may be hidden Pay-per-View functionality somewhere, but I didn’t see it (and don’t want to !!)
Majority of other competitors that are trying legal Internet TV, such as BitTorrent and Vuze (based on bittorrent protocol) have a Pay-per-View model. I think most people hate paying for each episode or each separate show.

Gosh, people are still having major arguments whether paying per Channel A-La-Carte is a better alternative then packaging! But, paying per individual episode, I say this model won’t last!

But what about the sneaky title of this little post, you ask? The other side of Joost is it’s social aspect, which is very initial right now, but possibilities are endless.

I think Joost is actually quietly taking Metadata it even further — They actually can collect statistics about your viewing habits, shows, related-shows, length show watched, etc.

Think about it! Joost can actually figure out that 85% of the people watching turn off the show on the 4:17 second mark. Producers armed with that kind of data can see what happens around 4:17 mark and figure out how to improve it in future episodes, to retain their viewers 100% ! Now, that’s metadata!

Furthermore, Joost is by definition a 1 viewer experience. In other words, whereas traditional TVs are often being watched by 2 or more people, Joost on PC represents single viewer, which gives Marketing folks even bigger satisfaction, since now it’s easier to count / analyze and, most importantly, Advertise To, that individual.

To summarize, as long as Joost can get their quality to near HD and with bigger content selection and no streaming disruptions, things will really take off.

joost, newteevee, internettv, web tv