Category: Video

The Interview Streaming ShitShow

~ michael_msft ~ 2 Comments

This is the part that will always be an issue when movies move to using the Internet as the primary means of distribution – piracy is amazingly rampant and will take a bite out of earnings, http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/26/technology/the-interview-illegal-download/index.html

 

Will be interesting to see if Sony releases any numbers to see how well going online did.

 

Funny how this is all happening after recently writing this :: http://www.nokpis.com/2014/12/23/streaming-pile-of-doo/.

 

I am not expecting The Interview to be a good movie but for supporting my country and telling the North Koreans to fuck off, I feel like it is my duty to rent it. Not pirate it.

 

First thing I did was open the YouTube app on my iPhone and search for it. I found the official copy along with more than a few pirated streams. Seriously Google – is this how you make the media industry feel warm and fuzzy about moving on to YouTube for premium content? Can’t you police the bad copies for a bit? I clicked on the official copy and get a this movie must be purchased error. Yeah – error. And nothing to click on or a way to buy it. Nice.

 

Then I load up the Google Play Movies app on my iPhone and log in but nothing happens. I can’t find anyway to search or buy the movie. Nice.

 

So then I just go to play.google.com on my iPhone and I see the movie. I can rent it using Google Play Wallet. That was easy. Now what? What I didn’t know was now I could open the Google Play Movies app to see it in my playable library. Seriously – is this the best Google has to offer?

 

Now I go back to YouTube app on my iPhone and I see the movie and its playable. Then we decide to watch it on the living room TV so I load up YouTube on the Sony BluRay player and get the whole verification code thing – versus just logging in. The verification code failed three times but finally worked. Then I started watching it and about 10 mins in we get an error and it exits. Awesome. We try again and it starts over – totally forgetting the position I was at. Watch for another 20 minutes and it happens again. We get it running again and boom – starts at the beginning again. I can’t believe it doesn’t remember the position on rented movies. Is it that hard?

 

Once it crashed the 3rd time we decided to wait again. I might try to hook up the cable to the TV and watch it from my iPhone or see if I can get it it to run on Apple TV using YouTube.

 

It is great they moved to releasing online but Google Play and YouTube are really not good premium viewing experiences. Amazing how sucky they are this stuff.

Streaming pile of doo

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

Funny – I just read this :: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/6215246

Notice that most of the list is not really about making anything better for users.

Back to the post…

As I am in the states I have been messing around with all the streaming services available in the states. Amazon, iTunes, Hulu, Netflix across a variety of devices like TVs, Roku, Apple TV, Sony Blu Ray, Xbox, iPhone, iPad, and who knows what else. Its amazing all the innovation but yet everything is generally a pain in the ass to use and all suffer from edge cases. Nothing is really awesome and nothing works well across all use cases. 

As a precursor to all of this I know the general issue is that the content owners just don’t allow for innovation. It plain and simple how clear that is. So unfortunately I think the whole industry is held back by the owners of the content. This is why piracy is so rampant and in some sense the best user experience because product people can do amazing things with files, networks, and user experiences. Legal services cannot do anything they want and are mostly held back. Such is life. I don’t think this will change anytime soon.

It’s clear to me that even guys like Jason who is building https://www.vessel.com know this which is why they are focusing on user generated content since if they get it right they can do anything they want in reality. Of course there will be markets economics driving some decisions and they have to compete with YouTube while attracting content makers but still the playing field is much less restrictive than real content or shall we say trapped content. I have no idea how vessel will do but I think it will shake the market up some. YouTube is huge but the search experience, the curation and some of the viewing experiences are really broken. They are so big though they don’t care. Vessel has the time, money and experience to make a go of it.

In my own experience of using services while I am in the states I find that the best device to use is still Apple TV but it really could use an update. The remote sucks, the home screen is too cluttered and it needs more apps but the overall experience is better. On a technical note even if I am using Netflix I would rather use it via Apple TV cause it partially deals with one of my Netflix pet peeves which is streaming only and sucks on bad connections. Yes – America is full of shitty connections. However the way the Apple TV works, and it is the only Apple device that does this, the movie is essentially downloading as you watch it which means it does not pixelate or buffer much providing the viewing position is behind the download. If you use the Netflix app, Netflix on the web or Netflix via a smart TV app the streaming only issues will crop up. I need to dig into Roku more but I think it still streams versus downloading. All in all I prefer Apple TV and Netflix.

Problem is though Netflix is pretty shitty content wise. Sure you get the big Netflix hits and a few others but almost all new TV shows are not on it and the movie selection is dim. Which means that as the family gathers around the TV and we want to watch something new – we have being using the Apple TV to purchase movies on iTunes. The selection really is the best for movies and TV shows. Yes it costs money but if 15 of us are sitting in the room and we want to watch a new release, paying 4-10 bucks is still cheaper than going to the movies. So it is actually an affordable deal. Not everything is yet released on it but there is way more new content on iTunes than anywhere else. With Netflix I have to know what I want to watch cause there is no awesome way to sort movies by rating or by other characteristics, it is mostly just genres and then lists in the order that Netflix wants you to see it. I also find that I either want to use the Netflix app on iTunes or I connect my phone to the TV to use the iOS app. The Samsung Netflix apps are shit, the Roku one is okay and the Sony BluRay one is okay. None are amazing. In summation Netflix is the best for streaming, subscription and amount of content all wrapped up into one.

Just a quick side note – Sony makes the worst software ever. No wonder they lose money and are easily hacked.

The big issue I have is Netflix is streaming only. Which sucks if you are on a bad connection, are mobile or want to prep stuff for your kids. There is no way to download anything or cache anything so once you hit the road Netflix is useless. For this I turn to either YouTube or iTunes. YouTube cause I can stream easily on mobile and find lots of kids stuff but of course this is using mobile data. I can’t offline or download YouTube yet. For iTunes I can buy and download stuff and keep it on my device. This is awesome for road trips. It sucks that Apple does this but they can’t seem to figure out streaming. Again this is where any one service cant fit all models well. Netlfix won’t download and iTunes won’t stream. This stuff is not rocket science and it sucks they both can’t figure out how to combine these functions but my guess is that the content guys are part of the problem. I know from my own experience with Spuul that content people can dictate tech or product features. Sad but true.

All this means that there is no perfect service or device – well apart from just pirating whatever you want to watch. I like the Apple ecosystem more than others but it is also ripe for disruption if Apple does not ship a new Apple TV and figure out the cloud. Netflix is obviously the big service for streaming but the inability to control bandwidth, download and sort is such a big miss for me. It will be interesting to see how Netflix conquers new markets with these limitations. Google is in the mix but I honestly don’t use it apart from YouTube – Chromecast is cool and all but Apple TV works better for me. Mostly cause I am into iOS. 

I am sure there a better solutions ahead but the content guys hold the keys I think. So the product guys can innovate all they want but the end result is content is king. The content guys are in the tech dark ages. This is why I am convinced that Vessel is focusing on user generated content first – this way the product can shine.

Merry streaming!

 

Mozilla caving bit by bit

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Not sure if it is the new management or just that they are finally waking up to de-facto versus real standards. I am a mozilla fan but they astound me at times when their decisions.

Gruber covering their iOS moves :: http://daringfireball.net/2014/12/mozilla_firefox_ios

Notice the callout on H264 video.

I am still baffled that on top of H264 they pretend HLS doesn’t exist – http://www.nokpis.com/2014/10/15/silly-mozilla/

Mozilla is a strange beast but I am happy to have them in the game – I think we all benefit from it but they could do a better job at making things people use and need versus pretend that standards always win.

Good luck to them!

Roku is going for it – an IPO that is!

~ michael_msft ~ 10 Comments

Updated

https://gigaom.com/2014/10/24/roku-could-file-for-ipo-soon-raise-as-much-as-150-million/

Guess they really want to go all the way whisk the getting is still good.

I personally don’t find the devices that impressive but I admire their persistence. As far as their TV endeavors I applaud anyone trying to do a better job at smart TV’s than the smart TV goons but that’s not too high a hurdle. Problem I have with Roku is that for international content it is essentially a closed platform due to the exclusive deal with DISH – hopefully that will eventually dissolve and Roku can expand their app offering.

Clearly Apple and Google will be the biggest contenders, the new Android TV looks good on paper, but Apple TV is in serious need of a refresh to compete effectively.

Maybe Roku can clean up on the smart TV ecosystem, apart from the biggies like Samsung and LG, while expanding their devices and apps.

To do this though they need cash and lots of it.

https://gigaom.com/2014/10/22/roku-raises-25-million-in-additional-funding/

Calling the top on Google?

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

I love Ben’s work and find myself glued to his podcast as well – especially digging this episode on cable and the great unbundling :: Exponent: 021: Gamergate of Thrones
http://overca.st/Bihm6OYms

What I dig about Ben is his willingness to go out on a limb a bit with some provocative ideas. Discussing peak Google is for sure a bold claim.

However I must admit I tend to agree. They have one cash cow and in other parts of advertising – video, mobile, native and brand – they are not the clear winner. Search adversities will wane some day and they must follow up with another trick. I think Facebook will be the clear winner when it comes to mobile advertising but Twitter is also going to make a go of it, http://www.mopub.com/

Google is obviously working on a lot of stuff and some of it will hit and some won’t but the question remains – will they remain the giant they are today? I don’t know to be honest.

Peak Google :: http://stratechery.com/2014/peak-google/

New stuff at Spuul

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

At Spuul we are always trying to solve video problems for emerging markets – something that most video folks are not working on. Even the video infrastructure guys tend to focus on developed countries and good networks. We focus on developing countries and shitty networks. That being said we always have said streaming kind of sucks unless you are on a killer connection and don’t mind paying for data. However a lot of people are not on killer connections and can’t afford the data charges. Enter download – something that sounds old school and usually the realm of piracy but we think if done right it is more convenient and more secure than streaming anyway. We also know that customers love it.

It’s pretty simple. Find a video – download it. Choose your size. Watch it as it downloads. When finished go offline to view it.

Boom.

http://blog.spuul.com/2014/10/our-new-android-release/

Much more to come!

Video consolidation pace is pretty staggering

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Looks like I spoke too soon – maybe another deal going down already – http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/20/sources-yahoo-in-talks-to-buy-video-ad-platform-brightroll-for-around-700m/

Some of you may or may not follow all the companies in the “video” space but since I am in the space I can’t stop watching. Lately though the pace of acquisitions has been hectic. Couple this with all the announcements these past few weeks about all the content guys getting into launching their own OTT services and you can see that their is a land grab going on. I won’t list all the players but yesterday I was having a meeting with Brightcove and talking to a senior Zencoder employee about the space and the consolidation. Zencoder was a yCombinator company that was bought by Brightcove so they kicked off some of this activity.

Liverail bought by Facebook – this was the other big ad player in the region so now we have Videoplaza being bought by Ooyala :: http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/20/ooyala-buys-euro-video-ad-startup-videoplaza-in-its-first-acquisition/ . Ooyala was just recently bought by Telstra.

Viki was bought by Rakuten which kicked off activity in this region.

Dramafever was just picked up by Softbank. Their big competitor Crunchyroll was picked up The Chernin Group.

The list goes on and on but the more this pace quickens the more I realize there are not that many independent players left to work with in the space which means the products we all use to build video based sites are shrinking pretty rapidly. This is partially the reason why at Spuul we try to roll a lot of our own kit – we never know anymore what product we are using if it will still be around.

Nutty times!