Online Network Video Offerings
What a difference a year makes…
Last year around this time, I looked at what was available from the major television networks. In the end, there wasn’t much. ABC stopped fighting progress, and put their shows online, and their page views went through the roof. By the fall season, the CBS, NBC and FOX networks had joined in. As I only have one VCR these days, I’ve been supplementing it with watching online videos from all of these networks. While things have changed for the better, there is still for more improvement in terms of quality and quantity.
I wanted to share my setup. In my basement is a DSL connection which is around 768 kbps download, 256 kbps upload, which is quick but nothing phenomenal. This goes into a Belkin pre-N wireless router, arguably still one of the best WiFi routers out there for signal strength. One floor away is my Shuttle with an Athlon X2 5200+, 1 gig of RAM, integrated graphics (still, arghh…), and a 19” LCD (1280x1024, not widescreen). It connects to the internet via a USB WiFi adapter from Belkin. As the router and adapter are relatively close with only a floor in between, they can keep a full strength connection at all times no problem. Needless to say, the bottleneck is likely the DSL connection. System performance plays only a minor role as I had similar viewing experiences on both my less robust Athlon 64 3800+ system, and my Athlon XP-M 2200+ notebook.
What would be the ideal? Quite simply I would like to be able to watch all of the episodes of the entire season on demand. I’d like to be able to have it run full screen, without a ton of pixel artifacts. I’d also like the option of having it run in a smaller screen if I want to do some computer work simultaneously. While the program is running, I’d like it to play without stutter, or waiting for the buffer to fill constantly. Is this too much to ask?
First up is FOX’s offering. This season I’ve watched plenty of episodes of Prison Break via this route. Not all of FOX’s shows are available, and the one’s that are have only the last three episodes to be viewed which is better than nothing, but not great if planning a longer vacation. The viewing box has two choices: standard, and bigger. Neither fills the screen completely, and bigger is only slightly larger. It also makes for a messy viewing experience as the rest of the screen doesn’t get blacked out, which makes it feel a lot more like a computer and less like a TV set. There are also some hiccups in playback that require the buffer to be refilled. In my mind, the FOX offering is the weakest of the networks, and I hope will be stronger for next season.
Next up is NBC’s shows. While I only rarely watch NBC lately, I did watch some episodes of the Apprentice: Los Angeles this season. They did have the entire season available. The player could be made to go full screen- at a price. The cost to be paid was that there is a ton of pixel artifact. If I’m at the other end of the room it’s not really noticeable, but up close it has the appearance of a YouTube video full screen. It’s not too enjoyable to see that level of pixel artifact from the compression artifact. Signal dropouts are few, but I do experience them from time to time. In my view, NBC’s service is a minor improvement from FOX’s but still needs major work.
The one that started this was ABC, so clearly their player is more mature. Since they’ve moved Lost to the 10 PM time slot to avoid American Idol I’ve been keeping track of the castaways without all of those commercials that put me to sleep. It looks like just about all of their dramas are online, and the entire current season can be viewed. There is now a choice between no less than five sizes. My favorite is the largest one. It is a widescreen format that has plenty of detail, and looks to have enough pixels for HD, but the large black bars top and bottom take up too much screen real estate. The real weakness of this is that on their “biggest” setting there are occasional dropouts. The player then chokes, and I have to switch to a smaller size, and wait for the buffer to fill. While a faster internet connection would probably fix this, I think with better compression it should be possible without sucking up so much bandwidth.
My favorite on demand video offering is from CBS, better known as InnerTube. Throughout this season I’ve watched Jericho, NCIS, and The Unit. For some of their shows, like Jericho they have the entire season, while for others, like The Unit, they only have the last episode. For a few shows, for example The Amazing Race, they only have video clips and highlights, but no full episodes. Clearly, they can do a better job in expanding their content. What I believe is what makes their offering so compelling is the ease with which it can play full screen video. It is based on the RealPlayer, which is no newcomer to streaming online video. While the choice is between a small window, or the full screen (not to mention the “boss button” that brings up a fake MS Outlook screen at a single clip for discrete viewing during office hours…), the full screen works well so that smaller choices are not needed. The video plays back full screen, and the black bars are not as large as on ABC. There are a few compression artifacts, but the playback is smooth, and doesn’t stutter or stop. It is very viewable both up close, and across the room. In fact, it fills the screen of my LCD so well that I can forget it is a computer and it feels like I’m watching a TV set. In my mind, CBS has struck the best balance between compression and quality, and the others should take notes as it comes awfully close to my ideal of how this all should work.
It’s great to see so much progress made over the course of one year as computers and television finally are converging. It will probably take another season or two before all of the networks have the kinks worked out. While ABC may have the most Hi Def experience, they should remember that many, if not most home users are doing this across a wireless connection and compress their video stream a little more to accommodate this. I’m glad to see that the networks have realized that online video is here to stay, and that they can, and should compete with more internet based video services such as Joost and YouTube. Stay tuned as we plan on updating this next year as well until they all get it just right.
--Jonas
Last year around this time, I looked at what was available from the major television networks. In the end, there wasn’t much. ABC stopped fighting progress, and put their shows online, and their page views went through the roof. By the fall season, the CBS, NBC and FOX networks had joined in. As I only have one VCR these days, I’ve been supplementing it with watching online videos from all of these networks. While things have changed for the better, there is still for more improvement in terms of quality and quantity.
I wanted to share my setup. In my basement is a DSL connection which is around 768 kbps download, 256 kbps upload, which is quick but nothing phenomenal. This goes into a Belkin pre-N wireless router, arguably still one of the best WiFi routers out there for signal strength. One floor away is my Shuttle with an Athlon X2 5200+, 1 gig of RAM, integrated graphics (still, arghh…), and a 19” LCD (1280x1024, not widescreen). It connects to the internet via a USB WiFi adapter from Belkin. As the router and adapter are relatively close with only a floor in between, they can keep a full strength connection at all times no problem. Needless to say, the bottleneck is likely the DSL connection. System performance plays only a minor role as I had similar viewing experiences on both my less robust Athlon 64 3800+ system, and my Athlon XP-M 2200+ notebook.
What would be the ideal? Quite simply I would like to be able to watch all of the episodes of the entire season on demand. I’d like to be able to have it run full screen, without a ton of pixel artifacts. I’d also like the option of having it run in a smaller screen if I want to do some computer work simultaneously. While the program is running, I’d like it to play without stutter, or waiting for the buffer to fill constantly. Is this too much to ask?
First up is FOX’s offering. This season I’ve watched plenty of episodes of Prison Break via this route. Not all of FOX’s shows are available, and the one’s that are have only the last three episodes to be viewed which is better than nothing, but not great if planning a longer vacation. The viewing box has two choices: standard, and bigger. Neither fills the screen completely, and bigger is only slightly larger. It also makes for a messy viewing experience as the rest of the screen doesn’t get blacked out, which makes it feel a lot more like a computer and less like a TV set. There are also some hiccups in playback that require the buffer to be refilled. In my mind, the FOX offering is the weakest of the networks, and I hope will be stronger for next season.
Next up is NBC’s shows. While I only rarely watch NBC lately, I did watch some episodes of the Apprentice: Los Angeles this season. They did have the entire season available. The player could be made to go full screen- at a price. The cost to be paid was that there is a ton of pixel artifact. If I’m at the other end of the room it’s not really noticeable, but up close it has the appearance of a YouTube video full screen. It’s not too enjoyable to see that level of pixel artifact from the compression artifact. Signal dropouts are few, but I do experience them from time to time. In my view, NBC’s service is a minor improvement from FOX’s but still needs major work.
The one that started this was ABC, so clearly their player is more mature. Since they’ve moved Lost to the 10 PM time slot to avoid American Idol I’ve been keeping track of the castaways without all of those commercials that put me to sleep. It looks like just about all of their dramas are online, and the entire current season can be viewed. There is now a choice between no less than five sizes. My favorite is the largest one. It is a widescreen format that has plenty of detail, and looks to have enough pixels for HD, but the large black bars top and bottom take up too much screen real estate. The real weakness of this is that on their “biggest” setting there are occasional dropouts. The player then chokes, and I have to switch to a smaller size, and wait for the buffer to fill. While a faster internet connection would probably fix this, I think with better compression it should be possible without sucking up so much bandwidth.
My favorite on demand video offering is from CBS, better known as InnerTube. Throughout this season I’ve watched Jericho, NCIS, and The Unit. For some of their shows, like Jericho they have the entire season, while for others, like The Unit, they only have the last episode. For a few shows, for example The Amazing Race, they only have video clips and highlights, but no full episodes. Clearly, they can do a better job in expanding their content. What I believe is what makes their offering so compelling is the ease with which it can play full screen video. It is based on the RealPlayer, which is no newcomer to streaming online video. While the choice is between a small window, or the full screen (not to mention the “boss button” that brings up a fake MS Outlook screen at a single clip for discrete viewing during office hours…), the full screen works well so that smaller choices are not needed. The video plays back full screen, and the black bars are not as large as on ABC. There are a few compression artifacts, but the playback is smooth, and doesn’t stutter or stop. It is very viewable both up close, and across the room. In fact, it fills the screen of my LCD so well that I can forget it is a computer and it feels like I’m watching a TV set. In my mind, CBS has struck the best balance between compression and quality, and the others should take notes as it comes awfully close to my ideal of how this all should work.
It’s great to see so much progress made over the course of one year as computers and television finally are converging. It will probably take another season or two before all of the networks have the kinks worked out. While ABC may have the most Hi Def experience, they should remember that many, if not most home users are doing this across a wireless connection and compress their video stream a little more to accommodate this. I’m glad to see that the networks have realized that online video is here to stay, and that they can, and should compete with more internet based video services such as Joost and YouTube. Stay tuned as we plan on updating this next year as well until they all get it just right.
--Jonas
Labels: online video, Television
posted by digitaldoc at 9:44 PM
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