music, culture, discourse, new media
Posts tagged hulu
A Look at Miro
Mar 15th
Note: This article is syndicated at made this for you.
After spending time with Boxee, I decided it was time to explore alternate options for streaming online video to my TV. The back-and-forth between Boxee and Hulu had started to get a little nuts – and ideally I’d like one place to go for all my content without worrying about it unexpectedly going away. In a perfect world, all content owners would offer an RSS feed for me to ingest content wherever I’d like it to go. If the bulk of the advertising lives within the video playback itself, video can freely travel – and the container itself shouldn’t make a big difference.
Cue Miro.
While trolling my Google reader late one night (as nerds like us are wont to do), I discovered the free, open source HD video player that quickly and easily serves up video streams. You can stream videos from sites like YouTube, Comedy Central, CBS, or Hulu (for now); and Miro will upscale to HD wherever it’s offered. The app offers full playback of content from within my media library too; making it a great one-stop for video playback. Very cool. Miro’s real strength though, appears to lie in the ability to host and organize multiple video feeds from a variety of sources.
The simple layout and navigation process resembles iTunes. A sidebar located on the left allows easy navigation of your content whether it be online or local. You can subscribe to RSS feeds and set them to automatically download new episodes as they become available- just like subscribing to a podcast in iTunes. You can even subscribe to a torrent, allowing you to keep all of your vids in one place (I chose a “Miro” directory under “Movies” to keep it clean). After Miro grabs your new episodes, you can easily port them to your device of choice.
The open-source nature of the program means that you can participate in the continual build to improve it. The website offers information for those who would like to write code, become a bug tester, or simply help others get started.
Miro 2.0 is currently free for Mac OSX and created by the non-profit Participatory Culture Foundation. It’s open source and licensed under the GPL (general public license), with the goal to decentralize online video by making it free and open.
Get it: http://www.getmiro.com
Read the blog: http://www.getmiro.com/blog
Unboxing Boxee
Feb 13th
Boxee is an open source media center that allows you to enjoy your movies, tv shows, music and photos in one place and pull more streaming content from the web. You can recommend items to friends – and see what your friends have recently watched or what they recommend.
I installed Boxee on my Macbook Pro running Leopard OSX 10.5.6. Boxee automatically discovered the music, movies, tv shows, and pictures on my hard drive, allowing me to navigate by format of choice.
One of the great simple features about Boxee is that I have the option to go online within each category seamlessly. For example, under “movies” I can access my Netflix account and stream movies from my instant queue. Under “music” I can log in to my Last.fm account and stream a station. Also cool is the ability to discover content from CNN, CBS, Comedy Central, Hulu, etc under “television”.
I can set up RSS feeds to add niche-specific shows that I prefer. This is where it gets interesting. Should I feed in a TED video podcast? How about CNN breaking news clips – or a torrent of Gossip Girl?
Extremely intuitive, sleek design. Awesome. Now how do I get this from my mac to my television?
For picture I connected my laptop to a Samsung 36″ HDTV using a DVI-D to HDMI adapter. For audio I used a basic Y Cable running from the laptop’s digital output to Onyko 5.1 Surround. Still looks sleek. In settings I can check real-time details to monitor how close I’m getting to 60 Hz.
Pretty cool. Now how can I control Boxee remotely to make the experience akin to watching television?
I discovered that the Boxee remote app is due any day. In the meantime, found an app called AirMote and installed it on my iTouch running 2.2 software.
All of this sounds fine and dandy. But, how does Boxee handle streaming? I can have access to all the content in the world but if the streaming quality is bad – buffering does not a good movie watching experience make.
Speakeasy.net tells me that I’m clocking in at a 1.5MB pull. Not bad. I watched a few trailers from the apple site and it looked great. I then went to Hulu to catch the latest episode of 30 Rock. Halfway through I almost forgot that I was watching over the internet. The stream was crisp and there was no buffering at all. The quality was about the same as watching television but higher bandwidth paired with more HD offerings could easily solve that. Streaming a movie from my Netflix instant-queue was different. It didn’t buffer but the video occasionally dropped a few frames.
I skated over to the music category and streamed music from my library then visited Last.fm. Would love to pull in music from other sources such as Pandora or Slacker, too.
Boxee allows me to friend other users and see what they’re watching. I can recommend programs to my friends and view items recommended to me on the Boxee homepage. At friendfeed, Twitter, and Tumblr I can share my recommendations, what I’m watching, and what I’m listening to.
I like having all of my digital media in one place. It’s fun albeit a little strange to lifestream what I’m watching. However I can’t multi-task and surf around on my computer while I watch. Time to save up for a Mac Mini! Then I can network all of my media somehow…. Which makes me wonder how I would go about backing it all up…ahh there’s always something.
Anyway, 2 thumbs up for Boxee.
note: thanks to Andy Sternberg for the Alpha version invite.
slinging, streaming, and sharing content
Jan 3rd
The beta of Sling.com’s video site is pretty awesome. And smart.
After streaming a full clip or episode, the viewer is given the ability to leave a comment, purchase the full episode, or buy the entire season. You can also create a subscription feed that provides updates on your friends’ activity along with the shows you’ve subscribed to.
The site currently imports content from Hulu (which doesn’t allow for commenting or purchasing just yet).
The networks are smart because they know that in this day and age users will always find a way to get copyrighted content for free.
They figured that they may as well direct eyeballs back to their site, or an affiliates, to allow free streaming while generating dough from ad-based revenue.
Perhaps just as important as ad-based revenue is connecting directly with viewers on a one-to-one basis. The viewer has the ability to engage with the brand by leaving comments, tagging items, sharing clips with friends, and providing feedback on what they watch.
Users can create profiles allowing basic data to be pulled by the site admin such as age, gender, and location.
NBC and ABC already offer up full streaming episodes on their sites as does Comedy Central and The CW – and more have come aboard.
Music labels are coming into the fold too although there doesn’t seem to be a site that aggregates music in the same way that Hulu, Sling, or Fancast does for video. Perhaps Imeem?
Indie label Team Love recently launched a music library allowing the perusal/streaming of music from their label and even offering free downloads with no stipulations.
For a content creator, the ability to connect directly with fans is a big deal. There’s a strong possibility that they’ll stick around to purchase, share, participate, or simply watch more to connect with what you have to offer.
Viewers are also directed to your site to discover free content – rather than hitting up P2P, YouTube, or bit torrents for the goods.
Which is always a good thing.
Pulling the plug
Oct 27th
Oftentimes people are interested to hear that I don’t have cable or basic television channels at home. I own an hdtv for viewing films and videocasts – and that’s about it. Admittedly, this wasn’t a renegade decision. I moved earlier in the year from Miracle Mile to Santa Monica and just never got around to turning the cable on. I use citywide wifi for internet (the bandwidth is decent and I don’t need a megawide pipe).
Not surprisingly I’m more productive sans TV. Although it was difficult at first to break the habit, not getting cable has proven to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I read books, magazines and blogs more often, listen to music, and spend more time getting organized and cleaning the apartment. I do feel unplugged from the outside world from time to time. So, how do I get my news and entertainment fix? Here’s how:
-news
I find radio and the internet to be even more timely and comprehensive than television was. NPR rocks. News sites and blogs allow me to aggregate feeds in one place, so i can quickly scroll through the news in my own time by selecting headlines to explore that are of relevant interest. Podcasts are also great for catching news shows on demand.
-entertainment
What can I say? Netflix is the bomb. I love having movies on hand to pop in whenever the mood strikes. This way I’m forced to watch something more educational or culturally significant than, say, randomly tuning in to a reality show, a rom-com on TBS or the latest style show on Bravo (don’t get me wrong, I love me some Heidi and Tim!). Sites like Hulu, comedycentral.com and Fancast allow me to stream shorts and full shows when the mood strikes.
What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you get your entertainment outside of traditional cable. Post a comment below!
