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December 21, 2006

Venice Project Details And Screen Shots

Michael Arrington

46 comments »

veniceproject_logo.jpgMore information on TheVeniceProject from beta testers is starting to come in. We’ve covered the rumors of the new online tv, or IPTV, project since the rumors surfaced in October.

Last week, CenterNetworks (great up and coming blog) posted a review but didn’t include screen shots due to the nondisclosure agreement. Today, though GigaOm got access to a beta account for The Venice Project and has posted screen shots - possibly in violation of the NDA.

Most of the hype around it stems from the fact that the company was started by Kazaa and Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. Otherwise, this would likely have been lost in a sea of new IPTV startups we’re seeing almost daily. But the fact that the founders are so high profile gives The Venice Project an edge besides press hype: it may also give them the status they need to land crucial content deals with the TV networks.

If The Venice Project has those deals, however, the content hasn’t made it to the beta project. GigaOm reports that very little content is on the site.

The software seems to work well, but Janus and Niklas have built a desktop client, not browserware. It’s only available for Windows machines, and the minimum requirements are a 600 MHz machine with 512 MB of RAM. That’s well below what any new PC has under the hood, but it will still keep out millions of users with older machines. And, of course, Mac users.

Screen shots below.




  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 21st, 2006 at 6:20 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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    December 22nd, 2006 at 1:57 am

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    December 24th, 2006 at 9:16 pm

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    January 10th, 2007 at 1:22 pm

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Comments

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  1. Allen

    December 21st, 2006 at 6:23 pm

    Corsin wrote a full review of his experiences as a beta tester last Friday here:
    http://www.centernetworks.com/.....ce-project

    He did not include screenshots of actual content because per the terms of the beta tester agreement, you are not supposed to do so. There are screenshots of the interface and chatting options however.

  2. Allen

    December 21st, 2006 at 6:24 pm

    FYI Mike - you say click below the image for more - but there is nothing below the image - I am guessing that is from the home page blurb?

  3. Michael Arrington

    December 21st, 2006 at 6:27 pm

    Allen, no idea, but i just put all the shots in the main post to eliminate confusion.

  4. RBA

    December 21st, 2006 at 6:31 pm

    “Otherwise, this would likely have been lost in a sea … ”

    Well, that’s why we have Techcrunch, right? :-)

  5. Michael Arrington

    December 21st, 2006 at 6:33 pm

    Allen, thanks for the Centernetworks link. I added it to the post.

  6. Allen

    December 21st, 2006 at 6:37 pm

    I think there is a WP plugin for homepage snippet - I am guessing you are already using it? Thanks for the kind words about CN, I appreciate it!

    For me it’s simple, give me a cable tv lineup on my pc and I can drop my $80 a month dish network sub. Wouldn’t it be awesome if they could finally figure out an ala-carte menu option, pick whatever you want, watch your channels anywhere you want, etc.

    Oh well, maybe in 2008!

  7. xxdesmus

    December 21st, 2006 at 6:38 pm

    I can will go crazy with screenshots later this evening when I get back to my desktop. I’ll post a link to my Flickr with screenshots later this evening.

    It’s pretty nice, fast responding, but the content is lacking (right now at least).

    This is a great start for an app that shows real potential.

  8. lemon obrien

    December 21st, 2006 at 6:42 pm

    the browser is dead. the valley doesn’t get this yet.

  9. Michael Arrington

    December 21st, 2006 at 6:48 pm

    heh

  10. Yakito

    December 21st, 2006 at 6:49 pm

    Well there will always be ’some kind’ of browser…

  11. Allen

    December 21st, 2006 at 6:52 pm

    #8 lemon - yep, I got my dos box out tonight, oh wait - there was no browser for dos. now what do i do - i know, i can play solitaire, oh wait, there was no solitare

    fine, ill tweak my himem.sys.

  12. Andrew

    December 21st, 2006 at 7:33 pm

    Mike, if you want access to my Venice beta account just shoot me an email and I’ll give you my username/password. I don’t really have the time to check it out and I think if you have a look you can tell your readers about it first hand. Although, I haven’t really spent time on the Venice site they do have a internal beta blog that tells testers what they are up to, which is interesting.

  13. Will

    December 21st, 2006 at 7:48 pm

    I always assumed Michael had a beta account….I know I do….

  14. Muralikrishnan

    December 21st, 2006 at 7:58 pm

    The Venice project folks clearly state that Beta users can blog about the service, but no screen shots of content windows

    guess we all need to respect that !

  15. Doeboy

    December 21st, 2006 at 8:13 pm

    iTV, venice project, tivo acquisition, etc, etc…..2007 is going to be the year for broadband tv that’s for sure….

  16. Anif™

    December 21st, 2006 at 8:14 pm

    Damn, anyone have Beta invites/accounts. I signed up for the beta test, but didn’t get anything yet??

  17. Spiros

    December 21st, 2006 at 8:34 pm

    >And, of course, Mac users.

    And, of course Linux users also.

  18. Will

    December 21st, 2006 at 8:37 pm

    I don’t know if they are currently giving out invites. When I access the page with invites it says I have 0 credits.

  19. S.Z.

    December 21st, 2006 at 8:56 pm

    I want a beta account too. I’ve seen many IP-TV applications and boxes, and I’d like to see what exactly Venice’s doing.

    Tech Tutorials: http://www.hotcoding.com

  20. Nick

    December 21st, 2006 at 9:16 pm

    Hey Mike -
    Would you consider The Venice Project a major challenger to YouTube?

  21. Fashion Industry Ceo

    December 21st, 2006 at 9:23 pm

    so what is it exactly an online user controlled television?!

  22. Michael Arrington

    December 21st, 2006 at 9:33 pm

    Nick, I’m going to write about that later today.

  23. Alain

    December 21st, 2006 at 9:34 pm

    I have tried it,it looks very nice indeed,very attractive and well designed.
    but you right for the moment the content is pretty poor.
    I don’ see it as the big revolution people have been talking about right now..

  24. Mat Hall

    December 22nd, 2006 at 12:04 am

    Don’t panic — a Mac version will be released fairly soon, shortly followed by a Linux version; we just had to start with Windows as that’s where there’s the biggest installed user base…

  25. Rajeev Vashisht

    December 22nd, 2006 at 1:19 am

    Browser compatibility and non-installed software is a major plus for any internet venture.

    http://www.tekno-world.blogspot.com

  26. Andy Breene

    December 22nd, 2006 at 4:25 am

    There is another review of the Venice Prject here with full screenshots and details on the good and bad points:

    http://www.webtvwire.com/sneek.....of-web-tv/

  27. Patricia

    December 22nd, 2006 at 7:11 am

    It’s definitely a crowded space, but I think these guys will be one to keep an eye on as they roll this out. With their background and backing, it’s probable that they’ll make a lot of good moves in terms of developing this and could be a good example of what works for other people to follow later on. I know people talk about the importance of working out deals with networks, but I don’t know why networks would bother - they should be pretty aware of the potential of putting it out on their own platforms, they kind of don’t need these guys with the way things are moving in this space (in my opinion). The good news is the market’s ready and fairly open for creating and deploying your own shows - hundreds of aspiring producers would be happy to have an outlet for their work (selling to a network and climbing the ranks in hollywood’s very tough), end users/consumers are already adopting video and would more than likely accept the concept, and with few sites doing it, there’s a lot of room to brand shows and snag up market share. Lots of talent agencies in hollywood are looking for places to put things - I think this space just has a ton of potential.

  28. John Furrier

    December 22nd, 2006 at 8:59 am

    Does anyone know how to get video shows on Venice?

  29. Patricia

    December 22nd, 2006 at 9:05 am

    @ John, they’ve got an email box for it - if you submit, maybe attach a treatment to it that gives a really good, really specific description of what you’re offering along with length, etc. - that’s the kind of stuff that’ll help them expedite through and hopefully get you working with them :)

  30. Craig

    December 23rd, 2006 at 11:21 am

    Now I can watch 1,000 channels of the same old crap on my computer?

    Oh boy.

  31. trojjer

    December 23rd, 2006 at 11:28 am

    Anyone tried Democracy Player? I can’t stand to run it because it’s a memory hog like that runs slower than Firefox at times, and despite the BitTorrent backend I don’t ever want a program that attempts to download EVERYTHING at once!

  32. Julije

    December 23rd, 2006 at 3:40 pm

    Have you tried Democracy Player lately? As of 0.9.2 the memory usage is way down, the quality and features are up - and as always is free and provides multi-platform support.

  33. David Mackey

    December 23rd, 2006 at 3:55 pm

    Its hard for me to believe that there are many individuals watching video on machines slower than 600 Mhz, though the 512 MB RAM limit could be a problem, as many budget machines come with 64/128/256 MB, a stunningly low amount.

  34. Mike Earle

    December 26th, 2006 at 1:08 pm

    So, imagine all of this but with both a PC client and a set top box offering dvd quality to your television. Ability to browse the web on your TV via the set top box and go back up to 7 days in the program guide (on any channel)and launch a show you may have missed. Ok, there is more, also a full nPVR. Live linear channels from major US broadcasters, VoD, subscription VoD. All 100% legal under content distribution agreements with the rights holders… Tv on the PC is good (we offer it as well) but TV belongs on the, well, TV. We will be in full beta late January, come see us if you want a service that looks and feels like digital cable or satellite, but with more interactivity and better picture quality.

    Mike
    http://www.tvanywhere.org

  35. David

    January 2nd, 2007 at 10:20 pm

    Someone sell an invitation on ebay.

    http://cgi.ebay.fr/ws/eBayISAP.....0066819616

    Gmail like auction ?

  36. Pedro Moutinho

    January 23rd, 2007 at 5:39 pm

    I love to have one invitation for Joost.
    You don’t have some extra please?
    Thanks
    pmmout[at]gmail[dot]com

  37. andrew

    February 22nd, 2007 at 10:09 am

    hi every one check this site out it has content and no beata up and running since 15 dec 06 http://www.rockworld.tv

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