It sure is mysterious. No one quite seems to really know the big idea behind the project beyond the fact that the videos it does have will be of very high quality(relative to the likes of YouTube).

Beyond that - stuff like marketing, target audience - we know little about.

From what we do know, I want to guess Apple might be there closest competitor(if Venice Project ever gets to that point).

Just like Kazaa and Skype, TheVeniceProject is based on P2P technology. Consequently, they need to implement it as a downloadable application. It cannot work like the YouTube’s of the world as an online service. So do I guess at least.

As a tester of the project (and having tested a lot of software over the years), I am convinced the TVP project has a bright future ahead of it. While I agree that we’ve evolved to a very web-centric society, there is still a compelling need for desktop applications.

Until we reach a point where the web and desktop are truly unified and seamless (e.g., the “webtop”), the desktop will still matter for now. There is little doubt in my mind about TVP revolutionizing TV. Just using the software (which is still beta) is as exciting as the first time I loaded it. There’s just something engaging about the platform, and what we’re seeing today is only about 30% of its full potential.

When all is said and done, we’ll all be TVP deskpotatoes.

the web is dead. the next revolution coming is p2p…connecting computing devices together and doing something cool with them. We’re doing that with commerce and intellectual property.

I think the Venice Project and YouTube are totally different; yet the same…youTube is old technology using fat-pipe to give instant gradification to 14 year olds…Things like Tamago, Skype, The Venice Project, etc…are tying people/devices together to give richer, more self gratifying, experiences.

and Michael…you need to pull your head out of your ass….the browser is a small confined world; many of us, great developers, know all about it…and are kinda tired/bored. Look at the average American developer today; they have no idea on how to create p2p technology…they’re stuck with Javascript…Skype alone will change the world much more than youTube ever will…it destroys the whole telecom industry…so, you need to realize, the browser, is just boring old technology…Mozilla still has the same memory bugs it had when it was known as Netscape back in ‘96

oh yeah, here are some other programs you have to download…iTunes, World of Warcraft, Songbird…

p2p is actually the real internet; and how it fundalmentally works; the web is just a bastardization of man’s attempt to control it by reproducing a central authority to control the information…aka web-server.

the web is dead.

I agree with Ronald, desktop still matters. I live in Sweden right now and have a lot of contact with the kidz over here… they have no problem downloading applications. Neither do Skype users, file sharers, etc. I’ll be checking into this more later.

-chrisco
http://www.buzzpal.com | http://www.buzzpal.tv

Yep the web is dead! Zilched! This is a great article. I will come back for more.

Arup

The biggest problem is with the quality. YouTube is not a platform for watching meaningful TV that would last more than a few minutes. The quality is just not there.

The quality of the video from Venice is meant to be better, much better. But this introduces problems as the Venice Project’s bandwidth requirements will exceed most users broadband caps. A typical hour of watching would require up to 320 megs of data to be downloaded.

Most users here in Europe would exceed their download quota in less than 20 hours:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2.....onditions/

There’s a lot about the venice project which make it diffent from youtube (besides the obvious platform and delivery methods). What people don’t know yet (and this includes the majority of the beta testers) is the big picture (and believe me, it is B I G - think skype territory here). You shouldn’t compare the two until you’ve seen it all (who knows when that’ll be?)

Now, those that have been testing will agree that the content for the beta is pretty sub-standard (there’s only so many times you can watch Lassie and the worlds strongest man), but do you really think that’s where it stops? - these are the people behind Skype, aiming low isn’t in their vocabulary. Content is king, they know that.

Platform wise, I’d forget about the fact it’s not browser based - think about it, do people hook youtube up to their TVs? If it goes right, this will change the TV industry in the same way that skype changed telecoms, if not more.

That being said, it’s bordering on insanely ambitious - especially considering the lack of bandwidth at the moment worldwide (which has the potential to put the brakes on it in a very serious way). It’s a hungry client in more ways than one

I think chances of success are 50 / 50, but if it gets there, TV will never be the same. Just remember, youtube is a totally different product either way.

It’s hardly a disclosure; TVP announces it’s installing XULRunner during install, and all the XULRunner files are there in the program directory, and it stores its data in the same way as other XUL-based apps (using the randomly-named profile directory).

Saying something like “Unless it’s highly viral, it isn’t going to fly” is like saying “Unless it’s popular amongst users, it won’t be popular”

Saying something like “Unless it’s highly viral, it won’t fly” is the same as saying “Unless it’s popular amongst users, it won’t be popular”. A viral product is a popular product, and therefore a flying product.

Michael, have you actually used the client for more than 5 minutes?

I don’t know how the output of the Venice Project can really be compared to YouTube, the quality is on a totally different level. And on the content front you mentioned, its in beta, pure and simple, why would it make any sort of economic sense to buy expensive content for a small network of beta testers.

With TV, the killer app is just: CONTENT.

But the producers of “old” content are strongly linked with “old TV” and “old copyrights” that are Country based and that will block worldwide internet distribution.

Success for INTERNET TV will come from “NEW Content” and “NEW Content Producers” with Content made first for worldwide Internet distribution.

New producers will have to grow before Internet TV soars.

Wait and see…

Opo
(old TV maker)

I have never been so disappointed in the reporting here until now. What would give any indication that this could fail? These guys KNOW marketing! They proved it Kazaa and then legally proved it with Skype. They are the epitome of the modern web, they know what people want and they have delivered millions of times.

To say that it will fail merely because there is a piece of software that needs to be downloaded is certainly the start of the shoe getting into the mouth. I think perhaps the article would hold a bit more water if you could cite some examples of their failures in the past. Skype alone should be enough drive or encouragement for users to give Venice a shot.

I found these screenshots of the venice project:
http://www.slideshare.net/greg.....ce-project

It looks really really slick…the navigation and widgets look really cool. The only thing that looks lame are the pre-roll ads, which might be really annoying (but at 3-5 seconds, just possibly tolerable).

I agree with Ronald, as it is the placement of net delivered content in front of the couch ‘OR’ your desktop. User choice will drive what’s eventually adopted.

Surely ‘Content is King’ but Tivo was successful by the clean user interface not the crappy sitcoms it was saving for you. In the TVP concept it’s the interface stupid, better content will come but the video quality is there now. Apple is certainly delivering the Tivo like experience with Front Row and TVP is another extension of the same idea.

Yup, i think he missed the point on this one.
Venice project is about IP-TV…
And that means we want High Quality not youtube quality..which means p2p and browser don’t do that.

I’ve tried the software and I muz say it definitely looks great when i do an output to my LCD TV… I can wait for more content.
ANd imagine …if what they say is true…. that LCD TV will be able to do internet and have broadband connectivity.. then this is where venice comes in..

They hav’nt shuned the browser Mike they have just reinvented it with a new UI and content delivery system.

Im sure you dont mind downloading a bittorent client to get your warez ….or a Java program to steal Pandora Tunes .

The underlying browser features are still there like search and browsing but its a Electroinic Program Guide .

When the Venice project is on a set top box you wont even notice that is aprogram that was downloaded to a eprom .

Who needs any additional software. There are dozens of free channels available right now on whooda.com. Just click on and watch anything. Not rocket science.

VGA or 720p is enough over YouTube to justify a download if there is enough content. My eyes are too old to watch train videos at the ultra low res/massive compression stnd on YouTube with my baby son.

Hasn’t this already been done?
http://www.getdemocracy.com/

Comparing the Venice Project to YouTube is like comparing Tivo or ReplayTV with RealPlayer.

I agree with your concerns, Mike. But I think the initial phase of TVP’s development should focus on getting good, consistent video quality to create a seamless TV experience.

Also, as we all know, there is only a limit as to what kinds of services can be built on browsers. Browsers are not standalone operating systems and simply do not offer enough application-level flexibility. Ask Firefox and IE to strengthen their software and we might see some change.

How will The Venice Project be different from existing IPTV services (e.g., TVU, a service I’ve been using lately)? Is the hype just because of the Kazaa/Skype connection?

The Venice project is different becuse it has web components built into the platform like Chat and RSS that are transparent overlays over full screen video .Others are a video window within a browser and you have all these other features running as seperate apps or services .

They also plan to allow customisation of the client through a open API like Firefox or Winamp .

It is a TV browser not a Web browser.

Mike

I think the two hurdles you mention, content and download, are both surmountable. I think the bandwidth problem will be harder and that p2p solutions are not sufficient if TVP gets to real scale. If you’re interested, I’ve posted in more detail about it at the Lightspeed blog- click my name to read more

I think that Kazaa and Skype founders expertise is precisely the downloadable applications. They reinvented music sharing with kazaa, they revolutionized telecommunications with kazaa, and I am really confident that they will do the same with TVP, I personnally like the app, and I think that as soon as they will get more content, it will become a killer app, such as YouTube.

ilan a.,

As long as the Venice project allows syndication with third party agreements, they will get more content.

The question is how do you get the content creators to stay?

Venice project is not the only Internet TV project that is coming out from Europe. See Babelgum (http://www.babelgum.com). I blogged about it recently, and am trying to get in touch with the founder to get some more information. Seems interesting, but not really sure yet how far the project is, i.e., whether they have a real product or are they advertising something that does not really exist yet.

By its nature a P2P application runs outside of the browser. You need a client / agent to be running to support the transfers. While one *could* create a browser plugin to have the agent, you would still be downloading.

As for the UI running in the browser - why bother? You can create much richer and more satisfying experiences in a dedicated client. Watching media, especially longer for, isn’t a browser type application.