Good find over at Go2Web2 - Tubecast.tv is a new Internet video startup that, like others, is building a user interface layer on top of the online video services like YouTube, Veoh, etc.
For the most part the site has grabbed a lot of content from those sites and organized it into channels ranging from music videos to martial arts. Videos are shown on a schedule like normal television, although you can skip ahead.
What’s cool about it is that you can watch videos full screen with a click, and browsing to new content is much easier than using the video sites directly. This isn’t for searching, but it’s an excellent time waster if you want to browse pre-selected content.
What I like best about sites like this is that they are completely browser based and no download is required. I’m thinking Joost is going to have to move in this direction eventually. They can offer lower quality video via the browser, saving the higher definition content for the P2P application
The site’s blog is here.
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looks cool.
actually i think its very cool. The roll overs a wicked. its really cool but the quality is quite poor when its viewed in full screen.
Arrington can you change the quality of video or are you stuck wirth what they give you?
Johnny
Yes, Joost really needs to be browser based!
After finding sites like http://divxtube.ca and http://joox.net (illicit sites but hey streaming is not illegal) loading up Joost to watch Viacom only content is blah.
I think this a really cool concept, the quality is a little shady but overall really cool.
Joost screw up with Venture capital thing. This is what happens if you take money from VC.
Other self-funded startup will built product bigger.
It’s really… really… really…. reallllllly slow to load the videos.
I’ve waited to channels to come up. It’s hack slow….
I looked at it, and it definitely has potential. I also believe that browser-based television is the way to go. That is why we have over 200 theme-based micro-niche channels at Pax Stereo Tv (www.paxstereo.tv), and it only takes you approximately 10 seconds to view a video! Whatever form internet television takes, it must be fast, easy, and require no downloads. Tubecast is promising, but it is slow, and the quality is poor. Hey, but keep on pushing!!
This is a prime example of FLEX and a custom poor mans Flex Ajax Bridge(http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Flex_Framework:FABridge)
MA , mentioned how he needed no download , in that one line he summarized why FLEX is gonna roll over silverlight. Thats the only real deciding factor in web technology, since its debatable which is ’superior’ from a purely technical review.
The more apps like this the more people will open up to truly rich web interfaces that the the holy trinity of (X)HTML,CSS, and JS. Just can’t compete with.
Just thought I’d give you the nerd under story.
btw flash 9 (the platform flex 2 rests on) is at around 85 percent as of March , so its probably even higher now.
http://www.adobe.com/products/.....ation.html
It’s important to note that Flash 9 is the pivotal version in the flash legacy for two reasons in particular:
1. Actionscript 3 (they take the training wheels off and make the underlying language behind Flash and Flex app , and make it fully ECMAscript compliant)
2. Flex 2 requires Flash 9. Flex 2 is significant because Flex 2 apps no longer require proprietary server side licenses from Adobe that if I remember correctly were charged per cpu, so as you can imagine it could get pricey.
There are a bunch of other reasons why flash 9 is a big step , but they get a little granular and technical. But you get the point.
Nima,
I think you are saying that xhtml, css, and js will be besting P2P, and I agree. Maybe P2P in the future, but for now they are all too large, too cumbersome, and dominated my desktop too much.
Thanks for the info, now I have to go study some more to be sure I understand what you said
Cool! Very soon, video will come to iPhone app. It only took me about 3 hrs to come up with mine iPhone app. View this link in your iPhone - http://digitfan.com/cgi-bin/We....._rand?g=11
It’s an API that I added to my current digital asset social networking pet project. I hope iPhone will soon unlock for all videos.
looks pretty cool - great job in giving orly some link love - good payback for her fp diggs!
i wonder why no crunchbase links - you know - can’t let someone go without passing by cb!
perhaps joost could partner with adobe to license their p2p cdn as service via an api for the flex platform. i dont know the specifics but if it is not currently feasible, they could adapt it
Interface design credits to neave.tv.
I thought about doing a user-created closed caption service awhile back but gave up on it because I was wary of video silos like YouTube eventually making it really difficult to reuse their video (FLVs). And workarounds like external overlaying (transparent Flash movie placed above YouTube video player has clutter issues.
“What I like best about sites like this is that they are completely browser based and no download is required.” Unfortunately, this is a common misconception. YouTube uses FlashVideo, and you need to download and install it before this site and others will work. It’s onlyy because of it’s small size and installed base that it “appears” that this site needs no download. BTW-if this site was using QuickTIme just about the same amount of folcks could use it without a doownload- iTunes/QuickTime is pretty prevalent as well!
FYI, the latest flash player 9 update (still in beta) supports H.264 HD video and hardware scaling which makes it perfectly viable for HiDef video playback in the browser.
And, yes you might need to download Flash to playback video on YouTube, but given that it has close to 98% penetration on PCs already - chances are you have it already.
I was watching preview HAROLD AND KUMAR 2 on youtube.
It’s funny… Watch clip 00:20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY6dBN_pntg
The content on Tubecast loads fast enough for me - certainly not slow. Works flawlessly here - but it badly needs a Search feature and somewhere I can jump to a particular channel instantly. Thanks to TechCrunch for bringing this new site into the spotlight - I hadn’t seen it before.
Pretty cool …
Someone needs to make a site like this that uses the divx web player! Divx quality is the way to go!
A friend and I launched a similar site called http://chime.tv a few months ago (which did get a write-up on TC, but missed a lot of features in my opinion). We have things like global search and the ability to create your own channels too.
That said, the more the merrier, and while I think Tubecast suffers a bit from the mystery meat navigation, their UI is pretty hot and I *love* the way they show the titles over the videos.
Cool - youtube is addictive enough as it is… now I need to manage my time even better!
Jon
first look is cool
Seems pretty cool. I like the idea of organizing the content - I get lost with YouTube.
Amen Ryan.
You still can’t beat DivX’s http://www.stage6.com. No other video site, even with a client/P2P download matches the video quality from the DivX guys.
With all the talk about h.264, you gotta wonder if Flash will ever look as good as DivX even with it as Quicktime/iTunes still doesn’t parallel DivX quality and they use h.264 too.
You see T!V!?
http://www.videolog.tv/tivi/en/
Launched in June of 2007. A Brazilian site with high quality.
this looks really funky.. *checks it out*
I’m still tryin to get this to load up. It’s taking forever
“I’m thinking Joost is going to have to move in this direction eventually. They can offer lower quality video via the browser”
Well… Joost is allready offering low quality via its P2P app.
It seems to be done at the moment. How long are they announcing a new version??