Now that all the major TV networks are streaming prime time shows on the Web we are starting to see sites and applications that bring all of that video to one place. Instead of going ABC.com, NBC.com Fox.com, CBS.com or Hulu, why not create a uniform interface that organizes and streams the videos from all of those TV network sites? That’s the idea behind Fancast, desktop app Veoh TV, NewsClipper for network news (which I wrote about earlier), and Blinkx is finally about to launch its own BBTV. Today, Vonage founder Jeff Pulver throws his hat into the ring with PrimeTimeRewind.tv.
Like the others, PrimeTimeRewind.tv attempts to put a consistent skin on what is fast becoming a disjointed experience. Pulver’s contribution to this user-interface challenge is to turn the TV Guide into an interactive video cube. When you go to PrimeTimeRewind.tv, you are presented with a cube filled with video thumbnails on each face. Spin the cube horizontally and each face shows the Web video offerings of a different TV network ((ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, TNT and USA). Rotate it vertically and each face shows a different category (action, comedy, reality, drama). Click on any one thumbnail and you are taken to another page in which the full player opens up. Really, it just frames the original site (each with their own player) with a PrimeTimeRewind.tv sidebar that lets you rate, comment, and share videos. It is still a compromise, but a step in the right direction.
Pulver has more details here on his blog. (This should not be confused with his other Web video projects, pulver.TV for aggregating original Web video and Network2.tv, his original effort at creating a guide for video on the Web, which seems to be down right now).
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WOW! Abstract10.com would love to add our library of urban online content to this! This looks like a great tool for the distribution of online video!
cool and interesting cube interface. Damn shame its not behind a proxy so us Europeans could watch some of the content :p
While I love what it does, I hate the attempt at wowing us with 3D (cube) in a 2D environment. There’s a reason TV Guides are always in grid format…
It seems like a simple alphabetical text list of show names would be more useful. You click, and you get a listing of available episodes, you click one of them and the player pops up. Nobody will say “wow, that LOOKS cool”, they’ll just think it’s very useful, and a quicker way to get to episodes than anything else out there. People will say this looks cool, but I doubt many will use it.
“People will say this looks cool, but I doubt many will use it.”
100% agreed… and I think that is what RIA is leading to, rehashing the experience just with rotating cubes, graphs, etc.
Congratulations Jeff and Amit on the launch of another startup.
The cube is a cheap gimmick of a UI.
The grid worked well when there was a temporal aspect of video. In an on demand world the grid doesn’t make sense. I fail to see what going to 3D does for you (besides look cool). You’re lowering your information density. The geometry seems not to add context or structure to what you’re searching.
TV guide UI’s are about helping people choose what to watch.
One more thing….
By making it graphically a cube you are telling users that there are at most 6 categories of information. If I turn the cube left twice, I should get the same information as by turning the cube vertically twice (the info on the initial back face).
Users have a mental model of how a UI works based on the geometry presented to them. This deliberately breaks that model.
Cool stuff! Wish you could make the cube bigger its slightly hard to view from my couch(PC connect 2 LCD TV).
Look forward to meeting at the Bmore breakfast on Tuesday!
Cheers
Robert,
i understand your point.
you can get to a show directly by typing the show’s name in the search box OR
you can personalize your own Facet to the cube with the shows you like and have direct access to them without the need for the 3D rotation.
I am sure there is lots more we can do to improve, and we will in the coming weeks and months.
The challenge with an open alpha is that users get to see a work in progress. we have deliberately chosen to go down that route, and user feedback is critical to our success
thank you
Proxy would be nice for non-US visitors for sure. Or even just IP-lookup to direct me to the Canadian networks that offer Canadian streams, rather than the US networks that block me. (I know that won’t apply for all countries…I’m being selfish here
).
You are right less navigation can be real luxury in a web application.
http://tekno-world.blogspot.com
This thing is completely ridiculous. For users this story will only lead to loss of credibility for RIA based applications. For me it leads to a loss of credibility in TechCrunch.
Here are some links to making cubes so you now everyone can get there website on the front page of Techcrunch!
http://www.dgrigg.com/post.cfm.....a-3d-twist
http://blog.zupko.info/?p=76
http://blog.franto.com/?p=184&cp=1
Stupid and ugly at the same time.
Cool. We do need newer UIs all the time.
As UI’s go for web–>TV apps or directories, I think Current TV has the best one out there.
http://current.com/tv
They took their best shot but the user interface comes up snake eyes.
It’s attractive but a bit confusing. Reminds me of taffiti, which I used maybe once or twice before going back to Google.
If they’re going to use a cube as a gimmick (and that’s what it is), they should at least get the 3d perspectives correct.
“why not create a uniform interface that organizes and streams the videos from all of those TV network sites”
Umm, isn’t that the definition of a TELEVISION?
I don’t see what’s the big deal here.
tv3o.com have been doing exactly the same thing for over a year, less the frustrating controls and the ripped-from-Mac OSX cube thingy.
Guys, check out http://www.tv3o.com. It’s a simple but powerful application that aggregate all of the videos from all TV network sites. One can also create his own “channel” with his/her favorite shows and get alerts if new episodes are available on the net.
Oh hell. The damn optical illusion is giving me a headache. The “cube” keeps popping in and out.
I saw this as part of another post on a different blog. My comment then as now: Cool, but need to be much faster and user friendly.
More and more of such stuffs lately.
This interface seems like it is way to complicated for the goal it is trying to achieve. The idea to put all of the shows in one place is great, but then you have to have a simple and user friendly UI to go along with it, and this just doesn’t seem to work. Im all for trying new ideas, but this one just isn’t ment for this application.