NBC's iTunes Alternative Launches Private Beta

[VenturaBumm]

As someone that travels out of the country regularly i rely on buying shows from iTunes for those that i can get. Its nice to watch the office and others on my mac after a night out and unwinding. There is only so much CNN you can take while in China.

I am upset that NBC has pulled the downloads off of iTunes and have now way to download now without using a special player or online video. Why get rid of choices?

NBC is being greedy but it may be more that its parent Universal is getting greedy and dictating what to do.

 

[TheSpaz]

I wanna put The Office on my iPod... that is why I record them with my EyeTV Hybrid but, sometimes I forget to record them so I'm forced to get them some other way because they don't run repeats of The Office very often (unlike MTV where they run the same show for about a week at various times).

Oh yeah... I have a question if anyone can help me out. Say I record The Office with EyeTV. It records at 30fps but, The Office runs at 24.98fps so that means there are extra frames that don't need to be there. Is there any software that can be used to delete the duplicate frames to make a 30fps file run at 24.98fps smoothly?

 

[phelix_da_kat]

Gimme my $2!!!

I cannot seee Hulu from my region, but the idea (i have to admit) is good but limited..
- its basically like a cross between VoD and regular ad laced programming.
At least you have the choice of when to watch it - though not "where" you can watch it.

On the other hand.. (why NBC may not be a great hit)
- many ppl have DVR and VoD is coming in. At least in the UK, some of the channels are now offering us the ability to d/l content up to a week after it has aired and DVR (we have SKY+ etc which is basically a Tivo)
- I dont like ads (US ones are often the tackiest) so I can really feel for you guys when you have to sit through them.

Next.. $1.99 for content on Apple..
- It great you can buy programming BUT... its (often) the same price or cheaper to just by it off Amazon. Better quality and you can just "rip it" (user fair use).
- the same line keeps coming back.. the "utility function" of music is higher, while TV type is not. You constantly listen to music etc, but often the value of the TV decreases quicker once you watch it.
- the plus side is... portability

In the end..
- It's horses for course... some people do not paying $2 for a single episode (for convenience etc).. others are happy to watch ads (though they may get more frequent and longer after time... and hook enough customers.).. and there are people happy to use VoD/TIVO... (note.. have excluded those that use Torrent)
- Still the key is... portability... we want to watch it when and where we want!

 

[jacg]

I know there are ways to rip content off Youtube into a downloadable video format. Can you do the same to these? Then we can put it on our ipod.

Sorry if this has already been said but has anyone tried TubeTV. It seems to be able to transcode just about any flash content.

Find it on www.macupdate.com

 

[TheSpaz]

Sorry if this has already been said but has anyone tried TubeTV. It seems to be able to transcode just about any flash content.

Find it on www.macupdate.com

I tried TubeTV and the flash content seems to be somehow embedded in the player or something. Cannot save this flash.

 

[sanford]

The new video service will feature premium video content delivered over a Flash-based web interface...

Ooh goody, it's Flash. What a step up!

 

[Scottgfx]

NBC's Motives: On-Line ad sales

I get a daily brief of TV news and just saw this:

One size fits all? Not at Hulu
Just-launched online video site Hulu.com is giving advertisers the chance to match the length of their spots to the length of their content. Long-form content, such as a sitcom, has traditional 30-second spots, while shorter clips may get 10- to 15-second clickable video overlays. Advertising Age (10/30)

http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/iRbgephfkIbZzBCibvfHgMpx?format=standard

(AdAge usually requires a subscription, bug-me-not usually has a way in)

 

[napos]

What makes people think that Hulu is not going to evolve?

1) It lets you watch the largest collection of professionally made video (not just user content like You Tube)

2) It lets you stream great quality video, watch it full screen.

Now lets think for a moment on how you guys keep comparing Hulu to the iTunes Store. Wrong... the studios will answer downloadable content vs the iTMS separately and very shortly. Watch for that one.

What you should compare Hulu to is You Tube. Now lets think for a moment. What if Apple in their wisdom put a "Hulu" icon on the iPhone or iPod touch. How would that be any different than watching YouTube on your iPhone? Or if it's not Apple.. lets say it's on phones coming next year based on Google's Android platform.... or lots of other "mobile internet enabled platforms". Why not on media players??

Now in terms of the iTMS, there will be a studios answer to that question as well. You will be able to BUY content and keep it. You'll also be able to RENT it. It'll just be interesting how people react when there is choice.

Think about Amazon's MP3 Store... everyone started to find "faults" with DRM-free music they are serving up... people said AAC is better than MP3, no true platform integration, blah blah... guess what? It's a great product that sells DRM-free music to you that you can put on virtually any device. They picked MP3 because it works in MP3 enabled cars, iPods, Zunes, insert_mp3_player_name_here, etc.

The guy running Zulu, was cherry picked from Amazon... they know how to build web businesses. Apple will continue to make great products and offerings... but they too have got a lot of things wrong.. Iphone being locked, AT&T, pricing. .Mac still sucks, etc etc...

I love Apple and Macs and everything in between but people, just be a little more strategic in your thought about this. You say studios are greedy... well guess what? They've made a lot of money because maybe yes, they are greedy but they are also SMART.