Tag: television

YouTube Social

The idea of social television is not particularly new.  People have been watching TV together for years.  Now that a lot of entertainment is moving online, social digital TV is a cool idea.  I’ve heard about a few attempts to implement it before, but I haven’t actually seen one up-close.  Via Download Squad I’ve learned today about YouTube Social.  I think it’s pretty cool, even though it’s definitely not perfect.

It’s really simple to try.  Just go to YouTube Social and search for videos using a familiar YouTube interface.  Either play them immediately or add them to the queue.  If you have a Facebook account, authorize YouTube Social to use it, so that you could add friends to your session easily.  If you don’t have Facebook account or don’t fancy the authorization, you can still use YouTube Social.  It’s just that you and your friends will be assigned anonymous names like ‘guest123’.  You can either send your friends a tiny URL to join the session or an automated Facebook chat invite.

When your friends join the session, you are all watching videos synchronized.  Which means that all of you see the same video at the same time.  And you can talk about it in the chat window while you are watching it.  User with the remote control can pause, play, and find more videos to watch.  The remote control is just a token, which can be passed around like a regular remote control.   Overall, pretty awesome!

There are really only a couple of things that I didn’t enjoy – chat only works with Latin characters (Cyrillic simply don’t show at all) and the Facebook-only login option (no Twitter/Google/etc).  The user interface could use some polish, and I’m sure it will get some in the near future.

Overall, a very nice execution of the idea in demand.

Google TV is coming along

Google TV website is launched.  As is the official Google TV blog.  Not too much to see there yet, but it’s good to know things are moving along.

I am excited!  An open source television platform based on Android, with its own application store – these are just great news.  Not to mention partnerships with HBO, Universal, Amazon, and Netflix.  It sounds like there is going to be a lot of content and plenty of new interesting ideas on what to do with it and how to process it.

The only thing that worries me is access to this content for us, outsiders.  As in people who live outside of the United States of America.  Until now we’ve been quite limited with the exception of Apple TV.  I wonder what’s going to happen with Google.  But given company’s global strategy, I have my hopes.

Via Download Squad.

TV for the new age – YouTube Leanback

Today I found about yet another attempt of YouTube to shift more of the traditional TV audience online.  The experiment is called YouTube Leanback and it is currently in beta.  Once you go to that address, it’s like switching on the TV set – immediate full screen video display.  By default, the videos are chosen from your own feed – subscriptions, friends, social connections, etc.  But you can switch to categories and search as fast as you can switch channels on your normal TV.  The interface is completely keyboard navigated, which is a new thing for me on YouTube, but it is so fast and intuitive that it takes about 3 seconds to get used to.

I’ve mentioned some time ago that Miro is the easiest way to watch online videos that I ever came across.  It still is, if we are talking for the whole web (different sites, different formats, different feeds, etc).  But YouTube Leanback is by far the easiest way to watch YouTube videos.  In fact, after about 5 minutes of using it, I have subscribed to all those channels that I am used to seeing in Miro that broadcast on YouTube.   This way I will have much faster and easier access to my videos and will only need to download with Miro those that don’t use YouTube.  For some reason. Which is beyond me.

Moves like this are exciting.  I am much interested in seeing how the Web will transform TV, which parts will move online and how fast, and which parts will stay with traditional broadcasting.  YouTube is right on the spot here – there are billions of videos online, but there is still no easy way to access them all, search, sort and select.  YouTube Leanback is a large step in the right direction.

Subscribe to PrimeHome channels with remote control

I’ve had PrimeHome for quite some time now. So I don’t know of this feature was there before or if it is one of the recent additions, but it’s pretty cool. Apparently, you can subscribe to additional TV channel packages with just a remote control. No need to call or drive to any of those PrimeTel shops, no need to fill any forms, and, most importantly, no need for any waiting.

Here is how it works. Go to the menu and select the channel that you don’t have but would like to. You’ll see a static PrimeHome screen, with a line at the top saying something like “Press red button to subscribe”. Press the red button on your remote control now. You’ll be asked to enter your PIN and once you do, your STB will reboot and you’ll have the channel enabled. You’re done.

A few things to keep in mind:

  • You can easily subscribe with remote control, but not unsubscribe. To unsubscribe you’ll need to visit their shop and fill the form. Maybe you can do it over the phone too – I’m not sure, but it’s for sure not as easy as subscribing.
  • When you subscribe with remote control, you don’t subscribe to a single channel, but a package of channels to which it belongs. Check the list of channels and prices for each package at PrimeHome web site before subscribing.
  • When you subscribe with remote control, you will be shown a warning that the minimum period for your subscription is two month. I don’t know if the same policy applies when you subscribe through phone or from inside of their office, but it’s worth knowing. If you get yourself an expensive package, you’ll have to pay for at least two month of using it.

That’s about it.

19 inch from PrimeTel

No, no, you aren’t getting screwed.  Quite on the contrary!  I got an SMS from PrimeTel today with their special offer.  Here is the text of the message:

Free 19″ LCD TV.  Get 2 of your friends to become PrimeTel subscribers and the 19″ LCD TV is yours.  Call 133. Learn more www.primehome.com/offers

I know that you know that I’m biased towards PrimeTel, being an ex-employee and having a friends over there.  But I still have to say that this is a pretty neat offer.  I saw that 19″ LCD TV (remember that LCD means flat), and I wish I had any friends who aren’t PrimeTel subscribers… I have a much bigger CRT TV, and would swap it any day for a smaller LCD, that I could use as a monitor for my laptop too.

Too bad I’m out of non-PrimeTel friends right now, but you.. you got get the TV!