Last night, I downloaded the latest update for Joost (still in beta, I have some tokens should any of my friends want!)
I covered the program around month back, saying that I was impressed with the way that it combines television viewing and widgets. I was excited about the impending deal with Viacom, as I felt the amount of content and channels on the program was disappointing and would likely inhibit my use of the program.
Well, I was right about the last part — I didn’t touch Joost since, and didn’t launch the program until I was told that Joost 0.9 was available. I was curious to see how the program was re-designed, and how the Viacom content was presented. I have to say, to be tough, that I’m no longer impressed. Why?
1. Channels are not intuitive, content is not organized: Scroll and scroll, what channels are on? Scroll some more. When you choose a channel, shows are not organized. Instead, you get a list of all episodes available. So, say you choose MTV. You’ve got 20 episodes of Laguna Beach, 10 episodes of non-music videos, and other things that I really don’t care about. However, they’re not sorted, just all listed. It feels like someone just puked up some content and threw up, right on screen.
2. Lack of openness: How do I add more channels if I like a video podcast and have the RSS feed to add? I can’t — there’s no way to bring new content in. So, if my favorite videocasts aren’t on the predetermined, Joost-approved list of content, there’s no way I can view them inside of the program. So, I have a choice: use several different IPTV programs (such as Democracy Player or iTunes), ignore my favorite videocasts, or ignore Joost.
3. There’s something missing. I just have this gut reaction that something much larger is missing. I’m unsatisfied, and I don’t know why. Someone tell me…tell me why.
I think that, for now, I’m going to stick with my iTunes/$40 Apple TV.
Technorati Tags: Joost, IPTV, Democracy Player, iTunes
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I would like to take a look at Joost TV. Can you send me a token so that I can download the software.
Thanks, Harry
Thought that my email address would show in the comment but I was wrong. Could you send a Joost token to hfleeds@comcast.net Would like to download software.
Thanks, Harry
Nice article friend.
Could ya please give me a token?
tks
If you manage to score some Joost invites, don’t forget us little people
Thanks,
m.
Would you mind sending me a Joost invite? bliabbaims@kriocoudek.mailexpire.com
Thank you!
kt
Any chance of a joost beta token…. i will love you forever
please .
damien.deakes@gmail.com
Hello sir. Great Article. Would you be interested in giving one of those invites away to an avid reader? If so, Id love one
I don’t know if your willing to give an invite to me, but it would be greatly appreciated if I got an invite from you.
Anyways, an interesting article I’ve only seen screen shots (obviously), but hopefully they will organize it by the official release. I think the reason they don’t allow the addition of podcasts is because I think the joost team wants to keep it a closed platform. Thirdly, what’s missing? Maybe it’s the community aspect of it since it’s only in beta?
Brian
Every time I try out iptv offerings I am a bit disappointed. TV watching is best left on tv still. I was excited about Joost though, sounded like they had more of the right bits in place.
I would like to try it out though, but have not gotten an invite yet.
Have one you might spare?
foxy_ten@trashmail.net
I still would like to try Joost out, although I keep being let down by the TV/internet experience.
do you have an invite you might spare me?
foxy_ten@trashmail.net
I’m a Joost beta tester as well, and I try to like it, but something isn’t right about it. I’m hoping in time it will get better, but for now I don’t know. The scrolling and scrolling content made it difficult to find anything decent, and I just wish there was a search function or maybe set it so you can switch to a folder style view, where you can see folders of all the shows and go into each. I don’t even know if that is the best way either.
The speeds were okay, but I am hoping it will be better as more people join, since it is peer to peer based. I can handle one minute of commercial content an hour, but only if I have a full hour worth of content worth watching. I don’t know how they will determine when the commercials appear.
The biggest thing that got me was the lack of being able to save anything. After giving all that bandwidth to get a show, you’d think you’d have the option to save it as well. This would be useful for those who want to watch stuff again and again without paying up the bandwidth each time, as there are caps at some providers, and it would be a good thing for those with slow connections to be able to set it to record or save or whatever it would be called, then come back later on and watch it. Not everyone can have a perfectly fast broadband for direct viewing.
Those are just my thoughts on it. The amount of resources it uses is annoying considering it uses the same in standby mode, but with a decent amount of ram in a system it is tolerable, especially for those of us who do other things while watching tv.
I love joost although I’ve only had it for about a week now. I didn’t get to experience as it was before. I agree with you though, they WILL have to open it up somehow some way to let users add their own content. I’ll be hesitant to use Apple TV/iTunes Video Podcasts, Joost, Azureus VUZE, etc… Someone has to come up with something to help bring it all together.