CollegeHumor’s CHTV original videos will be made available on Joost through the newly launched "CHTV: CollegeHumor Original Videos" Joost channel.

This is a good move for CollegeHumor to potentially get a new stream of viewers and site visitors. Could we see CollegeHumor on VirginAmerica soon following Revision3?

The site pulls in videos from around the Web and also publishes their own original videos. Here is one of the safe-for-work videos:

Why did they decide to show instant classics instead of real classics? Because today’s youngster wants to watch LeBron jam vs Bill Walton hit from the outside. It’s all about marketing kids, marketing.

This channel will be available worldwide so other countries can view these spectacular games and the stars associated with the NBA. Oh and then they will buy more jerseys and hats and stuff.  It’s all about marketing kids, marketing.

Check out our previous Joost coverage including their partnership with Meebo for inline chat.

Joost presented at the NY Video Meetup last week. I noticed a much improved user experience over the initial version I tested earlier this year. If you haven’t tried Joost recently, I would try it again. Does the combo of Joost and Meebo leapfrog Hulu? If the integration is seamless, it could be pretty sweet. The part I am unclear about is whether the Meebo Rooms for the channels will be embedded into the Joost interface or a link to the Meebo room will be provided.

"Participation in community activities has emerged as one of the most significant trends in consumer behavior," said Mike Volpi, CEO of Joost. "By offering our viewers a robust channel chat option, they can chat with people interested in the same shows and subjects – and ultimately customize and enrich their entertainment experiences."

"Even in an on-demand environment like Joost, people can experience live community around popular channels and shows," said Seth Sternberg, CEO and co-founder, meebo. "According to a recent internal survey at meebo, 25% of meebo users IM while watching TV – there’s a lot more we can be doing to connect people who share a common passion around a specific show or genre."

Check out our interview with Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg.

Earlier this week was the NY Video Meetup. Somewhere around 250 NY’ers attended and viewed a variety of demos and a healthy video discussion. One thing rang true throughout – online video is HOT here in the city. So many companies, so many ideas and a amazing level of excitement/passion around online video.

Here are just a few of the companies in the online video space in the NYC area. I certainly forgot a bunch, so please leave them in the comments.

• Magnify.net – providing video upload,  encoding,  storage,  delivery, and rev share mainly for video clips (CN Coverage)
• Blip.tv – a leader in episodic content (CN Coverage)
• 5min – moving offices to NYC next month – knowledge sharing (CN Coverage)
• Rocketboom – daily video show about anything with host Joanne Colan (CN Coverage)




The client application

The software is a just under 10 megabytes and Windows only for now. The beta is restricted to one user and you have to login with your email and password. After each launch you have to agree to a Non-Disclosure-Agreement.
Once you agree, you see the interface/navigation:


On the first glance you recognize a few buttons. One big lacking element of the interface is the missing Hot-Tips. If you hover a button you don’t get a description of it. The first time it is a trial-and-error process. The main menu is a simple list and is easier to understand. You select a point with your mouse or your keyboard.

Video quality

The quality is pretty good, not HDTV good but okay for a video service. Of course the quality changes from movie to movie and you often have compression effects. All videos are encoded with a 4:3 resolution which causes very ugly black bars on displays with a resolution of 16:9 or 16:10. The encoding bitrate seems to be at around 1000kbit/s.

Other features

The Venice Project has a little more to offer than just TV. A pretty cool feature I like is the plugin to chat with other people watching the same show as you. With this can see what other users are watching the same and directly interact with them. You can also add your Jabber or GMail account and chat with your buddies via TVP. A RSS-Reader and a rating option for each show/episode is there as well. We have found out were we can see ratings, but I am sure there will be a solution in the final application. If you added your Jabber or Gmail account, your buddies can see what you are watching on “The Venice Project”.



Advertisements

This is what surprised me the most. Like in real TV you have short commercial breaks or loading screens and during that time you see a short ad. They are no longer than 3-5 seconds.

Corsin Camichel is a Swiss Internet geek with interests in sharing and learning, software, programming, BarCamps and gadgets. He writes “something” at “Geekness – with fresh and clean air“.














CenterNetworks Partner: Check out CloudContacts for your business card transcription and scanning needs.]]> http://www.centernetworks.com/venice-project/feed 76