User Interface

Verizon releases mission control

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 06:59:10 -0400

Itvt has reported U.S. incumbent telco, Verizon, is rolling out its Interactive Media Guide for its fiber to the home television customers. The guide is now available in a number of regions where the telco offers its FiOS TV service, including parts of California, Maryland, Virginia, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island. The guide, which has been in beta for most of the year, gives consumers access to programs from FiOS TV's and Video on demand services, and from their DVR's, as well as personal music and photos from their home network. Verizon claims to have developed innovative search routines that enable the new guide's search results to reflect current news topics.

The guide is being promoted as the most simple ever, with a clean design and high usability. It uses vibrant colors and graphics and was designed to ensure customers could reach content with as few clicks of the remote as possible.

For More:
- Verizon rolls out its FiOS TV Interactive Media guide
- Engadet's coverage of same Story
- See this fact sheet on the IMG (.pdf)
- View this demo of the interface (video)

Related Articles:
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TV listings data provider Zap2it to get bulletproofed Report

Hitachi demos mobile IPTV device

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 06:59:40 -0400

Hitachi Ltd. displayed a prototype mobile TV for IPTV transmissions at CEATAC Japan 2007 last week. A report from Tech-On said the device had a five-inch IPS LCD capable of displaying 854-by-480 resolution.

The interface was described as "unique," with different channels presented visually like a deck of cards that could be flipped through by touching the screen frame. There was no information in the Tech-On piece regarding the device's decoding technology, or how the IP signals were transmitted.

A handheld "IPTV" device is certainly interesting. On one hand, there are already established options for mobile TV transmissions, including MediaFLO. WiMAX essentially would enable some degree of mobile TV reception. But beyond that, the question of demand remains. Consumers for the most part have met tiny-screen mobile TV with a collective shrug, but that doesn't rule out the application, interface or content type that makes it take off.

For More:
- Tech-On has more here, (Note: it will prompt you for a Japanese language package if you don't have one, and it may not take "no" for an answer.)

Flash interface unveiled for Joost

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 06:59:50 -0400

A new browser-based Flash interface for Joost has emerged. Indie software developer Paul Yanez of San Diego, Calif., has a "proof-of-concept" model that's described in reports as a "faithful representation of the Joost" player, only maybe a bit better.

This can only help Joost, which remains in beta, even after having amassed 1 million registered users. The Joost player is not the simplest application to navigate. The early versions took over an entire computer display when launched and didn't present easily located escape options. Then, as with any proprietary media player, there are those infernal updates--which in this case drove Yanez to start coding. If his Flash interface works as described, users won't be bothered with updates. Yanez has Apple TV and Wii video-viewing skins in the works.

The news that Joost reached the 1 million threshold came out of Estonia last week, where co-founder and Skype CEO Niklas Zennström spoke at a Skype press event. Joost has yet to announce when it will officially launch.

For more:
- Om blogs about the Joost Flash here
- The Informitv report on the Joost Flash interface is here
- The user numbers appear below the scary picture in this APC Magazine report

Viiv, we hardly knew ye

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 06:59:40 -0400

Intel is backing off Viiv, its branded platform that was intended to marry TV and PCs. Viiv was rolled out at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2006 with the expectation that it would do for PC video what "Intel Inside" did for processors.

An Intel executive was quoted saying at the time, "Most people don't know how good this experience is."

The consumer market welcomed Viiv by briefly looking up from its manicure. Intel isn't killing Viiv, but rather subsuming it and the vPro brand into the primary Core brand.

For more:
- CNet News analyzes the Viiv fadeout here
- the Business 2.0 Utility Belt blog does likewise here

EXCLUSIVE: Interview with LiveStation's Matteo Berlucchi

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 10:31:13 -0400

LiveStation developer Matteo Berlucchi discusses Microsoft-backed project

The recent online demo of LiveStation, the new P2P video platform, ignited buzz about its potential to overpower Joost. The comparison was likely instigated because both systems use a peer-to-peer platform, and both are in beta, but that's where the similarities end.

Unlike the video-on-demand Joost model, LiveStation streams live television broadcasts using a Pastry P2P architecture and the Microsoft Silverlight front-end, described by Matteo Berlucchi as "very glossy."

"And it matters, because people like glossy," he said. "We find it very sexy for this user interface."

Berlucchi is co-founder and CEO of Skinkers, the London-based company behind LiveStation. The project has received a raft of attention framed as Microsoft's Joost play, but Berlucchi emphasizes that LiveStation belongs to Skinkers, of which Microsoft has a minority stake.

Berlucchi has graciously made the limited beta version of LiveStation available to FierceIPTV Editor Deborah McAdams, who will review it in the coming weeks. In the meantime, McAdams spoke with Berlucchi about the project:

FierceIPTV: How does LiveStation differ from sites like TVU Networks (formerly Viidoo), which offer live broadcasting through real-time packet replication?

Berlucchi: "We believe the television experience on the computer should resemble as much as possible, real television. People are so familiar with the concept of channels, they will want to have channels, they don't want to download individual players from CBS, CNN the BBC…

FierceIPTV: Does it work similarly to SlingBox?

Berlucchi: [Gartner analyst] Alan Weiner, called it "Sling without the box," but that's Orb. You need to have a TV card and an antenna. This is beyond SlingBox. LiveStation picks up the signal wherever you are, like a remote TV tuner.

FierceIPTV: What is the response of broadcasters, who are wary in general of signal highjacking?

Berlucchi: One key thing is, we always start from the point of view of the user, because if users don't like it, it's not going to go anywhere. What users want, they'll get. Someone will develop it for them. The user comes first, then the broadcaster. In a usercentric view, I want a player I can download and add my channels.

The second point is, if you're watching television on your computer, you'll prefer to watch it on a standalone player instead of on a Web page. If you have it in a browser, you can't do browsing.

Broadcasters may resist that in the beginning, because they'll want people to watch on their Web sites, but you can't dictate what people want. You can give broadcasters the opportunity to push extra content within the player.

FierceIPTV: So, would the LiveStation be licensed to TV stations, rather than the other way around? Streaming rights for existing U.S. TV channels is pretty tightly controlled.

Berlucchi: There will be some sort of cost associated with using it, which could be linked to the user licensing it or to advertising models. It's a nice problem to have. It will probably be a mix of licensing and ad support.

We're at the beginning of the shake-up phase for rights. The adoption of Internet television for broadcast is going to change the way rights are sold in the same way rights are being revisited in the music industry because of the Internet.

There are new commercial models that I think everybody will have an interest in enabling.

I predict rights will be sold around the concept of citizenship instead of geography. For example, say anyone with an Italian passport can receive Italian TV.

FierceIPTV: How would that work in the United States, which has more than 200 television markets?

Berlucchi: The U.S. is a peculiar market for television because it's highly fragmented. Advertising is national and statewide. It's both a challenge and an opportunity in the U.S.

FierceIPTV: U.S. television is entirely reliant on traditional measurement systems. There's been resistance to alternative forms of distribution since TiVo was introduced 10 years ago.

Berlucchi: That's one good thing about the Internet. You can count how many people watched and how long and what they did. It will put the computer platform in a much better position than television tracking.

FierceIPTV: How does LiveStation handle security?

Berlucchi: It depends on how you implement it. When you fire up your player, you will have to authenticate yourself and the central system will allow you to watch.

FierceIPTV: Isn't LiveStation P2P and inherently without a central server?

Berlucchi: You always have to have a central server doing something. P2P you can only use for file sharing.

FierceIPTV: How does LiveStation P2P work?

Berlucchi: Our P2P system is designed to push, while others are designed to pull. We tried to solve the problem of watching, say "Lost," and having to see who has it, go find it, then pull it.

This is a collected push. You're not searching the 'Net for other peers with a copy of something being watched by someone else. You're not storing and forwarding.…we are trying, from a technological point of view, to smooth the experience of the Internet.

People are on symmetric lines, on asymmetric lines… The promise of P2P technology is that it could somewhat smooth out these differences and create a layer, like plastering a wall full of cracks. Once you achieve that, you have an environment that is much more controllable and predictable.

FierceIPTV: How long do you expect LiveStation to be in beta?

Berlucchi: It's going to be for a while because this is very, very hard. It's a little like tuning Formula 1 cars. You have to test it exhaustively.

FierceIPTV: It's been reported that LiveStation would work with cell phones, but technologies such as MediaFLO are A-VSB are already in that space. What would be the case for a cell phone maker to integrate LiveStation capability into a handset?

Berlucchi: I'm not a big personal believer watching TV on cell phones. The more interesting opportunities are for devices like smartphones, especially ones with WiFi capability--a handheld device with WiFi capability. The difference in IP and 3G is the commercial model. If you can hook up into WiFi, you have a much cheaper opportunity.

FierceIPTV: When do you expect to make LiveStation commercially available?

Berlucchi: Q1 of '08… that's what we're trying to do.

FierceIPTV: Any other points you'd like to make?

Berlucchi: There's been a lot of speculation in the press about our relationship with Microsoft. They do own a stake in the company. We use Microsoft technology because we think they have lots of good PCs, a lot of good Leggo blocks to build on. LiveStation is ours. A friend of mine had the URL, so we made it LiveStation.

TV listings data provider Zap2it to get bulletproofed

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 06:59:40 -0400

There's a small uprising among enthusiasts of software PVRs built around the free TV listing data provided by Zap2it Labs, a project of Tribune Media Services. Tribune recently posted a notification on the Zap2it Labs site that the data would no longer be available as of Sept. 1. "Originally, we intended it to support the open source community to keep them from scraping the site," said Andy Heinz, executive director of Tribune Media Services. Heinz said the data was strictly for personal use; for hobbyists making online personal video recording setups such as Isaac Richards' MythTV.

"We found companies producing devices to compete with TiVo and selling them," Heinz said, declining to name specific violators. "We found companies that had deployed commercial products, and the license was very specific about not doing that." The notification on the website said a warning about misuse was first posted in October, 2004. "Unfortunately this misuse has continued and grown," it states.

The commercial version of Zap2it, an online guide to TV, movies, and eventually, IPTV content, will continue to be available. That site gets around 3 million unique views a month. The Labs site provides access to the type of data the commercial site is built upon. Heinz said Tribune planned to "reinvest in bulletproofing" the Labs site. "We'll continue to work with the open source folks," he said. "it's the offenders we wanted to bring to the table." Heinz said "some sort of arrangement with the open source community" would be announced within two or three weeks.

An email query to MythTV Chairman Isaac Richards about the impact of losing Zap2it data received no response at press time. However, the folks at MythTV have since announced their intention to provide a TV listings data source. The software is evidently only part of the project. "We are in need of a good lawyer who is familiar with business contracts and federal nonprofit law--preferably someone willing to work pro bono, at least initially," a statement at the site reads. "We are also looking for a good accountant/CPA… to help with any eventual financial/tax paperwork.

For more:
- the MythTV listings data project Web site is here
- Brad Linder provides a brief review of PVR software here

FEATURE: EXCLUSIVE: Interview with LiveStation's Matteo Berlucchi

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 06:58:45 -0400

LiveStation developer Matteo Berlucchi discusses Microsoft-backed project

FierceIPTV: How does LifeStation differ from sites like TVU Networks (formerly Viidoo), which offer live broadcasting through real-time packet replication?

Microsoft poaches Prudential analyst

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 06:59:20 -0400

Microsoft has tapped a Wall Street expert to lead its Media & Entertainment Group. As general manager of the group, Katherine Styponias will spearhead relationships with major content suppliers. Styponias comes to the Redmond computer behemoth from Prudential Equity Group in New York. One industry watcher noted that Styponias has her work cut out for her, given the lackluster results of Microsoft's IPTV efforts. Gamers continue to wait for Xbox 360 consoles with IPTV capability five years after two Microsoft engineers made a prototype. According to research from The Diffusion Group, souped-up game consoles represent the next wave of multimedia devices, if people can figure them out.

Read more on this:
- the Microsoft party line on Styponias is available here
- the Diffusion Group posted a summary of its research

Trend: U.K., teens lead in online video streaming

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 06:59:10 -0400

According to the most recent report from comScore, the United Kingdom is still on top for worldwide online video streaming, compared to the U.S., France and Germany. While French users spent more time online than those in the other countries, 80 percent of U.K. online users over the age of 15 streamed video during the month of April. The U.S. trailed the U.K. and France with some 76 percent of online users streaming a video online.

For more on the study:
- see this article from NewTeeVee
- see the comScore press release here

Some AT&T U-Verse features still a ways off

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 06:59:20 -0400

According to a slide presented at AT&T's investor relations webcast, some prominent features for AT&T's U-Verse service won't come to market until as late as next year. By Q4 this year, photo integration, consumer VoIP, U-Bar and Yellow Pages will launch for U-Verse subscribers. The highly anticipated multi-room DVR, however, won't be out until Q3 of 2008. Caller ID will finally make an appearance in Q4 of 2008. Two HD streams, pair bonding and an "intelligent network interface device" won't be released until Q2 next year.

AT&T also noted that they are currently subscribing about 600 new customers per day and expect to subscribe an average of 1,000 subscribers per week by the end of the year.

For more on the application timeline:
- see this article from DSL Reports

Related News:
U-Verse might not be cable, but the government is still going to regulate it. Article