ABC begins streaming TV right NOW! check it out: (1 Viewer)

[JediFonger]

http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streamin

i missed last sunday's ep. of desperate. i'm gonna check it out when i have time! =). this is kewl!

 

[Nick Martin]

Only US viewers...screw ABC.

 

[JediFonger]

really? you from outside of US?

 

[Ray Chuang]

Gawd, I love this! (Kisses ZyXEL ADSL modem)

And best of all, the picture and sound quality are quite good, too.

 

[Raasean Asaad]

this rocks !!!

 

[JediFonger]

i just played around with alias episode.

there are commercials. here's what you can do:

you can choose to watch them BEFORE you start watching the episodes. when you start playing an episode of the TV series you wanna' watch. click on the lighter portions of the timeline (skip ahead). it'll go right into commercial. the episode i played around with had 3 commercial breaks. since you're on the computer, you can click on it, go do something else, come back and finish all the commercials.

after you finish the commercials, you can playback the ENTIRE episode commercial free, no interruptions! very nice =). i'm sure some hacker will enable a firefox plugin to skip all that anyway .

 

[Ryan-G]

My first impression.

Video- Very nice, fast transfer of video with decent quality.
Sound- Surprisingly good, given that streaming material often sounds "Tinny".

But, the video is 1/4 screen at 1024x768. Which means on a 19" screen I have a ~5" video. I'll wait for bigger screen usage and continue to buy the DVDs.

The whole thing does show potential though.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

I don't think it's meant as a replacement, just a way to catch a missed show if your primary means of recording (DVR, VCR) fails you. I think it's excellent. I just wish they streamed the Closed Caption stream as well.

 

[JediFonger]

yeah, on a 1600x1200, it looks tiny. i can't imagine the people that have 1920x1200 or 2536x1600 =).

 

[Elizabeth_S]

For what I'm getting, which is the freedom to watch when I can watch, I am more than happy to sit through a minute and a half of ads to get my full episode... I checked out the Desperate Housewives from Sunday and it was great. Very impressed with this and think it's a great invention...

besides the screen, any other issues with it?

 

[JediFonger]

more like 13minutes or so. it ain't bad. did you guys try the trick i did to watch the episodes uncut? watch the commercials first, then the episodes uncut.

 

[Nick Martin]

Yup, north of the border...red, white, and...that's it.

 

[Ken Chan]

I saw two sizes. One about 500 pixels wide and the other 700 (16:9, do the math). You click on the gizmo on the bottom right corner to switch between the two. Perhaps there is some bandwidth detection involved.

A fullscreen option so you can sit back would be nice. I wonder if OS-level desktop zooming would work....

You also don't have to sit through the entire commercial. You have to wait 30 seconds. They are very loud -- not that that's new. But some you can pause; so you pause and wait 30 seconds, and click through.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I guess it's a good start, but it doesn't address their competition. You can get DVD-quality 16x9 material a couple hours after an episode airs, so this is a step backwards. I'm not advocating it, and I don't even know if I can mention it due to forum rules, but it's the reality.

 

[JediFonger]

greg, there IS no competition. most people dunno how to operate that stuff. the people who are downloading (bittorrient, newsgroups, etc.) comprise only a fraction of the major audiences of these hit shows. think about it, if the mass audience knew about those special methods of illegally pirating TV shows minus commercials, the TV broadcast would've been dead 5 years ago =).

thus, it is NO competition. think about it, the people who never knew about VOD can now do so. even comcast/cablevision/rcn/etc. don't offer VOD of ABC shows. this is VOD on the internet. it's NEW.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Well, that's probably true. It doesn't do anything for me, though. I should add that I buy tons of TV on DVD and only use the "alternate sources" for when I miss an episode.

 

[Scott Kimball]

I think many people are like me in this respect. I'm happy to use a legal, low cost or free option at a lower quality for when I miss an occasional episode. If the show will be part of my collection, it will get purchased on DVD anyway.

-Scott

 

[JediFonger]

scott, i also like the try before you buy mentality. netflix has given me the chance to see the film without purchasing the DVD. i can't imaging trying to find any silent films in blockbusters! =). since then, i've purchased classic films that i watch OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER again. it actually DRIVES UP sales =). 2bad the MPAA/RIAA don't seem to get this... OR they know they're making crap and most of their content is rental only .

 

[Elizabeth_S]

I'm with you Scott...and I actually think the site looks pretty good. I like how I can fast forward and rewind with ease...especially with Lost where everything is in the nuances...

I am pretty pleased with ABC's offering and think it's a huge step for the industry to take...could lead to a lot of innovation in the future.