Google's YouTube Wants More Screen Time, Incl. Your TV With Leanback

[engine]

Google's YouTube Wants More Screen Time, Incl. Your TV With Leanback [news.bbc.co.uk]

The world's biggest video site wants to dominate every screen where content can be viewed and created.

YouTube is already a leader online and in mobile and has firmly set its sights on the living room.

The company charted its course during the launch of a new product called Leanback, described by some as web video for couch potatoes.
It also unveiled upgrades for its mobile site which has over 100 million playbacks a day.

And with Leanback, YouTube is now vying for the attention of the user in the living room.

[weeks]

Here's their video on Leanback:
[youtube-global.blogspot.com...]


LOTS going on in video. Two quick notes:

1. The "television on the web" remains up for grabs. This review of the real world as of today explains:
[nytimes.com...]

2. Google wants iPhone users going to YouTube to NOT use an (Apple provided) app, but use their mobile site instead (yeah!):
[youtube.com...]

[J_RaD]

um, im pretty sure hulu has taken the TV on the web spot. They did it right and aren't violating copywrites.

The 1st thing I thought of when i saw this post was who wants to watch cat videos to stupid human tricks on their TV....OOOOOHHHHHH YEAAAAA all that pirate videooooo.

[Propools]

J_RaD

I thought I heard something about hulu starting to charge for watching some of their shows ?

[engine]

The BBC are testing their iPlayer on some manufacturers products. It allows a viewer to watch the BBC's iPlayer library on your TV. I've tested it and can say that it works very well. The from the BBC is of a resolution suitable for a large screen, and that is one hurdle to overcome with YouTube. Secondly, there are going to be problems when a user hits their broadband download limit. I doubt the ISPs are particularly pleased, either.

[J_RaD]

I thought I heard something about hulu starting to charge for watching some of their shows ?

they didn't shut off their free service, frankly what else are they going to give for a paid sub plan? It already is totally kick butt, maybe access to movies.

hulu desktop on a HTPC with a remote control! they got that right 100000%

[Hugene]

I found a bug with the interface, anyone at YouTube/G here should advise the team:

There is no way of controlling the volume on the interface. So when I watch on my computer, I can use the keyboard on the interface, but then I need to reach back to my mouse, go to my PC settings, and change the volume there. I understand that for a TV you don't have this issue because of the TV remote that controls volume, but to me, a missing volume control is a huge mistake.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

YouTube is already a leader online and in mobile

Self important speak always makes me giggle. Youtube is merely a platform, the content is what people want to see and if a better platform is built Youtube will become down-the-tube.

[Seb7]

'Project Canvas' is soon to start in the UK

[Robert Charlton]

In the Leanback introductory video, there's a lot of emphasis on the social aspect and integration with YouTube... with instructions on setting up your feed so "you can instantly see anything your friends are sharing or talking about on Facebook." This sharing aspect might wear thin as the audience grows up, but Google is pushing it for now.

One of the icons in the video was a "Your Rentals" icon, so they're going after that market too.

There is no way of controlling the volume on the interface.

Yes, and this is particularly a problem with web video, where there are virtually no audio standards.

With commercial radio or TV, engineers control audio levels to provide more or less consistent volume... with compression occasionally pushed a little to make commercials sound louder, but still essentially in the ballpark. Web video levels are still all over the place... something that needs to be addressed in general, not just on YouTube.

[ByronM]

Meh.. I wish Youtube would focus on being a video distribution platform and let people subscribe to quality content using their own end-user system that integrates with an API - such as a native windows media center interface that actually works with hi-res/quality videos.

every online video market place having their own proprietary front end that may or may not require proprietary codecs/addons/plugins will never solve the "10 foot problem"