mindgraffiti

A Short Survey

After four days of using Joost unfettered, a survey was sent out. It was very brief, asking only two questions. The second question was: What do you think of Joost? I attempted to write a brief assessment since the comment box was small, but its still turned into this monster:

The picture quality is a bit fuzzy. I have not had a chance to delve deeply into the Joost website yet for details on the audiovisuals, but considering the amount of data transferred, I would conclude that the programs could be compressed to the same size with a higher resolution. I realize this is still beta, so there is time to hash out the details.

As for variety of programs, I hope to see an increase in what is offered. National Geographic has always had high standards, but it looks like Comedy Central turned Joost into a dumping ground for their discontinued and unpopular shows. No SciFi for the U.S.? That seems way off target. Look at the general demographics for people who will soon be plugging into Joost: tech savvy, democratic in nature, and critical thinkers- usually big fans of SciFi shows.

I like the brief advertising. I know advertising is a necessary evil in exchange for free services, but the networks have gone too far. I shut off my cable service because I was watching more TV commercials than I was actual shows…it was ridiculous. Kudos to the Joost team for keeping the advertising precisely targeted and sweetly short per hour of programs watched.

More kudos for using open source technology, by the way. I just wish the developers were not so closemouthed about the manner that they deliver the content. I’m guessing a little p2p mixed in with streaming content direct from the servers. Give us tech nerds/geeks a little more brain candy then that. It will help when it comes to immediate expectations about performance. I came in with the giant wash of invitations handed out on last Thursday. I expected immediate, gratifying performance, but did not get it until 3 days of letting my bandwidth be borrowed. I do not want the down and dirty details, but letting your users know that performance will improve after p2p kicks in would be nice.

Related links:

• Joost from an HTPC Geek’s View
• Guest Post about Joost (pending)
• Joost Critique (for version 0.9.1)
• Joost Beta Testing!