Joost is a new app to view TV online through the use of P2PTV technology, created by the creators of Kazaa and Skype. It got tons of buzz because of the slick interface that resemble the ease of use of set top box of a TV and it somehow got a lot of backers from the Media companies (probably because Joost isn’t own by Google or Apple or Microsoft) It just got another $45 millions from Media companies like CBS, Viacom, and investors like the Hong Kong Richest billionaire Li Ka-Shing. It is in beta right now, not open beta, but that half-private kind similar to the early days of Gmail where you can only get an account from invitation from someone. I just got invited and has tried the app out. My thoughts on it is that it got great potentials, but so far, there are definitely bugs and the content seems rich at first, but when you take a closer look, not so much! Of course these problems can go away easily and soon since it’s just a beta right now.

When you fire up Joost. it acts just like if you have a digital cable box at home. except this one is on your computer. It has clever use of overlay with program guide and you can surf the channel just like you do on TV, except that everything is on demand, which mean you can choose any shows on any channel immediately. The interface in most case felt responsive, while other times it got stuck. But it is as slick and pretty as something you would see in a Mac. It even got overlay widget for you to rate the show and even chat with friends. There is a LOT of channels when you turn on the program guide,even big names like MTV or Comedy Central. But if you take a better look at it, Adult Swim got like 4 eps of Robot Chicken and another 4 for Aqua Teen Hunger Force and that is it. Same thing with Comedy Central, and of course their biggest shows like Jon Stewart, Colbert, South Park are all MIA. It seems like a dumping ground for the content providers to try things out only. As for the video quality, depends on the channel, some are a lot better than when you max the video of YouTube with almost regular TV quality, some are just like what you expect to see in YouTube with high compression.

Joost has the potential to become something special since it is designed to view long-form video instead of short-forms like YouTube. Right now I can get the same or even more streaming media content on each individual network’s website, but the thing is you need to go to each sites to get them, and each has a different interface and places to put their content. Joost provided a unified interface and location for all the channels! so hopefully more media companies will join and as Joost keep on improving itself, we could see a mature Online TV app in a few months.

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Tagged: Television · Web 2.0