Like you, over the years I have had the opportunity to see technology advance, making more things possible online and offline. One of those advancements has been the increasing quality and availability of online video, including tv shows from the major networks. Unfortunately, despite these advances, certain companies have ignored the complaints and difficulties that consumers are having with the software or delivery systems that they are using. One of these companies is ABC, of the huge Disney conglomerate. ABC uses software and delivery by a company called MOVE Networks to present their shows online. In my experience, the MOVE Player has to be one of the worst online video products and/or services ever used by a major company. When viewing shows from ABC online, we constantly experience skips and other video quality issues. I know that these problems are not caused by our Internet connection which is provided through our local telephone company, Embarq. We have a DSL connection that regularly tests at above 9 Mbps. Our family also uses the ROKU Player for viewing movies from Netflix, and I can tell you that we have no problems with skipping, hesitation, or video quality with Netflix. Nor do we have any problems when playing games online or viewing videos from other sites like CNN, YouTube, Atom, Sundance Channel. ABC needs to get serious about their online video services if they expect to keep viewers. There are simply too many other options for quality entertainment online than to suffer with mediocre services like those provided by ABC.
Technorati Tags: abc, disney, dsl, embarq, internet, move networks, move player, netflix, roku, roku player, software, video quality
Technorati Tags: abc, disney, dsl, embarq, internet, move networks, move player, netflix, roku, roku player, software, video quality
3 comments:
FWIW, the Move Networks player operates within Adobe Flash. There are a number of things that can affect video playback, they include what programs you are running, general system capabilities, etc.
When you compare to YouTube, CNN, or others remember they are 1) using a light weight HTML page and 2) very low quality video (typically <500k). This requires much *less* processing power than an SD or HD stream at a major entertainment property.
As far as comparing to your Roku, that is apples or oranges. The Roku is a closed device that does one thing very well, whereas your PC can handle a diverse set of tasks.
I suggest you do some reading on the challenges Netflix is having w/ Sliverlight (http://www.hackingnetflix.com/2009/03/netflixs-silverlight-streaming-player-problems.html) or Major League Baseball's Issues (http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_business_of_online_vi/2009/05/mlb.html).
I hope that helps put into perspective that online video is still a delicate, non perfect science.
I have tried MANY other online video providers, not limited to the ones I mentioned in the original post. However, I did mention The Sundance Channel where we can view films in high definition, and we NO DIFFICULTIES there. In addition, we watch shows from The Comedy Channel, NBC, CBS and several others that cause no problems when viewing online. The problem is MOVE Networks. None of Hmm's comments prove me wrong.
The plant, "Hmm," replied once again - this time as "HmmConvenient." This person told me to do my "due diligence" because there are other sites like ESPN360.com, FOX.com and CWTV.com also use the Move Networks player. Since I do not visit any of those sites, I decided to take the cowardly "Hmm" up on his/her less then friendly suggestion. (I will not post any further comments by this person because he/she is too afraid to use his/her real name and be held accountable for his/her words.) I went to FOX.com and watched 2 episodes of a show called "Lie to Me." I also went visited CWTV.com. BEHOLD! The same issues of video skipping and hesitation occurred on both sites. I tried accessing ESPN360.com, but do not have access to that site.
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