A Look at Joost

// March 9th, 2007 // My Stuff

joostJenny recently hooked me up with a much coveted Joost account. Sadly I do not have any invitations yet, and there is a long list of people who have already asked me for one, you know who you are…

I was initially frustrated by the lack of client for MacOS-PPC, since this is the machine running in my living room, hooked to my TV. With that aside, I downloaded the client onto my Windows Vista laptop, where it initially also would not run. Luckily, with Vista all you need to do is jump through a few hoops. Here’s what you do:

  1. Right click on the shortcut, select properties.
  2. On the compatibility tab, un-check everything, except “Run as administrator”, this must be checked.
  3. Then click “Show settings for all users”, and do the same here.
  4. At this point you should be set to run Joost!

After the initial frustration of getting it running somewhere, I started to appreciate the potential here. In general, it runs pretty smoothly, the quality is surprisingly good for on demand web video. I think it is head and shoulders above the quality of YouTube or Google Video, probably comparable to VHS.

At the moment, the content is a bit limited, although I did watch the Green Day: American Idiot concert, which was very cool. I was extremely happy with the interface. I believe the channel based delivery of content will be familiar and intuitive to the general public who is familiar with cable TV.

My one final complaint would be the advertisement placement. It seems like the software just randomly decides to insert commercials from time to time, which I am OK with, but it doesn’t have any intelligence for deciding when to cut in. For example, I say a stupid Maybelline ad twice, both time in the middle of a song. I think this will work out in time, but just an insiders view of what’s wrong in the beta from my perspective…

american idiot, google, google video, green day, joost, macosx, Maybelline, video, web, windows vista, youtube, television

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18 Responses to “A Look at Joost”

  1. Jenny says:
    March 9, 2007 at 11:00 am

    Heya,
    4 things.
    1. There are some rules on the blogging. Technically you are only allowed to use offical images, for copyright stuff, etc. Since you aren’t saying anything bad, I doubt its a worry.

    2. The choice of ads is because of their limited ads. Though it would make sense to change it up, they only have like 5, so yeah. Though the goal is to have fewer ads than TV.

    3. The ad placement problem is also being worked on. Because it is so time-intensive to choose a placement for any ads, they are going to have the product/show suppliers do it. Only problem with being a Beta-tester, we have to wait until they start to do it.

    4. There are forums and they welcome input. Also, the more input you give, and the better it is, the more likely you might get freebies! Like a Joost T-shirt!!!

    Though I’ve already mentioned this to you Z, I’m only commenting for the benefit of the other Joost interested people out there :)

  2. Paul says:
    March 28, 2007 at 4:27 am

    could i get an invite :)

    funnyboy234 [at] hotmail[dot]com

  3. zbtirrell says:
    March 28, 2007 at 5:29 pm

    I still do not have any to give and around 5 people on my list to give invites to…

  4. Nathan says:
    April 4, 2007 at 10:15 am

    Hey, If you do get any ivites, im paying 5 bucks to get one.

  5. grzesiak8 says:
    April 9, 2007 at 6:57 am

    could i get an invite :)

    grzesiak8@gmail.com

  6. Lesta says:
    April 9, 2007 at 10:34 pm

    If anyone is handing out invites I would be very greatfull

  7. Carles says:
    April 11, 2007 at 7:24 pm

    More Joost invitations http://fabricat.110mb.com/joost-invitations
    Everyone with JOOST!

  8. MARIO says:
    April 17, 2007 at 8:52 am

    could i get an invite :)
    BIO@EMAIL.HTNET.HR

    PLEAZE:-)

  9. Anime4ever says:
    April 17, 2007 at 6:51 pm

    Can I get a invite please?

    I always wanted something like that and i dont have cable

    thx

    http://www.marelle4@hotmail.com

  10. Joost Brings Television To The Internet Age (Finally) « MaisonBisson.com says:
    April 18, 2007 at 1:50 pm

    [...] and very easy to use, though surprisingly slow on my Mac Mini (it runs fine on my MacBook Pro). Zach set me up with an invite when he heard I had no cable in my new home (“ahh, look at the media [...]

  11. Marcello says:
    April 21, 2007 at 9:37 am

    Por favor me mandem um convite!!

    marcello@tpa.com.br

    Obrigado! Thank’s

  12. Eric says:
    April 21, 2007 at 7:34 pm

    If anyone is handing out invites I would be very greatfull to participate to the joost beta test!!!!

  13. Arno says:
    April 30, 2007 at 4:23 pm

    I would appreciate an invite – here in Africa we are often the last in the row.

  14. Arno says:
    April 30, 2007 at 4:28 pm

    I’d appreciate an invite – here in Africa we are often last in the row. arnon@websurfer.co.za

  15. PeterK says:
    May 1, 2007 at 7:32 am

    Could you please send me an invite??

    Because I don’t have a tv in my appartment.
    PLEASE!!
    peterkassner[@]yahoo.de

  16. Asher says:
    May 1, 2007 at 10:00 am

    Hey i’d would really appreciate if someone could send me an invitation. Ashdude36@hotmail.com

  17. Trayer says:
    May 1, 2007 at 11:15 pm

    Please invite!!!

  18. flytek says:
    May 2, 2007 at 12:31 pm

    hey,
    could u plz send me an invite?
    Thx,
    Paul: paweljaworsky@gmail.com

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