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story category Joost Scales Back Until Broadband Speeds Up
Ditches ambitious global plans for coasting in the U.S. market
(old news - 01:52PM Sunday Apr 06 2008)
tags: Video · business · bandwidth · trouble
Tipped by GOLFnSUN See Profile
Video site Joost has announced that the company will be scaling back plans for the time being while it waits for the technology market to be ready for its services. Although we’ve entered an era in which many people are starting to watch television via computer, the average person’s broadband isn’t fast enough to meet Joost’s needs. Joost requires a lot of bandwidth causing problems during beta for many of its users. In previous interviews Joost co-founder Janus Friis was quoted as saying that “the Internet can cope” with the bandwidth overload. However, the company now seems to acknowledge that the technology is just not quite there yet. They’re putting a hold on plans to expand to a global market and are said to be refocusing on improving their U.S. service. It’s been suggested that their plan is just to try to hang in there until broadband technology catches up with what it is they’re trying to do.

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Forums » Joost Scales Back Until Broadband Speeds Up
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Post a:
garmst

join:2000-09-17
New York, NY

Improving US service but holding on Global Service?

Does this imply that the US infrastructure is better than the rest of the world? Oh my god, who would have though that reading the other articles on this site. I was starting to consider my PINGs as endangered species.

Just turned on my JOOST. Running nice and smooth........

Well, ok, I am running on Speakeasy.......

zachary1
you talkin' to me?

join:2004-03-07
right here

Re: Improving US service but holding on Global Service?

forget Joost. Try TVU networks, or better yet, Sopcast.

GOLFnSUN
Enjoy the sun
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join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
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1 edit

Joost uses P2P and that may be why it is slowing rollout

The Joost application uses P2P to work and given the current environment of throttling P2P, it isn't surprising it isn't expanding rapidly.
»www.joost.com/support/faq/Using-···tion-use

Here is a link to a 38 min WMA video of the network architect of Joost explaining the way Joost works.
»www.scaryideas.com/video/2362/

Or you can look at a Adobe Acrobat PDF presentation.
»www.uknof.org.uk/uknof7/MacCarth···oost.pdf

A discussion of Joost's weaknesses:
»newteevee.com/2007/05/10/joost-h···llenges/

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supergirl

join:2007-03-20
Pensacola, FL
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·magicjack.com

Re: Joost uses P2P and that may be why it is slowing rollout

If Joost has DRM, it ain't going anywhere. If WMV, it would screw up licenses on my system anyway. M$ needs to fix that license crap.

And, why name it "Joost"? Sounds like a Jose Canseco book.
--
Saving the world keeps me busy. However, I find Earth very primitive from my home planet of Krypton.
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zhenya

join:2007-04-30
Ithaca, NY
·VoicePulse

Joost doesn't have a bandwidth problem...

The real problem I have with Joost has nothing to do with bandwidth - in fact it is quite lite in comparison to, say ABC HD or Netflix. The problem is their content. I've been a user since their private beta days, and the quality of the content, IMO, has not appreciably improved. There are plenty of options for watching video on-line these days, I don't need to waste my time weeding through hundreds of B-shows and short clips.

battleop

join:2005-09-28
00000

Translation....

They are waiting until ISPs build bigger networks for them.

IPingUPing
N4BFR
Premium
join:2002-08-30
Smyrna, GA
clubs:

Re: Translation....

said by battleop See Profile :

They are waiting until ISPs build bigger networks for them.
A problem that could easily be solved by actually buying bandwidth. Heaven forbid doing something like that, might screw up their business model.

espaeth
Digital Plumber
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join:2001-04-21
Minneapolis, MN
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Re: Translation....

said by IPingUPing See Profile :

A problem that could easily be solved by actually buying bandwidth. Heaven forbid doing something like that, might screw up their business model.
Last mile network expansion is a heck of a lot more involved than simply buying bandwidth. (ie, DOCSIS plant upgrades and complete CPE replacement to go to DOCSIS 3.0, DSLAM and modem replacement to go to ADSL2+) If it were simply a matter of paying and cranking a dial it would already be done.

IPingUPing
N4BFR
Premium
join:2002-08-30
Smyrna, GA
clubs:

Re: Translation....

I'm very clear on the last mile network costs. I was not clear on who is think is delinquent in purchasing bandwidth. I think Joost should buy or build their own CDN if they want to be in the content business. It's not the providers problem to build out bandwidth for them.

DivineDark

join:2001-08-30
Oklahoma City, OK
clubs:

oops

Saw this and thought Josta soda was making a comeback.
peerimpact

join:2005-11-07
Londonderry, VT

Joost hasnt annonced nothing

This is pure hearsay and speculation by the Times "reporter"

»www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-jo···s-focus/

Subaru
1-3-2-4
Premium
join:2001-05-31
Greenwich, CT
clubs:

Joost is bloated

Hulu FTW!

dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast

Re: Joost is bloated

said by Subaru See Profile :

Hulu FTW!
VeohTV(it pulls hulu as well as a bunch of other stuff)...
--
Think outside the Fox... Opera

BobbytheBrain

@sbcglobal.net

Don't Care What the Speeds are. Interface is Garbage

Maybe nobody uses it because the interface was designed by idiots. Does the stupid player always have to load a stream when you just launch the program? I can go on, but the fact is that Joost makes it difficult for anybody to have a good experience using that silly client.
Dampier
Phillip M Dampier

join:2003-03-23
Rochester, NY

Re: Don't Care What the Speeds are. Interface is Garbage

said by BobbytheBrain :

Maybe nobody uses it because the interface was designed by idiots.
Bingo! The fact Joost -IS- an application in the first place is one of their biggest faults. It looks four years old at a time when everyone else is moving to embedded web video which requires little on the part of the viewer to get the content. Joost requires a horrendously resource hungry application to be downloaded and installed before you even get started, and that's a major downside for a lot of folks who simply are not going to bother.

And when you do get it installed, the CPU and memory load of this thing is astonishing. I can barely get it running on my two year old laptop because it is so resource hungry (and demands a contemporary videocard with enough memory on board for a reasonable experience) it essentially slows the computer to a crawl.

The client's look and feel is completely non-intuitive, looks old-school, and the content menu is done with oversized square boxes with show logos that you need to wade through to locate a show you're interested in.

The entire delivery system is, as others have noted, BitTorrent based, so it will also suck your Internet connection (never, ever leave the thing running in the system tray - you simply stay connected to help deliver their content to others, eating your bandwidth).

And, most annoying of all, no effort is really made to inject advertising in an appropriate manner. In many cases, it's the same 15 or 30 second spot run at every ad break (usually at a volume many times louder than the content you are watching, blowing you out of the room).

The claims that broadband bandwidth is the problem for Joost is a joke. The real problem for investors in this mess is that their deployment using a software based application is behind the times, not well coded, and in light of launches like Hulu and other web-based video applications, threatens their viability.

Add to that the concept of metered broadband traffic, where an application like Joost could blow through your monthly allotment delivering content to other people 24/7 if you leave the thing running in the system tray, and Joost becomes as relevant as other yesterday technology like Limewire.

Time for them to rethink things from the ground up.

DaneJasper
Sonic.Net
Premium,VIP
join:2001-08-20
Santa Rosa, CA
clubs:

Comcast degrades P2P: Joost fails

Make sense?

This is an argument for net neutrality. Joost is an innovative application to deliver video, using P2P. But, carriers are beginning to degrade P2P. The upside: their video competitor sucks, and folks stay with the incumbent solution.

-Dane
peerimpact

join:2005-11-07
Londonderry, VT

Joost CEO denies false reports (like this story)

Seems that people are making up thier own stories about Joost now

»gigaom.com/2008/04/06/joost-ceo-···utbacks/

KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK

They're in for a long wait

... I suspect they will be waiting a long, LONG time....

Guspaz
Guspaz
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join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC
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1 edit

Meh

As a delivery platform, it seems to work pretty well. However, as a television service, the content just isn't there. There's pretty much zilch. This might not be true in the US (being in Canada), but until I can watch actual television channels or content, I'm really not very interested.

When I tried it, there was only one channel with actual content, showing older anime series. That's fun, but... that's just ONE decent channel for the entire service in Canada.

EDIT: Also, the tech might rock, but their interface is horrible. Slow, confusing, and no option to get something akin to a standard windows application interface.
Forums » Joost Scales Back Until Broadband Speeds Up


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