To continue from where my last journal left off, we were discussing television online. In particular, The Daily Show’s website.
“I guess that’s why it says Beta up in the corner.”
The final line from my last blog is true, the Daily Show’s video streaming platform is still something that needs some work, but it looks like some of that work is being done. This week on the website (http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml) it’s easy to navigate straight to the videos from yesterday’s show. The slider approach to video browsing is gaining ground. I can browse all the way back to January of 1999, see the holiday jokes from 2003 or watch the videos from last nights broadcast. If I want to I can rate the videos I watch, or even list the videos from highest audience rank to lowest for a given month. Cool stuff.
What about the commercials? We hate commercials! How many commercials are there? Unfortunately, there’s more than none commercials you have to watch to see Jon and the crew. It looks to be every other time you switch videos you’re subjected to an advert. AND THEY DO ONE OF THE MOST ANNOYING THINGS THAT COMMERCIALS CAN DO: The audio on the commercial is way louder than the audio from the show. So when the commercial comes on, you’re blasted and you have to turn it dow, then when the shows back on you can’t hear so you have turn it up. SO ANNOYING! It’s an old TV trick that needs to die. As is the case with most web video streams featuring commercials, you get maybe 3 different commercials you’ll be subjected to repeatedly.
The worst killer of all TV streams, though, is crappy internet connection. When my home cable connection is sluggish or lagging, web streams are impossible. You spend 85% of the time watching the buffering graphic that pops up when the video lags. At least the Daily Show has a buffering graphic to keep us entertained….some sites don’t.
