The video iPod has sent shudders through the media business, because it offers a new way to watch TV, video and movies. You can download video onto the iPod and then watch it on your own clock as you travel. Plus, new cellular phones are adding the capability to watch video and TV as well. While techie types get excited about such gadgets, what about the general viewing public? Would you watch TV on a tiny device with a small screen? What types of video content would you watch on these? Would you pay for it? Bang the “Comments” button below, and tell us all what you think. Please include your name and location and a valid email address if you want to be quoted in the Your Take roundup post coming next week.
What kind of video would you watch on a small portable screen?
January 17, 2006
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There’s plenty, but here are a few examples:
http://www.mediasite.com
Jon Stewart on comedycentral.com
Good luck with your new blog.
We have just begun a course which uses the video iPod to deliver lectures, articles and course information to the participants. So far, it has been easy to follow using the iPod. The lectures are much more interesting with the video to support the information. I find the screen to be very clear and easy to see even without my glasses!
programs like 60 minutes – after downloading via torrent p2p; or the latest misssed episode of a favorite like Boston Legal
I find people obsess with form & function, but often fail to account for situation. The example here is ‘What kind of video would I watch on a small screen?’ I ask, ‘Where am I?’
If I’m in an endless line at the airport, I’ll probably watch whatever I can. If I’m in the living room at home, I’m going to be more critical of the material.
In the end, I think people what to view media the most convienent way possible. That’s why Video iPod and Home Theaters are seeing increased success, while the numbers for newspapers and theaters decrease. If you want me in your audience, (which I’m assuming media creators do,) you better make it easy and less expensive for me to watch.
So, What kind of video would I watch on a small screen? The same stuff I watch now, at the same price I pay, anytime I want.
Right now, I watch anything and everything — we are in the “novelty” stage after all. Besides, you have to love the irony of using today’s most advanced technology to watch old Adam-12 episodes (please, dear IPod God, let there be Wally George reruns for $1.99).
Nevertheless, it won’t last — but it has nothing to do with screen size. It has everything to do with content and simplicity. Better and original content will attract more users (call it the “Sirius-Stern Effect”), and making the video easier to download will attract more people like me who still think Ajax is a “grease-cutting formula in a lemon fresh scent.”
But until then, I’ll watch SNL’s “Lazy Sunday” for the 100th time, check out “Rocketboom” (Amanda Congdon is the bomb) and relive the joy of Reed and Malloy giving wayward Angelenos the right to remain silent. Too bad Leif Garrett didn’t exercise that right in the two-part roller disco episode of CHiPs…
I enjoy watching small screen independent productions like The Post Show and Rocketboom.
My great hope for the world, though, is that technology will progress to the point that those small screen stars can be seen on regular-sized screens. I’m glad that RB has made a deal with TiVo, but I hope that the future is more open source. It would be nice if we videobloggers didn’t have to worry so much about putting tiny compressed files on the internet… I would love to put out screen-sized HD digital film, but the world is not ready for it yet.
My ten-minute weekly videoblog weighs in at around 40MBs. So, until space and bandwidth become cheaper, I don’t see high quality content coming out on the internet for a while. I truly hope that someday we will be able to download large uncompressed files directly to our computer-embedded walls for display on our Star Trekkian viewscreens.
I agree with Chris McDqueen. If video is available at the airport or while traveling on a bus, viewers would watch just about anything to keep them occupied. The whole issue is the delivery method. Microsofts Bill Gates introduced a special media table at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The media table could be made available at an airport or other public places. It increases the size of a typical PDA screen by recognizing the PDA and projecting an image of the screen onto a table.. It also projects a full size keyboard that uses technology to recognize key strokes. If this technology could be duplicated cheaply, we wont have to worry about the size of a video screen. Obviously there are some major issues here, like privacy, security and the like.
I would watch the news since its a talking head most of the time. At least it fills up most of the screen and it’s mainly audio content anyway.
Anything short and fun. Anything episodic. I think that animated shorts and the modern-day eqivalent of 1940s adventure serials are great content for my ipod or phone. Channel Frederator is a good example.
CNN Headline News
FOX News
MSNBC News
SCI FI Network
ABC Sports
ESPN
ESPN 2
NASA TV
It would have to be a short one, something very informational. Forget advertising in the traditional sense.
I wd watch only ongoing news story likely to affect me or mine directly or major cliff-hanger story having immediate wide impact.
I would watch almost any TV show on the small screen. As for movies, they would have to be movies that do not rely on special effects or dramatic scenes that could get lost in a small screen.
I would like to have the ability to watch short newscasts from CNN, the BBC, or the CBC.
ok, let’s get real. the biggest seller for video on an ipod is going to be porn. like everything else on the net, it will be driven initially by porn. not me though… ;)