ABC TV’s new player rocks

April 2, 2007 By

I was over at Bessemer Venture Partners today and the topic of TV came up. I was told that I had to check out ABC TV’s new player. Unfortunately it works only on Windows (a lower-quality version is available for Mac users — UPDATE: I’m unsure about that, will test when I get home on my Mac).

Boy, does this rock! It’s sharp and clear — does full-screen video. Lost is stunningly beautiful on it. Only downside is you gotta download a player from Move Networks. I wonder how this compares to the Stage6.Divx player/codec/plugin?

Demonstrates that on YouTube or on iTunes we sure aren’t getting anywhere close to the full experience that is possible today.

UPDATE: heh, just minutes after I posted this a Webware article about ABC.TV’s new player showed up on TechMeme and on Mike Torres’ blog and on Gizmodo. Sounds like news of this is getting around the word-of-mouth networks all on its own.

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  • http://lightsthatblink.com/ Doug

    You are sooo right. I was really impressed when I watched Lost last week using it.

  • http://lightsthatblink.com Doug

    You are sooo right. I was really impressed when I watched Lost last week using it.

  • Dave

    Works on my Mac. Looks awesome.

  • Dave

    Works on my Mac. Looks awesome.

  • http://www.netwhatever.com/astrodownunder/ Wilson

    Only on Windows… and only in the US, alas.

  • http://www.netwhatever.com/astrodownunder/ Wilson

    Only on Windows… and only in the US, alas.

  • http://harrisben.wordpress.com/ Ben

    It would rock if ABC stopped disabling the player based upon my IP.

  • http://harrisben.wordpress.com/ Ben

    It would rock if ABC stopped disabling the player based upon my IP.

  • Jeff

    I have watched every episode of DayBreak on the ABC website and am surprised that it took them almost a whole season to wait to upgrade. It does cause a dilema for me. Will all the other alphabet’s change their tunes and go full screen forcing me to get a Mac Mini insteat of paying 2 dollars an episode on Apple TV.

  • Jeff

    I have watched every episode of DayBreak on the ABC website and am surprised that it took them almost a whole season to wait to upgrade. It does cause a dilema for me. Will all the other alphabet’s change their tunes and go full screen forcing me to get a Mac Mini insteat of paying 2 dollars an episode on Apple TV.

  • http://blendingthemix.com/ Paul Fabretti

    I am sure it rocks Robert but what about the UK viewers?

    You guys get to see the BBC viewer that us UK citizens pay for through our license fee but we don’t get to see ABC’s commercially-paid for content.

    Not fair.

  • http://blendingthemix.com Paul Fabretti

    I am sure it rocks Robert but what about the UK viewers?

    You guys get to see the BBC viewer that us UK citizens pay for through our license fee but we don’t get to see ABC’s commercially-paid for content.

    Not fair.

  • http://www.joerm.com/ JoeM

    Does not work with IE7 or Vista :(

  • http://www.joerm.com JoeM

    Does not work with IE7 or Vista :(

  • http://siliconvalleymusings.com/ Steve

    Seems to be distributed by Move Networks, http://www.xlontech.com/.

  • http://siliconvalleymusings.com Steve

    Seems to be distributed by Move Networks, http://www.xlontech.com/.

  • http://mike.spaces.live.com/ Mike Torres

    Worked perfectly on the Mac with Firefox!

  • http://mike.spaces.live.com Mike Torres

    Worked perfectly on the Mac with Firefox!

  • meechwings

    I’m pretty sure FOX uses the Move Networks player on their pages too.

  • meechwings

    I’m pretty sure FOX uses the Move Networks player on their pages too.

  • Pingback: ABC’s New Player : The Last Podcast

  • http://stage6.divx.com/ Bruce Lidl

    It does look good, but something DivX has that the ABC Player doesn’t, is the ability to take videos off the PC. Videos on DivX Stage6 are compatible with any DivX certified CE device.

    Just a quick comment from the DivX perspective, thanks for the shoutout Robert!

  • http://stage6.divx.com/ Bruce Lidl

    It does look good, but something DivX has that the ABC Player doesn’t, is the ability to take videos off the PC. Videos on DivX Stage6 are compatible with any DivX certified CE device.

    Just a quick comment from the DivX perspective, thanks for the shoutout Robert!

  • http://scobleizer.com/ Robert Scoble

    JoeM: I’m using it on IE7 here. Will test shortly on Mac and Vista.

  • http://scobleizer.com/ Robert Scoble

    JoeM: I’m using it on IE7 here. Will test shortly on Mac and Vista.

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  • http://www.split-bamboo.com/ David

    Tell me how to get it onto my TV. And what it looks like when it is there!

  • http://www.split-bamboo.com David

    Tell me how to get it onto my TV. And what it looks like when it is there!

  • Jeff

    @David: Get your Notebook and connect it to your TV. If you are going at the AppleTV you pay for the content. This is free minus the five 30 second commercial you have to sit through. It looks great on my 52″ LG DLP. Yes Robert, my DLP does look great. It is much better looking than the AppleTV that are on the Sony Bravias at the Apple store. But, ripping my DVD will look great on the AppleTV since the res is much better than what I can buy from iTunes.

  • Jeff

    @David: Get your Notebook and connect it to your TV. If you are going at the AppleTV you pay for the content. This is free minus the five 30 second commercial you have to sit through. It looks great on my 52″ LG DLP. Yes Robert, my DLP does look great. It is much better looking than the AppleTV that are on the Sony Bravias at the Apple store. But, ripping my DVD will look great on the AppleTV since the res is much better than what I can buy from iTunes.

  • http://www.rabbitbites.com/ buns and chou chou

    Saw this player at abc just yesterday. You are right, amazingly Joost-like!

  • http://www.rabbitbites.com buns and chou chou

    Saw this player at abc just yesterday. You are right, amazingly Joost-like!

  • andrew

    I’ve been using the ABC Player since fall ’06, and I’ve alwyas loved it.. I find out they have anew player, and I’m pissed that I cant view it cause I have vista on all my machines. Cmon ABC! Your error message does not even make note that it doesnt work on Vista.

  • andrew

    I’ve been using the ABC Player since fall ’06, and I’ve alwyas loved it.. I find out they have anew player, and I’m pissed that I cant view it cause I have vista on all my machines. Cmon ABC! Your error message does not even make note that it doesnt work on Vista.

  • Christopher Coulter

    Word of mouth network? Talk about Johnny-Come-Lately’s, six months or so. Maybe the massive regular advertising, big PR pushes and the hit shows that sent people to it, had more of a hook, ya think, maybe? If you guys ever lift yourselves offa the laptop screens, you won’t need self-serving VCs to tell you the weather. :)

    One thing I noticed awhile back, it doesn’t seem to work with Vista. Bleech. Fix that ABC.

  • Christopher Coulter

    Word of mouth network? Talk about Johnny-Come-Lately’s, six months or so. Maybe the massive regular advertising, big PR pushes and the hit shows that sent people to it, had more of a hook, ya think, maybe? If you guys ever lift yourselves offa the laptop screens, you won’t need self-serving VCs to tell you the weather. :)

    One thing I noticed awhile back, it doesn’t seem to work with Vista. Bleech. Fix that ABC.

  • http://www.movenetworks.com/ Tosh McQuivey

    I work for Move Networks the company that provided the video player technology behind the new and improved ABC Full Episode experience.

    We also are the video player provider for Fox Broadcasting and CW TV. Go to http://myspace.com/fox and also http://video.cwtv.com to view more content through the Move Video Player.

    We currently support Win2000 – WinXP on IE 6.0-7.0 and also on the Mac 10.3 – 10.4 with Safari and Firefox with Vista support is coming in a matter of weeks.

    Our video player technology uses On2 video codec.

  • http://www.movenetworks.com Tosh McQuivey

    I work for Move Networks the company that provided the video player technology behind the new and improved ABC Full Episode experience.

    We also are the video player provider for Fox Broadcasting and CW TV. Go to http://myspace.com/fox and also http://video.cwtv.com to view more content through the Move Video Player.

    We currently support Win2000 – WinXP on IE 6.0-7.0 and also on the Mac 10.3 – 10.4 with Safari and Firefox with Vista support is coming in a matter of weeks.

    Our video player technology uses On2 video codec.

  • LayZ

    Christopher, to be fair, I think they are referring to the “new and improved” ABC player. But, you do have a point, basically this is old news…

  • LayZ

    Christopher, to be fair, I think they are referring to the “new and improved” ABC player. But, you do have a point, basically this is old news…

  • http://www.recruiting-usa.com/ SEO Consultant

    It wouldn’t let me download, I have Vista Home Premium. :-(

  • http://www.recruiting-usa.com SEO Consultant

    It wouldn’t let me download, I have Vista Home Premium. :-(

  • daiski

    Too bad it’s only for viewers within the US :( Other countries watch TV, surprisingly!?

  • daiski

    Too bad it’s only for viewers within the US :( Other countries watch TV, surprisingly!?

  • Christopher Coulter

    On2 rocks, always liked On2 TrueMotion VP7, beats H.264 & MPEG-4 and better fees, and even VP6.2 kicks. Great player too…Tosh, just fix Vista support and all is well. :)

    Eh? “New and improved” ABC player? I guess it was so gradual that I didn’t notice, the “old” May 2006ish one seemed great too.

    http://weblogs.macromedia.com/md/archives/2006/05/flashinsider_ha.cfm

  • Christopher Coulter

    On2 rocks, always liked On2 TrueMotion VP7, beats H.264 & MPEG-4 and better fees, and even VP6.2 kicks. Great player too…Tosh, just fix Vista support and all is well. :)

    Eh? “New and improved” ABC player? I guess it was so gradual that I didn’t notice, the “old” May 2006ish one seemed great too.

    http://weblogs.macromedia.com/md/archives/2006/05/flashinsider_ha.cfm

  • http://survey.mercermc.com/digitaldistribution Jason

    Emerging options for online content distribution are sure to change how many “Old Media” companies like TV networks do business going forward.

    Anyhow, I thought I would take this chance to pass along an opportunity to have input into the development of this space. If you qualify as someone who makes decisions about distributing content online, Mercer Management Consulting will pay you $100 to complete an online survey about new options and business models content distribution. Visit http://survey.mercermc.com/digitaldistribution to get more info and begin the survey.

  • http://survey.mercermc.com/digitaldistribution Jason

    Emerging options for online content distribution are sure to change how many “Old Media” companies like TV networks do business going forward.

    Anyhow, I thought I would take this chance to pass along an opportunity to have input into the development of this space. If you qualify as someone who makes decisions about distributing content online, Mercer Management Consulting will pay you $100 to complete an online survey about new options and business models content distribution. Visit http://survey.mercermc.com/digitaldistribution to get more info and begin the survey.

  • http://www.netcrucible.com/blog Joshua Allen [msft]

    The player needed some work so that it could run under Vista’s “protected mode” security sandbox. AFAIK, all of the necessary changes have been made, and Vista should be supported soon. Since I am a fuddy-duddy, I won’t be running anything outside my safe, secure “protected mode” sandbox, so I haven’t been able to start using it yet.

  • http://www.netcrucible.com/blog Joshua Allen [msft]

    The player needed some work so that it could run under Vista’s “protected mode” security sandbox. AFAIK, all of the necessary changes have been made, and Vista should be supported soon. Since I am a fuddy-duddy, I won’t be running anything outside my safe, secure “protected mode” sandbox, so I haven’t been able to start using it yet.

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