CNET, a popular computer technology website, has a new blog post which describes NBC’s plans for web streaming video in greater detail.
Some key points from the article:
– You won’t need Microsoft’s Silverlight video software to watch video, but you’ll have less functionality. I downloaded Silverlight and installed it on my computer and watched some of the highlight videos from 2004 to test it out. It didn’t seem to have any better picture than Adobe Flash, but that could also be due to the lower speed connection I currently have on the road.
– NBC won’t be providing any technical support to viewers. As the service is free, though, I don’t think anyone should have a problem with this.
– NBC will not be hiding the scores on their website. According to NBC Senior VP, Perkins Miller, “You will have to be somewhat disciplined in your navigation to avoid scores. We have found that, on balance, people want to know the scores quickly. If you hide the scores and results, you run the risk of disappointing the people that are using the Internet as a utility." NBC appears to be about 4 years behind in their thinking. As I recall, NBC didn’t put results on their Olympic website in the hopes that people wouldn’t find out prior to their evening broadcasts. TIVOs and DVRs and the concept of time shifting is much more prevalent now. Hopefully they will see the light and will make navigation simple instead of “somewhat disciplined” for those that want to watch without final score knowledge.
As previously indicated, Team Handball News will try our best to support time shifting by requiring you to consciously click on a non-descriptive news article title to get the scores. Additionally, if possible we’ll link directly to match videos.
CNET Article: 2008 Olympics: The Digital Games: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10002909-56.html
Addendum: Site member Mohamed investigated the TVTonic Windows Media Center capability for Windows Vista users. After a few headaches he was able to get it working. While he was impressed with the functionality and the quality of the video he also learned that Handball [b]is not [/b]one of the sports planned for this platform.
Microsoft blog article on TVTonic: http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsexperience/archive/2008/07/31/watch-nbc-s-coverage-of-the-beijing-olympics-in-windows-media-center.aspx