dtv posts

Filed under: Internet, Video, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Open Source

Democracy Player now better, stabler

by Jordan Running Jun 22nd 2006

I got a little notification in my Inbox today telling me that a new version of Democracy Player is out. Version 0.8.4.1 (note to software developers: when your version numbers start to look like IP addresses, they've gotten out of hand) is available for WIndows, Mac, or Linux. The biggest improvements to the RSS-and-BitTorrent-enabled internet TV viewer from the Participatory Culture FOundation are in the stability department, but it also comes with a few new features. In particular, Democracy now pulls double-duty as a desktop video player, allowing you to play videos from your hard drive and add them to your library. Democracy is free as in speech, so go download it already.

Tags: bittorrent, democracy, democracyplayer, dtv, linux, mac, opensource, osx, participatoryculture, pcf, rss, tv, video, windows

Filed under: Fun, Video, News, Windows, Web services, Microsoft

Microsoft patents watching TV while chatting

by Victor Agreda, Jr. Apr 27th 2006

microsoft patents chatting while watching tv

The scoop is on ArsTechnica. The patent is for a "multimode interactive television chat." Like Jeremy, I also worked for a company during the dotcom boom time that had the brilliant idea of embedding clickable links in QuickTime video content. Anyone seeing this today? I didn't think so. The holy grail of TV and interactivity may come to pass, however, if MS can figure out how to make it useful or at least fun. Personally I think it's boring enough to see "live" comments during a broadcast. Kinda like listening to the callers on QVC. I can't imagine it gets better interacting with the inane comments you're likely to see in the middle of a Cribs marathon. But I'm sure MS has plans to make TV chat a lot less annoying... right?

Tags: arstechnica, dtv, interactive, television, tv, tvsquad

Filed under: Developer, Fun, Internet, Video, Windows, Macintosh, Web services, Open Source

DTV now for Windows

by Victor Agreda, Jr. Feb 22nd 2006

We mentioned DTV a couple of times before, and what caught my eye wasn't another video content aggregator, it was the surrounding toolset that had been developed to fill that aggregator with usable content (more on this in a moment). DTV is now Democracy player, and there is now a Windows version. Just like the iPod had to become Windows compatible to achieve critical mass, perhaps now Democracy player will become much more popular than other aggregators. Why am I hoping this? Why such a big fan of this odd little group known as Participatory Culture? As I said earlier, it's not about the player, it's the tools to support the player. So they created a player, and it works quite well, but they also have a website for sharing your videos without the player. There's a channel guide built in to Democracy player, like the iTunes music store. But the most critical component is Broadcast Machine. While I don't see the ability to add hyper links, which I felt was a killer feature, there are all sorts of great things about it still. The most powerful is, once again, being able to easily graft video content together and publish it auto magically.

There's other stuff to love about Participatory Culture and their work: namely, their apps are GPL'ed, and they are a nonprofit, whose apparent only goal is to put the means of distributing video content on the web into the hands of as many people as possible. Note that Democracy player is not yet a full 1.0 release (it's 0.8 right now), and the Windows version lags in the features department (no rewind or full screen). Still, I love their focus, and the tools are good, so let's get to clogging up that Internet with kooky videos, shall we?

Tags: democracy player, DemocracyPlayer, dtv, participatory culture, ParticipatoryCulture

Filed under: Video, Podcasting, Open Source

DTV Beta released, watch Internet TV on your Mac

by Victor Agreda, Jr. Aug 9th 2005

I'll say it now: I want my DTV! Unfortunately it isn't quite ready for prime-time yet... You have to keep in mind this is a beta, and it's just build 1, so cut 'em some slack. However, there is great promise in there, and I'm a patient man when it comes to internet TV. Or as I call it, the democratization of media.

The idea is simple, as iTunes is to podcasting, DTV is to video on the internet. In fact, it has a sort of playlists and and interface similar to iTunes. When I launched the app there were a few "channels" already loaded: Rocketboom and Diggnation for instance. But when I clicked on a channel I had to click again, in another button, just to see the episodes available. Clearly there is some GUI work to be done. Also, there are actual bugs, such as the channels disappearing, renaming, and reappearing on the left (where playlists are in iTunes). Hm, that's not good.

Tags: dtv, internet, video, videocasting, vlog

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dtv posts

Democracy Player now better, stabler

Microsoft patents watching TV while chatting

DTV now for Windows

DTV Beta released, watch Internet TV on your Mac

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