YouTube Launches Mouse Free Leanback Beta For Internet Ready Television Sets
The recent soak up of Hulu Plus looks set to finally kickstart a Hulu international table service say reports. The News Corp, Disney and NBC owned live internet tv service that is currently US only, looks like it will be appearing on a whole range of devices such as iPhone, iPad, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 via the subscription service and this will open the door to a globally paid statistical distribution network.
The paid ‘Hulu Plus’ launch has not had an easy ride so far although, many are complaining that they have to pay every month and still put up with anno Domini throughout the show. It may oddly enough have an easier ride in other areas worldwide if it allows viewers to watch hit US shows before they are broadcast on the networks. But then thats a whole new problem to sort out.
The idea is to make up a customized YouTube sleep with for every user to be able to enjoy full-screen TV submit. And while the long term goal may be to get users watching content on their Internet-ready video recordings, this initial launch is all just about the web version. In fact, there’s not a single mention in YouTube’s blog announcement of the word “television” (though they do say that using YouTube “becomes like watching internet TV”).
While YouTube’s long term strategy is to get users watching video content on their Internet-ready TV’s, This initial set free will concerntrate on the web version.
You can get a first look at Leanback by going to youtube.com/leanback in your web web browser. You’ll have to sign into your YouTube/Google account first, but by and by that the application runs. At first, it’s a bit confusing. There aren’t really any visible buttons or options, as the video takes up the whole screen, and it’s so free of clutter that it’s almost paralyzing.
I kept hovering my weirdo over the screen looking for options, when a helpful gauzy tip popped up suggesting I try using the arrow keys jump forward or rearward in the rain cats and dogs to a specific video. The hint appears whenever you try to click on anything, and looks like this:
Of course, you’re welcome to just “lean back” and enjoy the show. The left and right arrows will take you to the next video in the stream. The up arrow will bring up a search bar and the down arrow reveals the video player controls. They look like this:
Hitting the down arrow again (after you’ve pulled up the player controls) will bring up the various streams you can choose from: Your Stream, Autos & Vehicles, clowning, etc.
Your personal stream also includes videos being shared by your Facebook friends—if your YouTube account has been joined to your Facebook account—which is disappointing. I’m not sure YouTube is aware of how few of my Facebook friends share my judge in video. It would be nice to have a control that Well? allows me to remove a particular video from my stream, but maybe that’s one of the features they’ll add later.
It’s still in beta, and there are some things to work out. For shell, a lot of videos look like pixelated on my full-screen view. I do have a 22-inch admonisher, but so do a ton of other shack. And most TV’s are much larger than that these days. If only I could filter out the lower-quality videos from Leanback, because it’s a huge turn-off to see someone’s giant pixelated head after watching an HD video clip.
