Joost Needs A Bandwidth Boost
by
on August 13, 2007,
Apparently there has been a lot of concern about the video quality and bandwidth requirements of Joost, the free P2P online television application. JoostTeam has done some testing and compared the quality of Joost to both DivX Stage6 and iTunes videos.
According to their findings, the bit rate of Joost videos equals out to only half that of the same videos available from DivX or iTunes. To make matters even worse, it was reported that the resolution of Joost does not even measure up to the standard definition video that cable companies provide.
The Silicon Alley Insider has stated that “Joost is well aware of this problem and is searching for a commercial content delivery network (CDN) to fill in the P2P gaps.” But will that be enough?
I have been using Joost since its early beta days and I have to agree that the video quality is horrible and the software is very power-intensive, causing multiple problems on my PC, including the inability to load up the software and freezing up the entire computer. I do not even try using the software anymore right now.
But it has not always been that way. When I was first invited into the IPTV service, very early on, I thought that I had experienced a revolutionary new development. The videos looked good and I barely had to deal with skipping. When I wanted to pull up the menu, there it was. I didn't have to wait a few minutes while it ran my PC hot trying to play video, bring up another UI, and share my bandwidth with other Joost users, all at the same time.
Ever since the “Friends Edition” was released and everyone was given unlimited invites, the service has gone downhill. According to NewTeeVee, “the fundamental problem that Joost faces is the fact that the broadband available to North American households simply isn’t fast enough for them to provide image quality comparable to digital cable or satellite, much less high-definition video.”
The folks at Joost have hard work ahead of them if they want to succeed at becoming the champ of IPTV. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I don't think I will be loading up Joost again until it goes a little easier on my poor little PC.
