Children, Animals & Live Events

Never work with any of the above, especially the latter if you're Microsoft. I am currently trying to watch Live Earth, the environmental mega fest on MSN.

Ludicrously, they're using Flash - which has recently added live streaming capability.

Unfortunately, it does not work (no long form content works with Flash in my experience). I'm getting a clean 1.7Mbps, but the sound and picture are spasmodic and endlessly buffering.

So, Microsoft are promoting a rival's technology in what must be this year's biggest global showcase, and screwing it up royally. Way to go!

Watching the women's final at Wimbledon earlier on the BBC was not much more gratifying - at least I could see a tennis court (but not the ball at the bandwidth being used by the BBC).

You might imagine, working in the emerging internet TV industry, that I might have some sympathy. But I really don't. Narrowstep was delivering far superior services three years ago.

But, in a world where most people seem content with the quality of video on YouTube, who cares ?

Comments

WRU said…
Seeing the same useless QOS here in California (on FIOS 30Mb link). Tried all the different feeds - all the same, buffering buffering 3 seconds of AV then more buffering.

Microsoft trying to make a point about Flash Video?...
Anonymous said…
Thanks for writing this.