Comments on: KulturCast #1

By: Clark

Clark — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:50:27 +0000

MCQ – I’ll grant that YouTube is great for finding “television quotes.” However the picture quality is still horrible.

By: a random John

a random John — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:07:54 +0000

I think the greatest thing that YouTube has given us is Duncan Bros: http://youtube.com/user/duncanbros

By: Susan M

Susan M — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:53:47 +0000

I also love that it recommends stuff to me based on what I’ve already watched.

My kids actually do go on there just to browse. I think you’ll find the younger generation do that much more than us old fogies.

By: MCQ

MCQ — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:23:16 +0000

I can’t believe anyone would ever just browse through YouTube and watch random stuff. When I go to YouTube it’s always to find something specific. The cool thing about it is that I usually find it. That part of last night’s TV show I missed? It’s there. That Mony Python sketch I always loved? It’s there. That music video from 1983 that I can’t remember the name of? It’s there. How cool is that?

By: Brian V

Brian V — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:05:59 +0000

Yeah, but Youtube gives us stuff like this:

(Incredibly NSFW, by the way – there’s enough cursing to give Susan a cardiac incident)

By: Clark

Clark — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:16:51 +0000

I rarely watched TV before DVRs. But then I think there were fewer good shows on. The last 7 years has seen an amazing explosion in the quality of TV.

My problem with YouTube is crappy content as well. Seriously, I look though the main ‘selected’ features and there’s never one I’m interested in.

I’m not looking at it as a TV replacement. Just that, outside of animal videos, I personally don’t see the point. OK, I love all the woodcut marble maze videos. But that killed about 20 minutes and then was done.

By: a random John

a random John — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:02:13 +0000

Clark,

I agree that TV without a DVR is a very different experience, but how long have people had DVRs? Prior to that TV was arguably much much worse than YouTube yet people still used it. If anything YouTube is more like a DVR than it is like TV.

I think you’re being overly harsh on YouTube. It isn’t meant as a TV replacement at this point. Long term however you can see where things are headed and you know that in 10 years you’ll look back and be able to see how YouTube changed the landscape.

By: Susan M

Susan M — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:18:30 +0000

Youtube is the best thing to happen to the Internet, ever. I can find shows and videos on there I used to watch as a kid/teenager, rare stuff that I’d never be able to see otherwise.

By: Clark

Clark — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:59:21 +0000

To add, if you enjoy YouTube more power to you. There’s just little content on it that makes it a destination for me. But I’d never want to say someone’s wrong simply because they don’t like what I do. I don’t like America’s Funniest Videos either and YouTube to me seems like an extension of that.

YouTube’s best ‘feature’ are a lot of nature films and vignettes that have been uploaded. (I use it for such with my kids) But the resolution is just so bad that it’s hard to bother most of the time. For me.

On an iPhone it might be a different experience.

By: Clark

Clark — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:52:12 +0000

TV without a DVR is unimaginable. Seriously.

The resolution with HD isn’t bad – although it’s still over compressed. But let’s be honest. SD on a digital network is still considerably better than even the “HD” setting on YouTube with a few rare exceptions. Both Dish and DirectTV now have most of the main channels in HD. My local area is a hold out in that ABC still isn’t HD and Dish won’t let you subscribe to networks outside of your local area. Which sucks with Lost. But I’d still rather watch lost on Dish with SD than watch the equivalent off of anyplace but iTunes.

The UI for a DVR is pretty great IMO. Especially when you consider there is no mouse. The one thing I wish they had was a computer interface for modifying things via the network like the iTunes/aTV combo allows.

Anyway, I don’t think it really compares. More to the point there’s more content I find interesting on TV than on YouTube. And I find the resolution on YouTube so overwhelmingly bad that I get frustrated fast.