Is SyncTV a Viable Online Video Delivery Alternative or Just Another Fly-by-Night?
By David Walker |
February 14th, 2008
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The online video delivery market is set to absolutely explode in 2008. As we’ve been covering companies like Apple, Microsoft, Netflix and Vudu, smaller companies like SyncTV are also trying to carve out a niche in this rapidly developing space. WebTVwire, hoping to find an alternative to Apple iTunes and Amazon Unbox, has asked the question many are wondering – is SyncTV a viable alternative to these existing services?
It’s important to note that, while Unbox and iTunes are fully developed solutions, SyncTV is still in private beta and is not yet complete. Here are some of the thoughts WebTVwire had about the latest iteration of SyncTV:
- Slick and easy to navigate interface
- Good parental controls
- Decent search feature to navigate large libraries
- Sadly, only six available channels, Showtime being the most recognizable
- Most content geared towards kids
- Great download speeds
- Downloaded shows seem to have choppy playback and skipping
Sadly, it looks like SyncTV still has quite a ways to go before it can hope to compete with the big boys. The lack of content and playback issues desperately need to be addressed. While pricing is variable – with some shows giving up an entire season for a measly $4.99 – premium content, like the few shows available from Showtime, appear to be priced equivalently to what you’d find from Unbox or iTunes. Hopefully, the coming months will show drastic improvements in what SyncTV has to offer. If not, it’s likely that they’ll end up one of the many casualties we’ll be seeing in this space in the coming months and years ahead.
Filed in: Content Providers