Christian Granström

Why do I think that this will be such a major success. Well, this is the service everybody wants. Some people just don´t know that they wan´t it but they do… Another reason is that the guys behind this service has realized the culture of the internet. Using this service you will be available to participate in a community to supply the service with content meta data in severa ways. The client is based on the open source XBMC that is a huge success in todays media playback culture.

Imagine a world where every tv show and every movie ever made is just a few clicks away from your remote control or mouse. It´s delivered direct to your TV or computer in high definition with digital surround sound. It´s available any time you want it, as many times you want it.

It´s a free service where you pay the price of watching commercials before accessing your video of choice. Or if you want unlimited access without commercials it´s a paid service at a price in pair with todays cable tv prices . Or perhaps you very rarely watch movies and you hate commercials, then you can buy access to just that single video without commercials.

Sounds to good to be true? Well besides the fact that it will be a limited amount of content to start with, this service is actually launching this autumn. It´s name is Voddler and once again we can be very proud here in Sweden. Another Swedish company is about to relase another revolutionary internet service.

I really hope that the media companies decide to be supportive this time. Because if they will, I am very confident that this service will be the most valuable ever in the history of the internet. Consumers will be able to pay for what they want and content producers will be able to get paid reasonable amounts of money. If I could buy stocks in the company behind Voddler I would do it without hesitation TODAY.

So why do I think that this will be such a major success. Well, this is the service everybody wants. Some people may not know that they want it but they do! Another reason is that the guys behind this service seems to know the culture of the internet. Using this service you will be able to participate in a community related to the service and contribute to meta data etc.

The client is based on the open source  media player XBMC that is a huge success in todays underground media playback communities. Voddler will bring an XBMC based user friendly interface to your tv or pc. All content will be available online and you will save  all that diskspace that you used to occupy with matroska bluray/dvd-rips.

As far as I can see there are two major pitfalls. Number one is the software and streaming technology. It has to be top notch. Nobody will accept lagging or freezing movies, jittering sound or bad response times. But when I read about the guys currently working with this project it seems as if they really know what they are doing. They seem to be dedicated tech freaks just like my self. And geeks like us do not settle with anything but the best.

The other pitfall are the media companies. Their horrendous greed could overturn this project. Content has to be available  in this service at least at the same time that it arrives on cable tv, dvd and bluray. Most probably it has to be available a few days or weeks before that. That timing is crucial. The service must be able to compete with scene releases. This is probably the thing that can save the media companies, question is, will they realize that or will they just continue to sue people and protect their monopoly?

Based upon a lot of facts about the technology itself, the founders statements and the fact that the project really seems to understand what the internet culture is all about makes me belive that this will change the media landscape forever. It will happen fast and it will be very painful for some companies.

Of course a service like this will affect the sales of plastic discs in a negative way. But there will still be a market of real collectors and cineasts to satisfy. At least for a few more years. But who are the real loser’s if things turns out as I expect. Well dvd/bluray-rental shops will die in vain. Cable TV and satellite TV companies will take a large hit when the only real value they can provide their customers are live events like sports etc.

I haven´t had the opportunity to try Voddler for real yet. So all my assumptions are based on facts that I found on internet forums and blogs. People are beta testing right now. I found a few sources that I trust to be as hard to please as myself. And they all seem to be extatic. I will get back to more technical details when I know more, but it all seems to be h264 streaming in sd/720p or 1080p with dolby digital 5.1. What more can you ask for today? Bandwidth demands seems pretty modest, 2Mbit for SD, 6MBit for 720p and 10Mbit for 1080p.

I am really excited to try out Voddler and I will, as soon as I have a chance. I think this will turn the world upside down in a similar way as it did for me when I downloaded my first mp3 and played it on my stereoback in the 90:s. I almost fell of my chair when I realized how good it was from such a small file size. Today nobody is amazed by mp3. Let´s turn the media world upside down and progress into something new, something better.

Damn you media companies if you kill this brilliant idea because of greed!!!

And if you Voddler guy needs a C/C++/Assembler guy, don´t hesitate to contact an experienced dedicated small business owner and software engineer.