Topic: Azureus rolls out HD YouTube challenger

[Pugnate]

linky

Azureus rolls out HD YouTube challenger

Humphrey Cheung

December 5, 2006 18:08



Culver City (CA) - Azureus, the makers of the popular Bittorrent client of the same name, is rolling out a high-definition video service called Zudeo. Users of the service can upload, rate and comment on videos, just like the YouTube video sharing site. However, unlike YouTube, high-definition videos can be shared and there is no limit to the size or duration of the videos.

Users must download the 4.4 MB Aureus 3.0 Bittorrent client before they can view the videos and audio clips on the beta Zudeo website. Most of the clips are in regular or low definition, but several HD clips are denoted with a blue HD logo in the bottom right corner of the thumbnail.


Many people will want to compare Zudeo to YouTube, but it will be a while before it can compete effectively with its much bigger service. While some of the functionality is similar like the commenting, uploading and ranking of videos, the rest of the interface is quite crude.

YouTube easily plays the video clips inside of the current browser window, while Zudeo users must jump through hoops and open up another application to download and view clips. YouTube buffers videos from beginning to end so viewers can watch the beginning while the rest of the video finishes downloading. Zudeo on the other hand is restricted to its Bittorrent roots and downloads pieces of the video in almost random fashion. Users must wait for most of the video to finish downloading before they can watch.

Zudeo is encouraging digital directors to upload their content through its beta Zudeo Director Edition. The upload terms are quite generous with Zudeo saying that there is no charge to distribute the videos and that there are, "no limitations in duration or file size."

I had no idea the company behind Azureus had that much $$$.

[Quemaqua]

Me either.  Too bad I don't like Azureus, either.

[Xessive]

I used to love Azureus, but the Java was just too much for me.. The client was ridiculously heavy for a simple utility. uTorrent works a lot smoother (and a lot faster) for me. Though I do miss the azure look 'n' feel.. And that frog..

[scottws]

I'm with Xessive.  Azureus has nice features, but so does uTorrent and uTorrent is a lot lighter-weight.

[Ghandi]

The fact that people have to download and install something as opposed to simply typing in a web address means that it won't be nearly as popular.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah.  I mean, quality isn't really why I go to YouTube for anything.  It's the speed in which I can do it... ytmnd style.  Click, watch, close.

[Cools]

I think it's a cool concept, but not in the same market as YouTube. YouTube is for short, low quality bits, while Zudeo allows you to upload and download SD and HD content.

This is more or less a glorified "legal" torrent tracker and it's annoying that you have to download their, probably slow Java, client. Anyway, I think I'm going to check out the submission license and see if I can upload a few TV ready fragments to test it out.

[Cobra951]

This is more or less a glorified "legal" torrent tracker and it's annoying that you have to download their, probably slow Java, client.

After the problems some of us have had with bittorrents of video stuff (like Scott & me) that's what crossed my mind when I first saw this.  But I wasn't sure you could download videos (as opposed to streaming), so I didn't say anything earlier.

[Cools]

Ok, so for anyone who doesn't want to use the Java Azurues client to downloand the content from Zudeo:

They are using a simple Java web launcher descriptor file that when you click on it, it tells your system to launch the cient and load up the torrent file. The file is a .jnlp and is a straightforward XML file. So open it up in any text editor and look for <property name ="az.launch.magnet" value="http:///blaahblah.torrent" />. The value part is the location of the torrent file. Download it and load it up in to your regular torrent client.

EDIT: You can get to the torrent file even faster. instead of clicking on the download button to open up the .jnlp file, you can click on details which will take you to a seperate page where there is a direct link to the torrent file. Done and done...