Shane Conder's Whateveritis of Nothing

MatrixStream and Movie99

Apparently, like some other bloggers, I got an email from MatrixStream asking if I would be interested in blogging about their company, products, and services.  After looking at their stuff, I figured why not?  I mean, it's IPTV and VOD stuff which I find to be interesting.  I've been using these sorts of technologies on my Sprint MM-A920 lately, anyway.  So I responded.

Not three hours later I was called by Aaron.  We chatted for a while about their technologies, blogged, podcasting, and some other interesting stuff.

I got some random information about their VOD and IPTV offerings:

• The set top box will be capable of two HD, 1080p streams
• They currently have no mobile offerings, but see it as a possibility
• The feeling, though, is that most people still prefer to watch video on a TV so that is primary
• I agree, although between my iPod Video and video on my phone, I do use mobile video a lot
• They see Microsoft as their biggest competitor
• I find this to be interesting because I would see some of the mobile offerings, Apple, and some of the movie download services as more immediate competitors
• They sell to both businesses and consumers
• Target markets included small ISPs, large telcos, hotels, cable companies, and interestingly enough, airplanes as well as content providers.
• The full 1080p will use upwards of 6Mbps where 720p can use 2Mbps.  That said, the service is tuned for 1.5Mbps connections, which are the most prevalent broadband in the US.  The site, though, listed 1.5Mbps for SD, 10Mbps for HD 720p, and 24Mbps for HD 1080p.  Yikes! Well, those numbers make more sense -- maybe I didn't hear him clearly.
• Later, I learned this was the difference between optimized streams and perhaps download or full quality video.
• Movie99 is available now for trying out their PC video client
• I tried it out and have some thoughts and comments I'll save for later when I can verify some things
• My quick initial impressions were that the streams started up extremely fast, but that the quality wasn't quite as I expected it.
• However, I was told that these weren't encoded by them so it's not the best they can do. 
  

As I mentioned before, the talk also turned to blogging, podcasting, marketing, and traditional media.  One of the most interesting discussions was around why people, if they do, trust bloggers as much or more than traditional media.  My reasoning was that when you read a blog you tend to get to know someone and you trust people you know better than those you don't.  Additionally, commentary and reviews within blogs usually don't hold much back.  I think big media will avoid too many negative comments for fear of being blamed of slander. After the call I also realized something else.  Blog posts are most similar to columns in magazines.  The interesting thing, though, is that people often trust stuff said in the columns more than elsewhere.  For instance, if a columnists says they really like Product B even if Product A got the Magazine Choice Award people are probably more likely to buy Product B.

As for Movie99, the demo content is pretty weak and there wasn't a whole lot of stuff that was interesting to me.  I'll probably play around with it more over the weekend, though.  There were some music video channels, so that could be some good background stuff.  We've got a 6Mbps DSL line, so the performance should be decent.  What was interesting, though, was that the VOD content also started playing immediately.  It wasn't just content for download.

The player itself appeared to have a few issues.  The controls didn't seem to pause the streams, but I didn't try to hard as I kept changing channels.  The player didn't integrate with my media buttons, either (e.g. play, pause, stop).  The hardware doesn't actually seem to be available yet.  The FAQ claims that you can contact your broadband service provider or Movie99.  Thing is, I'm sure my DSL provider doesn't know anything about this -- they're fairly regional.

Note: I'll probably be updating this as things get clarified. 

Other blogs that have talked about this:

Viral marketing (Combs Spouts Off)
Kelly’s World- A View into the mind of Uber Geek, Kelly Adams » Blog Archive » Will Matrixstream do for IPTV what Vonage did for VOIP?
Nick Starr.com - Nick Starr dot com » IPTV Set Top Box - Matrixstream
xblog.x-sysonline.com » MatrixStream has launched the World First IPTV with HDTV support
A Question at Rife’s Torch
Krunker » MatrixStream to release world’s first High Definition IPTV
From Aaron Keogh - Slice of SciFi
MatrixStream IPTV Set Top Box at Orange Days

That's not bad for some emails from MatrixStream and just a quick search from me.  What I can't figure out is who is being advertised to.  I write up stuff I like and therefore contacting me is good because I might actually be the target audience.  Of course, anyone who reads what I write is probably also interested.  Even if I hadn't written about this, though, I would have been exposed to it and that may have been valuable enough for just one very well targeted email.  It's hard enough to even get a click through email, but without the post there would have been a discussion and quite a bit of browsing and research.  With the post, the exposure moves on down the line.

Is this right?  Is it moral?  I don't know.  But both things I find interesting so I've written about both of them.