Given YouTube’s control of the snack-video market, it is no surprise that attention is shifting to long form, professionally produced content. Joost, Babelgum and scores of others are chasing this market, betting that MTV Summer Break might make compelling viewing on your PC.
One company that often gets overlooked in this whole conversation is Jaman, a San Mateo, California-based company that offers full length movies for either downloads or rental via a P2P client (works on Mac and Windows.) Unlike some of their competitors, the company is focusing on international and indie content, staying away from the Hollywood fare. (Babelgum is focusing on international content as well.) I have always liked their service and client software - it is more polished than some of its rivals and delivers on what it promises.
I wrote about them back in December, and with the company being now exactly 100 days old, I wanted to catch up with them. In their new sprawling, if somewhat sparsely populated office, what I ended up seeing was a big and pleasant surprise and it involves AppleTV.
The folks at Jaman have developed a plug-in of sorts for AppleTV that basically installs on the AppleTV box, and allows your PC/Mac to find and sync content from Jaman’s client to Apple’s box. It still maintains its copyright protected status, and 7-day-rental policy. For legal reasons Gaurav Dhillon refused to talk about how they did the hack, but said Google is your friend… your will find the answer.
Jaman has done a great job of (unofficially) integrating their service with AppleTV, and the experience was as seamless as say YouTube. But more importantly, the visual quality on a big screen plasma screen was stunning… scratch that, breath taking, when compared to Apple’s own video offerings. I think Apple should give this product their blessing and give people a good reason to buy AppleTV, which is still a hobby according to Steve Jobs.
Apple TV is the first device they have extended their service, and are working on porting it to all sorts of devices including some of the newer internet-only set-top boxes.
“Everyone else is focusing on video on PC, but we think the real experience is on a real TV (screen),” says Dhillon. He pointed out that his rivals are still talking about it, and Jaman has already done it. “We have done it on a closed platform, so doing it on open platforms is going to be relatively easy,” he says. The company has already aggregated move than 1,500 international movies (500 are encoded and available online), and is looking to add television shows and music channels to the mix in coming months.
So when do we common people get our hands on this plug-in? Very soon: maybe before the All-Star Game in July 2007.
Bonus link: Robert Scoble has a video interview with Dhillon.
22 comments so far
10:33 AM PT
Wow, thats awesome, finally my AppleTV can be put to good use. Can you post a link to the hack?
10:37 AM PT
hey james
they are about to release the software, which can be easily installed on your apple tv. i am going to update the post when they are ready to give it out.
10:57 AM PT
These guys are doing an amazing job. The Scoble interview was great and I really think that their product line is going to take off and could ultimately be the boost that AppleTV is hoping for!
11:04 AM PT
[...] The folks at Jaman (see our early profile) have developed a plug-in of sorts for Apple TV that basically installs on the Apple TV box, and allows your PC/Mac to find and sync content from Jaman’s client to Apple’s box. It still maintains its copyrightprotected status and 7-day-rental policy. The visual quality on a big screen plasma screen was stunning… scratch that, breath-taking, when compared to Apple’s own video offerings.Continue reading on GigaOM. [...]
11:51 AM PT
I saw the jaman demo at Demo07 and had an oppurtunity to talk to Gaurav as well. Their execution is fantastic, and the picture quality is very very good. It ports well to the TV sets. I think this vastly differentiates itself from the others.
2:17 PM PT
In the interview, we are told that one can refuse to participate in Jaman Cascade Network (their P2P network). If confirmed, I will subscribe to it; otherwise I will not (see my reasons in reference to Skype). After all, Amazon S3 charges about 15 cents per GB - I am willing to pay the bandwidth cost, but not share my PC or bandwidth.
By the way, given that they claim to cater to “middle tail”, how much can they really benefit with JCN?
11:30 PM PT
GNC-2007-06-29 #280
It’s iPhone Friday Podcast Awards start on Monday at PodcastAwards.com and we have a Round Table this coming weekend at TechPodcasts.com Sponsors: [Save 10% off on any order at GoDaddy.com!] Use Code Todd [Try GoToMeeting free for 30 days at…
11:33 PM PT
GNC-2007-06-29 #280
It’s iPhone Friday Podcast Awards start on Monday at PodcastAwards.com and we have a Round Table this coming weekend at TechPodcasts.com Sponsors: [Save 10% off on any order at GoDaddy.com!] Use Code Todd [Try GoToMeeting free for 30 days at…
7:35 AM PT
The visual acuity of Jaman rocks! Streaming content looks grainy and dated - almost like taking a step back technologically. HD is the way forward and these guys have nailed it.
8:00 AM PT
I want it… how to find the update ?
10:15 AM PT
[...] is a digital movie download service (Mac and PC) focusing on international and indie content. Om Malik caught up with his Bay Area neighbor for a demo of their upcoming AppleTV integration: Jaman has done a great job of (unofficially) [...]
1:45 PM PT
[...] Malik, over at GigOm, got a preview of the plug-in, and reports: Jaman has done a great job of (unofficially) [...]
8:38 AM PT
Another startup was bringing AppleTV like features to Cable TV - rumour is that Tellytopia got acquired this week. I’ve heard they’re being tested in the big cable TV operators and were preparing to launch service.
That should be an interesting competitor to AppleTV!
http://www.multichannel.com/blog/1820000182/post/1020011302.html
3:42 PM PT
[...] en cine indie e internaticional) y que ha sido noticia recientemente ya que ha desarrollado un widget que permite usar este servicio desde el equipo [...]
3:10 PM PT
Hey, just so everyone knows; Jaman is offering 4 free movies to download if you register using this promo URL:
http://www.jaman.com/promo/tbone
11:56 AM PT
[...] a P2P movie download company that focuses on indie and international content, has found a way to install its service on AppleTV. Jaman offers both rentals and downloadable purchases, and copyright-protected status will remain [...]
2:54 PM PT
[...] of their JamanTV player. You might have heard about this application when it was featured on gigaom back in June. In that post, Om Malik wrote about an application that allowed rented movies from [...]
9:02 PM PT
[...] - a company taking a very different approach to delivering content. Jaman has gotten attention from some of the big wigs both for its focus on indie and international films and for its ability to deliver [...]
7:06 AM PT
[...] rent and download and worked with the prominent Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year. Jaman also hacked its way onto AppleTV, but unlike mDialgoue, did so without Apple’s [...]
2:22 PM PT
[...] If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read what Om Malik had to say. [...]
6:27 PM PT
Apple will NEVER approve of this.
Apple want to OWN the living room, not sell consumer electronics so others can SHARE it. Same with Microsoft.
But then again, I do believe this is inevitable. But not with Apple and Microsoft boxes.
Come on Google, release the Android-TV os already!
James
7:51 AM PT
[...] Malik, over at GigOm, got a preview of the plug-in, and reports: Jaman has done a great job of (unofficially) [...]
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