The New CNN Pipeline Service: Initial Impressions

The new CNN Pipeline broadband subscription service will officially launch tomorrow morning at 8 AM EST, but the software and initial channels are online now…on CNN.com, they’ve started promoting the service on the homepage now..

You can go here to download the software. (I have some screenshots of the service on Flickr here..)

I downloaded it and signed up for for a 99-cent daypass…three of the four live channels are not working yet, but will presumably start tomorrow. The last one, the live weather channel in online now. Then there are on-demand video clips…

It works on PC and if you have a Mac, there is an online only version which works just fine. Also, if you are away from your computer, you can always watch it online on any other computer once you log in. It is working in Firefox, so that’s good news.

An interesting point I saw in preferences: it is using the Audible file format to render the audio (or video?)…I have to find out more on this.

The picture quality in the default player mode is very good, and it is in wide-screen. Full screen is decent from a distance. The mini-mode is pretty cool, though nothing you haven’t seen before.

The main live channel will supposedly be in HD, which would be fun to watch out for…streaming HD might be a new online. AOL launched its Hi-Q HD service recently, but that’s also streaming. Others also have HD or HD-like downloads…

The Faqs with some more info are here

Related:

CNN Pipeline To Launch Monday

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