TVNZ ondemand - A first look
I had a look at TVNZ ondemand before it was opened to the public, and here's my review.
PlayPoints - the currency
When you register on the site, you get 10 free PlayPoints. PlayPoints are the 'currency' of the site. So, A 23 minute show (eg: Shortland Street without ad breaks) will usually cost 4 PlayPoints, and a 44 minute show (eg: Rude Awakenings without ad breaks) will cost 8 PlayPoints.
The PlayPoints are 50c each, and can be purchased in batches of $10, $20, $50 or $100. You will need your credit card for this transaction, and if you don't have one, you may need to get one of these.
Site Layout
The site layout is really nice! It's flash, user-friendly and much better looking than tvnz.co.nz.
There are RSS feeds on each section of the site. So, we have:
♦ Catch Up, where you can download or view your favorite shows online that you may have missed, or just want to see again.
♦What's Hot, where you can download or view TVNZ's most popular shows online
♦Coming Soon, where you can preview what's coming soon on TVNZ
♦Weekly Recaps, where you can view weekly recaps of selected TVNZ shows. For example: The Best of Breakfast
♦Classics, where you can view popular and iconic NZ shows from the TVNZ archive.
♦Insider Info, where you can view exclusive video from your favorite shows.
Each button has a glossy look to it (see left & right). It's just one of those small things that you don't need, but makes the site look even better.
Watching A Show
You can watch free content and previews of shows you can buy. It streams to your browser, and can be a bit slow at times.
To the left is where you can browse though the available episodes and choose one. To the right - The box where the episode streams, and other information such as links, rating, how much to download, and a brief on the episode.
Full screen view of a streaming show. The menu at the bottom fades away when your cursor is not on or near the bottom of the screen.
Downloading A Show
Before you download a show, you can do a speed test to calculate how long the download will take. When the test is finished, you will get a message similar to this: “This 200 MB download will take approximately: 25 minutes 10 seconds”
When you click download, you get a cute little 'Thank you for downloading' pop-up, followed by the TVNZ ondemand Download Manager. This nifty little manager allows you to pause downloads, turn your PC on & off again and continue downloading.
Once it's downloaded and ready to go, clicking Launch in the manager will get you in Windows Media Player, and another cute message will visit you:
Clicking 'Set Up my PlayPoints Account', will let you type in personal details, name, email and password.
After doing this, you can instantly get your free 10 PlayPoints. But if you still planning on watching a show, this will go down as soon as you activate your licence to view the show.
What's there so far?
Well, there's not much but there is going to be Shortland Street episodes (there are some there now), Eating Media Lunch, Rude Awakenings, One News, Breakfast, possably Karaoke High and NZ Idol, Ticket to the Tribes and so much more. Still being in BETA, there's not a lot there but there will be, trust me!
All the old favorite shows are going to slowly be added over time to the Classics area, but so far there is Radio With Pictures (1982), A NZBC News clip on the Wahine disaster (1968), To Live In The City (1967) and a few others. These, are free to view.
Downsides
♦When you purchase a program, it's not there for you to view forever. After 7 days since you downloaded it, your license will expire, and the show will not play. You will need to purchase another license in order to view it after 7 days.
♦The site does not work on Macs.
The site has launched so check it out at
www.tvnzondemand.co.nz!
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mikeoxlong
hello wat u doin I'm at skwl n ur sitting nxt 2 leon.
TuiKiwi
And? Your point?
272653
Meh, get over it TuiKiwi.
loser3434
oh give it up tuikiwi you're so full of your own self-importance
TuiKiwi
ONE YEAR TONIGHT!
In fact the time I found ondemand was 7.30pm, Saturday March 3rd 2007 (going by gmail chat history to rachel).
Yolanda Martin
Hi dis is Jasinda I Love da ondemand it fun and u could c home and away that u hav missed i jst want 2 say thank u
eMz DaWg
sup sup yol meliza hunz how r ya doin love aw i love ya oxoxoxoxo eMz
TuiKiwi
TVNZ ondemand introduction video
Anonymous
have a look at the link http://images.tvnz.co.nz/ondemand/
Rachel
Lance blogs about ondemand.
Rachel
I asked them why only 7 days before the content expires and they mentioned something about legal issues being the reason for it. For example if there is a legal issue with their news content, they have to ensure they withdraw that content.
campgrrls
Peter Cole said:
Why bother paying for TVNZ's content when they send most of it without DRM to our houses for free anyway?
Exactly my thoughts. But also I am not interested in downloading for free what also I can get off my TV. And c/w itunes approach, I can copy what I record off air on my DVD recorder. The only thing I might be interested in downloading (if I was on broadband) is old progs no longer showing on air.
anon said:
Do you work for tv3 finallyfree? Seems weird that you would hate all TVNZ shows just because they play on a TVNZ channel? Or perhaps you are canadian and you like to support canadian owned companies
Actually the Canadians I know don't support Canwest - they try to avoid Canwest TV as much as possible. They don't like Canwest cos they think it's news has too much of a right wing bias.
Peter Cole
Oh, and one more thing. What's up with the monopoly money? Why do we have to buy TVNZ credits for downloads? Just charge in real NZ dollars and cents! This concept is another copy of what Microsoft has done with it's Zune Market Place in the USA, and it is hated. Just charge in the money we use for goodness sake. Rather than copy a failed model (Plays For Sure/Windows Media), copy one that works.
Peter Cole
Groan,
Hasn't TVNZ learned anything from the successes and failures of Digital Rights Management (DRM) offerings in the lest few years? TVNZ's offering is clearly based on Microsoft's 'Janus' DRM, also known Plays For Sure. The question I have is; who uses Plays For Sure? Answer, competitors to Apple's iTunes. The DRM Apple uses, called FairPlay, a) cannot cause downloads to expire, b) prevent users for making backups, and c) is fully cross platform. And where are the competitors to iTunes? In the also ran camp.
The iTunes model has worked (much to the chargrin of the record labels). Why? Because most people don't like media that self distructs after a few days or uses, want to own their media, not rent it and like being able to make some sort of backup. Combine this with the poor Microsoft software for using Windows Media (compared to iTunes) and you can see why Apple's solution has been a runaway success.
TVNZ's offerring could have been great, but as usual, someone somewhere (maybe not actually at TVNZ), is greedy and insists on DRM restrictions that are far short of what we can simply achieve with a video recorder or DVD recorder. Why bother paying for TVNZ's content when they send most of it without DRM to our houses for free anyway?
whaiora
'Finally Free' is free to watch what they want.
And what on earth is'Under the Mountain'? Sounds before my time..
Finally Free
It's alright anonymous, to me, I'm not missing out.
Oh - and btw, just because I have a strong opinion about it, doesn't mean I'm personally involved in tv3. I just happen to believe they have a better quality of shows. It's a personal preference.
Anonymous
Well poor them then. Every network has good and bad shows, what a shame Finallyfree is missing out on some of the best.
Rachel
Under the Mountain freaked me right out too. That and Children of the Dogstar - would love to see clips of that again to see why (?) I was so scared!
whaiora
Finally Free isn't interested because s/he doesn't watch TVNZ shows, because they are not into them. Its a simple opinion. Doesn't mean s/he works at TV3, is canadian or supports canadian companies, allthough there's nothing wrong with that.
Graham
I work for TVNZ as a sound operator. I worked on Under the Mountain so was interested in your comment about it.
Anonymous
Do you work for tv3 finallyfree? Seems weird that you would hate all TVNZ shows just because they play on a TVNZ channel? Or perhaps you are canadian and you like to support canadian owned companies?
Anonymous
So why are we not up with the rest of the world, have a look at sites like UKNova and mininova, you can download episodes from there for free and easy. Why is no one helping the kiwi's overseas and uploading?
Finally Free
Awesome review Tui.
The idea of playpoints sounds very stupid. But the whole ondemand thing doesn't interest me. Mainly because I don't watch any TVNZ shows so there would be no point in my paying money to watch them.
Now if TV3 did a similar thing - then I'd be interested.
And I'm still hoping nz iTunes starts selling tv shows soon.
FLETCH
I hope they have Under The Mountain available on there.
That shiz scared the crap out of me when I was young.
regan
Kyle's about to be on ZM talking with Stu and Jackie
Rachel
That Tyra video is hilarious!! You should post it as a new topic. LMAO!!!!!!
Tubgirl
campgrrls
Ah, Tui, such is fame and achievement! Sometimes it's better not to read the reviews. Arnie, he wants to be an actor not an assembly-line model with no personality. And geeks have a certain kind of cool on stage, screen and at the keyboards.
Way to go Tui!
Nigra
This man is snowballing.
...in fame that is.
http://www.gpforums.co.nz/thread/259785/?s=
Arnie
In regards to TVNZ launching their new download site, its a good idea however just like any download site that comes with a cost... the hype will die down.
Tui - The article mentions that you would like to be an actor, lets be realistic coz with that face, you were born to be a hacker.