Google takes video store online, adds download ability
By Paul Miller 
posted Jan 10th 2006 7:00AM
posted Jan 10th 2006 7:00AM
It took 'em a couple of days, but Google Video now allows you to buy that Charlie Rose you've been jonesing for, along with some CBS episodes (we just nabbed a few Macgyver episodes to get the creative juices flowing), NBA games, and random crap that reminds you that Google isn't just about the premium partners for their new Google Video Store. They've also added a download button to get an iPod or PSP formatted version of free videos, but most of the for-pay content is going to have Google's own special flavor DRM and require their Google Video Player to peep.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
anyone else think this is surprisingly lame? also, whatup with google telling their customers to grab their ankles and let the content providers take advantage?
$4 for an NBA game that's a day old. give me a break. 24 hour cbs RENTALS for $2? WTF? for all the criticisms of apple's store... atleast it's something worth using.
No Mac player? Pfft.
Wow! The guys at iTunes must be sleeping a lot better tonight after seeing how lame Google's offering is. Not only do the paid downloads not work on any devices, but you also have to be online to view any video that you purchase.
1) It's Google. I'd let them take over the world.
2) DRM is a necessary evil if you want content partners.
3) If you don't like the price, STFU and go back to you p2p app.
I agree... I really see no reason why people so used to getting these things for free will pay for them. Google is great, but I dont consider this a huge deal either way. They will make more money if they sell divx quality films there.
?
Yeah... but... but... MacGYVER!!!!
"3) If you don't like the price, STFU and go back to you p2p app."
Or, how about you, you know, record the same shows FOR FREE the night before, in high definition, then transfer them to your portable player of choice yourself, where they'll play for as long as you want them to without restrictions?
Your rationalizations are pretty stupid. You must like to bend over. Grab that lube and open wide!
The Google Video store (and the iTunes video store, for that matter) are both supremely lame. They're the AOLs of video. Give people the same crap they can get anywhere else, with worse quality and higher prices, and then tell them how great you are. Well, I guess it worked for AOL for a few years, but eventually people wise up.
that google partnered with Real for video kinda tells you they don't know what they're doing here. If I was forced to choose between installing Real or something from Gator, think I would honestly choose Gator as at least I could remove it fairly easily without mangling anything too bad.
But can't download on my mac. Come on!
This is the ugliest interface ever. Did you see the search criteria when you click on a video?
BTW - Could Bill Gates display his dorkiness any fuller than responding to a question about Google with, "I hear they have a robot that cooks hamburgers." ??? It sounds like something a dad says to embarrass the kid in front of the friends.
Is he Ward Cleaver or what? Maybe his dorkiness was cancelled out by having JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE on stage.
It shows you that money can't erase dorkiness.
Ok,
The first season
Macgyver DVD is $31.99.
31.99 / 22 episodes = $1.45 an episode - why would you pay $1.99 for such poor quality?
-- But can't download on my mac. Come on!
I'm not sure what you mean. I've just downloaded a video from Google and watched it on my Mac - iPod compatible and everything. Brilliant.
Even better - they're accepting video *uploads*. :-)
Kap
Here is an idea: don't worry about it.
This won't stop piracy, at least not until they make these thing available GLOBALLY. Not just US. One of the biggest reasons for piracy is that people get tired of waiting for them to released these shows in their area.
I found at least one old movie - My Favorite Brunette - that costs 7.99 on Google video, but is also available on www.publicdomaintorrents.com for nuttin'.
Video quality sucks donkey balls.
U-G-L-Y!
Makes me feel like I'm scouring the bargain bin at my local Walmart...
These online video offerings are going to kill themselves with their stupidity.
Here's how to do it right:
#1 - No DRM. You may think DRM is required for content providers to be interested and such, but you'd be wrong. If you own the market, providers will come.
#2 - 1280x720 should be the absolute minimum resolution offered. Specialist resolutions like PSP and iPod compatible resolutions can be generated from HD content easily.
#3 - 5.1 surround sound
#4 - Priced less than a comparable DVD offering. Because no one has thought to approach this with both feet and with a serious intention of making it convenient, online video downloads are still inconvenient when compared with just popping a DVD into a player. So you can't depend on convenience selling your product. You actually have to produce something of greater value!
There seems to be a number of films google is charging for which are public domain and offered for free on the internet elsewhere.
eg Night of the Living Dead - $4.99 on google, for free (in a variety of download sizes) from www.archive.org
The google service doesn't seem to offer any advantage over the archive.org one.
I predict a backlash if it becomes widely reported that google is trying to charge the public for content on it's video search which is public domain and already online.
I think the important consideration here is Google's foray into set-top partnership with Intel. Perhaps the interface is ugly because it is only intended to be the engine behind Intel's Viiv front end. I admit that I am not interested in purchasing anything right now (well, except maybe that Eurhytmics video), particularly the items coming from the public domain, or that I can only watch on my PC.
But I'm willing to wait more than a couple of hours to make a final judgement (unlike most Engadget readers).
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/intel_alliance.html
The publicdomaintorrents.com site was a new one for me, but there's also archive.org. Google has "Dressed to Kill" (a Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes) selling for 7.99 at LQ but you can get it for free from archive.org in one of five different formats from a relatively decent 56k stream up to a 3.5 GB downloadable MPEG file.
I think the google video store will be huge for independent filmmakers. I have uploaded my documentary called "Journey of Hope" about a cross-country bicycle ride to raise funds and awareness for people with disabilities -- still waiting to be verified though. The ability to sell your content anywhere in the world for any price you'd like is nothing short of a revolution. It's not perfect, but it's a good start. I'm charging $2 for download and $1 for a 24-hour rental. I don't know if that pric-point will work, but I can always change the price if I need to.
It seems that the DRM content (the stuff you gotta pay for) is only available for Windows users. All of the public domain videos I saw were available for either. Google has its own media player application for its DRM content, and it does not yet support Mac OS's. I guess I'll just have to steal my Mcgyver episodes through Acquisition, heh heh.
There are only two places I'm going to watch videos. On my TV, or, (in rare cases) on my iPod. I'm sorry, but how do DRM'd low quality Google videos help me with anything? I don't want to pay that much for what these are. Have you seen the masterful encoding job Apple's done with Lost on iTunes? Even in full action sequences, there's very little degredation. This looks like garbage even when I have it in a smaller size!
From Family Guy:
Watch CBS, why watch what everyone else is watching?
the instructions at google how to move a film to a psp also links to endgadget ....
http://video.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=32187&topic=1484
Larry Page's Keynote, sans Robin :( is on the Video Store:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-594779305713074829
But can't download on my mac. Come on!
I'm not sure what you mean. I've just downloaded a video from Google and watched it on my Mac - iPod compatible and everything. Brilliant.
Even better - they're accepting video *uploads*. :-)
Kap
You can download the FREE videos on a Mac. Not the paid videos Kap. Even if you download the paid video on your PC, you still can't put it on your iPod because it streams on your computer thru Google Player. Does anyone know of a program that can rip from Google Player? I feel ripped off that I don't actually own the video a I bought.
mp5 free download