By Becky Hurwitz
Load Media is a company that provides personalized video entertainment
over the web. The company, as of June 2000, became the largest high-resolution
internet broadcaster. Content offered by Load includes trailers, movie
clips, current news, music videos and many other subjects.
LOADtv takes advantage of the increasing prevalence of high-speed
internet connections. Increased speed leads to shorter load times
and therefore, increased ease of access to internet content. Load
Media is trying to take advantage of this kind of change, acknowledging
that people are more likely to spend more time online, and also, that
people want to be able to access everything of interest to them online
at anytime.
The free software application LOADtv, is easy to use. It has a resizable
display area, play/pause/rewind…etc buttons similar to any VCR-type
equipment, and quick access to the content downloaded onto your hard
drive. The content plays without the jumpy, blocky problems common
to most other videos on the web. Always On Delivery technology allows
users to access the content at anytime and with very little wait.
Load Media's product is high quality, but I am not compelled to subscribe.
What conditions would lead me to subscribe? Maybe if I worked in
an office all day- not the work of a college or graduate student which
is hardly ever located in one place; maybe if I had my own office-
not an open cubicle; maybe if I had enough time while at work to get
distracted; and of course, if I had a computer and an fast internet
connection; maybe under these conditions, I would tune into such a
service, download a bit of video entertainment and watch. I wonder
if this is the target audience for LOADtv, because it seems like a
very specific and very small demographic.
The company website and linked articles claim that people use LOADtv
mostly for news. People open up LOADtv, download a bit of the current
news and then watch that. I use my computer for news- my home page
is nytimes.com, I visit cnn.com if I am looking for specific information
about a story, and sometimes I watch the Peter Jennings or CNN nightly
news on Real Player. But these services are free. They are comprehensive.
They are easy to use. The quality of video is not as great as LOADtv's,
but LOADtv is not as good as television, which I also can use for
free.
I admit that it is tempting to watch or to download video online.
A computer has the capability to both play and store video, so it
seems natural that we should exploit such a capability. TV tuner cards
make it possible for any computer to function as a television, and
DVD players allow any computer to function as a TV/VCR unit. It seems
natural that we would try to eliminate the need for the extras- the
TV tuner card and the DVD player by simply offering the content online.
Video offered as demo on Load Media gave me only a limited preview
of the kinds of content available with a subscription. The literature
about subscription promises a varied and plentiful library of content.
Perhaps, with the fusion of television quality displays for computers
and video playback that equaled the quality of television picture,
I would consider a LOADtv subscription. But for now, my video entertainment
needs and sources seem to me to be superior those offered by Load
Media.