Justin.TV Kills Cloud-Based Video Archive
-
- June 18, 2014
By James DeRuvo (doddleNEWS)
One of the cool things about Justin.TV, is that users can create their own internet television channel and provide live streaming content like the Networks, but on a shoestring budget. And for free, it’s a great option for those just starting out, or those budding YouTube stars looking to offer live streaming of their content creation. But Steve Wozniak may have been a prophet when he declared that over reliance on the cloud will be our doom, and Justin.TV may be part of that prophecy as they have announced that they are closing their video archive permanently, leaving users to scramble to download their video archives and then find a third-party option.
"...our staff has been reviewing data surrounding our archive and VOD (Video on Demand) system. We found that more than half of our VODs are unwatched (with 0 or 1 total views), while the vast majority are rarely watched (with 10 or less views). This data was essential in better understanding how our service is being used. Even when adding the direct upload to YouTube functionality, we found this feature was seldom used." – Justin.TV Blog
I actually don’t think it’s really that bad. Justin.TV is, after all, a free service, and it’s best as a live video portal. And Justin isn’t the only one making this move. UStream earlier this year decreed that video archiving would be a paid feature, not available for free streaming customers. And the decision that Justin came to wasn’t done lightly. In fact, it was made after taking a look at their system and coming to the conclusion that it simply wasn’t being utilized ... like at ALL.
The archive was meant to act as a defacto video on demand option, but everyone sees Justin.TV as a live video portal, not a VOD one. It’s likely that even users didn’t even know it’s available since Justin’s data shows that it even their “save to YouTube” feature just isn’t being utilized. And I can fault Justin.TV for that. But again, it’s a free service.
What sucks though is that Justin.TV gave very little advanced warning before coming to the decision. Users have had only about two weeks to get their content out of the video archive before the live streaming service shut it down completely on Sunday. And that’s bad form, quite honestly, even though I support their decision to redirect their resources to help the live streaming business.
And it just underscores what Steve Wozniak was warning about when he said? "I really worry about everything going to the cloud, I think it's going to be horrendous. I think there are going to be a lot of horrible problems in the next five years." Users should always make backup copies of their content, even live streaming content. That’s why every camera is capable to recording directly, and there’s also low cost external options like the Atomos Ninja Star. And it’ll give the added benefit of being able to record at higher resolutions since the camera isn’t doing the processing.
And Justin.TV at least offers a little help in that with these suggestions: ”As we believe this is of huge importance to some of our broadcasters,” the Justin.TV Blog states, “we have taken the liberty to put together guides on how a broadcaster can record a broadcast locally on their end. Please see the below links:
So, moving forward. Live streaming users who want to archive that live content online should seek offline options, or move their data to numerous alternatives like YouTube or Vimeo, or a host of other third party streaming options. In fact, don’t rely on one. Use them all. Always having multiple backups is the lesson here. You can’t rely on a free service to do it for you.
The post Justin.TV Kills Cloud-Based Video Archive appeared first on Doddle.
