Sneek peek of TheWB.com
Cory Bergman May 31st, 2008
TheWB.com is in private beta, but NewTeeVee got a sneek peek of the site, which promises to resurrect many of the old WB shows along with some new original content. “Features are similar to Hulu — you can link to and embed episodes and clips of episodes — but the layout is less clean and clear,” writes Liz Gannes. “One excellent addition is the capability to search within video transcripts for specific words.” Shows include Friends, Buffy, The OC and the Gilmore Girls. We just registered for the private beta, so we’ll post more once/if we’re allowed in.
4 Comments Add your own
1. discreet_chaos | May 31st, 2008 at 1:14 pm
I recieved my invite on Thursday evening. The first things that I noticed were similar to the linked article: there’s currently only a few episodes from each show and there’s some shows that’s “advertised” in the header, which just aren’t there.
Perhaps my biggest concern and it may just be a function of the fact that it’s an early beta, but the fullscreen quality is a lot closer to Joost than Hulu.
Yesterday evening, I watched an episode and the fullscreen wasn’t very clear at all, while the small version “skipped”. After watching it, I flipped over to Hulu and watched a “Rockford Files” which performed as expected, then I logged-off my local system to clear anything that may be gumming the works and went back to theWB; This time there was considerably less “skipping” and the fullscreen was almost watchable, but I’m not sure how much was due to my “fix” or how much was because it had become the “middle-of-the-night”, so bandwidth and simultaneous streams weren’t as much of an issue.
Also, I realize that this is a “WB” effort, but there’s a boatload of content at video.aol and not only does their interface suck, but a lot of the times, when you fullscreen-up for the next chapter, the show goes back to the beginning. The problems on video.aol are so prevalent, my eight year-old seems to have given-up on their service. Of course, I only mention this unrelated situation because if theWB were add the AOL/In2TV content to their library, overnight they could have a service as large as Hulu, if not larger.
Though first, they might want to work on the picture.
I’ll still return and I’ve already set a date with my wife to watch the first several “Gilmore Girls”. I think that I might also suggest the surfing show to my daughter because she’s running out of content on Hulu, so overall I’d give theWB good marks and as they make things better, I’m sure others will add it to their viewing options.
2. discreet_chaos | May 31st, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Clarification: My kid is starting to run out of content on Hulu because there’s only so many approved shows that’ll also hold her interest. It’s not because she’s given unlimited Hulu privileges.
3. sinema | May 31st, 2008 at 2:59 pm
İt looks like godd for us.
4. Charles | May 31st, 2008 at 6:04 pm
The content will be nice. It will be REALLY nice when there are more episodes of Gilmore Girls up in the future.
However, TheWB.com seems to be trying to be more “MTV-ish” than Hulu. Meaning? It’s abandoned “clean and simple” for “loud and out there.” Unless I do the sluggish full-screen mode, my eyes are constantly distracted by the colors, banners and other elements on the page. It doesn’t feel “natural” to be watching the video. The video may as well be a ad.
Again, I’ll love the content, and once they get the bugs worked out, streaming should be flawless and a good experience. I just hope they DO share their content with Hulu, so I don’t have to visit that ugly site.
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