It was only announced last week but the MSN Video Player has now gone live. Is it worth watching? How does it compare to the BBC iPlayer and Hulu? Read on for a full review of Microsoft’s online video streaming service.
Competition For BBC iPlayer
The online video streaming sector in the UK is suddenly exploding, perhaps fueled by the popularity of the BBC iPlayer or perhaps because online video has finally gone mainstream in a big way. The iPlayer continues to dominate but in the aftermath of the decision to quash Project Kangaroo, competition is increasing.
Arqiva has bought the technology behind Kangaroo and plans to use it to launch an online video streaming service within months. Then there is Hulu, the free premium video service in the States which has plans to move into other territories, with the UK being first on the agenda. Hulu UK is therefore likely to become a reality in a few months time.
MSN Video Player Launches
First out of the gates is the MSN Video Player, a new UK-only online video streaming service from Microsoft. The project is being overseen by Ashley Highfield, who took the wealth of knowledge he acquired from being in charge of the BBC iPlayer to Microsoft. The MSN Video Player launched at the beginning of this week in its experimental pilot form.
The MSN Video Player has initially launched with 300 hours of content from BBC Worldwide and All3Media. Shows on offer include Hustle, Mock the Week, Dead Ringers, That Mitchell and Webb Look, How to Look Good Naked, 10 Years Younger, and Peep Show. Which are all great shows but are limited to only being available at least 180 days after being originally aired.
MSN Video Player Review – First Impressions
So, it’s all older content but there is still a lot of shows available on the MSN Video Player that I’d like to watch. In the same way that Dave is one of the my favorite British television channels, new content isn’t the be all and end all. However, video quality is and in that department the MSN Video Player is severely lacking.
On first visit, the site looks nice, with images of some of the content available on the homepage. However, the design is also messy and confusing. the shows are divided into genres from Comedy to Documentary, some being better represented than others.
MSN Video Player Review – Viewer Experience
A lack of content and tatty design could be forgiven if the viewer experience was great. But the MSN Video Player doesn’t get that right either. The titles of each episode are too small to see in full, meaning you have to click on it to actually see what it is. Doing so starts the video on the same page, which is fine. But the poor video quality immediately shows.
Even in its default small size the video is pixelated, but switch to fullscreen and it becomes virtually unwatchable. The quality is much worse than the BBC iPlayer, 4oD, ITV Player, and only just compares to YouTube SD. At the moment, MSN Video Player delivers video in Adobe Flash rather than Microsoft’s own Silverlight. But I suspect that will change before long. At least I hope so.
The adverts were inevitable for a free service such as this, and they’re as well implemented as they were ever going to be. But that doesn’t make it any more palatable to have a BBC show which was originally broadcast without any adverts be segmented by regular commercial breaks.
Conclusions
The MSN Video Player has promise as being an online repository for classic shows. It is almost like an online version of Dave. However, to really take off, it needs more varied content, a more user-friendly layout, and above all better video quality. If that doesn’t happen then I’ll stick with the BBC iPlayer and 4oD until Arqiva and Hulu UK turn up.
