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Today's Show:
It was a hot topic in the inbox last week, and we promised to check it out.  So keeping to our word, we spent some quality time with the PlayOn Beta from MediaMall Technologies.  MediaMall is all about allowing set top boxes to access Internet video.  PlayOn is the consumer software version of that technology.  In short, it's really cool; well worth installing if you have a windows computer and a PS3, Xbox 360 or HP MediaSmart TV.

MediaMall PlayOn Beta

From the website:
"PlayOn enables consumers who own a PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox 360, or HP MediaSmart TV to watch Internet video from sites including Hulu, CBS, YouTube, ESPN and more on their television. We have just released PlayOn Beta. Netflix support is just down the road, and the fully featured release will be coming shortly.

We will also be adding support for Nintendo Wii by the end of 2008. Stay tuned!"

So how does it work?
It's pretty easy. You download an installer onto a Windows computer, run it, and in about 5 minutes you're watching Internet video on your PS3. The software is essentially a UPnP/DLNA server that pulls media from the Internet instead of sharing it from your local file system. ; It looks like they're working on adding the ability to share from the local file system as well, eliminating the need for the Google Media Server gadget, but that functionality isn't there yet.

On the PS3, which is where we tested it, each video source shows up as it's own media server. So you get one for CBS, one for ESPN, one for Hulu, etc. There's no searching, but the Hulu and YouTube content is organized pretty well. With Hulu you can browse TV clips, TV shows by name or by Genre, Movies by name and a bunch of other "most viewed" and "highest rated" lists. All of the YouTube content is organized into the categories you see at YouTube: stuff like "most recent," "most emailed," "highest rated," etc.

Video clips look very good. Newer shows on Hulu, stuff that was originally aired in HD like 30 Rock or the Sarah Connor Chronicles, look the best. But old shows like Alf, Starsky and Hutch and WKRP in Cincinnati are still fun to watch, and the quality doesn't kill you. All the videos we played were in stereo sound.

Playback was pretty fluid. Occasionally it would stutter, but that was rare. Fast forwarding sort of worked, but most of the time it just hosed up the video and we had to start over. Hulu automatically inserts the commercials for you. It's a bit jarring because they aren't inserted at obvious stopping points, but you get used to it.

All in all, PlayOn is a great product. If you have a PS3 or Xbox360, you've got to give it a shot. They're working on Netflix support as well. That's of limited benefit to Xbox 360 owners, but pretty cool for Playstation owners. Netflix is set up to own the on demand video market. If they could just get the new content Vudu and AppleTV have, they'd be unstoppable.

It looks like the PlayOn Beta only lasts for 60 days, after that you'll need to shell out $30 for it. If they add Netflix support, it still sounds like a pretty good deal.

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