Venice Project: details and screenshots

As we have already said , the free Venice Project P2P system is an analogue of Skype, but not for voice transmission, but for broadcasting TV channels in a peer-to-peer network of viewers who have installed a special program. “Like the Skype, the Venice Project is simple,” says Janus Friis. - You download the program and immediately receive free Internet TV. The quality is almost television.

The Venice Project is based on the same peer-to-peer technology of the Joltid Global Index as Skype and Kazaa. The difference is that now they have developed a add-in to the Global Index, designed specifically for broadcast video.

As can be seen in the screenshots, the developers are very close to the task that they set for themselves, namely: to turn a personal computer into a full-fledged digital TV. And in terms of ease of management, and in terms of the number of channels, the PC is now in no way inferior to the teleman. The screenshot shows the control panel - it's easier to think of.


')
Other functions are also primitive, “foolproof”. For example, adding channels to your favorite list is done by double clicking a button. The entire menu consists of just a few commands.



As at one time, Skype has become a real catastrophe for the global telecommunications industry, the Venice Project can mean the same global changes for television. At least, the first reports of beta testers are quite convincing in this.

So, what is the Venice Project? If from a technological point of view, this is a rather complex peer-to-peer system, then from the Venice Project user side is the simplest client program that allows you to select a TV channel from the list and watch it. The distribution volume is slightly less than 10 MB. Currently, the system works only under Windows XP Service Pack 2. Minimum system requirements include a 600 MHz processor, 512 MB of RAM and DirectX 9.0c.

The Internet should be very fast (at least 1 Mbit / s). Broadcasting is carried out with a stream of about 1000 Kbps, and about 250 MB of traffic is generated per hour on average.

The picture has a 4: 3 format. Broadcast very good quality, practically without jitter. True, among the TV channels so far there are no programs that go live. All transfers are pre-recorded, which facilitates the caching process. So the true power of the service so far can not be verified.

A small delay occurs only at the time of switching channels and when you activate some menu items.

Quite promising is the chat function, which allows you to talk with your friends or even with unfamiliar TV viewers who are currently watching the same program as you. Other advanced features include support for Jabber and Gmail contact lists, so your friends can follow the program you are currently watching, as well as the built-in RSS reader with ratings.

Will the Venice Project be a breakthrough for television? It is difficult to say, but one thing is clear: advertising in any case will not disappear anywhere. At least in the Venice Project system, it is already there. So far these are small commercials with a length of three to five seconds.

Below we publish some screenshots received from beta testers. Note that beta testers published them , apparently, contrary to the signed non-disclosure agreement, which must be adopted before launching the program.