Google Video Player: Your Ticket to Google's Multimedia Megaplex Video Quality Wildly Uneven at This Stage Adam Stone
Video Quality Wildly Uneven at This Stage
While amateurs may find the site a welcome home for their works, others on the far opposite end of the spectrum are participating as well. Television networks are making whole shows available, while Hollywood studios are uploading slick movie trailers.
As a result, video quality is wildly uneven, and some have complained about the general lack of quality overall. Several factors seem to drive the problem, including poor initial quality as well as issues related to video format.
While some may call it inconsistency, others call it freedom. The ad hoc nature of the Google video store seems very much in keeping with the company's overall philosophy of anything-and-everything. So it's caveat emptor here as one peruses a catalog of videos that may or may not be copy-protected, videos that may or may not have advertising, clips that offer a lengthy preview and clips that offer none at all.
Then there is the money. Home movies might be free, while episodes of CSI or Survivor Panama: Exile Island will cost $1.99 each — the content producer in this case gets to set the price tag.
Do you want to invest your time, energy and hard-earned shekels on this cheerful chaos? Consider the most-requested videos on a typical day in August:
Sex in the Kitchen
World's Clumsiest Pole Dancer
Shakira -- Hips Don't Lie spoof
Girl Caught Cheat (sic) on Webcam
Topless Car Wash
Before you make your decision based on the above list (or get too excited about the possibilities), note that the dirty ones all are parody. The "Topless Car Wash," for example, is performed by several very fat men. Google screens out the naughty stuff.
So it comes down to the for-pay content, the seemingly endless episodes of Charlie Rose, interspersed with the odd MacGyver and Have Gun Will Travel. If you download the Player that's what you will get, at $1.99 a pop.
It's hard to be too enthusiastic just now, but things may change over time. As the Google video collection builds, and surely it will, we may see pricing and quality stabilize. At that point the idea of a proprietary player may tempt us — but we're definitely not there yet.
