Forum - View topicNEWS: ADK, 6 Anime Firms to Launch Overseas Streaming Site Daisuki
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
Author | Message | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
invalidname
Contributor
Posts: 2434 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
|
|||||
That's a really interesting point. One thing that gets overlooked about Crunchyroll is how good their technology is. As a streaming media developer, I'm really impressed with Crunchy's technical chops: they've been fearless about getting on as many platforms as possible (game consoles, mobile devices, OTT boxes, smart TVs), and their adaptive bitrate support is much deeper than most providers'. I once did a talk on HTTP Live Streaming (the protocol used by iOS, Roku, Android and others) and did a compare-and-contrast between the streams of Durarara!! delivered by the iOS [adult swim] and Crunchyroll apps to show how much better Crunchy's encoding is ([adult swim] seems to have two bitrates: pretty decent SD and crappy cell network from 2006, while Crunchy uses a deeper variety of bitrates and encodings). Straight-up, my biggest fear about Daisuki isn't so much that they'll take my favorite shows away, but that they'll make them Flash-only, and they'll look as crappy as NicoNico. Assuming of course that any of this comes to pass at all. |
||||||
dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
|
|||||
I would hope they wouldn't be stupid enough to go Flash only. They would completely cut off the market for iOS and newer Android devices. Even if they used a native app for the devices, it would still need to support some format utilized by mobile devices. Let's face it, Flash is slowly but surely on its way out, even on desktop devices. |
||||||
agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
|
|||||
Yes, there is one point where having the software development and media encoding under the same roof is potentially a strong benefit. When they rolled out the PS3 channel, they had substantial problems that they ended up fixing by adapting their encode to give better PS3 performance. By contrast, I suspect the reason that the Funimation app doesn't work for Funimation videos on my Nook Color may be the encode, since the PowerVR SGX530 only supports H.264 baseline profile, not Main or any of the extended profiles ... but then Funimation outsourced their app to Phunware, so if its the encode, its not the app author's responsibility. |
||||||
Tanteikingdomkey
Posts: 2345 |
|
|||||
I would much rather support crunchyroll I think. funimation (not funinico, sorry justin but the oreimo simulcast that ANN did was not good enough) does a good job as well but those are the only two who I have ever seen actually do a good job with their subs. atleast crunchy works with fan subers and listens to their complaints and will try and would improve their work and go back and actually correct it!
Also I do love my crunchyroll app for my PS3 |
||||||
configspace
Posts: 3717 |
|
|||||
Thing is, the h.264 spec is much, much broader than what any asic or fixed function decoders support. I think a good app should be able to fall back on software or GPU shader decoding, though it drains battery and some mobile SoCs might be too weak Anyways, what you mentioned about secret project piques my interest! And yes CR has the best technical chops for streaming, quality, soft subs. It's not perfect, but they've come a long way: More Upotte screenshots @ 1080p |
||||||
agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
|
|||||
Hence the profiles. While Funimation fails to play its videos, the ad plays just fine. And while Funimation is the only video streaming app I've sideloaded onto the NC that fails to play any of its videos, Hulu promised an NC HuluPlus app at the time that the Nook Tablet was rolled out with a preloaded HuluPlus app, and they reneged, so they could well have had some Main profile feature in their encode (which wouldn't have caused any issue with their original PC streaming web target), and re-encoding their streams would be too much trouble for such very small market share.
No way the Nook Color can keep up with 360p video in software, its a color LCD reader pretending to be a media tablet. When Hulu on the web is tricked into thinking the NC is a PC, the best it can handle in Flash is the sub-360p resolution (288p? 240p?). The later PowerVR SoC generations handle Main profile with no problem, and being dual core and slightly faster per core would have an easier time coping with any software support required. |
||||||
ConanSan
Posts: 1818 |
|
|||||
Oh hey, a legal means of consuming asian conent. I give it five minutes before they shun me because I'm not american, thus throwing me back into the arms of the Pirates again.
|
||||||
mdo7
Posts: 6248 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
|
|||||
That's very cool to hear. I wonder if Daisuki can also stream live-action stuff like J-drama, and maybe K-dramas (if CR, Hulu, and Dramafever isn't enough for some people). Tat would be cool to see, I hope they can release an app for it on consoles, and smartphones.
|
||||||
ChibiGoku
Posts: 675 |
|
|||||
Good news, it's apparently world-wide, which includes non-English speaking regions. |
||||||
agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
|
|||||
That's good news ~ since its already been announced that the new Sailor Moon will be "distributed" widely (I thought I recalled 'worldwide' but I couldn't swear to that), it might be a launch simulcast. On the other hand, the answer as to whether Crunchyroll has anything to do with it is no. Whatever Crunchyroll's big thing is, its not that ~ from the same source that there is some big project but they can't yet drop hints what it is. However, if I had looked at the page source at Daisuki.net/en and seen the Engrish, that would have been clear from the outset. From an info-text section commented out:
Form a queue on the right: anime-otaku-coveting LE products are sold! |
||||||
PBsallad
Posts: 338 Location: Phoenix |
|
|||||
I haven't read the whole thread, so maybe someone brought it up. But the parts I did read had a few people worry that these companies might not allow their work on other streaming sites.
I can see that happening, but I really doubt it. It's better to have multiple sources of income and multiple "channels" for people to view these shows. If Daisuki really wants to sell these shows on their site though, they better make it easy and affordable for people to do so. Also, TMS, a company part of this, just added Noboy's Boy Remi to Hulu. It should expire in about 2 years too. Maybe the shows they add to Daisuki will be exclusive to there, but again, I doubt it. That's only TMS though, Bandai could make Gundam exclusive... |
||||||
agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
|
|||||
More likely would seem to be a one week exclusive simulcast period and then shared simulcast rights until they close the window on the simulcast (hopefully with at least one broadcast season of grace). That seems like it wouldn't get in the way of selling North American home video rights, since Funimation has never shown any urgency in getting seasonal streams up as genuine simulcasts, Sentai/TheAnimeNetwork has previously shown flexibility in allowing Crunchyroll a one week exclusive period for some of their series, and of course Aniplex USA is owned by a partner in the consortium. If Crunchyroll has shared seasonal streaming of these companies series on a one week delay, but had them worldwide outside Japan, that would be a step back in one respect but a step forward in another ~ and plus it would be lower contracting costs if they could get all of those seasonal streams in a single deal. The flipside for the new venture would be getting in front of an audience including 100,000+ members who already pay for their streaming anime, and quite likely convincing a reasonable share of them to double dip in their anime subscriptions.
That would explain why the Gundam AGE didn't have streaming distribution in the US. and only had that Southeast Asia and Oceania YouTube stream. If they imagine they are going to be selling Gundam physical media overseas by adding subtitles (and dubs for Southeast broadcast networks) to a Japanese release, then it would make sense to have a single international one-stop-shop for Gundam streaming. That would also explain Crunchyroll's catalog license for Gundam original, Zeta and Wing expiring. |
||||||
TD912
Posts: 274 |
|
|||||
Ah, there must have been a lot more to it than I remember. Still, since there's so much involvement with the Japanese companies now, I don't see what's wrong with them besides "they're making money". |
||||||
ConanSan
Posts: 1818 |
|
|||||
|
||||||
agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
|
|||||
They seem likely to hit the spot on that on, given that for not-yet-licensed anime as well as anime with lapsed licenses, they are in a position to do that without anyone else saying otherwise. Whether they hit the spot in terms of streaming quality, breadth of device support, the amount of ads on any free ad-supported streaming and the cost of a subscription versus amount of content ... ... those I'd be more worried about. |
||||||
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
||
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group