James Loney
One man meets the media
YouTube hits the big(ger) screen
In: technology
9 Nov 2009The situation isn’t that uncommon. You have a couple of friends over, pop out the beer, and you fire up the LCD TV to show off the latest viral video of the day. But for a while, YouTube had been looking rather hideous from eight feet away on the couch. All of this lies in the site’s original design intended for smaller computer monitors. Typically computer users would be watching YouTube clips in short bursts on a computer monitor 1-2 feet away from their eyes. But with the widespread use of laptops connected to HDTVs that keep plummeting in price, YouTube had to make some changes for a new generation of living room viewers.
Following in the footsteps of the Boxee folks who have designed their computer media centre solution with a “ten foot user experience” in mind, YouTube has liberated our TVs from it’s one foot design to what it calls YouTubeXL. It’s YouTube, but for the big screen — and yes, it does look pretty slick. Video, text, and buttons are now much bigger — an essential design point for users seated eight+ feat away from their HDTV.
Check it out @ YouTube XL
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About Jim
Based out of Toronto, I'm a graduate of the Radio and Television Arts program at Ryerson University and, at present, a graduate student registered in the Communication and Culture joint program at Ryerson and York Universities. I'm also a new media creator dealing heavily with internet video delivery systems. I'm fascinated by the idea of user-centric networks, whether they be social or technological, and the ways they alter our social interactions.
- Kathleen: Sweet. I would never find out about these things if it weren't for you Jim. [...]
- Brad: Well written Jim, To my way of thinking (based on the comments above) the Radio side of RTA is ac [...]
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- elaine: It's hard to be part of RTA sometimes because we're such a small dept. The courses on the chopping b [...]
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1 Response to YouTube hits the big(ger) screen
Kathleen
November 9th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Sweet. I would never find out about these things if it weren’t for you Jim.