[podtech content=http://media1.podtech.net/media/2007/06/PID_011735/Podtech_JAMAN.flv&postURL=http://www.podtech.net/home/3446/hi-def-independent-films-online-with-jaman &totalTime=1857000&breadcrumb=bdc5874011e541acb5bcefd95cc3c09f]
Lots of my friends are watching movies that they’ve downloaded illegally off of Bittorrent. I don’t use Bittorrent because I don’t believe in stealing content. So, I’ve been looking for an alternative way to get long-form content onto my computer and my Apple TV so that I can watch movies that might not be on Netflix yet.
When I saw Jaman at the Demo conference this year I saw a major part of the answer.
Now, Jaman is only for independent films. You won’t find Spiderman on it. But you’ll find “mid-tail” content including what you’ll probably see at a film festival like Sundance.
Or, maybe you’re looking for films that come from outside our culture. My wife is Iranian, for instance, and her mom likes watching Iranian films. Jaman has several of those that I can download and let her watch when she comes over. Hey, gotta keep the mother-in-law happy, right?
Anyway, I love Jaman and it’s bringing me movies I never thought I’d watch into my home. Here’s a look with Jaman’s CEO that I recorded for ScobleShow.
If you like indie films, or discovering films that you might not see at your local theater screens you’ll love Jaman.
Oh, and look at the use of community interation on Jaman to help bring the better films to the top. Really great stuff that every geek working on Social Media should check out.
Scobleizer 
Robert,
Good work.
Videos like this one are the reason I keep your blog and your stuff at Podtech on the short list of “must-read” blogs and sites that I visit on a daily basis.
Cheers,
~Alberto
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Robert,
Good work.
Videos like this one are the reason I keep your blog and your stuff at Podtech on the short list of “must-read” blogs and sites that I visit on a daily basis.
Cheers,
~Alberto
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I go to sidereel.com, quicksilverscreen.com, tv-co.links.co.uk etc. and watch streaming videos there! What’s the point of downloading when you can stream? That’s not stealing if you’re not downloading it 🙂 Just like internet radio 🙂
I’ve watched whole 3 seasons of “lost” in past 3 months. DivX is my favourite player. At times even better quality than TV. Every single episode. Now I’m watching “The Office”. Season 3 already.
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I go to sidereel.com, quicksilverscreen.com, tv-co.links.co.uk etc. and watch streaming videos there! What’s the point of downloading when you can stream? That’s not stealing if you’re not downloading it 🙂 Just like internet radio 🙂
I’ve watched whole 3 seasons of “lost” in past 3 months. DivX is my favourite player. At times even better quality than TV. Every single episode. Now I’m watching “The Office”. Season 3 already.
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Mr. Scoble –
I find your comment about how you don’t use BitTorrent, a protocol, because you don’t believe in stealing content, a bit… misleading. While I will surely admit that much of the use of BitTorrent is for perpetuating illicitly acquired and shared content, use of the protocol itself is not inherently piracy.
A similar analogy might be saying you don’t use USENET or IRC because you don’t like stealing content.
I’m disappointed in your wording. Perhaps better would be to say that you don’t steal content using the BitTorrent protocol?
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Mr. Scoble –
I find your comment about how you don’t use BitTorrent, a protocol, because you don’t believe in stealing content, a bit… misleading. While I will surely admit that much of the use of BitTorrent is for perpetuating illicitly acquired and shared content, use of the protocol itself is not inherently piracy.
A similar analogy might be saying you don’t use USENET or IRC because you don’t like stealing content.
I’m disappointed in your wording. Perhaps better would be to say that you don’t steal content using the BitTorrent protocol?
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I watch 100-150 independent and foreign movies every year. I was very excited when I found out about Jaman because they represent a (potentially) more convenient way to get movies I’m interested in. On trying them out for the first time, I was seriously disappointed with the slow download speeds as compared to most of the other video download services. Contrast this with both Xbox Live and Amazon Unbox, which have blazing fast download speeds and a much smaller selection of titles that interest me, and I’m still leaning toward those two solutions as my main movie download alternatives. The key reason to choose an alternative to the awesome selection of DVD rentals at Scarecrow video in Seattle is convenience. With the current state of Jaman, I need to know several hours in advance that I want to watch a movie or I might as well find something at the video store down the street.
I’m also not overly thrilled by Jaman’s clueless choice of yet another proprietary DRM solution, but would be willing to put up with it if the downloads were faster.
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I watch 100-150 independent and foreign movies every year. I was very excited when I found out about Jaman because they represent a (potentially) more convenient way to get movies I’m interested in. On trying them out for the first time, I was seriously disappointed with the slow download speeds as compared to most of the other video download services. Contrast this with both Xbox Live and Amazon Unbox, which have blazing fast download speeds and a much smaller selection of titles that interest me, and I’m still leaning toward those two solutions as my main movie download alternatives. The key reason to choose an alternative to the awesome selection of DVD rentals at Scarecrow video in Seattle is convenience. With the current state of Jaman, I need to know several hours in advance that I want to watch a movie or I might as well find something at the video store down the street.
I’m also not overly thrilled by Jaman’s clueless choice of yet another proprietary DRM solution, but would be willing to put up with it if the downloads were faster.
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Argh, it’s not stealing. For theft to occur, you have to deprive someone/something else of the object. This doesn’t happen with piracy.
You might not believe in copyright infringement, and that’s a fine moral position to hold. Just give it its right name!
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Argh, it’s not stealing. For theft to occur, you have to deprive someone/something else of the object. This doesn’t happen with piracy.
You might not believe in copyright infringement, and that’s a fine moral position to hold. Just give it its right name!
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No, Jaman will definitly not be alternative to BitTorrent. Why? Take a look at The Pirate Bay, the world biggest bittorrent search engine. What can you find? Spiderman and other mega blockbusters. You won’t find any indie flicks there! The nature of the BitTorrent protocoll is that it favors the mainstream. The more people sharing a file, the faster to download, the faster you can download it, more people will download – and share it. People will still use BitTorrent to get hands of that popcorn brainless action movie that they want to se but not badly enough to pay for. But serious cineast probably would pay for Jaman to have easy access to those smaller and of more high quality movies that they wount find out there in that big bad file sharing BitTorrent cloud. I know I would! And I’m a sirious pirate! Arrr!!
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No, Jaman will definitly not be alternative to BitTorrent. Why? Take a look at The Pirate Bay, the world biggest bittorrent search engine. What can you find? Spiderman and other mega blockbusters. You won’t find any indie flicks there! The nature of the BitTorrent protocoll is that it favors the mainstream. The more people sharing a file, the faster to download, the faster you can download it, more people will download – and share it. People will still use BitTorrent to get hands of that popcorn brainless action movie that they want to se but not badly enough to pay for. But serious cineast probably would pay for Jaman to have easy access to those smaller and of more high quality movies that they wount find out there in that big bad file sharing BitTorrent cloud. I know I would! And I’m a sirious pirate! Arrr!!
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“I don’t use Bittorrent because I don’t believe in stealing content.”
That’s just a stupid thing to say. And you know it! Comment baiter! 🙂
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“I don’t use Bittorrent because I don’t believe in stealing content.”
That’s just a stupid thing to say. And you know it! Comment baiter! 🙂
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Onkar: of course it was stupid to say, but it has SOME truth to it.
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Onkar: of course it was stupid to say, but it has SOME truth to it.
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As a former Seattleite, I’ve got to agree that Scarecrow Video is the incredible mecca of independent and hard-to-find films… heck, they have some of the most amazing section names, even. The two years when I lived in walking distance from there were some of the happiest movie-watching times of my life.
Jaman doesn’t (yet) have the breadth of content that Scarecrow has (but we’re working on that). We also don’t have the immediate viewing that comes from living next door to a rental store (nor do we have their absurd late fees! I once had to pay something like $30 for having a few videos out too long). But you can watch movies really soon after you decide you want them… our (newly released .9.0) Player has progressive download, so you can be downloading the movie in the background while you’re watching. I guess it’s about the time it might take to drive to the video store and back.
Thanks for the kind words, Mr. Scoble! I’m glad you like the service!
– Danielle (Community Cruise Director and Kung Fu fanatic)
P.S. You can find me at http://www.jaman.com/a/people/jamanista
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As a former Seattleite, I’ve got to agree that Scarecrow Video is the incredible mecca of independent and hard-to-find films… heck, they have some of the most amazing section names, even. The two years when I lived in walking distance from there were some of the happiest movie-watching times of my life.
Jaman doesn’t (yet) have the breadth of content that Scarecrow has (but we’re working on that). We also don’t have the immediate viewing that comes from living next door to a rental store (nor do we have their absurd late fees! I once had to pay something like $30 for having a few videos out too long). But you can watch movies really soon after you decide you want them… our (newly released .9.0) Player has progressive download, so you can be downloading the movie in the background while you’re watching. I guess it’s about the time it might take to drive to the video store and back.
Thanks for the kind words, Mr. Scoble! I’m glad you like the service!
– Danielle (Community Cruise Director and Kung Fu fanatic)
P.S. You can find me at http://www.jaman.com/a/people/jamanista
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Regarding download speed, it is no fair comparison between bittorrent and Jaman. Why? Jaman has some high picture quality content. If you watch it on a plasma, you will see the difference.
On top of that, Jaman’s latest release has progressive download. We don’t really need to wait for the full movie to be downloaded before watching. With good cable connection speed, you can start watching a movie in a few mins.
Thanks for all the enthusiasm and disucssions about Jaman!
P.S You can find me at http://www.jaman.com/a/people/maggie.t
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Regarding download speed, it is no fair comparison between bittorrent and Jaman. Why? Jaman has some high picture quality content. If you watch it on a plasma, you will see the difference.
On top of that, Jaman’s latest release has progressive download. We don’t really need to wait for the full movie to be downloaded before watching. With good cable connection speed, you can start watching a movie in a few mins.
Thanks for all the enthusiasm and disucssions about Jaman!
P.S You can find me at http://www.jaman.com/a/people/maggie.t
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