Youtube for your TV enters its beta phase

Watching Youtube videos on your TV set just got more friendly, as the "Youtube browser" feature of the Linux based OSD device has entered its beta phase.

We reported two weeks ago about the "alpha" or "experimental" Youtube browser feature added to developer builds of the firmware for Neuros Technology's OSD Media Centre and PVR (personal video recorder) device. But that build was not very user friendly... for instance, it allowed users to search Youtube but you only got a text list with video titles as a result.

Youtube fun on your TV gets closer to 'release quality'

The latest beta-level firmware for the OSD device, released last week, includes an updated Youtube browser that is no longer in the "experimental" category. Plus, it now shows thumbnails of each video on the results page, just as you get them when searching or browsing Youtube from your PC or Internet Tablet. Since a picture is worth a thousand words and a video is worth a thousand pictures, you can see a video of the OSD's beta-version Youtube browser on Youtube itself.

Among the noteworthy additions is a new preferences screen which allows you to get Youtube search results as text-only or including thumbnails, so those are not mandatory at all, you can switch back to text-only listings if you prefer for faster scrolling. Playback of YT videos works as well as it did in the pre-beta stage, that is to say, very well, provided that you have a fast internet connection to avoid "buffering". Users with one Megabit or faster broadband should have no problems.

Find the Youtube browser in the "More Applications" menu option

Type a search string using the OSD remote control
and the on-screen keypad

On the downside, this beta also includes an option dubbed "save to favourites", on which I spent several hours doing searches of my favourite videos and then selecting "save to favourite" only to find later when clicking on the Favourites option that the list was empty. Caveat Emptor, your mileage might vary. I guess that's why it's called a "beta". But needless to say, it's progressing by leaps and bounds.

...and get the results, including thumbnails
Now select the video you want and enjoy it Full-Screen on your TV

If you have an OSD with the device and want to test this, download beta firmware version 3.33-1.27 which you can find at the Neuros site over here, save it to a SD card or other removable media pluggable into the OSD, then use the file browser to select the file and press [Enter] on the OSD remote, from the menu, select "Upgrade firmware". Then go and make coffee because firmware upgrades take a long while.

Still, the comfort of Youtube browsing from your favourite couch or sofa - and now with thumbnails - can be worth it. µ

See Also
Youtube intrudes into your bedroom
How the INQ helped debug OSD hardware
Open Source, the only weapon against 'planned obsolescence'

L'INQS
Youtube video showing OSD's Youtube video playback
(pardon the redundancy)