Thursday, October 23, 2008

Release Candidate 4 is here and so are Full Episodes from YouTube


The forth release candidate is here with support for PS3 firmware 2.5, higher quality YouTube content and automatic update of expired URLs.

As many of you probably know YouTube has been improving the quality of its videos and at the same time made its content available in H.264 and not just Flash video. Up to this release TVersity would take by default low quality videos even when higher quality was available. This release will always try high quality videos first and only if not available, fall back to the lower quality.

Furthermore, TVersity can serve YouTube content in FLV and H.264 by taking it from the source and without any need to transcode. This insures higher quality, faster response times and immediate playback on MP4 only devices (like the iPhone).

Another long overdue improvement is related to expiring URLs. It is common practice among content publishers to embed in playlists (or redirect to) URLs that expire after a while. TVersity used to take the expired URL and stick with it even after it stopped working. This release will automatically re-acquire expired URLs eliminating the need to keep refreshing content of this nature (some examples are YouTube and ASX playlists).

Last but not least, YouTube has been experimenting with full episodes of certain TV shows (such as the original Star Trek, The Young and the Restless, and FRONTLINE | The Choice 2008 to name a few), the current TVersity version is the best way to watch this content. You can now get the highest quality YouTube offers, you need not worry about expiring URLs and you can watch it on the big screen, so enjoy!

For a complete list of changes please check the release notes.

Download the latest release here.

UPDATE: Today something changed at YouTube, this lead to... (you guessed it or worse experienced it) TVersity failing to play YouTube content. We just released a newer version that fixes these issues so please upgrade!