Voddler
Encyclopedia
Voddler is a commercial video-on-demand
service and accompanying media player
client application distributing movies and television programming using a patented hybrid peer-to-peer
distribution system. Voddler was founded 2005 by Magnus Dalhamn and Mattias Bergström.
Voddler's concept is similar to those of Amazon Video on Demand, Vudu, Headweb, Spotify
, and Grooveshark
, but only for video, and with its media player client software's 10-foot user interface
is primarily designed for the living-room TV instead of a desktop computer interface
, much like the graphical user interface
of Boxee
. The service in its advertisement
-financed version is currently only available in parts of Nordic countries
of Europe
during the ongoing beta phase, although they claim that their subscription model will in the future also be available in almost all countries in North America
, Western Europe
, Russia
and the Baltic states
.
Voddler is developed by a privately held for-profit startup company
Voddler, Inc. which is a Swedish
high tech
company with its head office in Stockholm
, the corporation was founded in 2005 and is responsible for the development of the Voddler P2P
/TV video content delivery service and Voddler Player client software. Financially backed by funding from several small venture capital
companies like Swedish Deseven and Finnish Eqvitec, as well as investments from Elisa Oyj
(a Finnish
telecommunications company)
In September of 2010 Voddler also introducted "Voddler Social" with integrated social networking features into the Voddler media player client that allow you to directly share recommendations to your friends, similar to that of Boxee
and Spotify
media player clients and their respective social network
s.
in the cinemas.
Voddler have to this date confirmed current deals to carry content from Noble Entertainment, Scanbox Entertainment, Non-Stop Entertainment, Film-Factory, Paramount Pictures
and The Walt Disney Company
, this includes subsidiary companies such as Touchstone Pictures
and Miramax Films
from Disney and also Dreamworks Studios from Paramount. Voddler have also announced that they have also signed an agreement to carry content from Sony Pictures Television
, including subsidiary companies of Sony Pictures such as Screen Gems
, Columbia Pictures Television
, TriStar Television
, Columbia TriStar Television
, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
, as well as Warner Bros and New Line Cinema
. In addition to Sandrew Metronome
(a Scandinavia
n film distributor
) that is one of the biggest distributor companies in the Nordic countries
, which is the market that Voddler is targeting first with expansion to Norway
, Denmark
, and Finland
during the spring of 2010 announced.
based website which allows the users to watch movies directly in a web browser
as an alternative to using Voddler's standalone media player application software.
The network client
("VNetManager" background daemon
/ service
) function is a separate application and it uses closed source proprietary code from Voddler, and the same goes for Voddler's back-end
server application that Voddler runs.
The Voddler software only runs on MS Windows and MacOS.
Similar to that of Vudu's hybrid peer-to-peer
TV and P2P-Next technologies. The Voddler player connects to a user’s home broadband Internet connection to deliver movies, users select the movie that they want to watch then a few advertisements clips start to play before the selected movie starts playing. The first couple of seconds of every movie within the catalog is loaded onto the hard disk drive of the computer that the user is running the Voddler player on, ensuring instant playback when the user chooses to watch a given film. The remainder of the movie is delivered to the client via an exclusive peer-to-peer
network with each Voddler player serving movie content to other boxes within the network. This process begins instantaneously while the user views the loaded portion of the movie, allowing for seamless viewing. The movie then finishes downloading to the users hard disk drive. Users are not yet able to set the amount of internet bandwidth the client uses, this is instead determined by the Voddler client automatically and the quality of the movies delivered depends on the users internet bandwidth. Movies and advertisements clips are cached and stored locally on the user hard disk drive, and the Voddler client will store up to 13GB of movies on the users harddrive..
that was introduced at the end of September of 2010. This feature also allows the user to post their recommendations on Facebook
and/or Twitter
direct from the Voddler media player client, and you can also import all your Facebook-friends to quickly generate a friends list to start with when you begin to built a circle of friends around you that you follow in this social network.
, Voddler's first media player software, then called "Voddler Player" was initially based on the GNU Public Licensed source code
of XBMC Media Center, a free and open source software
, which GUI interface Voddler uses as its application framework
for the media player on the client side.
However in late November 2009, concerns were raised by Voddler users as to whether Voddler was in violation of the GPL license by incorporating parts of XBMC Media Center and FFmpeg
source code into their client software but not providing all of the Voddler source code
needed to compile
the Voddler player executable
. December 21, 2009, Voddler made an official reply stating that they will comply and provide all of the requested source code, however so far they have still not done so, and developers from XBMC Media Center say that they have several times tried to contact Voddler without success.
On the 24th of February 2010 Voddler temporary stopped their VOD service due to their encryption scheme for streaming videos had been hacked, and at this time they also announced that they would move to instead use Adobe Air and Flash proprietary based media player and front-end clients.
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
service and accompanying media player
Media player
Media player is a term typically used to describe computer software for playing back multimedia files. While many media players can play both audio and video, others focus only on one media type or the other...
client application distributing movies and television programming using a patented hybrid peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
distribution system. Voddler was founded 2005 by Magnus Dalhamn and Mattias Bergström.
Voddler's concept is similar to those of Amazon Video on Demand, Vudu, Headweb, Spotify
Spotify
Spotify is a Swedish-founded, UK-headquartered DRM-based music streaming service offering streaming of selected music from a range of major and independent record labels, including Sony, EMI, Warner Music Group, and Universal. Launched in October 2008 by Swedish startup Spotify AB, the service had...
, and Grooveshark
Grooveshark
Grooveshark is an international online music search engine, music streaming service and music recommendation web software application, allowing users to search for, stream, and upload music that can be played immediately or added to a playlist...
, but only for video, and with its media player client software's 10-foot user interface
10-foot user interface
In computing a 10-foot user interface is a software GUI designed for display on a large television with interaction using a regular television-style remote control."10 foot" refers to the fact that the GUI's...
is primarily designed for the living-room TV instead of a desktop computer interface
Application software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
, much like the graphical user interface
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
of Boxee
BOXEE
Boxee is a cross-platform freeware HTPC software application with a 10-foot user interface and social networking features designed for the living-room TV...
. The service in its advertisement
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
-financed version is currently only available in parts of Nordic countries
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
during the ongoing beta phase, although they claim that their subscription model will in the future also be available in almost all countries in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and the Baltic states
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
.
Voddler is developed by a privately held for-profit startup company
Startup company
A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...
Voddler, Inc. which is a Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
high tech
High tech
High tech is technology that is at the cutting edge: the most advanced technology currently available. It is often used in reference to micro-electronics, rather than other technologies. The adjective form is hyphenated: high-tech or high-technology...
company with its head office in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, the corporation was founded in 2005 and is responsible for the development of the Voddler P2P
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
/TV video content delivery service and Voddler Player client software. Financially backed by funding from several small venture capital
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
companies like Swedish Deseven and Finnish Eqvitec, as well as investments from Elisa Oyj
Elisa Oyj
Elisa Oyj is a Finnish telecommunications company founded in 1882 that was known until July 2000 as HPY. Elisa Oyj employs about 3000 people and in 2007 had revenue of about €1.57 billion...
(a Finnish
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
telecommunications company)
In September of 2010 Voddler also introducted "Voddler Social" with integrated social networking features into the Voddler media player client that allow you to directly share recommendations to your friends, similar to that of Boxee
BOXEE
Boxee is a cross-platform freeware HTPC software application with a 10-foot user interface and social networking features designed for the living-room TV...
and Spotify
Spotify
Spotify is a Swedish-founded, UK-headquartered DRM-based music streaming service offering streaming of selected music from a range of major and independent record labels, including Sony, EMI, Warner Music Group, and Universal. Launched in October 2008 by Swedish startup Spotify AB, the service had...
media player clients and their respective social network
Social network
A social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes", which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social...
s.
Content
Movies that are new or popular will only be made available through subscription or pay-per-view, while older and less popular movies can be seen for free with advertisements. A few movies is also said to be made available at the same time as the premierePremiere
A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...
in the cinemas.
Voddler have to this date confirmed current deals to carry content from Noble Entertainment, Scanbox Entertainment, Non-Stop Entertainment, Film-Factory, Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
and The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
, this includes subsidiary companies such as Touchstone Pictures
Touchstone Pictures
Touchstone Pictures is an American film production label and is one of several film labels of the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group. Established in 1984, its releases typically feature more mature themes and darker tones than those that are released under the Walt Disney Pictures banner.Touchstone...
and Miramax Films
Miramax Films
Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
from Disney and also Dreamworks Studios from Paramount. Voddler have also announced that they have also signed an agreement to carry content from Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television, Inc. is an American and global television production/distribution subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment. In turn, the latter is part of the Japanese conglomerate Sony.-Background:...
, including subsidiary companies of Sony Pictures such as Screen Gems
Screen Gems
Screen Gems is an American movie production company and subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation....
, Columbia Pictures Television
Columbia Pictures Television
Columbia Pictures Television was the second name of the Columbia Pictures television division Screen Gems . The studio changed its name on September 4, 1974.-1974-1982:...
, TriStar Television
TriStar Television
TriStar Television was an American television production company that was launched in 1986 by TriStar Pictures . The same year, Tri-Star Television joined forces with Stephen J...
, Columbia TriStar Television
Columbia TriStar Television
Columbia TriStar Television was the third name of the television studio Screen Gems, named after its then-current 1991 home video division....
, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
, as well as Warner Bros and New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
. In addition to Sandrew Metronome
Sandrew Metronome
Sandrew Metronome is a Scandinavian film distributor. It is one of the biggest distributor companies in the Nordic countries. It is owned by the Anders Sandrew Foundation and the Norwegian Schibsted group....
(a Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n film distributor
Film distributor
A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films to the public either theatrically or for home viewing...
) that is one of the biggest distributor companies in the Nordic countries
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
, which is the market that Voddler is targeting first with expansion to Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, and Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
during the spring of 2010 announced.
Player software
Voddler's standalone media player application software is since the 8th of March 2010 completely closed source and based on Adobe Air proprietary software framework, at the same time they have also launched a Adobe FlashAdobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
based website which allows the users to watch movies directly in a web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
as an alternative to using Voddler's standalone media player application software.
The network client
Client (computing)
A client is an application or system that accesses a service made available by a server. The server is often on another computer system, in which case the client accesses the service by way of a network....
("VNetManager" background daemon
Daemon (computer software)
In Unix and other multitasking computer operating systems, a daemon is a computer program that runs as a background process, rather than being under the direct control of an interactive user...
/ service
Windows Service
On Microsoft Windows operating systems, a Windows service is a long-running executable that performs specific functions and which is designed not to require user intervention. Windows services can be configured to start when the operating system is booted and run in the background as long as...
) function is a separate application and it uses closed source proprietary code from Voddler, and the same goes for Voddler's back-end
Front-end and back-end
Front end and back end are generalized terms that refer to the initial and the end stages of a process. The front end is responsible for collecting input in various forms from the user and processing it to conform to a specification the back end can use...
server application that Voddler runs.
The Voddler software only runs on MS Windows and MacOS.
Movie Delivery and Storage
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
TV and P2P-Next technologies. The Voddler player connects to a user’s home broadband Internet connection to deliver movies, users select the movie that they want to watch then a few advertisements clips start to play before the selected movie starts playing. The first couple of seconds of every movie within the catalog is loaded onto the hard disk drive of the computer that the user is running the Voddler player on, ensuring instant playback when the user chooses to watch a given film. The remainder of the movie is delivered to the client via an exclusive peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
network with each Voddler player serving movie content to other boxes within the network. This process begins instantaneously while the user views the loaded portion of the movie, allowing for seamless viewing. The movie then finishes downloading to the users hard disk drive. Users are not yet able to set the amount of internet bandwidth the client uses, this is instead determined by the Voddler client automatically and the quality of the movies delivered depends on the users internet bandwidth. Movies and advertisements clips are cached and stored locally on the user hard disk drive, and the Voddler client will store up to 13GB of movies on the users harddrive..
Voddler Social
Voddler Social is Voddler’s new integrated social networking features to share, review, and discuss films online with your friends within the Voddler Social social networkSocial network
A social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes", which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social...
that was introduced at the end of September of 2010. This feature also allows the user to post their recommendations on Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
and/or Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
direct from the Voddler media player client, and you can also import all your Facebook-friends to quickly generate a friends list to start with when you begin to built a circle of friends around you that you follow in this social network.
GPL violation controversy
Similar to BoxeeBOXEE
Boxee is a cross-platform freeware HTPC software application with a 10-foot user interface and social networking features designed for the living-room TV...
, Voddler's first media player software, then called "Voddler Player" was initially based on the GNU Public Licensed source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
of XBMC Media Center, a free and open source software
Free and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
, which GUI interface Voddler uses as its application framework
Application framework
In computer programming, an application framework consists of a software framework used by software developers to implement the standard structure of an application for a specific development environment ....
for the media player on the client side.
However in late November 2009, concerns were raised by Voddler users as to whether Voddler was in violation of the GPL license by incorporating parts of XBMC Media Center and FFmpeg
FFmpeg
FFmpeg is a free software project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia data. The most notable parts of FFmpeg are libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by several other projects, libavformat, an audio/video container mux and demux library, and the ffmpeg command line...
source code into their client software but not providing all of the Voddler source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
needed to compile
Compiler
A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...
the Voddler player executable
Executable
In computing, an executable file causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instructions," as opposed to a data file that must be parsed by a program to be meaningful. These instructions are traditionally machine code instructions for a physical CPU...
. December 21, 2009, Voddler made an official reply stating that they will comply and provide all of the requested source code, however so far they have still not done so, and developers from XBMC Media Center say that they have several times tried to contact Voddler without success.
On the 24th of February 2010 Voddler temporary stopped their VOD service due to their encryption scheme for streaming videos had been hacked, and at this time they also announced that they would move to instead use Adobe Air and Flash proprietary based media player and front-end clients.
See also
- Vudu, a competing peer-to-peer technology service to distribute full-length movies to any television.
- Amazon VOD, another competing internet video on demand service which offers television shows and films for rental and purchase.
- LOVEFiLMLoveFilmLoveFilm is a UK-based provider of home video and video game rental through DVD-by-mail and streaming video on demand in the UK, Germany and Scandinavia...
, another competing internet video on demand service for movies. - Netflix (Watch Instantly Service), another competing internet video on demand service.
- Headweb, another competing similar internet video on demand service.
- SpotifySpotifySpotify is a Swedish-founded, UK-headquartered DRM-based music streaming service offering streaming of selected music from a range of major and independent record labels, including Sony, EMI, Warner Music Group, and Universal. Launched in October 2008 by Swedish startup Spotify AB, the service had...
, a similar service, but for music - GroovesharkGroovesharkGrooveshark is an international online music search engine, music streaming service and music recommendation web software application, allowing users to search for, stream, and upload music that can be played immediately or added to a playlist...
, a similar peer-to-peer technology service, but for music - HuluHuluHulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...
, has similar business related goals. Only available in the US.