So often in Internet media, the goal of achieving the cutting edge edges out function and wide-scale use. Unfortunately for fans of the site, Veoh TV provides just such an example, but since its in beta development, this could change.

Veoh TV tries to provide users every functionality – real channels, a search function, a social networking area, a library function, and a browser plug-in. In its efforts to develop a super application, developers have created a useful application - if you own a super computer with a NASA quick Internet connection.

Channels

It’s still a case of 100s of channels and nothing on, but not because there’s nothing one would want to watch. It’s just that many of the TV shows don’t load.

For instance, on CBS, there was no success playing CSI. None of the three episodes tried would play. Since it’s in beta, this was immediately reported to the Veoh TV development team. Veoh’s Scott Nance replied that “there are channels that require a higher speed connection than DSL to properly stream.”

Requiring broadband is expected, but how many at home users have a faster than DSL connection? Even many businesses use DSL or cable for Internet access, so this seems a bit extreme. Why provide channels that almost no one will be able to watch?

Nance also said its sometimes necessary to download a video in order to view them. The problem with this is that not all videos available for streaming on Veoh TV are available for download. So, if you don’t work for NASA, and your boss doesn’t want you watching movies at the office, you channel choices will be limited.

Search

The search is interesting. Everyone knows that users upload full-length, Hollywood movies to Veoh. Veoh knows it, too, but doesn’t seem to want to admit it. Some well known shows and movies hosted on Veoh include “The X-Files” and “Solstice” but Veoh TV searches for these returned no episode or film results, though one trailer did come up. A few quick clicks at movieforumz.com confirmed that Veoh still hosted the videos. The limited search results screen out what most viewers want to see online – unlimited TV and movies for free. It doesn’t make sense that one must go outside Veoh TV to find content hosted by Veoh to view it within Veoh TV.

Interact

The folks at Veoh seem enamored with all things auto load. At the Web site, a trailer of video auto loads as soon as the page opens, and Veoh designers used the same attitude in putting together the “Interact” area. Trouble is, some viewers don’t want anything to auto load, and currently there’s no way to turn this off. The “Interact” area is full of widgets. In fact, a full page of widgets loads when one clicks on the “Interact” tab. Unfortunately, they are not at all useful, nor do they enhance one’s film experience. For instance, the random Flickr picture widget just sucked up computer speed playing unnecessary, unwanted content. It would be better to provide a widget list of links with a description and perhaps an icon, to let the user decide what, if anything, to add to the “Interact” area.

Library

The “Library” stores shortcuts to media one has downloaded. It will give an error message if its empty and suggest that the user go to Veoh.com to download videos to watch. Trouble is, finding a movie – not a meme - to actually download on Veoh is like finding a needle in a haystack. The site doesn’t place its downloads in a category by themselves, so it can be tough. Thankfully, any videos one already has on the hard drive may be imported, then viewed in Veoh TV. The advantage of this is unknown. The application doesn’t provide superior playback to other players, nor does it offer features the others don’t have.

The movie player

The movie player interface lacks intuitiveness. What looks like forward and back buttons for within video, actually move one from one video to another. After playing with it for a bit, one discovers that if the buttons are held down, they will navigate through the video like fast forward and rewind buttons. Also, the application doesn’t allow resizing. One must either view in full screen or 5 x 7 inch screen. This makes it really tough to open more than one window to work while watching. Also, if you’re viewing items from the library, when one finishes, the next will automatically begin, even if one doesn't want it to.

Spyware, anyone?

The clincher was that after downloading, the laptop began running much more slowly, then stalled out completely while checking e-mail. Even when the Veoh TV application was closed, the Veoh toolbar showed evidence of sending and receiving information. A suspicious activity that led to running Ad-aware and PC Tools Anti-virus, both of which discovered that the previously clean system now harbored an infection of Starware, a known spyware application. The anti-virus software removed Starware, followed by this reviewer removing Veoh TV. Magically, there were no further problems with infection.

Another beta report was filed with Veoh TV, this one bringing responses from not one, but two developers. It seems spyware is a hot button issue at Veoh. Brandon Hansen of Veoh’s technical support said there is no reported and confirmed spyware in the program and that the company doesn’t intentionally put spyware in the program. Veoh’s Jim Goode concurred. He also added that Veoh was recently TRUSTe certified, and offered an explanation for the Starware issue. Goode suggested uninstalling the application, then re-installing without accepting and installing the Yahoo! Toolbar (which had been left off of the inital installation) and the Veoh browser plug-in, either of which could be recognized as Starware by anti-virus software.

Everyone deserves another chance

After Veoh TV’s explanation and under the belief that everyone deserves a second chance, the application was re-installed, still without the Yahoo Toolbar, but now also minus the browser plug-in. Upon opening the application, it delivered a message that all browser windows must be closed, then re-opened for VeohTV to work. Okay. Done. Three minutes later, after the application still hadn’t connected to Veoh.com using a 100 Mbps LAN, it was time to move on. But, wait. Maybe the third tries is the charm?

The application was opened a third time using the “Settings” option. After making sure everything was on its absolute lowest setting (even limiting downloads to one at a time), it finally opened and connected to Veoh TV home. Unfortunately, once VeohTV was going, there was no logging in to any other Internet site except Gmail.

A little channel surfing brought up the Discovery Channel. That’s a great channel on TV with some intriguing programming, so it became first choice. Unfortunately, it turns out, it’s not really the Discovery Channel brought online, but a few short (3 to 4 minute) clips from the Shark Week documentaries.

Better luck was had with Fox, which features full episodes of selected shows. Clicking on “The Boy in the Time Capsule” episode of “Bones” treated this viewer to a bit more than two minutes of video before the stream from Hulu.com froze. A few seconds later, all of Veoh TV froze. It took closing the program using Windows Task Manager to get things moving again. By now, it was personal. At least one video would work! One last try for “Bones,” this time opening the needed browser windows before Veoh TV. (Some people need to work while watching TV.) It would be better without the periodic Intel commercials, but, hey, an episode finally played! Success is great, and nothing to nitpick.

***

We have previously posted on Veoh here, but this is our first real in-depth look at Veoh TV by our guest-blogger - Carlie Lawson.