As part of our efforts to get the word out about PlayOn, we have just launched a new Facebook page. We are trying to build up a community in advance of our launch so that we can hit the ground running and start getting the word out about PlayOn. We’d love your help! Check out the page, become a fan, post a video. In fact, we are offering a free license key ($30 value) for the person who posts the most creative video showing how COOL PlayOn is. And - of course, everyone is entitled to a free 14 day trial….

So - check it out - share your thoughts and feedback - and let us know why YOU think PlayOn is cool (or not….)

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Just a quick shout-out that things are still moving along with PlayOn! We have been working hard on getting Netflix Silverlight accounts working, and will keep everyone posted with our progress. It’s a major change in the Netflix service, but we’re pushing forward. If you want to continue using your existing Netflix account through PlayOn, make sure you don’t upgrade your account to the new Netflix Silverlight beta program until we have a patch ready.

We plan on posting a new release in around a week from now. It will have some tweaks and minor bug fixes, but all in all, our last release was stable for most of our user base. A few users have expressed concerns and frustrations about the trial period expiring recently for the latest beta. Not to worry! We will reset the trial period to 14 days with the next release. And we’ll do the same when we push the “gold” version, which should follow on the heels of the next release. So you should have plenty of time to drive PlayOn around the block before you need to make a purchase decision.

Thanks again for all your feedback and comments. Keep it coming!

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Hey testers! We just released PlayOn 2.58.3228, and it’s got tons of cool new stuff. Some of the highlights are:

• Hulu videos with higher resolution (480p)
• Hulu user Queue support
• Netflix improvements
• A new PlayOn logo
• … and lots more goodies!

This release is for all practical purposes our first release candidate, even if not officially named as such. So, what does that mean? Well, we think it’s good enough and stable enough to release to the general public, as a complete product. There are certainly plenty of interesting features that we consider make it a “real” product now.

But, this is not the end of the road for PlayOn, by any means. We are committed to adding new features, like Wii support, over the coming months. And those upcoming features will be available to all our testers and to those who have decided to purchase a license.

Stay tuned over the coming weeks and months as we continue to improve and expand PlayOn. We’ve got lots of product plans on our slate, and will try to keep everyone posted as we continue to develop and support our software.

You can sign up to download PlayOn at www.getplayon.com.

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We just pushed a new release — version 2.58.3211. It offers a lot of good fixes and feature enhancements. For those who aren’t getting the auto-update system tray notification, you can download the latest from our site or sign up at getplayon.com.

We’re really excited about this release, as it puts us a lot closer to our first release candidate. There are still a few odd issues here and there, but this release should be pretty stable for the vast majority of folks. We’ve made good improvements to our Netflix support. And the latest PLAYSTATION 3 firmware upgrade (2.50) works just fine with the latest PlayOn.

Since we’re getting closer to a final release (or at least getting closer to an official release candidate — no specific date is set yet), we’ve also reset the trial period to 21 days. Depending on when you first installed an earlier version of PlayOn, this will either increase or decrease the number of free days you have left to try out the software. Keep in mind that if there are additional bugs or problems in this (or future) releases of PlayOn, and people need more time to evaluate our software, we can easily reset the trial period again on a subsequent release.

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A recent blog post made us re-think the value of PlayOn – extending the life of the Xbox 360? That’s what Joe implies http://joeinmotion.blogspot.com/2008/10/playon-hulu-360-couch-potato-mode.html. Yes, the Xbox is supposed to get Netflix later this year through a Microsoft-Netflix partnership, and that is very exciting to Netflix and Xbox 360 users. But the fact that today, through PlayOn, Xbox 360 users can access videos from Hulu, CBS and Netflix could get some frustrated Xbox 360 users from here to there – and who knows? …perhaps they will stick with the PlayOn service even after the upgrade since you don’t need Xbox Live Gold Membership to access Netflix with PlayOn, but you will with the native Xbox support. And – we plan to make it even more compelling in an upcoming release by enabling you to browse the entire Netflix Watch Now library, not just the titles you have added to your Instant Queue – the native Xbox solution will not offer this, nor does the Roku box. All the more reason to keep your Xbox and use PlayOn!

Brian Dipert of EDN also commended PlayOn as a way to get Netflix before the Fall Release for the Xbox 360 in his recent post http://www.edn.com/index.asp?layout=blog&blog_id=400000040&blog_post_id=230034423. He evaluates a number of alternatives and has lots of great things to say about PlayOn – thanks Brian. We are excited about the power of our browser/media player and hope we can help in the multi-company/multi-solution effort to get folks out of their office chairs and back on their couches in front of their TV’s!

Finally – I have to mention Nick Wingfield’s Oct. 3rd article in the Wall Street Journal entitled Turn On, Tune Out, Click Here about folks who are watching TV shows on their Computers.  PlayOn was left out of the article (unfortunately for us), and Nick mentions that “Viewers [of Online Video] must either watch shows on their personal computers, or use a device like Apple TV, which allows them to download shows from the Internet onto their television sets.” Nick goes on to say “Within the next several years, however, media and technology executives say that a host of new technologies will make television access to online video a mainstream phenomenon. Vudu Inc. already sells a $299 set-top box with a remote control that allows users to download television shows for $1.99 per episode. Microsoft and Sony both sell television shows that users of their Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 videogame consoles can download over the Internet for viewing on television sets. Netflix subscribers can buy a $99 set-top box from Roku Inc. that streams videos on their television sets. The service is included at no extra charge in the monthly Netflix fee for renting DVDs.” Well, Nick, there is no need to wait! As we know, the 15+ million Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 owners do not need to wait several years, buy a $299 or $99 set-top box and pay $1.99 (or anything) per episode to watch NBC, Fox, CBS, ESPN shows or Netflix movies on their TV. A mere $30 of PlayOn software and NO NEW BOX can accomplish all that (and more)! While we’re bummed to have been left out, we think Nick points out an important trend and highlights some of the great companies helping to make it all possible.

We are excited to hear such excitement around PlayOn – and encourage folks to keep the comments and suggestions coming – and we’ll keep the upgrades coming!

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Thanks to all for your patience. The website and ability to download PlayOn is [finally] fully functional. Yes - we were down for about 30 hours due to higher than expected volume. It seems that Netflix support was in high demand and we are thrilled to be able to offer it in the latest Beta version of PlayOn.

We have also reset everyone’s trial period to day 1 of a 45 day trial. We want to make sure that everyone has at least 45 days to take Netflix for a spin before purchasing PlayOn.

We apologize for the inconvenience and hope that you will take this opportunity to give PlayOn a try.

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Our servers crashed really hard yesterday, shortly after our latest version of PlayOn with Netflix hit the streets. We are in the process of converting to a much beefier server that can handle the bandwidth. Frankly, we’re amazed at how many people are interested in PlayOn, and we are incredibly grateful to all of our beta testers.

We’ll try to keep people posted here as our website is ressurected from the dead, and hopefully the total down time won’t last much longer. Thanks for your patience!

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All right, the moment is upon us! We have just released the latest version of PlayOn with Netflix to our subscribed beta testers. We’ve been kicking its tires for the past week or so, and it’s looking pretty slick. There are still a few glitches here and there, but overall, it should deliver for the vast majority. Give it a spin!

Also, Netflix has made some really cool announcements recently, adding content from Disney and CBS, as well as Starz. We’ll be taking a look as this content becomes available, and expect the vast majority of these videos to be available through PlayOn.

Marshall Guthrie recently posted a great video showing PlayOn running Netflix on his Popcorn Hour A100. Thanks Marshall! You can see his blog post here.

We’ve also seen a few other examples of people posting videos to YouTube, showing PlayOn in action. Check out PlayOn running on the Xbox 360, as well as on a Sony PSP. Pretty cool.

We’ll be pushing an update notification to everyone who already has PlayOn installed, so you should see a system tray balloon popup, letting you know that the recent release is available. We should also be sending out a mail to everyone who is signed up to be a tester.

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Hey all you PlayOn testers! Looks like we’ve neglected to post the latest news on our blog here. Sorry about that. We are still cranking away on all kinds of goodies.

We’ve largely spent the past month working on two main projects: 1) fixing problems with Hulu for the majority of our users, and 2) getting Netflix ready for beta release!

We have been working hard to accommodate changes that Hulu has been making in their service recently. If Hulu service issues have been frustrating for you, keep these two things in mind:

• We are absolutely, positively committed to bringing Hulu to our PlayOn users. We have simply been having some technical issues.
• It’s still a beta, so there are still bugs, that are causing both hiccups with Hulu, as well as other problems in general with PlayOn. We won’t make this product a general release until all this stuff is resolved. We don’t feel comfortable taking your money for a half-baked product. Your satisfaction with PlayOn translates directly to our success as a company.

Now, Netflix! Yes, it is soooo close to being ready for release. We’re literally a few days away. And by golly, it’s cool. We’ve been testing it for a couple of weeks now, and the video quality is tremendous (thanks to Netflix making higher resolution streams available). If you plan on trying it out, make sure you set up an account with Netflix first and add movies to your “Instant Queue” (this can’t be done through PlayOn, of course). We will post again once Netflix is ready for beta testing.

OK, that’s it for now. Contact us if you have questions, comments, or concerns.

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We know that some of you can’t access Hulu via PlayOn right now. So sorry! We have identified the issue and are working on resolving it asap. We will post a hot fix in the next couple of days - you will not be required to re-download. We will send notification once this is complete as well as any instructions required.

Thanks for your patience during this Beta period!

UPDATE: David here. We just posted a new release (2.58.3172) a few moments ago. It should address the Hulu issue, as well as a few other bug fixes. The hot fix couldn’t be used this time around, so it’s a full installation (sorry about that). You should be able to just install the latest over your current installation, but it never hurts to uninstall your current one. Go to www.getplayon.com to download the latest release.

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