High quality video content optimised just for small screen is an intriguing concept, and it works- Technology News, Firstpost

Nimish SawantApr 10, 2020 15:59:48 IST

When the concept was first teased final 12 months, Quibi was regarded as simply one other video streaming app to look ahead to. At CES 2020 although, Quibi founders laid down the plans — 175 authentic reveals with 8,500 episodes, featuring content from Steven Spielberg, actors resembling Christoph Waltz, Rachel Broshnahan, Jennifer Lopez, Sophie Turner, Chrissy Tiegen, in addition to content material from information organisations resembling BBC, ESPN and so forth. This had everybody’s consideration.

Quibi content material will ONLY be out there on the cell platform.

Quibi has launched on the Android and iOS platforms at this time. In India, you'll be able to avail the 90-day free trial provide. However you'll nonetheless have to register this app along with your bank card.
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You can be charged Rs 669 per 30 days after the trial interval expires. Within the US, there are two tiers: a $4.99 plan which may have adverts, and a $7.99 plan which is not going to have adverts. In India, the app is just exhibiting the ad-free plan. You'll be able to cancel your subscription anytime earlier than the three month trial ends at no further value.

What’s new in Quibi?

Earlier than we begin analysing the app, right here’s what units Quibi other than the present streaming providers resembling Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar amongst others.
• Quibi stands for ‘Fast Bites’. Which means no episode from any present on the Quibi platform will probably be longer than 10 minutes, no matter the style of content material
• Quibi content material will ONLY be out there on the cell platform. Wish to do that out on TV? No probability. How about watching it in an internet browser in your laptop computer? That’s not an possibility both. The thought behind Quibi is to have content material which will be loved on the go.
• Quibi permits you to view content material within the portrait in addition to panorama orientation, which Quibi calls Turnstyle mode.
• Genres lined embody characteristic movies divided into numerous sub–10 min chapters, documentaries on meals, vogue, journey, vehicles, actuality TV sort reveals, and so forth.
• There’s a Day by day Important Information and Way of life part, which is supposed to be up to date each day and has news-related content material which will be consumed as 6–7 min movies.
App format is impressed extra by Instagram/Snapchat than Netflix/Prime Video
On powering up the app, the primary tab that's offered to you is named “For You”. The opposite tabs are “Browse”, “Following”, and “Obtain”. The vertical scroll format of the app has each content material piece exhibiting up in a card format.

Quibi Person Interface

Every card provides you a great glimpse into what you'll be able to anticipate from a present. You get the present identify together with the episode identify, the style of the present, and a video trailer of the present performs on within the card whether it is in your show for various seconds.
This card format paired with vertical scrolling is extra harking back to Instagram or Snapchat, and even TikTok’s design language, than of conventional video streaming platforms resembling Netflix or Prime Video. On the backside right-hand nook of each card are three dots, which, on tapping, take you to a pop-up menu from the place you'll be able to observe the present and obtain that episode, share the present, or play the episode. You will note round 15–20 reveals within the ‘For You’ part. I'm guessing this part will get extra clever and catered to your tastes, the extra content material you watch on the Quibi platform.
The Browse part has a search bar which can allow you to seek for any particular reveals or episodes. Looking out by style does, fortunately, return outcomes. In some cases, looking by actor names additionally led to some outcomes. Following and Downloads tabs are simply straight ahead lists of reveals you've adopted, (which lets the app notify you when a brand new episode is up) or downloaded.

Content material Library

The primary query earlier than you obtain the Quibi app in your telephone will probably be: “What content material does it have?” The official YouTube page of Quibi, which has trailers, provides you with an excellent concept of what sort of reveals to anticipate on the platform. The reveals will be broadly divided into three classes: each day important information and life-style reveals; documentary and actuality TV sort reveals, and high-quality scripted reveals divided by chapters. Once more, each episode throughout any present is all the time beneath 10 minutes.

Each present’s web page has a sign as to what the episode-release cadence will probably be like.

One other factor value noting is that in contrast to Netflix or Prime Video, Quibi isn't planning to launch all episodes of its reveals directly. As an illustration, on the primary day, Survive, Most Harmful Recreation, and 50 States of Fright, had three episodes up every. Some reveals resembling Chrissy’s Court docket had six episodes up. However going ahead, the concept is to launch one episode per day in a manner that there's as much as three hours value of recent content material out there each day. Each present’s web page has a sign as to what the episode-release cadence will probably be like.
Exhibits which have piqued my fancy and a few of which I've seen embody:
• Most Harmful Recreation: It’s a dystopian psychological thriller involving a sport of real-life searching. Starring: Liam Hemsworth, Christoph Waltz
• Survive: “Jane desires to finish all of it. Then a airplane crash virtually ends it for her. Now she’s crawling from the wreckage with Paul, the one different survivor.” Starring: Sophie Turner.
• Fierce Queens: It is a nature sequence exploring the lives of fiercest females of the animal kingdom. Offered and narrated by Reese Witherspoon.
• 50 States of Fright: A horror anthology that includes one scary story from every of the 50 states. Starring: Rachel Brosnahan, amongst others.
• Form of Pasta: It is a journey and meals present a few chef in Italy pursuing the proper pasta.
• You Ain’t Bought These: That is purely for the sneaker-heads and explores that tradition. Offered by: Lena Waithe.
Total, the gathering on launch day is different and everybody will discover one thing or the opposite that can catch their fancy. In the meanwhile, many of the content material is in English, with a number of reveals catering to the Latinx viewers and offered in Spanish. Naturally, due to the Coronavirus-mandated lockdowns, the Day by day Necessities library simply has trailers of the reveals you'll be able to anticipate.

Optimised for vertical and horizontal viewing

One of many USPs of Quibi is that this characteristic referred to as Turnstyle, which helps you to watch content material whereas holding the telephone vertically or horizontally. You'll be able to even swap between the 2 orientations halfway — even in case you have a system-wide orientation lock enabled — seamlessly. Quibi manages to keep away from any glitches or breaks while you swap from vertical to horizontal orientation, by enabling two streams simultaneously (in fact, this takes successful in your knowledge, if you're actually involved).
There’s at present no manner of realizing the precise decision of the streams. Streaming high quality is ready at ‘Auto’ by default, and seems to go as much as FHD. There’s additionally a ‘Normal High quality’ possibility that appears like SD decision. Downloaded video high quality can be set to both Normal or Excessive. And there’s a toggle swap to pressure decrease decision streams and downloads to save lots of on knowledge, when you want it.
When it comes to the consumer expertise, I observed that the switching was fairly easy. Whereas vertical viewing does handle to realign the textual content (if any) within the body completely, the video clearly seems to be a bit zoomed in. This may occasionally work whereas watching newsy reveals from BBC, as an example, however when watching documentaries or feature-length movies, you'll miss out on some parts of the scene which are seen within the horizontal orientation.
I watched an episode of Most Harmful Recreation within the vertical in addition to horizontal orientation. Within the vertical orientation, I felt like I used to be a lot nearer to the characters, as if I used to be sitting in the identical room as them. However for different reveals, resembling 50 States of Fright I’d somewhat not have nightmarish characters proper up in my face.
One good factor is that vertical movies are effectively optimised. The vertical body virtually appears to be monitoring the topics so that you simply don’t have characters lower out of the scene. Additionally, within the vertical orientation, the search bar reveals up on the precise hand facet vertically (left-handed customers can even swap it to the left facet), counting from the highest to backside — virtually like an the wrong way up quantity rocker.

Ought to Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar fear?

In the meanwhile, probably not.
Quibi is aware of it has stiff competitors and it has come to the battlefield with weapons blazing, so to talk. Quibi has been based by former Walt Disney Chairman and co-founder of DreamWorks SKG Jeffrey Katzenberg, and former HP and eBay CEO Meg Whitman. Katzenberg’s expertise displays within the lineup of Hollywood royalty that's featured on Quibi. The $1.Eight bn funding can also be no joke.
The most important limitation of Quibi is that it’s out there solely on the cell platform for now. Sure, Quibi’s distinctive format paired with options resembling Turnstyle works nice for watching high-quality cell content material on the go. However, throughout the present lockdown situation, Quibi stands no probability in entrance of established video streaming providers which will be loved on many platforms, to not point out on a lot bigger shows at residence.
Within the Indian context, Quibi is unquestionably priced on the upper facet, with no household plans out there. Each account will get just one stream, so you'll be able to’t even share passwords when you have been planning to try this. In India, Quibi is sure to stay a distinct segment platform for a while. But it surely’s a fantastic platform for the numerous quick filmmakers within the nation, each time Quibi expands its manufacturing budgets.
Simply as Instagram copied Snapchat, I don’t see why the Turnstyle characteristic can't be integrated into different streaming providers resembling Netflix or Disney+ (although it's a patent-pending know-how). However then once more, is Turnstyle actually that necessary?
Until Quibi has some tips up its sleeves which give a goal to the 2 orientations past simply being a ‘characteristic’, the opposite streaming websites may optimise their content material for 2 orientations as effectively. Netflix executed its interactive tackle Black Mirror: Bandersnatch fairly effectively, I don’t see why Quibi shouldn’t experiment with twin orientation.
I can image myself watching movies in a vertical orientation when I'm commuting, however I’ll all the time be questioning whether or not I missed out on any element had I been watching it within the cinematic or horizontal perspective. Vertical video content material is a hit-and-miss proposition. Whereas IGTV couldn’t handle to make the vertical video format mainstream, TikTok has proven that it could actually work if performed proper. Will Quibi’s seamless switching proposition work in the long run? Solely time will inform.

Does Quibi carry one thing new to the desk? Completely.

The snackable episode lengths are good for a fast watch when you're ready in queues, commuting, or are in your lunch or espresso breaks. The content material catalogue is different and issues don’t appear that overwhelming when utilizing the app, at the very least as in comparison with the huge content material libraries on Netflix, Prime Video, or Disney+ Hotstar. There are various extra reveals to be launched on the platform, together with a horror present by Steven Spielberg referred to as After Darkish, which apparently you’ll solely be allowed to play after midnight in your timezone.
Whereas we're at present cooped up in our homes, we could choose to observe content material on larger shows, however the 90-day free trial makes it a no brainer to at the very least give Quibi a shot.
Netflix led to a behavioural change in me — I realised I had no persistence for reveals that had greater than eight, hour-long episodes per season. Possibly Quibi would carry down that tolerance additional, if it manages to maintain the promise of top quality reveals in tight timelines. I’ll provide you with an replace on what occurs by the point my trial interval expires. For now, the app actually seems to be promising.

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