Adult Swim To Offer Streaming Video Option

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Adult Swim To Offer Streaming Video Option

Posted by Zonk on Friday September 9, 2005 @02:44PM from the it-seems-today-that-all-you-see-is-violence-in-movies-and-sex-on-tv dept.

Julio Capote wrote to mention a press release making the rounds stating that Adult Swim will be allowing viewers to watch shows via streaming video. From the article: "Starting Sept. 16, AdultSwim.com will offer full-length episodes of these and other programs in an initiative Cartoon Network is calling Friday Night Fix. Each week between 11 p.m.-6 a.m. ET, a selection of current and fan-requested shows will be available for free viewing. There also will be previews of episodes scheduled to debut the next Sunday" The official Williams Street announcement is also available.

25 of 231 comments (clear)

Cool! by FlyByPC · 2005-09-09 14:46 · Score: 5, Interesting

Cartoons are a lot more interesting (and more intellectually stimulating) than most of what's on TV these days.

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1. Re:Cool! by Deruwyn · 2005-09-09 16:03 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  There are some situations where writers/producers/animators/whateverguys are better able to portray what they see in their head using cartoons and animated series. Some stories should just not be portrayed using Real Living People(tm). One very good example is the animated series Undergrads. There are lots of movies and tv shows about college life out there. Some are very good(ie Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds, American Pie etc.); but they all have this feeling of cheesyness to them that I can never shake off. You know what I mean. Most of these films about College life are usually marketed towards the 1.0-2.0 GPA average crowd who spend all their time Fucking Off like the characters in these movies. Apparently none of these people ever had to spend 150 hours working on a complier assignment that was worth 5% like a lot os us. Fuckers. College is about so much more than drinking and sex. Infact, since I was Canadian AND good looking the drinking+sex parts were the easiest!!! Getting to the point; these movies never seem to cover it all. College is about growing up and finding your place in the world. Inspirational shizznit. Like learning how to do your own Dam! Laundry and cooking. Those are the single most important things I learned there. But They are never covered. Then one day I was busy reminising about College so I flipped on this show called Undergrads. Within minites I am slobbering all over the floor; desiring more after watching the ending credits. Here ends my rant. Laterz to all you Gimpies out there :p
  
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as Master Shake would say by Anonymous Coward · 2005-09-09 14:46 · Score: 3, Funny

Everyone please, bow your heads, and pretend to be serious.
1. Re:as Master Shake would say by kaptainsunshine · 2005-09-09 14:50 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Nice try, but that is not a Shake quote. You can thank the Mooninites for that one.
welcome by 42Penguins · 2005-09-09 14:48 · Score: 5, Funny

...our new robot chicken overlords?
What is Adult Swim? by pwnage · 2005-09-09 14:52 · Score: 4, Funny

Is it some kind of water-fetish pr0n channel? Chicks in swimcaps and such?

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Streaming video? by suitepotato · 2005-09-09 14:52 · Score: 5, Insightful

Yeah, they have obviously missed the fact that much of their content could be done start to finish in Flash starting with Aqua Teen Hunger Force. For much of their lineup, 30fps video is massive overkill. Heck, some of it could be sent out as a flip-book without losing anything and quite possibly improving on it.

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1. Re:Streaming video? by teknomage1 · 2005-09-09 14:57 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Actually, it is done in flash, then exported to video. My friend "animates" Harvey Birdman. Flash is the future of low budget 2d animation for sure. A couple o fshows on Nickolodeon are done in flash as well.
  
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2. Re:Streaming video? by ErichTheWebGuy · 2005-09-09 16:27 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  If I'm not mistaken, Mucha Lucha, Teen Titans, Kids Next Door, and several other "mainstream" cartoon network shows are produced in Flash as well.
  
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3. Re:Streaming video? by ultranova · 2005-09-09 19:39 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Actually, it is done in flash, then exported to video. My friend "animates" Harvey Birdman. Flash is the future of low budget 2d animation for sure. A couple o fshows on Nickolodeon are done in flash as well.
  
  I've tried to do animation using SVG and Inkscape, but that has turned out to be a truly horrendous task. It's a pity, really - the format itself seems well-suited for animation, apart from some oddities (like storing path control points in a string rather than XML tags of their own). Having an infinite resolution in both time and space (the animation is time-key-based, so you can interpolate as many frames as wanted between keypoints, and of course vector graphics can be scaled freely) is a very nice feature...
  
  Any change that we'll be seeing open-source SVG animation tools ?
  
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For free! by camelmix · 2005-09-09 14:53 · Score: 3, Insightful

I wonder what the networks and programmers will think of this? I mean it's not that big but are commericals included too :D
Big Nets pay attention by divisivemind · 2005-09-09 15:03 · Score: 5, Insightful

With DVRs nearing commonplace (especially in /. circles), Big networks take heed. We aren't watching your commercials. Provide an online streaming service on-demand with all previous episodes of a show, place ads in the stream, and your in the money. Cartoon network is showing some progressive thinking here and I applaud the initiative.

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1. Re:Big Nets pay attention by Darth_brooks · 2005-09-09 15:44 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  They tried that. Subscription based TV without the ads. They called it "Cable."
  
  Once people started paying, in came the ads. There's still the rare quasi-commercial free station (HBO & Showtime, whose only commercials are the ones for their own programming between airings), but the rest of the TV landscape is littered with commericals. Hell, there's shrinking shows to fit in an extra 15 or 30 second commercial.
  
  I love it when my buddies try and tell me how great XM is "cause there aren't any commercials!" Yeah, just wait. I pay to see too many commercials as it is.
  
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2. Re:Big Nets pay attention by Mr2001 · 2005-09-09 16:38 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  I love it when my buddies try and tell me how great XM is "cause there aren't any commercials!" Yeah, just wait.
  
  Actually, XM had commercials on most music stations when it started out. Sirius came on the scene with commercial-free music, and XM had to drop their commercials to stay competitive.
  
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This is perfect for... by Orinthe · 2005-09-09 15:04 · Score: 5, Interesting

This is perfect for me and my roommate--we are college students with our own apartment, and can't afford to get even basic cable service ($52.95/mo?!). We have netflix instead, which is fine for me since I don't watch TV anyway, but she misses her Adult Swim. Internet is a necessity, though, so we have 5Mbps downstream cable internet (more than enough for streaming video). Now we can get the one thing we were missing out on--free and legal!

Thank you, Cartoon Network!

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1. Re:This is perfect for... by Jah-Wren+Ryel · 2005-09-09 23:15 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  This is perfect for me and my roommate--we are college students with our own apartment...she misses her Adult Swim.
  
  Clearly you made up this story to troll for karma. Any real slashdothead with a collage-age female roomate would not be so worried about tv cartoons when the distraction of sex is so readily available. If you aren't able to distract her from the tv, you just need to learn how to properly catch and eat beaver.
  
  Same thing holds if you are both girls, in fact, it goes double and requires a webcam.
  
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  When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Hmm - I hope they put in some anime by starseeker · 2005-09-09 15:10 · Score: 3, Insightful

as well as the more comedy oriented shows. I can't get into most of the comedy Adult Swim offerings (but then I don't really care even for Family Guy, sans Stewie - Futurama is about they only comedy I really go for) but I do enjoy a lot of their anime shows. I wonder if their contracts for distribution of anime limit what they can do here? Given how many episodes Inuyasha has I would have thought it would be a prime candidate to offer streams of - if you miss an episode it can be a looooong time before it repeats. BigO I would like to see return (although I did crack and get the DVDs for that one). Cowboy Bebop is an obvious one except I expect they know everyone will tune in to see it anyway (but for goodness sake get it out of the 1:30am timeslot! Even geeks sleep eventually.)

All in all, I must say I have been very pleasantly surprised by Adult Swim - it has definitely broadened my ideas about cartoons - they really AREN'T just for kids. I suppose that's obvious to this crowd, but I didn't know much about anime...

So anyway, hat's off to Adult Swim for daring to try something new and different in the US. Keep 'em coming!

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Re:Same episode, day after day by NuShrike · 2005-09-09 15:11 · Score: 5, Insightful

This is why I have a TiVo and only watch what I want to watch. The repeats of shows, including SciFi channel, are absolutely great for us DVR people because it helps in the time conflict management.

Besides, Cartoon Network is a mix of lot of anime and adult-themed shows that have a bit more thinking involved than your usual 'adult' realty shows.
Sneaky by spoonboy42 · 2005-09-09 15:12 · Score: 5, Informative

I recall watching [adult swim] just this last week and seeing a bump (if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's clear you don't watch AS) listing things that definitely WON'T be coming to Adult Swim in the future. One of those things listed was free streaming video on Friday nights. I only wish I could remember what some of the other items on that list were, as it seems the people at Williams Street are pulling another sneaky maneuver like they did with their famous "Aqua Teen Cancellation".

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Supernatural Pilot/Premier is online! by antdude · 2005-09-09 15:15 · Score: 4, Insightful

Also, Supernatural pilot/series premier is already online before its debut on TV (9/13/2005). I had troubles with it in Mozilla v1.7.11 (e.g., controls don't work).

I really like this ideas of TV shows online.

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I dun bwoke it! by BrynM · 2005-09-09 15:22 · Score: 3, Funny

From the Robot Chicken/Adult Swim error page:
ERROR

Please be advised that you almost broke the Internet. Trying to get somewhere? Use the navigation at the top of the page. If you're still having problems, update your browser or your version of Flash. Just stop whatever it is that got you here because it's seriously freaking us out.
Apparently the Robot Chicken Download Page is not quite working... Nice to know they let their geeks get a laugh too at least.

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Recognize it for what it is by citking · 2005-09-09 15:29 · Score: 3, Insightful

CN is doing a huge thing here for their fans. I think it's great that they are doing this for their fans. Just goes to show that some great ideas DO, in fact, make it to reality.

Adult Swim is (arguably) the best thing that CN is noted for, and by doing this they are making themselves a wider audience. Good for business, good for fans. Good job guys!

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"This food is problematic."
Re:PLEASE MOD ME UP by CDMA_Demo · 2005-09-09 15:55 · Score: 3, Insightful

Reminds me of the movie "Dumb and Dumber".
why not tonight?? by ManifestDestiny · 2005-09-09 16:42 · Score: 3, Funny

Damnit... i really could have used my daily dose of adult swim tonight. i need my aqua teen. what is a poor stoner to do?
TV and Video Online by rinkjustice · 2005-09-09 18:13 · Score: 3, Informative

I don't have a tv, nor do I want one, but every now and then I want to flake out to some non-interactive entertainment. Here are the sites I've found for free tv and video on the web (that I can remember at 1:48 a.m.)

http://edition.cnn.com/ -News fix

http://www.homestarrunner.com/toons.html -Not tv or video per se, but strongbad email flash animations are a hoot and close enough

http://tv.yahoo.com/feature/supernatural.html -The show Supernatural online, although I haven't watched it yet. Featured on /.

http://www.atomfilms.com/ -Everybody knows this one; marginally good

http://video.freevideoblog.com/ -Alot of crap, the odd good video

http://video.google.com/ -Random

http://www.ifilm.com/ -See also atomfilms

http://www.newgrounds.com/ -Way cool, homepage worthy!

http://tv.reuters.com/ - more news video than cnn

http://www.rocketboom.com/vlog - ???, Profit! Actually, I don't know what to say

http://portal.omroep.nl/uitzendinggemist/ -Dutch TV up the wazoo

http://mediahopper.com/portal.htm -1041 tv stations from all over the world listed and ready to watch (as far as I can tell)

http://video.search.yahoo.com/ -Stuff n' things

http://www.youtube.com/ -People upload and share their videos online... you've been warned!

I should add everything here is "family friendly", as far as I'm aware: no porn, uberviolence or gratuitous advertising (if I've somehow overlooked something, I apologise).

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