I’ll say it now: I want my DTV! Unfortunately it isn’t quite ready for prime-time yet… You have to keep in mind this is a beta, and it’s just build 1, so cut ‘em some slack. However, there is great promise in there, and I’m a patient man when it comes to internet TV. Or as I call it, the democratization of media.
The idea is simple, as iTunes is to podcasting, DTV is to video on the internet. In fact, it has a sort of playlists and and interface similar to iTunes. When I launched the app there were a few "channels" already loaded: Rocketboom and Diggnation for instance. But when I clicked on a channel I had to click again, in another button, just to see the episodes available. Clearly there is some GUI work to be done. Also, there are actual bugs, such as the channels disappearing, renaming, and reappearing on the left (where playlists are in iTunes). Hm, that’s not good.
Playback is decent, and there are plenty of little things to love about DTV. First and foremost is the ability for anyone to publish their own content to the network. Just like podcasting, this could be really big if it catches on. And guess what? No DRM! DTV itself is GPL’ed and free. They’re even running a contest for designing a better GUI and promise a Windows site and version is coming in the "next few weeks." Give it a try if you run OS X (10.3 and Quicktime 7 required).