First Look At LiveStation: Not Much To Report

LiveStation, the Microsoft Research/Skinkers P2P IPTV solution we reported on last night, has sent out beta invites to a number of users. I’ve tested it and have included screen shots below. Frankly, there isn’t much to report.

This is a Silverlight application and currently works only on Windows machines. If Silverlight is not installed on your machine it will be during the setup process.

Once installed, a window opens on your desktop and BBC World News is shown. It is exactly like turning on a one-station television (only BBC works with the application currently). You can watch the station live, turn the volume up or down, see information on the show and what’s up next, and close the application.

You can’t fast forward or reverse the program or pause it. There is no time shifting feature at all. It’s fun, but I won’t be opening it again until it includes time shifting capabilities and a lot more content.

The company left a comment on our original post asking us and others not to compare it to Joost or Slingbox. In the demo video they distributed yesterday, however, the presenter brought up both of those products and made his own favorable comparisons to those startups.

Screen shots below.