A first very quick look at Stan
Stan is the latest cab off the rank in the Australian video streaming market. This one's a joint venture between Channel Nine and Fairfax.
The obvious comparisons are the two others in the local market: Quickflix and Presto.
I've been a Quickflix customer for a fair while but their online streaming range is incredibly limited and most of it is SD-only, despite their claims otherwise. Their main target seems to be to sell copies to stream in an iTunes or Google Play type of arrangement rather than the subscription thing, which is fair enough.
Presto is the Seven/Foxtel joint venture. I haven't tried to use it because it doesn't seem to have anything I want, it's SD-only, and incredibly limited in device support. On Android it's Samsung or GTFO.
Stan looks fairly reasonable compared to these two. Their device support is... limited but not as bad as Presto. It seems to be Samsung's Greatest Hits plus some very weird niche things like the OnePlus One (yes, really, this is supported but no HTC One model is, nor is the Xperia Z3, and the only Moto is the G). But they have a clearly defined way to ask about support for additional models, and they were super-prompt in getting back to me.
The web-based interface isn't bad. It's not the best ever, but it's miles ahead of (say) Foxtel Play or Quickflix. Dead easy to add a thing to your list to watch later. The web player uses Silverlight but interestingly it supports Chromecast too.
From a browse through their catalog a fair bit of it is available in HD, and they provide a straightforward way to switch between HD and SD.
(They define HD as 1080 and SD as 720, which is interesting as SD is usually 576 in this country or 480 in North America.)
They also do 5.1 sound.
These are worth noting because Foxtel and Presto say they can't do anything in high def because, to paraphrase, "Australian internet sucks". Stan's response is more like "Maybe you can have it, but probably not. Give it a try and see."
Which seems like the customer-friendly approach here. I reckon Foxtel and Presto are taking this stance because they'd really rather you went on a contract with Foxtel and paid the extra to get HD.
There are some weird gaps in the catalog though. They have the first Salander movie but not the rest of the trilogy. But they've also got exclusives on a couple of the Amazon shows (Transparent and Alpha House) which bodes well for future Amazon stuff making it here. They also have a couple of the things I've been watching on Netflix on-and-off (all of Damages, for example) and some other great things like the entire run of The Shield.
It's looking to me like Stan might just stick around as a subscription for me after the trial period ends, and it'll probably keep on even once the local Netflix variant is available. Particularly if they've got an ongoing relationship with Amazon.
The original is over at Dreamwidth, there are
comments.
The obvious comparisons are the two others in the local market: Quickflix and Presto.
I've been a Quickflix customer for a fair while but their online streaming range is incredibly limited and most of it is SD-only, despite their claims otherwise. Their main target seems to be to sell copies to stream in an iTunes or Google Play type of arrangement rather than the subscription thing, which is fair enough.
Presto is the Seven/Foxtel joint venture. I haven't tried to use it because it doesn't seem to have anything I want, it's SD-only, and incredibly limited in device support. On Android it's Samsung or GTFO.
Stan looks fairly reasonable compared to these two. Their device support is... limited but not as bad as Presto. It seems to be Samsung's Greatest Hits plus some very weird niche things like the OnePlus One (yes, really, this is supported but no HTC One model is, nor is the Xperia Z3, and the only Moto is the G). But they have a clearly defined way to ask about support for additional models, and they were super-prompt in getting back to me.
The web-based interface isn't bad. It's not the best ever, but it's miles ahead of (say) Foxtel Play or Quickflix. Dead easy to add a thing to your list to watch later. The web player uses Silverlight but interestingly it supports Chromecast too.
From a browse through their catalog a fair bit of it is available in HD, and they provide a straightforward way to switch between HD and SD.
(They define HD as 1080 and SD as 720, which is interesting as SD is usually 576 in this country or 480 in North America.)
They also do 5.1 sound.
These are worth noting because Foxtel and Presto say they can't do anything in high def because, to paraphrase, "Australian internet sucks". Stan's response is more like "Maybe you can have it, but probably not. Give it a try and see."
Which seems like the customer-friendly approach here. I reckon Foxtel and Presto are taking this stance because they'd really rather you went on a contract with Foxtel and paid the extra to get HD.
There are some weird gaps in the catalog though. They have the first Salander movie but not the rest of the trilogy. But they've also got exclusives on a couple of the Amazon shows (Transparent and Alpha House) which bodes well for future Amazon stuff making it here. They also have a couple of the things I've been watching on Netflix on-and-off (all of Damages, for example) and some other great things like the entire run of The Shield.
It's looking to me like Stan might just stick around as a subscription for me after the trial period ends, and it'll probably keep on even once the local Netflix variant is available. Particularly if they've got an ongoing relationship with Amazon.
The original is over at Dreamwidth, there are
comments.