Revision3 is my online TV

Posted on Feb 3, 2010 in tech | 0 comments

Yesterday, Revision3 issued a press release stating that in 2009 they served over 1.5 billion minutes of online video. That’s a lot of minutes. And I’m personally responsible for at least 9,360 of those minutes.

For the past 4 years (give or take) I’ve been a faithful viewer of loads of Revision3 content. What can I say? They just have loads of video content that I’m interested in. They’re really my go-to source for movies, gaming, comics, tech and general internet lolz.

They offer me everything I can’t get on regular TV.
I love that.

R3 shows

Every week I consume about 3-4 hours of Rev3 media. I think that puts me into their medium to heavy use consumer. But really this only consists of regularly watching 4 shows each and every week. There are three things that Rev3 does really well to keep me as a heavy consumer:

Multiple ways to consume
High production values
Reliably scheduled content delivery

Multiple ways to consume

Being a heavy Apple user, I tend to subscribe to a lot of podcasts via iTunes. The best part about using iTunes as my main download storefront is that it allows me to watch the shows when/where I choose, PLUS gives me the ability to build a backlog of shows thanks to the autodownloading of subscriptions. The fact that I can watch shows on my desktop in the bedroom, networked laptop, iPhone when commutes, and also streamed to my big screen TV via Xbox 360/PS3, makes it that much easier for me watch a whole lot more.

And then there’s also the ability to stream from their Flash player directly from the site, on their YouTube channel, the m.revision3.com mobile site, or if I lived in the US of A I’d also be able to watch it directly from my TiVo dashboard and also on Virgin America domestic flights.

They understand that I want my media lots of different way. I appreciate that.

High production values

Homemade YouTube videos are good and all, but watching those just makes higher quality internet shows look that much better. Revision3 does a fantastic job of offering all their content in HD-quality downloads (usually just over 1 gig for a 1hr show), and all of their shows really do look top notch. Some shows are shot in an actual production studio, some out of retrofitted garages, and others on locations… each with their own look and feel, and they all have extremely high quality visuals.

I’ve come to trust that everything coming from Revision3 will have a certain quality of polish. It stands as a real seal of approval. I appreciate that.

Reliably scheduled content delivery

It amazes me sometimes to think of how I anticipate the release of a weekly video podcast more than almost all regular TV. And the shows are released on a reliable schedule. And they rarely have an off-season hiatus.

Rev3 seems to space out their release of their shows throughout the week. Some are made available on Mondays, others always come out on Wednesday. I’m sure that spacing out the content helps relieve the bandwidth stress of having every show available at once, but for me this works out great. I’m sure if they were all released at once I would overdose myself with content watching them all back-to-back.

So, what are my top 3 Revision3 shows you ask?

Totally Rad Show – this is my jam right here. Movies, video games, tv/comics. Everything I need in a show. I’ve been watching since episode 1. I trust the guys opinions. I believe that they’re all genuine dudes. I feel like they’re my friends. Maybe that last point is due to following them all on Twitter. I plan on attending their live taping at PAX East this year too, but I doubt we`ll become IRL friends. This is also one show I can watch over again multiple times in a week if needed. Always good for background noise.
CO-OP – for a group of video game journalists, these guys can be pretty funny on camera. I like that they’ve all got different characters/personas that they play. And the shooting/editing is extremely well done. The most MTV-looking thing on Rev3. The Area5 team here as real street-cred when it comes to games. Formerly the 1UP Show, I was hugely relieved when Rev3 picked this up and added it to their roster of shows. The analysis is deep, AND this is also the best show to learn about indie games and the developers behind them.
Diggnation – the one that started it all. Without Diggnation I don’t think I would have known about Rev3. This show has been on for 5 years now and I still watch it every week, but I don’t know if it has the power to sustain for that much longer. It’s still fun to just hangout with Alex and Kevin on the couch, but it seems like they’re both moving on to much bigger and better things in the near future. I appreciate that the guys are still doing their thing.