Feature Friday: Capturing Live Video

Livestreaming is everywhere. Twitch, YouNow, YouTube, Periscope, Snapchat, Facebook, and many many other services allow you to broadcast what you are doing to the world and let anyone and everyone watch it.

But how do you discover the best live content when there is so much of it and the streams can last hours, if not longer?

Enter our portfolio company Oddshot.tv.

Oddshot allows anyone who wants to capture the last 40 seconds of what they are watching on their computer and share it with the world. Oddshot recently released a desktop app for Windows that makes this super easy. They also have browser plugings for Chrome and Firefox and mobile apps for iOS and Android. You can get these downloads here.

The front page of Oddshot.tv is like Reddit for livestreams. You can quickly scan what has happened and watch the clip. If you like the clip, you can go watch the stream or follow the streamer.

If you are into livestreaming or want to get into it, check out Oddshot.tv.

#livestreaming

Comments (Archived):

  1. falicon

    hrm…cool concept…but….1. It doesn’t solve the problem of discovery, it amplifies it.2. Even though it’s only 40 seconds, feels like there are some gray/yucky copyright areas to deal with here.3. It sounds more like Digg for live streams than reddit…regardless, not sure either model is one you really want to be ‘X for Y’ ing……all that being said, it’s a start and there are lots of little things that could make this a pretty solid play in the short-term…

    1. LE

      1. It doesn’t solve the problem of discovery, it amplifies it.Well if I can quickly make a screen grab of something and post it to twitter (or here) then that will enable discovery.I guess it’s obvious that they need a ‘bug’ (logo) to appear in the lower right or perhaps on preroll faded out to let people know how the content was made.Even better would be an easy way to embed my own bug with a persons name, domain whatever.I think the key is lack of friction. Easy to make (because of browser plug in) and easy to host and get a URL.

      1. falicon

        Instead of one long video, now you have one long video plus N number of clips of it…how does that solve discovery? It may help expose some content, but it’s not really solving for discovery – it’s amplifying the noise (not always a bad thing mind you)

        1. LE

          Actually the MVP of the product only allows capturing bits of live video. So until they add what I want I withdraw my endorsement and enthusiasm. (So I agree with you now..)

          1. falicon

            Welcome to the dark side! Good news, the rules don’t apply over here so we can win more! 🙂

  2. Nick Hencher

    Really interesting – would have loved to have had it available when we were creating the live experience for a luxury fashion brand

  3. William Mougayar

    So, it’s a bit like Reddit videos but with a different twist. I will check it out, especially that I now have a mini-PC hooked to the TV with a wireless keyboard and air mouse.

  4. Jess Bachman

    So, its recording everything you do all the time. What could go wrong.

    1. PhilipSugar

      I read the terms of service and FAQ. It says you clearly can see when it is recording. I agree there is a chance that it can be hacked, and if it is the TOS clearly say you have no recourse.But it seems you can turn it on and off easily.

    2. Joe Grech

      It is recording all the time (providing you have capturing enabled), however, the file rotates between two files, once the file reaches a certain length, the file is then deleted from your system. Once you take a shot, it takes the video file created and gives you the ability to edit, then publish the video to the web! The rotating file prevents Oddshot taking up huge amounts of your hard drive space.

    3. jason wright

      Ask Jennifer Lawrence.

  5. Nicholas Osgood

    This is pretty cool. When content makes the front page, do they curate it in-house or basically is it live and taken down if needed? How do they manage content that doesn’t meet company’s Terms (ex. NSFW/etc).

    1. pointsnfigures

      This is a good question. On Facebook, we have seen shootings and rapes broadcast. Not cool.

    2. Joe Grech

      We do currently curate the landing page in-house. I manage a team of Editors that try to find the best content from a wide range of different categories that our audience may enjoy watching. NSFW content is marked with an NSFW flag, meaning they have to press a ‘continue watching’ button before they even see the thumbnail of the shot video. We also actively take down content that is reported if we deem it as vulgar / discriminating.

    1. Joe Grech

      You can never have enough sloth videos!

  6. mplsvbhvr

    Oh man, didn’t know oddshot had a front page… love this

    1. Joe Grech

      Glad you like it, we’re working on expanding the Content Categories on the landing page as much as possible to provide good quality video content for our target audience!

      1. mplsvbhvr

        It’s a great idea – especially because the content is so specific. Tags can take on a whole new meaning when working strictly within a game genre or even specific games (technical terminology to memes). Very excited to see what happens next.Good luck!

  7. jason wright

    Network effect model?

  8. LE

    My stepkids (12/14) are going to be all over this.This is a great idea. Almost to simple.One issue I just installed the extension to try and grab me writing this comment. I get the following message (see screegrab below). (‘this page does not support taking shots’)…https://uploads.disquscdn.c

  9. LE

    Actually after RTFM I realize that (as you said) ‘allows anyone who wants to capture the last 40 seconds of what they are watching on their computer’.So my question is why can’t I use this to do what I wanted in my other comment? Why only capture live videos? Why can’t you capture 40 seconds of anything?

    1. Joel Monegro

      You can!

      1. LE

        From what I see (and what I tested) not with the browser plug in.So you must mean with the desktop app which only runs on Windows.SAD!

        1. Joe Grech

          Hey, an application that works on other Operating Systems such as Mac are in the pipeline for 2017!

  10. creative group

    CONTRIBUTORS:LIVESTREAMING IS VOYEURISM ON STEROIDS.Give us a live Championship fight not broadcasted, Championship sporting event (showing a different unbroadcasted view) and we may think about devoting our valuable time to it.

  11. pointsnfigures

    interesting. clearly, I am not their target market. it will be big if Kim Kardashian adopts it. : )

  12. daveschappell

    I LOVE this — @daryn:disqus and I discussed this idea a few years ago as a way to improve bug testing. You could be going thru your testing and if something breaks, you can quickly attach a video of the actual steps you did to create the bug (along with your text description). Would save so much time, especially when the bugs happen unexpectedly.

    1. Teemu Päivinen

      We at Oddshot have been using it for exactly that! It’s actually great if it’s difficult to replicate an error. We can’t wait to bring out the mac version.

  13. Joe Grech

    I’m the Head of Content @ Oddshot & willing to answer any questions, feel free to comment under this and I’ll do my best to answer 🙂

    1. jason wright

      What’s the business model?RetentionRevenueDefensibility…

      1. Teemu Päivinen

        Hi Jason. One of the founders here. Currently no business model, but we are moving towards a pretty standard advertising based revenue share model. It’s taken us a while since our content can be from anywhere, so we’ve had to figure out how we implement revenue share across so many categories and (sometimes) videos with no metadata.As for your other…words, I’m not sure what you’re looking for, but happy to answer if you want to clarify 🙂