While Joost may have pulled a fast one on the TV industry, their application is pretty slick. I finally decided to test it out last night and I was impressed. Video streamed pretty much flawlessly with the exception of a few seconds of choppy audio. In comparison to alternative video solutions that I have used, this one started streaming as soon as I selected a channel. Currently there are only 25 channels including MTV, Adult Swim, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, Comedy Central, CNN, and more. Joost plans on using file sharing technology similar to bit torrent in order to allow peers to stream programs to each other. According to other reports that I’ve read, Joost isn’t currently reliant upon their peer technology and is instead streaming for the majority from their own servers.

So how is Joost able to convince the other players involved to stream their content? Currently there are fairly non-invasive commercials. Every 15 to 20 minutes a quick commercial was played and then once in a while a small pop-up ad showed up in the corner. I also was able to turn Joost off from full-screen mode and do other things on my computer while the video played in the corner of the screen. In contrast to other applications that I have previously used and have place a large strain on my computer, Joost did not. If you haven’t had the opportunity to try out Joost you definitely should. If you don’t have an invite yet, post a comment on this post and I will send you one.