

Show HN: Launching my Realtime Social Video Startup - iman
http://www.frozenhot.com

======
simplify
I see potential in this. It's almost like walking into a room full of people
all watching one TV. There's appeal to that; online video does have the watch-
whatever-you-want feature, but a lot of times people just want to turn on a TV
channel and watch whatever comes on.

If you really want to make this a startup, you should make it exactly that.
Take control over the public rooms, feed them with quality content, and call
them channels. Hire moderators to keep the content fresh. Show occasional
commercial advertisements. I think the closer you make it to TV, the more
willing people will be to sit through advertisements (random idea: sell to
advertisers what people say during their advertisements). Voting is an ok
feature, but you should limit that to private rooms.

I can see myself going to a "comedy central" channel and just watching
whatever it has on, not needing worrying about what to watch next. Knowing
that others are watching the same thing is pretty compelling.

~~~
iman
My thinking behind this was indeed to somehow bring a TV feel to the web.

But I am actually leaning towards adding even more interactive features to the
site. We already have TV. And Youtube and other sites are already moving in
the direction of what you describe(eg. Youtube "leanback").

I believe that this is the wrong approach. The web makes it possible for
viewers to interact in new ways, and I think that there is a lot of potential
here. I believe that the future of TV-like entertainment will be something
that is very interactive/social and game-like. People have already suggested
that I add to this site points and game like features, which I plan on doing,
among many other interative features.

Also, I have even more long-term plans for expanding beyond video, but that is
for another comment :)

Thanks for the input!

~~~
simplify
Yes, "TV internet" and interactive game-like features are two different
markets.

I agree that the web provides new possibilities of interaction. But I still
think there's a big market for TV-like streaming; a lot of people just want to
sit back and watch something they find interesting. And no website on the
internet has got it right yet. I can imagine people logging into your website
via facebook, and seeing a list of channels that their friends are currently
watching.

I'm not saying you shouldn't add any game-like features. I just think they're
a distraction from what you already have. After all, content is king when it
comes to these sorts of services. I think you should focus on that before game
mechanics, since content will be what attracts users the most.

On the other hand, this is just an opinion of some guy on the internet :)

------
iman
Hey guys, I've been reading HN for a long time (since before it was called
HN). I rarely comment or submit to HN, but I am really proud to finally submit
my site here.

Would appreciate any feedback you have!

Thanks

~~~
arkitaip
It's sorta like youtube meets IRC, isn't it? :)

Things that I wonder about:

1\. where will you get the actual video content from?

2\. I think that voice would be better for this type of stuff, atleast with
friends. Typing is slow and not that interactive.

3\. Have you thought about focusing on educational videos? Those strike me as
the best candidate for group watching because discussing actually makes more
sense than during, say, a movie.

4\. So what's the deal with the name? :)

5\. The design needs work. For example, I found the voting process to suble.

I too have thought about making video's more social but honestly I'm not sure
what the value is in adding chat. But maybe the idea needs to be fleshed out
more?

~~~
iman
1\. The videos are embedded from youtube. They are hand selected.

2\. Voice is an interesting idea, will think about it :)

3\. This is a very good idea, and definitely something that is being
considered.

4\. The name doesn't really have any meaning. It was just a good domain that
was available.

5\. Yes, the design needs a lot of work. I'm looking for a designer now. When
there are more people voting then it's a bit clearer how it works, but yeah,
it could be improved.

Thanks!

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ski2mi
Repeat after me: A website is not a startup.

It's bad enough that everyone with half a business idea calls it a startup,
but now everyone with half a website prototype is joining in.

~~~
joelhaasnoot
I do like the idea, but agree it's not very polished. It lacks a certain
degree of professionalism: it could've been done 5 years ago and we wouldn't
have noticed. $30 templates go a long way.

~~~
dpritchett
Good point. I recently learned that WP theme marketplaces also carry generic
HTML themes. Here's a set from a family member:
[http://themeforest.net/user/Parallelus/portfolio?x=15&y=...](http://themeforest.net/user/Parallelus/portfolio?x=15&y=17&order=asc&sort_by=root_category&type=files&page=1)

------
Jimega36
A fantastic simple idea. Video interaction is brilliant through gaming add-on.
3 comments:

1) Find a way to MAINTAIN gaming during the video (e.g. live comments adds of
people in the room to the images?). That's because right now its fun to vote
every 1:30minutes but then kind of boring to watch.. Althrough I stayed 3X
more than initially planned ;-) This would allow maintaing people on site too
since many people left/stopped voting after 1st video.

2) POINTS need to be prominent & STATUS linked: it's not about the money for
me but the challenge & game. Many sites followed this model. When I win, the
reward of points would need to incenvize me somehow. Make it big/prominent?
What about leveraging STATUS with points too: status changes with results from
say commoner to king to rock-star...

3) Consider Consumer Goods ads for site monetization: FMCG would pay to have
their ads displayed (what about an ad of 10'' every few where people vote
too???). I know that's old model but still there is something in the voting
that could be a way for consumer research or brand 'interraction' of sort

Overall will be big, well done and keep it up!

~~~
daralthus
You could actually make the voting along the video, before it ends, so there
will be no waiting between them and also people can play the whole time.

EDIT: Also, I would add the possibility to recommend a video to be next. It
could be better then the automatic youtube recomends (do I think right it uses
that?)

------
dpritchett
I can't find a source now, but this reminds me of the story where Bill and
Melinda gates would stay in touch when one of them was traveling by having an
over-the-phone movie date night. Both of them rent a movie and start it at the
same time, they call each other and chat throughout.

Edit: Here's a cite but it tells a slightly different story than I remembered.
[http://davis.foulger.info/papers/RelationshipEqualsSumMedia....](http://davis.foulger.info/papers/RelationshipEqualsSumMedia.htm)

~~~
joelhaasnoot
Did that with my girlfriend when I was in the US for 6 months. Worked pretty
well, except for timing issues such as phones ringing, bathroom break, oh and
time zones :(

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shawndrost
Fun stuff! It's like being the robot on mst3k. The site has a real soul to
it... I find the jankiness of the design endearing, I love that you assigned
me the name "renny", and I like the random touch of having my name tag appear
when I click to vote. It's fun to move around! I think frozenhot is memorable,
it's fine.

Main thing: how are you going to bring people here?

A few minor suggestions: make the vote countdown shorter, allow me to click
the x on the popover ad, add a "this video sucks, skip it" button, fix the
damn lagging. Maybe add a way for people to ping the screen for additional
lulz.

------
blantonl
Couple questions after visting:

1) How does it work? 2) What does it do? 3) Why should I sign up for an
account?

These are things that the front page should answer immediately. .

But most importantly, how do you expect to generate revenue from this project?
Not having a clear answer to that question would probably eliminate this as
being called a "startup."

Best of luck on your project!

~~~
iman
1,2,3) You are right that the front page does not explain any of this. My
thoughts right now are to hope that people click through into a video, and
then from there that things are hopefully self-explanatory.

Regarding revenue: I have several ideas about this, but no clear well defined
strategy. I would love to hear any ideas :)

Thanks!

------
chaosmachine
I like the concept. It's sort of like watching TV with a bunch of friends.
Interactive voting on the next video is very cool.

But, here's your biggest challenge: This concept doesn't work without a bunch
of users showing up at the same time.

Tomorrow, when this is off the front page of HN, how do you plan to get people
to come back? If you can solve that, you've got something.

~~~
iman
In a perfect world, people will like the site, and return to it, and maybe
spread the word to their friends :)

I also have some ideas for integrating game-like features which would
introduce viral elements to the site.

I would love to hear more ideas for getting traffic!

------
ay
Fun! Here's an idea for you to consider for getting money out of it:

display the two choices "coming up" and accept person betting either on one or
the other. Don't show how many people placed a bet.

When the choice is done - the part that won takes the bets of those who lost.

If a draw - like "zero", the house takes all the bets and makes a random
choice.

"Make money while watching TV" - could be an appealing tagline to some :-)

\--- edit: creating custom rooms could be a killer feature. Think of how a VJ
can be put into the mix above - maybe leave him the %% of micropayments or
points from each winning vote, or something like that.

I think this could make it.

~~~
dtby
Unfortunately, the cost of maintaining a gaming license in an appropriate
jurisdiction is likely to outweigh the revenue stream from such an enterprise.

~~~
ay
Good point. "A reward for determining the most liked of the two movies"
probably would not fly.

------
jiffylu
Similar to <http://www.synchtube.com/>

~~~
mrchess
I actually made synchtube -- thanks for the shout. Was thinking about putting
in a voting mechanism eventually. Nice to see frozenhot implemented it.

Ironically I also did a Show HN today
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2344151>) today as well but only got 1
point :(

------
Swannie
Nicely done, not sure what video's I'd use if for though.

------
jordo37
This very cool. One application I can see for this is for viewing video
together with someone across great distances like the example you talk about -
maybe even in a long-distance relationship. Can you move beyond using YouTube
or is the tech based on some of the features exposed by the YouTube API?

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mef
I like it. A more fun way to spend your time if you're a person who watches
videos on youtube all day.

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zengr
It has all the hot buzz words! "realtime", "social", "video"! Best of luck
with it!

------
hkr
Great implementation. I had the same exact idea for a while, but I didn't
really have a feeling for it.

Suggestion: Run commercials during the 20-30 seconds in between videos (while
users are voting).

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leeHS
Concept: Very interesting. Nothing more I can add that hasn't already been
said by others.

Design: Very poor. Right now it looks unprofessional.

Looking forward to seeing where you go with this!

------
chegra
Love it. :D Especially being able to vote on what we view next. I'm just going
to go ahead and say we have a winner here. I can't stop watching the Family
Channel.

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daralthus
Great datail to add random names and not "guest012"!

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kmfrk
Some documentaries and university lectures could be interesting. I'd like to
see those get selected.

Maybe Khan Academy, too?

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mfjordvald
I can't find where to put it into full screen. That part really annoys me.

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patheman
kind of fun, you need to somehow generate interaction .. by a gaming/voting
system so its like a game.

oh, yeah.. analyze the chatlogs.. just discussing the whole thing in-chat ;)

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swlkr
this reminds of an app that i saw a while back except it was really simple and
only worked for two people.

this is pretty cool though

------
patheman
btw. the ads appearing within the videos are non-clickable.. dunno if this is
good or bad for you ;)

