
Justin.tv has shut down - abstractbill
http://www.justin.tv/
======
Zikes
I recently signed up on twitch and started watching 1-2 hours of streams a
day, usually whenever TotalBiscuit, Hafu, or Amaz are on in the evenings CST
(which isn't terribly often). I also use Netflix exclusively as opposed to
cable or satellite, and this is the unfortunate result:

[http://i.imgur.com/i7MKXWC.png](http://i.imgur.com/i7MKXWC.png)

I used to think I'd have to torrent to hit typical consumer data caps, but
that's no longer the case. I didn't do any torrenting whatsoever in July, but
I still used over 300GB.

Even if Verizon ever pull their head out of their rear in regards to peering,
so long as data caps exist we'll still be artificially throttled in our
internet usage.

~~~
amorphid
Data caps do suck, but I do have a happy memory of working the system.

Around March of 2011, Verizon Wireless was promoting it's new 4G networking by
offering unlimited data plans. I bought an HTC Thunderbolt, the Verizon
network's first 4G phone, and promptly started tethering it to my laptop using
a program called Easy Tether (purchased through the Amazon's app store).

While I had that phone, I would routinely consume hundreds of gigs of
bandwidth each month, mostly from watching streaming videos. I wasn't even
torrenting. Before there were a bunch of other people using 4G, I got some
pretty good download speeds. One day, I remember downloading the Xcode, a 4 or
5 gig download, within a few minutes. Another day, Speedtest clocked my
download speed at something like 33gps, although 9 to 12 gigs per second for
the norm.

Today I'm on a cheapo prepaid wireless plan and settle for 2G download speeds
of about 50kbs, which is fine most of the time. My cheapo phone plan and cable
internet subscription are cheaper than any reasonable plan Verizon Wireless
offers. For now, I'll enjoy my reasonably speedy Netflix streaming at home
until Comcast throttles my download speeds to that of a 28.8K modem.

~~~
nitrogen
33 gbps? Those units seem quite unlikely.

~~~
avoid3d
Given that the person stated that they are only consuming hundreds of
gigabytes I think we can assume that they mean megabits not gagabits.

------
LandoCalrissian
This had been in the cards for a long time now. Justin.tv was a huge liability
since there were so many streams running pirated content. They were really
smart in acknowledging the success of video game streaming the platform was
having and focusing their efforts there. Honestly one of the better pivots I
have seen.

I think they are a really smart company, it will be interesting to see what
happens post Google.

~~~
jonmc12
Was re-reading "Why TV Lost" essay by PG
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=501696](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=501696)),
which seemed inspired by Justin.tv. A lot of the points in the essay from 5
years ago were really telling, including the role of piracy in the user
experience.

One interesting excerpt: "The somewhat more surprising force was one specific
type of innovation: social applications... This was what made everyone want
computers. Nerds got computers because they liked them. Then gamers got them
to play games on. But it was connecting to other people that got everyone
else: that's what made even grandmas and 14 year old girls want computers."

~~~
jhmarten
> Nerds got computers because they liked them. Then gamers got them to play
> games on. But it was connecting to other people that got everyone else

I've never seen anyone completely write IBM and Microsoft out of computing
history by such absurd degree as this.

~~~
kibibu
Or Apple/Aldus/Adobe for that matter.

"Nerds" got them because at the time computers could only do the things nerds
wanted them to.

------
tdicola
Kind of sucks access to old videos is gone. I remember watching a lot of Arab
spring and occupy wall street streams live as they happened on the site. It's
a shame to lose those videos and the interesting historical info in them.

~~~
ejr
The Archive project has been busy getting these as quickly as possible.
[https://archive.org/details/justintv](https://archive.org/details/justintv)
You may find a lot of those videos have been saved. I think there was a limit
on which videos were actually saved as those with no views or only few were
not selected.

~~~
bensw
Videos with more than 10 views were downloaded. In addition, many videos that
people asked to be saved were downloaded.

~~~
tdicola
Awesome, thanks everyone who helped save the videos!

------
MilnerRoute
I feel nostalgic, in a weird way. With Google Glass coming into the world,
it's nice to remember there was a time when filming your day required a
pioneer spirit and a DIY rig.

I remember this interview when Justin was just getting started...

[http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2007/06/06/a-conversation-
with-j...](http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2007/06/06/a-conversation-with-justin-
kan-of-justintv/)

------
jedberg
I remember in the first weeks of JTV when the crew would hold a weekly BBQ at
their apartment, so that people would have something interesting to watch. It
was fun to go up there and joke with Justin about his shenanigans for the week
while watching Kyle build ever smaller portable rigs.

I'm glad that that crazy idea ("I'm going to live stream my life and people
will watch!") has turned into the best live streaming gaming site on the
internet.

------
vanisher
I used to visit justin.tv a lot in the early days, they used to have more
interesting people broadcasting but the quality declined over the last 5
years. A lot of the more premium channels/brands broadcast on other sites.

This is reflected in the traffic, just look at the decline from a peak in late
2009. Looking at this graph, it's no real surprise that they are shutting it
down:

[https://www.quantcast.com/justin.tv#!traffic](https://www.quantcast.com/justin.tv#!traffic)
(click all below the graph)

They have done really well to develop the gaming side on twitch.

------
crazypyro
Sounds like Twitch is slimming down after Google buy. Smart move. Google cares
about the demographics of Twitch a lot more, I'd imagine.

~~~
ihuman
Has the acquisition actually been announced yet? All I can find are articles
that say it is "confirmed", but with no link to the announcement.

~~~
Joona
No, it's purely rumors at this point.

------
guiomie
I understand there was lots of pirated content on justin.tv, but I am
surprised that focusing on streaming live video games is better in the long
term then focusing on live content in general.

I see the live content market with more possibilities ... live events, reality
shows ...etc.

I'm not an expert on the subject, can someone enlighten me?

~~~
vanisher
Live streaming content has huge potential but the justin.tv brand is pretty
tarnished at this point, I can't see many big brands/name choosing to
broadcast there. They would need a complete relaunch and name change I think.

With the experiment of streaming Steve Aoki on twitch it wouldn't surprise me
if they launched a dedicated branded site for live music at some point. Google
may want to keep that stuff on youtube though.

~~~
ihuman
By tarnished, do you mean that it is an old brand, or that something bad
happened to the brand that tarnished it?

~~~
vanisher
It just had a increasingly unprofessional/low quality image that in addition
to the many pirated tv streams as other people have mentioned, attracted many
teenage girls with low quality cameras and viewers asking them to 'show feet'
and other demands. This quote from this fast company article sums it up pretty
well:

"By last summer, its once-thriving community had dwindled to a ghost town
populated by puppy cams, eccentrics--like the stoner who filmed himself taking
bong hits--and a few lonely lifecasters. Mostly young women, they tend to sit,
static, in front of a webcam, rambling about their interior lives to a tiny
audience of leering commenters."

[http://www.fastcompany.com/1839300/many-pivots-justintv-
how-...](http://www.fastcompany.com/1839300/many-pivots-justintv-how-livecam-
show-became-home-video-gaming-superstars)

------
teddyh
DNA Lounge used Justin.tv. JWZ’s reaction here:
[http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2014/08/05.html](http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2014/08/05.html)

------
troymc
What are the major, _general-purpose_ livestreaming options now? Ustream?
Google Hangouts? What else?

~~~
paul7986
What other sites offer similar TV streams like JTV did?

I have used JTV for marathon watching of so many popular TV shows for the past
five years.

I may not really be watching, but when working on your latest start-up or idea
it was always good to be watching marathons of my favorite show in the
background.

~~~
paul7986
Why is this being downvoted? This is how I used JTV for the past five years
and I'm sure tons of others here did too.

~~~
paul7986
Probably, but it was an amazing site due to all the marathon copyrighted TV
shows you can just go and tune into.

Where am I supposed to get a similar service now? I'll never pay for cable TV
again!

~~~
squeaky-clean
You should still pay for the content you consume. This is why these streaming
sites get shut down so quickly. Watching a stream is no different than
torrenting it or other means of infringing. You're watching a TV show without
the rights holders getting any money. If you don't want the rights holders to
get any of your money (whether it's because you cannot afford to pay, or do
not want to pay), you simply should not watch the show, not find a free way
around the system.

~~~
paul7986
Well where can I watch and pay for a JTV like service on the INternet.

Answer you can not and copyright does not want to disrupt their horrible cable
TV business model.

JTV was awesome and will be sorely missed! Aereo too and hey I paid for that.

------
victorvation
I guess this was inevitable after Twitch was acquired.

------
hodgesmr
"Your account is now closed, and you will be unable to access any settings or
content"

~~~
sockgrant
They announced the end of archiving of videos a few months ago. So there's
nothing really to get off of your account.

------
aeturnum
There's a lot of talk about how this is due to the google acquisition, but if
you paid any attention to twitch / justin, this is the logical extension of
the slow justin.tv sunset that has been going on for the past few years.

------
ashmud
Removed from TWiT:

* Episode with mention: [http://twit.tv/show/tech-news-2night/144](http://twit.tv/show/tech-news-2night/144)

* Wiki history: [http://wiki.twit.tv/w/index.php?title=Stream_URLs&diff=prev&...](http://wiki.twit.tv/w/index.php?title=Stream_URLs&diff=prev&oldid=59714)

------
geuis
This is sad nostalgia. It was 2006-2007 when I was in the process if moving
from Miami to San Francisco. I remember finding out about Justin on a cnet
interview (I think). He had a setup of some cameras in his hat. I remember
quite fondly just watching him walk around the streets of SF and getting a
real life view of what my future city looked like.

------
rapind
I first heard about Justin.tv in an Amazon EC2 case study. They were one the
the pioneers on the platform and laid out a blueprint on elastic scaling to
handle their encoding. I found it very interesting and inspirational.

The idea of lifecasting had been around for a while though I think. Josh
Harris comes to mind, but maybe even earlier?

------
Joona
Not really surprising, considering how outdated their site was (visually, at
least).

Edit: Users with accounts can migrate them to Twitch.TV here:
[http://link.twitch.tv/switchaccount](http://link.twitch.tv/switchaccount)

------
bwy
"Twitch is site for gaming-related content only. "

Just wanted to point out a typo in the copy.

~~~
cheald
Not a typo, their had their Russian PR manager issue this release.

~~~
EpicEng
So it's not a typo because it was written by a Russian?

~~~
cheald
It's a joke; Russian doesn't have articles like English does. The omission of
the article in the sentence that the OP pointed out makes it sound like it
could have been spoken by a Russian character out of a Hollywood movie.

~~~
eric_h
In my experience, all ESL Russians speak like Russian characters in Hollywood
movies. I do find the dropped articles to be quite amusing.

------
programminggeek
I would have never thought when Twitch first was a side project that it would
become as big as it is. I don't know if it's luck, skill, or good timing, but
it's really amazing what they achieved.

~~~
mecheng123
All of those. Gaming has been steadily growing for a long time now and has
reached a "major player" status, so the timing is good. They're obviously a
very skilled group of people. And finally, great achievements require some
luck.

------
erikb
This one was shocking to read. At first I thought the company is dying, but
they basically switch the focus to twitch. I still remember when Justin's
stream was all the rage. What a great time!

------
pessimizer
You could see this coming when they gave everyone 7 days to back up their
archives before they would be _deleted._ I'm sure most of their employable
employees jumped ship since then.

~~~
crazypyro
Why would they jump ship? Twitch.tv has been booming for the past couple
years. If anything, they were just already moved to the twitch team.

This has little to do with the viability of the company/site and more to do
with getting rid of what is basically a generalized, predecessor version of
their already highly successful specialized streaming site.

------
mathattack
_Can I retrieve my videos? Unfortunately, videos on Justin.tv are no longer
accessible for download. Video archiving and VODs were removed on June 15,
2014._

Were people given advance notice on this?

~~~
sesqu
Yes, one week's notice.

------
zhyder
Seems abrupt. Would be nice to give users a couple of weeks or a month to
download their content.

Edit: never mind, looks like they gave plenty of notice.

~~~
rjbwork
They made an announcement a while ago as I recall, I think it even made the
front page of HN as well.

EDIT: Yep, heres the link
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7826313](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7826313)

------
ZanyProgrammer
I will miss endless repeats of the entire corpus of Stargate episodes. Really
a great way to escape and get away for a while.

------
lie07
Im gonna miss "The Office" stream.

------
evadoraz
Would've been nice if he gave heads up at YC Hacks or something.

------
cazer
End of an era

------
sogen
...My cousins had just bought a membership...

~~~
EpicEng

      "I'm an active Pro Account User, will I be refunded?
    
      Yes. You should have already received an email communicating the cancellation and refund process."

~~~
sogen
great, thanks

