The Venice Project in Beta Testing

The Venice project has opened up to Beta testers. A few lucky users who have applied on the website will receive a copy of the soon to be released online video application. Another way of obtaining an entry is by receiving an invite from one of the lucky Beta testers.

To recap, The Venice Project is a new online TV experience currently being developed by the creators of Kazaa and Skype. Neither truly a P2P app nor a web TV streamer it very humbly aims to “redefine the way people think about television”.

Janus Friis, one of the main developers of the Venice Project, provides a couple of screenshots. So far the application looks to us like a cross over between Apple’s Front Row and the web tv app, Democracy. Channel menus are clear and transparent and thumbnail views of channels give you an idea of what to watch. The controller is similar to Windows Media Player’s minized controls, and features the essential action buttons and quick browsing between channels. from other screenshots, it also seems likely that you will able to chat with other users and put up ratings and comments of the shows you’ve been watching.

Over on Techcrunch one lucky tester commented “the video quality isn’t the best I’ve seen from p2p video but its watchable”. He also revealed the presence of numerous pop up ads. We’ll keep you informed as more information from Beta testers is revealed.