Jake Ludington

Instant Media (I’M) offers one of the most usable alternatives to iTunes for subscription audio and video. From a directory of audio and video shows, I’M supports searching and subscribing to content in both MP4 and WMV formats as well as MP3 and WMA audio. Instant Media seems to shine at the playback experience for downloaded content, integrating the play experience directly into the software via either QuickTime or Windows Media, with videos scaled up for fullscreen playback in some cases. There’s also support for something their calling Internet High Definition content, which is being billed as 16:9 HD content in MP4 or WMV formats with 2048 kbps video at 1280×720 resolution. Like other subscription apps, Instant Media downloads new shows in the background as long as you leave the application running. There’s a very basic media library designed to add music and video files, but the overall experience for that part of I’M is still very remedial. The only thing that seems to be lacking in the subscription experience is the ability to sample shows before downloading them. At the moment, I’M either subscribes you to a feed or doesn’t, leaving out my preferred method of video consumption – random sampling. For those who love to subscribe, Instant Media is definitely worth a closer look. [Windows XP $0.00]