CBS has launched their new HD Video portal with plenty of CBS content to enjoy. A quick view of a few shows on the laptop confirms that the content looks clear, sharp and doesn’t stutter. Looking forward to checking it out on the big screen as usual.

But, wait. What about the ads? I’m glad you asked. Either CBS doesn’t have an HD version of the ads they are using, or are streaming in the ads from a different platform. The ad I saw was so fuzzy that I could barely read the text in it. A second version of the ad was also undeniably low-def.

So what gives? From my perch, I know for a fact that there is demand for online HD content for advertisers to run their HD ads in. Could be some A-B testing going on, but all the ads I’ve seen so far are fuzzy.

Solid ad strategy as well. The first pre-roll is only :15 seconds. Once you are into the content, the ads become :30s. Smart. Why? You’ve already got them hooked, and there’s still fewer ads than on TV. Solid value prop.

Ben Adds: The player offers two quality settings - 720P HD and 480i which CBS terms HQ (High Quality). It looks like the ads are in 480i resolution which would explain the distortion. Intel has signed on as a sponsor so what you’ll see is an Intel ad delivered by CBSi.

On a user-experience note, I just became a fan of Flashpoint, it was the first thing I watched and I was compelled enough that I watched the full episode and the next one because of the quality of the video and the content. CBS hasn’t offered much info about how the video is delivered but you can’t argue with the way it looks.

Tags: cbs interactive, HD Player, Labs

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 5:13 pm and is filed under Content, News, Real Ads, Streaming, Video Portals, advertising, technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.