Comcast has begun to test a new app called MyMedia that enables customers on the X1 platform and with access to a cloud-based storage system to upload personal videos and photos from their mobile devices and play them back across a variety of platforms, including set-top boxes.
The free 30.4-megabyte app tailored for the X1 platform showed up on the Apple App store on May 20, though, according to this Comcast X1 user form, some X1 users began to notice the presence of the MyMedia app back in mid-April.
“The Comcast Labs MyMedia app is intended ONLY for customers that have the X1 platform and Comcast storage,” a brief description of the app explains, noting that the ability to upload and delete videos, create albums, and name videos are among the features gracing the MyMedia app. The app, which does not appear to be available yet for Android-powered devices, requires iOS version 6.1 or later.
The app listing also notes that it requires a WiFi or 4G cellular connection, along with the X1 customer’s credentials.
Comcast has not announced a commercial launch date for the app, but a spokesman said MyMedia is one of the new features slated for the X1 that were announced at The Cable Show in April, which included one that will allow triple-play customers to live stream personal video from their mobile devices to the TV via the Internet. At the time, Comcast said it expected that feature to become available by the “beginning of 2015.”
Comcast has not detailed the cloud-pointing aspect of that feature or the MyMedia app it’s testing. However, VIPER, Comcast’s home-grown IP video pipeline for VOD and live streaming, uses a just-in-time-packaging (JITP) system that allows Comcast to store content in a common media format that can package up adaptive bit rate streams in the right device format and resolution on the fly. Comcast has previously said that the approach offers a material improvement to storage economics, particularly when it comes to personal recordings.
Comcast’s move comes amid a broader trend among high-speed broadband users. According to a recent study by nScreenMedia, 96% of U.S. broadband users store one of the following four main types of digital media: photos, music, movies and home videos.
