Rouxbe’s Community Blog

Finally after months of research and development we released our video recipe collections for download. This is a major milestone for Rouxbe and for myself.

For Rouxbe, well, it seems we are the first company in the world to offer High Definition (HD) content available for purchase specifically made with AppleTV in mind. And this also includes the fact that we’re doing this release in partnership with HarperCollinsCanada. That is no simple thing.

For me this is a major milestone because I’ve been working on this project for a few months now, and it’s a huge step forward into allowing our users to get the Rouxbe content closer to the kitchen, where it’s supposed to be.

Here’s the deal. When you buy a video recipe collection for download you can play the recipes on your iTunes in full screen. If you have one of the newer Macs with remote control, then you can use it to play the recipes with Front Row. This is great because it means that your computer or your laptop can be in a “safe” location and you can control playback with the IR remote without touching or getting your keyboard or mouse dirty.

If you happen to have an AppleTV you may know that you can plug that puppy onto most LCD TVs sold today even if it’s not HDTV; as long as it has component in, the AppleTV will work on your TV. This means that you can sync up the video iPod or HD versions of our recipes to the AppleTV and use it’s IR remote. For those with large HDTVs, I understand that not everyone would have one in the kitchen, but I can bet you that it’s visible from the cooking area. Say you have a 40 or 50 inch HDTV in the living room and it’s viewable from the kitchen, well, our content is so close up that you can still follow along from 20 meters away. I’m sure you’ve never seen onions this big!

The video iPod version for download is the one that I get the most excited about. Of course, it does not look as amazing as the HD version, but there are some other differences that I find interesting. First, well, the file size is smaller. About 1/3 of the HD version, which means you can get the recipes faster. These versions play in the same places as the HD versions; iTunes, Front Row, QuickTime Player, AppleTV. But these also sync up to your iPod. What’s the big deal about a 2 inch screen on the iPod? The big deal is that you can take it with you. You can take the recipe to a friend’s party, to the supermarket to help you choose your ingredients, even to the store to help you choose the right gear.

And the killer app? The killer app is that all video iPods have video out. Yep, you can plug your video iPod to a regular TV that has video-in. What’s so killer app about this, you ask? Well, if you have a TV with video-in in the kitchen, well, you can plug your video iPod directly and get Rouxbe recipes IN THE FREAKING KITCHEN! All this with the gear you already have… well, maybe you need to buy a cable, but if you have a video iPod and a TV with video-in, I can tell you what cable to buy. Check out my next blog post for a good list of options available, but I’ll give you a quick hint: it’s a regular camcorder mini-jack to 3 RCA; just plug the red RCA to the video-in on your TV and the mini-jack to the headphone jack on your video iPod.