TVDeck creates a TV Guide for web video

TVDeck, a new site that launched its public beta test yesterday, aims to help Internet users find some of the best and most interesting videos among the massive amounts posted on the web.
TVDeck does this by aggregating the feeds, in a way somewhat similar to Alltop, of all the best shows online. There are a huge number of podcasts, video series, and the like out there, but the company says it’s only looking for the highest quality. Videos are sorted into categories like Technology, Sports, Business, and Men.
You can drill down into specific categories, too: If you choose “Men,” you then get to pick from things like Travel, Personal Finance, Wine, NFL, and more. Once you’ve found exactly the genre you’re looking for, a list of recent episodes from shows that might interest you appears. You can read about the episodes, or just go straight to the one you want to watch.
There are all sorts of interesting sharing features, as well as a surprisingly large number of shows available for watching completely on demand — you can see what’s popular, what’s brand new, and tell the whole world about it. You can also save feeds to My Deck, which gives you a personal hub for all your online viewing needs. You’re even able to add feeds TVDeck doesn’t already have, so TVDeck can be your one-stop shop for whatever you watch.
TVDeck certainly isn’t the only player in this field: sites like Clicker, SideReel and OVGuide are all trying to make finding video online easier. What’s unique about TVDeck, though, is that it’s the only site that’s geared toward online video – created online, shared online, and viewed exclusively online.

What’s really interesting about TVDeck is the trend it’s trying to ride. The traditional ways of watching TV and video, like most other old media, appears to be on its way out. A recent Morgan Stanley study came up with more than a few telling numbers about the watching habits of Americans.
According to the report, DVR and digital viewership are now larger than DVD sales, and DVD sales are predicted to drop 40% by the end of next year. More and more people are watching on TiVo or online, at their own leisure and with many more choices. More and more people every day are also accessing their entertainment from mobile devices, which traditional movies and TV have never figured out how to serve.
High-quality internet video appears poised for a boom at network television’s expense. Without the simplicity of channels and the TV Guide, though, all that video is going to be much harder to find.
TVDeck is both a filter and a finder, at once ignoring the bad shows and helping you find what you’re looking for among the good ones. As the world turns digital, and the computer becomes a TV, users are going to need a lot more of that.