Justin.tv Broadcaster App Review
Platform: Android

RATING:
5 out of 5

PRICE:
FREE

TASTY:
Makes it easy to record and share high-quality video with your Android phone anywhere, anytime. No setup required!

BUMMER:
We’ve had to suffer with competitor’s Ustream and Qik waiting for Justin.tv to arrive. Seriously.

COOL:
The most rock-solid video recording app on the DROID today, boasting higher quality recordings, easy online sharing, with a polished interface. Plus, you can chat with viewers of your live recordings in real-time through an overlay sitting on top of your live video.

REVIEW:
Ask any die-hard DROID user which app they’re using to record, stream, and share video, and Qik or Ustream are the most likely responses. After spending an afternoon with Justin.tv’s oddly named alternative app, I can safely say that we’ve got a new king of the hill.

Why? Let me count the ways:

1. Justin.tv supports hardware encoding that’s optimized for 3G/4G networks, recorded in high resolution, and streamed in real-time to online viewers.

2. Sharing is built right into the app, no need to set up your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or other social media accounts at the developer’s website.

3. Justin.tv supports live text chat, which is overlaid over your live video streams.

4. Your recorded video is saved automatically (“forever” according to the developers) with no need to choose this option.

For months, I’ve suffered with low-quality video recordings hampered by even lower-quality indoor cell reception and thus blocky or halted streaming, using Qik to record trade show demonstrations and customer interactions in our booths. The app tended to seize up if I wasn’t on a rock-solid connection, and some recordings sounded OK but had only a few frames of actual video, with long pauses in between.

Now with Justin.tv, my days of using Qik are over. Justin.tv runs smoothly no matter the connection (works just as well via wifi as it does via 3G/4G), with much higher-quality recordings that don’t suffer from pauses, stutters, or blocky sections. If your data connection is degraded, the video quality is stepped down until your signal gets stronger, while the frame rate remains constant. Once your connection gets better, your video is stepped up automatically.

And once a video is finished, it’s already live on the Justin.tv website, with no need to take extra steps to upload the final file or wait for processing.

The app is perfect for professionals and amateurs who want to use their Android device to record and share high-quality video on the go.

Whether it’s your daughter’s soccer game, your son’s musical performance, or your company’s latest product demonstration, Justin.tv makes it easy to record and share video.

There’s currently no better solution in the Android Marketplace. A must-download.