Comments on: NBC Direct Sucked…Your PC Resources

By: Yahoo Using Conviva for Live Streams | Viral Video Maker

Yahoo Using Conviva for Live Streams | Viral Video Maker — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 16:31:46 +0000

[...] at all. However, when done poorly, plug-ins can be more than an inconvenience — for instance, NBC’s terrible NBC Direct project sucked users’ resources and downloaded an additional application that stayed running in their [...]

By: Kirk M. Schafer

Kirk M. Schafer — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:50:36 +0000

I found this article while searching for an unauthorized service on a machine–the computer has been unacceptably sluggish for some time–and suddenly recalled trying NBC Direct…which never functioned so I assumed it wasn’t installed. I have decades of professional experience, and:

1) I was not aware a service would be installed.
2) I was not aware the application would start with Windows and run in the background.
3) I was not informed that the mysterious service was in any way related to NBC Direct.
4) It is NOT clear how the application should be removed. There are NO entries on the system. It does warn that a partner application (NBC Direct) is running when one tries to remove the service–but it will be restarted after uninstallation completes.
5) My professional opinion is that the memory usage quoted in this article is inappropriately large; information should be read the information from disk and not consume available memory.
6) Firefox–the browser I used to install NBCDirect, where it never actually worked–even after disabling ALL extensions, addons, and the like–would fill up all available memory (about 2GB) with patently normal web browsing. Sure, FF has some leaks–but this required complete removal and reinstallation. I still don’t know where to remove the component the service said it was going to restart.

If I missed the surreptitiously installed programs–along with the other problems–and I carefully read installation processes (how many installers offer a toolbar you’ve said “NO” to 15 times already?), I would hazard that NBC is not making it clear enough what you’re signing up to do. If I do manage to get it completely removed, I will NOT run this application again.

N.B. When posting to this form, I inadvertantly included an extra “.” in my email address. Your system (newteevee.com) simply returned an error message that the email address was incorrect, and provided no subsequent form, at which point I used the BACK button to return to this form. Since I always assume every form will fail, I didn’t lose the content, but anyone else would have lost the entire form–because the site cleared it. It’s a relatively simple update, and I hope a site editor notices this comment.

By: ExtendMedia Raises $10M for Video Platforms « NewTeeVee

ExtendMedia Raises $10M for Video Platforms « NewTeeVee — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:47:39 +0000

[...] some high-profile deals, but they haven’t necessarily gone all that well. It helped power SanDisk’s TakeTV and Fanfare PC-to-TV content service, which shut down just eight months after launch. It was also behind last year’s problematic [...]

By: casey

casey — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 03:16:46 +0000

Thanks for the info.

By: Vince

Vince — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 06:08:52 +0000

If you have uninstalled NBC Direct, you still need to uninstall the Media Agent. Just scroll through the program list until you find the OpenCase Media Agent. GET RID OF IT. Anyone wonder why it's eating CPU cycles? It's port scanning. I fired up wireshark and it's scanning incremented ports looking for an open port. Here's the kicker, I already had the NBCDirect software uninstalled. Make sure you get both. This is just terrible software and NBC should be ashamed of themselves.

By: A

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:07:28 +0000

Thank you so much! My computer had been running much more slowly than usual, and after I checked add/remove programs, I found OpenCase, looked it up, and saw this. I’d removed the NBC player a day after installing, but hadn’t realized that there was an additional component. Hopefully, uninstalling it will get my computer back to speed. Thanks again!

By: Downloading NBC Direct (beta) player to watch TV episodes like “Heroes” and “Friday Night Lights” is bad for your computer. « S T E R L I N G * A G L O G

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 08:09:14 +0000

[...] gathering activities. As quoted in Albrecht’s article [November 20, 2007] NBC Direct Sucked…Your PC Resources, Gardner asserts: “The NBC service is anonymous. You can see on the sign up process no personal [...]

By: Downloading NBC Direct (beta) player to watch TV episodes like “Heroes” and “Friday Night Lights” is bad for your computer. « S T E R L I N G * A B L O G

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:57:00 +0000

By: Vid-Biz: WGA, Hammer Films, Dexter « NewTeeVee

Vid-Biz: WGA, Hammer Films, Dexter « NewTeeVee — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:52:01 +0000

[...] advertising on downloadable media. (ExtendMedia’s OpenCASE powers NBC Direct, and had some issues early on.) (emailed [...]

By: James Anderson

James Anderson — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 23:17:41 +0000

Just report their Application to the Anti-Spyware/Adware software manufacturers (Sunbelt/Lavasoft/SpyBot etc) and let people make a choice when they run their anti-spyware removal software if they want this type of data mining spy/adware software on their computer, Gator and its ilk are just download managers too but they are branded Adware so this NBC app is really no different.

call a spade a spade instead of deceptive descriptions purposely intended to fool/goad the user.

By: Frank Sinton

Frank Sinton — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 18:20:44 +0000

Using a Download Manager is typical for DRM-ed content and Extend has a great product. If you have used any movie download service, they all use a download manager of some sort.

However, NBCDirect should be upfront and let the customer know what is being installed and why.

By: Don’t Get NBC’s Beta Software- Direct « Sarah Meyers

Don’t Get NBC’s Beta Software- Direct « Sarah Meyers — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 17:54:21 +0000

[...] NewTeeVee we found out that NBC Direct has sucked up 60 MB of RAM messing with the CPU of one’s [...]

By: NBC Direct Hogs System Resources

NBC Direct Hogs System Resources — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:47:43 +0000

[...] if NBC Direct didn’t suck enough already, now here it is sucking up system resources. “Joe” wrote in to tell us that the NBC client software also installed the OpenCASE Media [...]

By: matt_

matt_ — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 14:05:42 +0000

I removed the process and Extend Media and NBC do not say upfront this sofware will be running in the back ground even while not in use ......

I wont be installing it again unless they give me a portion of the ad revenue (superdistribution) ,serve their content p2p style so NBC Direct has a reason to run a invasive process on my computer and learn some lessons on installing malware of users computers .

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 08:04:06 +0000

Chris, what I was not aware of and was not mentioned during installation is that this Open Case Media Agent installs itself as a service in Windows starting automatically during system startup.