Jaman.com worth checking if you like offbeat films
Readers with interested in foreign and independent films might want to check out a new video download site called Jaman.
The things I like about Jaman (www.jaman.com) are not only its eclectic collection and its pricing model, but its sincere interest in catering to the 56 million people in this country who were born outside of the United States or speak a language other than English.
In Hawaii, a large percentage of the population falls into this category. These are folks who are definitely interested in great foreign films that certainly won't make it to the video rental places but nonetheless deserve to be seen. Jaman also encourages film makers to make submissions for documentaries.
For the next few weeks Jaman's beta site is running so you can watch movies on it for free. After the beta is finished, the company will charge $1.99 to rent a movie for a week or $4.99 to purchase.
Jaman's library already includes films from all over the world.
So how does it work?
Movies are streamed from a high-definition player on the site. The downloadable player works on both Mac and Windows operating platforms. Of course, you're going to need a high-speed Internet connection.
Setup is easy. Just register and download the Jaman player. Then pick a movie to download.
The system employs peer-to-peer technology that allows users to download movies from Jaman servers and other Jaman users. My download for a couple of films was fairly fast, but I've heard that a feature-length film can take several hours to download.
The films I saw included called "Yank Tanks" (a story about old American cars in Cuba) and a Mexican thriller called "Soba." The quality was quite good -- I'd say equivalent to viewing a DVD.
Finally, what I like about this site is professionalism and seriousness. Its blog posts updates to items of interest, and you can submit reviews, engage in group discussions or read commentary about the films.
As CNET described the site, "Jaman is a site for filmmakers -- the real kind, not the YouTube kind -- to bypass the Hollywood studio apparatus and take films directly to the people."
There are any number of more conventional online sites for the typical Hollywood movies. However, if you want to find an obscure movie from Taiwan or Thailand, or watch an offbeat documentary that will never make it to the Varsity, this is the place to go.
Kiman Wong is general manager of digital phone at Oceanic Time Warner Cable. He can be reached at
kiman.wong@twcable.com