XFreeHD Review

Every row on the front page carries three numbers: a runtime, a view count and an approval rating. The counts read 1K, 535, 252, 77. The ratings beside them read 80%, 25%, 0% and 0%. Most tubes either hide those figures or make sure the front page only shows flattering ones; this one leaves a zero-per-cent score sitting above the fold.

The shelf they sit in is scoped by country — what is being watched in the visitor's own, with a switcher offering Canada, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom or worldwide. Narrowing the sample to one country is what makes those small numbers visible in the first place.

Around that is a full tube: twenty-odd interface languages, a photos section with equal billing to video, a community area, a trends page and an RSS feed. The scaffolding is complete.

The address that answers is a beta subdomain. The titles on it read as fragments — one names a studio brand with a word dropped out of the middle, another is three words that do not parse in any language on the switcher — and nothing states who is supplying them.