I’ve been using YouTube for some time now and have had no problems at all when posting videos, uploading etc. The only real restriction is the 10 minute time limit for video length, which isn’t very long when you’re doing business related training etc (plenty long enough when watching Tiffany dance in her bedroom :))
The only possible downsides with YouTube in my humble opinion are;
Length restricted to 10 minutes; you have to chop up your videos into shorter segments
Private videos; if you want to have private videos they can be viewable by up to 25 people and these people need to be added to your contact list. This is a pain if you want video content to be for private members or list members. I suppose YouTube is really for public consumption though…
Because of these restrictions I started looking at Google video. I was very pleased to see a NEW feature which allows you to upload your video as UNLISTED, so your video will not be included in the search results. This is a handy feature, as you could post a private video and not have it found by the general public. Pretty neat, or so I thought…
I downloaded the Google Video Uploader utility, which lets you upload multiple files with bigger than 100MB. If your video file size is less than 100MB you can use the web based form to upload.
I uploaded one video using the web form and one using the uploader. That was 2 days ago. Since then, I haven’t been able to login using the Google Video Uploader and if I try using the web form I get an error.
It seems that this has been an ongoing problem for a while, you can follow the link at the end of this post to see a recent Google groups discussion about the problem.
I wonder if Google video is still viable as an option? As Google own YouTube, for which they paid around $1.6 billion! Do you think they care much about Google video? If YouTube had these problems over an extended period of time it would be in serious trouble, no doubt…
I got an email from Marlon Sanders the other day. I went to his sales page and he was broadcasting live on the internet using USTREAM.tv. He was so excited he could hardly contain himself.
I didn’t buy his trainign program, but I did go create an account on ustream.tv to see how easy it was to setup and what you could do with it. I have to say, I’m blown away! Desktop video, dvd camcorders and all of the technology to create an uploadable video have been with us for a while now and are pretty stable. But to be able to stream live on the internet at the click of a button, literally. That’s bloody awesome!
Check out my quick tutorial, then go get your account and have some fun. Try not to get arrested though!
Just created another screen video using Camtasia 5. This is the latest version and its really cool. You can put in a picture in picture (I know you don’t want to see my ugly mug!), which might be useful in some situations. However, the filesize increases dramatically with PIP.
I did some test with the Canon Optura Xi yesterday to run through the audio capabilities and see how it performs. I have to say I am very pleased with it so far.
As far as the audio is concerned I can:
Manually adjust the level of the built in microphone
Turn the built in Microphone right down to 0 level i.e. OFF
Plug an external mic or sound source into the unit
Adjust the line level at which the mic input operates, so I can either raise the input level or lower it if the input source is too high and is clipping
This gives me pretty much all of the flexibility I need. Like I said yesterday, there aren’t many consumer level or prosumer level units on the market that offer this kind of flexibility, so its a good buy for me at a great price.
I have purchased a refurbished Canon Optura Xi to replace my trusty JVC DX7. There is only one REAL reason for this, although the Canon Optura Xi is a much better camera all round really.
Anyway, there is one thing that is of paramount importance when creating a video. Whether it be web video for a videocast or vlog, for your own personal video collection, or whatever, one of the most important elements in your video presentation is the SOUND QUALITY.
Therefore, before I purchased my replacement video camera, I looked closely at the audio specs for the new unit. Surprisingly, almost none of the cameras in the prosumer range had the ability to input audio from another source or control audio levels manually. I was very surprised.
So, in a nutshell, I bought the Canon Optura Xi not for its video quality, which by the way is very good, but for its audio capabilities. Oh and of course its price too!
I have been doing a fair amount of research recently on web video casting. I have a camcorder, a JVC GR-DVX7 that I bought on a trip to New York City many years ago.
The thing has been a great toy and trouble free for all these years. I have to say, I never really got into video like I did still photography. I think one of the problems with video is that you have to transfer the video onto a VHS tape, or now a DVD to watch it on TV. You don’t get the instant gratification that you get with stills, though that is changing now with ever cheaper and faster computers and the price of editing software is pretty low too.
Anyway, with the future of the internet being deeply rooted in video, I’m getting up to speed and producing my own video for the web. I’ve done a couple of things while testing, I may post a couple here if I can, just for a laugh!
But, the point of all this is, I’m replacing my camcorder! Shock, horror! Not that trusty, reliable workhorse you’ve had for years…
Yep! And there are a couple of very good reasons! I’ll post more on that next week, but I’m pretty sure they’re not the reasons you think…
My replacement just arrived… It’s a used Canon Optura Xi…
The thing about Flash player is that EVERYONE has it! It’s one of the most downloaded software programs on the planet and, of course, it’s FREE!
Installed on over 500 million internet-connected desktops and mobile devices, Flash Player is the backbone of the Flash Platform and enables organizations and individuals to build and deliver great digital experiences to their end users. More info click here…
Plus, from a developers point of view, I create one Flash video file and it can be downloaded by Windows, Mac, Linux and Sun users. That is as close as one might ever get to DEVELOPER NIRVANA!
So while I’m researching all of this I stumble across some interesting information from Macromedia regarding the newest (then) version of Flash, which at the time was the newly released Flash 7. Turns out the Macromedia had introduced in Flash 7 the FLV (Flash Video) format. Now, ’so what’ I hear you cry! Well, the thing about the new FLV format was that it was… yep… you guessed it… BUFFERED! YEY!
Not only does it provide buffering, you can stream it too if you need to scale up at some point in the future…
The second option that I was looking at for playing video from my client websites was QuickTime. QuickTime is Apple Computers format. Now, there are versions of the QuickTime player available for the PC running Windows. There are also versions of Windows media player and other software utilities available to run on the Mac. So why offer 2 file types for download?
Well, historically there has always been a bit of reluctance from both the manufacturers and the users of each platform to, shall we say, cross pollinate. So better to provide both formats and let the downloader in question decide, no?
So what do I mean by buffering? Well, I’m talking about it in the context of a video file being played over the internet, but this applies to an audio file too.
When the file supports buffering it means that the file will be downloaded over the connection and as soon as enough is downloaded to start playing, the file will play. The file will then continue to download, while playing. Hopefully, the file will download at least as fast as it plays thus providing you, the viewer or listener, with a simply wonderful almost other-worldy experience that greatly enhances your viewing or listening pleasure…
So, one of the formats I was looking at to do the video projects was obviously Windows media .wmv. This would be pretty much a no brainer as anyone with a Windows system would most likely have it and be willing to use it.
Windows media player buffers the file as it plays, so it will start to play quite quickly.
I looked into the available options at some length a while ago when I was doing two video projects for clients.
At first I thought of the 2 most obvious options.
Windows media - wmv
QuickTime - Apple mov
Both of these would be acceptable because they at least buffered the file so it would start to play as it downloaded from the web server. Note: I was being asked to host these files. Neither client wanted to pay for a streaming media service. In fact, one of them did have a streaming media service and the front-end on it was, quite frankly, bloody horrible.
I’ve been studying the progress of video blogging recently. I’m really interested in this technology and am finding out more about it.
I did a couple of video projects for 2 customers a about 18 months ago. All of the videos were supplied to me by the client. I had to make them into suitable formats for download. I ended up doing 2 file types. Flash and Windows Media wmv.
