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Filed under: Video

Filed under: Video, Search, Web

Clicker: (Another) One stop shop for web video

by Brad Linder Sep 16th 2009

Clicker
Look, there are a lot of places to find online video these days. And in many ways, Clicker is just another one of these sites. But the service, which launched in private beta at TechCrunch 50 this week certainly has a lot going for it.

First off, in terms of content, it's hard to find a site with a better list of web video including network TV shows, webisodes, and high quality content from professional and amateur sources. The site is also extraordinarily easy to navigate. You can search for shows by title, genre, or media type (TV, movies, web shows, or music). Or you can just start typing in a search box to see what pops up. And results, with thumbnail images, will start to appear once you've entered a few letters.

One thing that's nice about Clicker is that right at the top of each show page is a link that tells you how many episodes are available online. Clicker doesn't host the videos, but rather scours the web for videos that are already online. If a video can be embedded in Clicker's site, it is, so you can watch without leaving the web page. If not, Clicker provides a link to the site where you can watch the video.

The site lets you subscribe to videos by creating playlists, and you have a nice array of options for each video. For instance, say you're watching one of the latest episodes of The Guild and decide you'd like to subscribe to the show. You can add all episodes to your playlist, just new episodes, or just the latest season. Then when you click your Playlist link, you can see a list of episodes you've watched or have yet to watch. There's also a "Season Pass" section that lets you see the shows you've subscribed to, although I'm guessing TiVo isn't going to be happy with Clicker co-opting its phrase for a series subscription.

You can request an invite for Clicker by visiting the service's homepage.

Tags: clicker, television, tv, web-video

Filed under: Utilities, Video

YouTube Auto Buffer: how did I ever watch YouTube without it?

by Jay Hathaway Sep 12th 2009

YouTube Auto Buffer is a userscript that fixes a lot of the things that annoy me most about YouTube. It's a beefed up version of the barebones one Lee wrote about last December. Instead of autoplaying a couple seconds of video and having to stop and start because nothing's buffered, this script turns autoplay off and clips fully buffer before playing.

I don't know about you, but I was doing that manually whenever I loaded a YouTube vid anyway. On top of that, it also turns HQ/HD on by default, so you're watching the best available version of each video, and hides the in-video ads that YouTube occasionally shows.

You'll need the Greasemonkey add-on to run YouTube Auto Buffer in Firefox, and the equivalent in other browsers (for Safari, it's GreaseKit). If you don't like all three of Auto Buffer's features, you can turn any of them off in the script's preferences. They're hiding in plain sight underneath YouTube's search box -- not in the Greasemonkey menu as you might expect.

[via Lifehacker]

Tags: adblock, autoplay, greasemonkey, script, userscript, video, youtube

Filed under: Audio, Internet, Video

Real Alternative hits 2.0 milestone with a quiet update

by Brad Linder Sep 9th 2009

Real Alternative
Real Alternative is an awesome little Windows utility that lets you watch RealVideo and listen to RealAudio files without installing RealPlayer. Although RealPlayer has come a long way in recent years, many people still find it cumbersome and awkward to use.

Real Alternative installs the codecs you need to access much of the content available in RealPlayer using a light weight media player called Media Player Classic. There are also plugins for Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome that let you interact with RealMedia content from your browser.

The application hit version 2.0 recently, but despite the rather monumental name, it looks like the update brings a handful of relatively minor updates. Probably the most significant change is that the browser plugin now works in Internet Explorer 8. The versions of Media Player Clasice and the RealMedia components have also been updated. But I figured the anniversary was a good time to point out three things:
  1. Real Alternative is kind of awesome.
  2. It's been chugging along quietly for years.
  3. Flash has all-but replaced RealMedia as the default media platform for the web.
That last point was driven home when I installed Real Alternative 2.0 today to test it out. It took me a good 10 minutes to find a web site that actually streamed audio or video in RealMedia. A few years ago, it would have been hard to find a site using any other media format.

Tags: media-player-classic, real-alternative, real-alternative-2.0

Filed under: Video, News, Web

Is YouTube going to offer streaming movie rentals?

by Jay Hathaway Sep 4th 2009

YouTube's most popular content has always been user-generated, with a lot of self-produced stars making a name for themselves on the site. People go there to watch the latest viral videos, and maybe TV shows that haven't yet been taken down due to copyright. That's why it might sound strange that YouTube is reportedly getting into the business of streaming Hollywood movies, a la Hulu or Netflix. According to the Wall Street Journal, heavy-hitting movie studios like Sony and Warner Brothers are already in talks with YouTube.

Streaming rentals would be available for a limited time, and would either cost a flat fee (like iTunes) or be ad-supported (like Hulu). The WSJ speculates that $4 would be the price to rent a new release. Although this squares with what iTunes charges, iTunes movies are downloadable, and don't necessarily need a speedy internet connection like streaming does. YouTube is no-commenting the story, except to say that they're developing their relationships with movie studios.

[via Wired]

Tags: hollywood, movies, rental, streaming, video, youtube

Filed under: Video, Social Software

Fox to live-stream Twitter comments during Fringe, Glee reruns

by Brad Linder Aug 31st 2009

Fringe on Twitter
Broadcast television is full of reruns. No surprise there. And the truth is, plenty of people will watch rebroadcasts of television programs. In fact, it was recently reported that The Late Show with David Letterman was beating The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in the ratings -- even though Letterman was in reruns while Conan was producing new episodes.

But generally reruns aren't as exciting as first-run broadcasts, and fewer people tune in. So it's interesting to see Fox take a new media approach to an old media problem. The network is introducing "tweet-peats" for two of its shows, Fringe and Glee.

The idea is that you'll be able to watch the show and see a scroll across the bottom of messages from Twitter. Of course, you're not going to see every message that some schlub posts with the proper #hashtag. Most of the messages will come from the show's producers and cast members. For example, Joshua Jackson and John Noble will be tweeting during Thursday night's rerun of Fringe.

But some fans wll be able to get their messages through as well. Fans can sign up to follow Fringe and Glee on Twitter and ask questions or leave comments and the producers may include some of those comments during the show.

[via Mashable]

Tags: fox, fringe, glee, television, tweet-peat, twitter

Filed under: Utilities, Video, Windows

Free Screen to Video for Windows does free screen captures

Windowsby Brad Linder Aug 28th 2009

Free Screen to Video
Free Screen to Video is a free screen capture utility for Windows. You can capture video of an entire display, just a window, or a selected area. The program can handle audio and video or just video. And you can save your files in a variety of formats including FLV, AVI, WMV, and SWF.

You don't get a ton of bells and whistles like the ability to edit or even resize videos within the application. But really, what were you expecting from a free screen capture utility? Just use VirtualDub or your editor of choice if you need to edit your screen capture.

The developer of Free Screen to Video also has a number of other apps including a CD ripper and several tools for editing and converting audio and video files. You can find them all at the developer's home page.

[via Life Rocks 2.0]

Tags: free-screen-to-video, screen-capture

Filed under: Video, Windows, Beta

Yahoo announces Messenger 10, with better video chat

Windowsby Jay Hathaway Aug 27th 2009

Yahoo is getting ready to roll out the latest version of its Yahoo Messenger chat app, and a beta version of Yahoo Messenger 10 is already available for Windows users. This time around, the focus is on new features for webcams. Now you can start a high-quality video call (with audio) from within an IM window, which is a step up from the low-quality video calls with no audio that Yahoo had before.

These improvements are only for 1:1 calls to other buddies who have Yahoo Messenger 10, though. If you're using Yahoo Messenger to broadcast video to multiple people, you're still stuck with no sound and lower video quality. Video calling also gets some of the features you might be used to from apps like Skype: putting calls on hold, entering full screen mode, and repositioning your video windows.

Yahoo's also jumping on the "activity stream" bandwagon: you can put your buddy list in update mode, and see what your friends are doing on other social sites, like Twitter and Last.fm. You can start a chat from the updates view, and the update you're talking about will show up inline in your IM window, so your friends know what you're responding to. Yahoo Messenger 10 also finally has the ability to sort your buddy list by availability, so the contacts who are actually online and available will show up at the top.

[via Life Rocks 2.0]

Tags: chat, video chat, VideoChat, yahoo, yahoo messenger, YahooMessenger

Filed under: Video, Macintosh, Productivity

Camtasia screencasting software now has a Mac version

Macby Jay Hathaway Aug 26th 2009

Camtasia, one of the best screencasting applications for Windows, just got a highly-anticipated Mac release. Camtasia can easily record audio and video from multiple sources at once, so it's easy to talk someone through what's happening onscreen.

The recording of your screen, your Mac's audio output, sound from your microphone, and video from your iSight can all be easily arranged in the timeline along with any other elements you might want to import. Combine that with a nice effects library and easy sharing, and you've got a winning screencast app.

It's also currently discounted from $150 to $99.

Mac users have been salivating over Camtasia for a couple of years now, mainly because it tops other Mac screen recording software in terms of post-production and editing. The Mac version of Camtasia isn't exactly the same as the PC version, however.

Aside from the Mac-like UI design, it also has more options for editing the size, position and rotation of your video than its Windows counterpart. The Camtasia team has used their own software to record a screencast of Camtasia, and that's a good place to start getting familiar with the features. Check it out on their homepage, or sneak a peek at a YouTube walkthrough after the break.

Read more →

Tags: camtasia, editing, mac, recording, screencast, video

Filed under: Internet, Video

Film Fresh to sell movies in DivX format, even some you actually want to see

by Brad Linder Aug 26th 2009

Film Fresh
DivX may have started out as a codec used by pirates to distribute movies, usually illegally, over the internet. But DivX has grown up, put on a suite and tie, and gained a bit of respectability over the last few years. And today online video distributor Film Fresh announced it will begin selling movies from the four Hollywood movie studios in the DivX format.

The file format offers reasonably high quality videos at a reasonably small file size, which makes it good for digital distribution. Of course, the same can be said of WMV, Quicktime, and other video fromats. What sets the DivX solution apart is that it uses a domain-based DRM approach that lets you transfer files between your devices or burn a movie to a DVD. You won't be able to upload the file to a peer to peer network (or rather, the people who download it won't be able to watch it," but you do have a bit more freedom with protected DivX files than you do with files you download from the iTunes or Amazon video stores.

Film Fresh has about 600 DivX titles from Hollywood studios right now, including a mix of newer and older movies including Iron Man, Watchmen, and Flashdance The site also has a large collection of independent films.

Tags: divx, drm, film-fresh, movies

Filed under: Video, Google, Social Software, Web

Video chat comes to your iGoogle homepage

by Jay Hathaway Aug 23rd 2009

Google has offered video chat between Google Talk contacts inside Gmail for some time now. It's a great feature, but it doesn't do you much good if you want to chat with friends who have Google accounts, but don't use Gmail. Problem solved, though, because video chat is now available on your iGoogle page.

Setting up video chat isn't very difficult. You just have to download the video chat plugin, which you've already installed if you've been using the feature in Gmail. Once it's installed, you can video chat with any contact with a green camera icon next to their name. Either open a regular text chat and click on actions, or hover your mouse over a contact on your list and go to "video and more."

Tags: google, homepage, igoogle, video, video-chat

Filed under: Video, Adobe, Web

Adobe adds video hosting to Photoshop.com

by Brad Linder Aug 21st 2009

Photoshop video gallery
Adobe Flash may be the dominant platform for hosting streaming video on web sites including YouTube, Hulu, Vimeo, and DailyMotion, but Adobe's fairly late to the game when it comes to launching it's own video hosting and sharing service. Yesterday Adobe started to play catchup by adding the ability to upload videos to Photoshop.com, the company's web-based image editing and sharing service.

Adobe isn't the first company to add video to a site that was primarily designed for images. But while Flickr limits videos to 90 seconds, Adobe is allowing users to upload videos up to 200MB through a web browser, or up to 2GB through an Adobe AIR uploader. Users can upload files in "most major file formats" and you can view them from Photoshop.com or share them with other users.

Photoshop.com users will get 2GB of free video storage.

Adobe has also rolled out the ability to create Group Albums that let you collaborate on photo albums with other users.

Tags: group-albums, online-video, photoshop.com

Filed under: Video, News, Windows, Microsoft

Windows Live Movie Maker leaves beta

Windowsby Lee Mathews Aug 19th 2009

It's been in beta for some time, but today, finally, Windows Live Movie Maker has gotten its release papers.

Yes, it's got the love-it-or-hate-it ribbon interface. On its tabs are loads of transition effects, filters and fades, caption tools, and ready access to editing functions. Videos can be created in 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios and resolutions up to 1080p. YouTube uploading is now built-in and other services like Facebook, SmugMug, Picasa, and Drupal-based sites can be added via plugins.

For those of you who, like me, don't want to deal with the Live installer, head on over to Softpedia to download the new version directly.

Remember, this baby is Windows Vista or Windows 7 only.

Quick-fix updates have also been pushed to the rest of the Live suite and the Messenger Geek has a list of links to the individual .msi installers.

Tags: facebook, movie-maker, video-editing, windows-live, youtube

Filed under: Audio, Video, Web services

Recordr is a quick, web-based way to record audio or video

by Jay Hathaway Aug 16th 2009

Recordr is an extremely easy way to make audio and video recordings of yourself online. It only takes one click to record from the Recordr website or by using a bookmarklet. It's extremely lightweight, with no registration or download required. In fact, Recordr doesn't even require a webcam - you can make audio posts without one

Recordr is even more bare-bones than YouTube. It's got no editing or commenting features, just recording. The only social features are quick links to share to Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook. Something this simple isn't going to fit everyone's needs, but it could really come in handy if you're on a computer with no recording software, and just need to dash off a video for the web.

Tags: audio, record, recordr, video, webcam

Filed under: Video, iPhone, Mobile

Qik livestreaming app arrives on iPhone, minus the "live"

by Jay Hathaway Aug 14th 2009

Qik, a mobile app that enables users to stream live video, was all the rage on Nokia phones and other mobile devices last year. Now, the highly-anticipated iPhone version has arrived, thanks to the video capabilities of the iPhone 3GS. However, Qik on the iPhone is nowhere near as revolutionary as some people were expecting: it can't stream live video, and it can only upload over wifi. An update that supports 3G uploads is in the works; but until Apple approves it, you can probably pass on Qik.

What CAN Qik do? Well, it'll upload saved videos from your Camera Roll, and it immediately uploads any video you record with it, as soon as you hit stop. It also supports shooting in landscape or portrait orientation, which no other video app has done on the iPhone thus far. Unfortunately, lack of true livestreaming and uploading over 3G mean that an aging Nokia still beats the latest iPhone if you're a mobile journalist. For folks who don't cover hot events or breaking news, the iPhone 3GS does a very capable job uploading to YouTube, no Qik app required.

[via Mashable]

Tags: iphone, mobile, qik, streaming, video

Filed under: Utilities, Video, Windows

SilverX converts Flash video to Silverlight

Windowsby Jay Hathaway Aug 14th 2009

SilverX is a Windows app that converts Flash (.SWF) videos to Microsoft's Silverlight format. It recognizes all the vectors, images, text and animations from the original Flash file, so you can extract all of those elements and edit them in a Silverlight app later. If you want to manipulate the individual elements, you can edit them like any other Silverlight solution, and even apply XAML. If you just want to play the movie back in your browser using Silverlight, you can do that too.

There's not a lot of fiddling necessary to use SilverX. Just pick a SWF file and an output directory, and everything happens under the hood. You can either output the file as a standalone app or a Silverlight solution. To work with solutions, you'll need Microsoft's Expression Blend 3 or Visual Studio 2008 SP1.

[via AddictiveTips]

Tags: convert, flash, silverlight, silverx, swf, vector, video, xaml

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