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Filed under: Video

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

Filed under: Video, Windows

So long RealDVD, it's been, uh... real

Windowsby Brad Linder Aug 12th 2009

RealDVD
A US district Court has issued an injunction preventing RealNetworks from selling its RealDVD software. RealDVD is basically a DVD ripper, but unlike most applications that let you crack DVD copy protection and copy videos to your hard drive, RealDVD includes its own DRM scheme which prevents users from making multiple copies or watching ripped movies on another computer or portable device.

RealNetworks had been hoping that these restrictions would help the software survive against any legal claims. After all, the courts have a long history of deciding that you have a right to create backup copies of media you purchase for personal use. Unfortunately, the DCMA circumvents this right by declaring that you can't use technology that circumvents copy-protection.

The long and short of it is that the court ruled against the company because its software violates the DCMA. It's not clear whether RealNetworks will appeal the case. Honestly, I doubt there were throngs of people clamoring to buy copies of RealDVD at $30 a pop when there are plenty of free alternatives that don't restrict what you can do with ripped movies.

But RealNetworks had been hoping to launch a version of the software that could be included on set-top boxes like DVD players that would allow users to insert a disc and save the data to a hard drive so they could browse through their movie collections and watch videos without swapping discs. And that's a feature I could see people spending a few bucks for.

Tags: dmca, dvd-ripper, realdvd

Filed under: Audio, Internet, Video, Web

TinyChat adds control options, higher resolution video to instant chat rooms

by Brad Linder Aug 4th 2009

Tinychat controls
TinyChat is a nifty little service that lets you create multi-user chat rooms at a moment's notice. Last time we checked in on the service, TinyChat had just added the ability to do voice and video chat. Recently the company rolled out a handful of new features, including a few that give you more control over the chat rooms:
  • Ability to control who can broadcast audio and video
  • Give admin access to other users with the /oper command
  • Push to talk feature that helps prevent audio feedback and the sound of people talking on top of one another
  • Require Twitter mode, which requires users to login with their Twitter credentials (which can make it easier to track who is in the room).
The latest version also includes better video quality. TinyChat says the video quality of the free chat rooms is 4x better than it was.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Tags: chat-room, instant-chat-room, tinychat, video-chat

Filed under: Video, Web

ABC TV shows now streaming on Netflix

by Brad Linder Aug 3rd 2009

Netflix Lost
It wasn't that long ago that you had to go to ABC.com (or a shadier part of the internet) if you wanted to stream TV shows from ABC in your web browser. But recently ABC's parent company Disney signed a deal with Hulu to carry programs including Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Defying Gravity, Castle, and Desperate Housewives. And now ABC has signed a similar deal with Netflix.

Some shows, are available starting this week, and Netflix will roll out additional ABC/Disney shows in the following months. Of course, only paying Netflix subscribers can stream videos from the Netflix web site. For the rest of us (in the United States anyway), the Hulu deal is more exciting. But probably the most exciting thing is the fact that you can now watch ABC programming on two different web sites that lack the ABC.com video player's incredibly annoying interface.

[via NewTeeVee]

Tags: abc, netflix, tv

Filed under: Video, iPhone, Microblogging

iPhone 3GS + 12seconds.tv + Twitter = 12cast

by Jay Hathaway Aug 2nd 2009

What do you get when you mix the new iPhone 3GS, the micro-video site 12Seconds.tv and Twitter? It's a free app called 12cast, and it's the fastest way to send 12-second video straight from your iPhone to Twitter. In case you're not familiar with 12Seconds.tv, it is to YouTube what Twitter was to blogs: a speedy, concise version of a good idea.

Using 12cast is almost ridiculously easy. You put in your Twitter login, turn the phone sideways, and video starts recording automatically. Like 12Seconds.tv, 12cast limits you to 12 seconds of video. When you're done, you can preview it, retake it, title it and send it to Twitter. You can also use 12cast to upload existing short videos that might already be on your phone.

Tags: 12seconds, 12seconds.tv, iphone, iphone-3gs, twitter, video

Filed under: Video, Windows, Commercial

MySpeed lets you adjust the speed of Flash video playback

Windowsby Brad Linder Jul 27th 2009

MySpeedEver find yourself watching an hour-long web video of a Steve Jobs keynote and wish you could zip through the whole thing in 20 minutes without missing anything important? Enounce MySpeed is a Windows utility that lets you adjust the speed of Flash video in any web browser.

By default, you can play speed up to 3 times faster than normal, or as slow as 0.3% full speed. You can also adjust these settings, but to be honest, you probably won't be able to figure out what anyone is saying at 3 times the normal speed, let alone 4 or 5 times.

To give you an idea of how the program works, I recorded a short video, which you can see after the break. Sorry about the poor video quality, but the computer I used to create this demo isn't exactly a speed demon.

MySpeed is a commercial app which sells for $29.99. A 7 day free trial version is available.

[via CNet]

Read more →

Tags: enounce-myspeed, myspeed

Filed under: Audio, Internet, Video, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Open Source

Cross-platform internet video app Miro hits 2.5

WindowsMacLinuxby Brad Linder Jul 23rd 2009

Miro 2.5
About two weeks after launching Miro 2.5 RC 1, the folks behind the open source internet media browser and player have taken off the release candidate label.

The program lets you find, download, and view media from a number of sources. That covers RSS feeds for audio and video podcasts, BitTorrent downloads, and web video from sites like Hulu. Version 2.5 includes a ton of updates, including:
  • Improved speed (Miro claims version 2.5 is 4 times faster than Miro 2.0)
  • A new audio podcast section in the Miro Guide
  • Better audio playback interface
  • Easy download link for YouTube videos
  • New keyboard shortcuts
Miro 2.5 is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Tags: miro, miro-2.5

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