Filed under: Video

Netflix rolls out updated recommendation system

by Brad Linder May 8th 2009

Netflix has been a pioneer in the online retail space by providing automated recommendation services that can help you find items that you might like based on your previous video rentals, ratings, and other data. But for the past few years, Netflix has been trying to make its algorithm at least a little bit better through the Netflix Prize contest, which offers cash in exchange for significant improvements to the company's recommendation engine.

And apparently that bounty has been yielding positive results, because Netflix announced this week that it's changed the recommendation system based on improvements submitted through the Netflix Prize contest.

The new algorithm works better for users that rate movies. The system will now predict how many stars you would give movies that you havent' already watched, and that data will affect the movies that are displayed on different personalized sections of the Netflix web site, including the "Movies You'll Love" section.

[via AppScout]

Tags: crowdsourcing, netflix, netflix-prize, recommendation-engine

Filed under: Internet, Video, Web

Hulu gets more aggressive on geolocation, blocks Hotspot Shield

by Brad Linder May 7th 2009

Hulu is a service that provides access to advertising-supported videos from TV and movie studios. Officially, it's only available to viewers in the United States, because Hulu only has the rights to distribute those videos in the US, and only has the advertising partnerships in place to make money from US views.

But the internet being what it is, a relatively small number of people have been using tricks to get around the geolocation restrictions, using proxy tools like Hotspot Shield for ages. This week, Hulu tightened its grip and started blocking access to anyone using anonymous proxy tools. In other words, Hotspot Shield ain't going to let you watch Hulu from the UK anymore.

I certainly hope this means Hulu plans to roll out international service soon, because the alternative for many users will be to turn to downloading movies and TV shows from BitTorrent or other services.

[via NewTeeVee]

Tags: hotspot-shield, hulu, proxy

Filed under: Internet, Video, Windows, Beta, Web

Standalone YouTube player Sprink removes the need for a browser

by Brad Linder May 6th 2009

YouTube may be the most popular site for watching internet video the world has ever known. But there's sure a whole lot of wasted space on the web site. After all, if you're watching a 480 pixel or smaller video, why do you need all that white space around it?

Sprink is a standalone YouTube client for Windows Vista or Windows 7 that lets you search YouTube and watch videos in a browser that's not much larger than the video window. In other words, you can easily watch YouTube videos while making room on your desktop for other applications like a web browser or word processor.

The application is still in development, and the CoverFlow style feature for browsing through search results is a bit sluggish, at least on my netbook with its slowish 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor.

[via Instant Fundas]

Tags: sprink, youtube

Filed under: Internet, Video, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Open Source, P2P, Web, Windows x64

Tribler and Bitlet offer two takes on torrent-powered video streaming

by Lee Mathews May 5th 2009

BitLet, whose client-free torrent downloader we first mentioned on DownloadSquad two years ago, have been hard at work on a new project. Their torrent-powered streaming video service is now available for a public preview.

There's no standalone download required to use Bitlet, all you need is a browser with the Java plugin installed. As with any other torrent, your playback experience has a lot to do with the participation of your peers. Well-seeded videos buffer quickly and play smoothly while others may sputter and stall. Bitlet has a few example videos for you to try out including the Diablo 3 trailer and Mr. Cropperfield, a delightful animated short.

Right now, Bitlet can only play videos in the OGG format. To try it out with your own clips follow the instructions posted at the bottom of the page on how to convert your video and get it uploaded to a tracker.

Tags: bititorrent, bitlet, streaming-video, torrent, tribler

Filed under: Video, Google, Browsers

Google promotes Chrome web browser with 11 short videos

by Brad Linder Apr 30th 2009

Google has commissioned a series of 11 short films to promote the Google Chrome web browser. If you've ever doubted the power of advertising to make something mundane look pretty darn cool, click the play button above.

On the one hand, a browser is just a portal to the web, and so you'd think the last thing you would really need are a bunch of bells and whistles to make a browser look cool. And Google Chrome, with it stripped down interface doesn't really seem like it would have very much to highlight.

But you know what? A car is really just a vehicle for traversing the road. But most car commercials make the car itself look like the sexy thing, not the road. And the video above really does make Chrome look more exciting than the web pages you'll use it to visit in real life.

You can find the rest of the videos at the Google Chrome page on YouTube.

[via TechCrunch]

Tags: google-chrome, videos, web-browsers, youtube

Filed under: Internet, Video

Disney joins Hulu

by Christina Warren Apr 30th 2009

The rumors have been swirling around for a few weeks, but today the Walt Disney Company officially announced that it is becoming an equity partner in Hulu. Disney, through a subsidiary of ABC Enterprises Inc., will join NBC Universal and News Corp. as an investor and content provider. Full-length episodes from ABC primetime, ABC Family and SOAPnet will be added to Hulu's content library, as well as classic ABC shows and select shows and movies from The Disney Channel. Essentially, ABC.com's streaming content will be coming to Hulu.

With the addition of ABC, three of the four major US television networks are now partners in Hulu. This leaves CBS and its TV.com venture all by its lonesome. As for YouTube, which is trying to get into the commercial content game, let's just say this move won't help the already anemic offering.

Despite the boxee nastiness (which has been mitigated, for now), Hulu continues to take off and is positioning itself as the defacto destination for online television viewing, provided of course, you live in the US. Having one robust platform is not only easier for viewers to navigate, it is easier to sell to advertisers.

The financial terms of the agreement weren't released, though I expect those details to emerge.

[via Mashable]

Tags: abc, disney, hulu, streaming video, StreamingVideo, tv.com, youtube

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

Miro: Adopt a line of code to support open source video player

by Brad Linder Apr 29th 2009

Open source media player and online video aggregator Miro is taking a cue from the highway service and asking patrons to "adopt" a line of code to help pay the bills much the same way as you can "adopt" a stretch of highway.

Here's how it works. You visit the Miro Adoption Center and pony up $4 per month and you get your name associated with a line in the Miro code base. Your name will also appear in the About Miro credits. But you don't get any tangible benefits like super fast downloads or anything.

In the long run, the only reason to adopt a line of code is because you want to support this open source project. But if you're the sort of person who needs an NPR mug before donating some money to help keep Morning Edition on the air, maybe the adoption page will help encourage you to pull out your wallet for Miro.

[via Boing Boing]

Tags: fundraising, miro, miro-adoption-center

Filed under: Internet, Video, Web

Streaming TV comes to Canada thanks to CTV

by Brad Linder Apr 28th 2009

Pretty much every time we publish an article about Hulu or other web sites that let visitors watch full length streaming television episodes, someone leaves a comment pointing out that the service only works in the US. That's generally because these web sites don't have the distribution rights (and advertising deals) needed to stream these programs in other countries -- even countries that are as geographically close to the US as Canada.

But Canada's CTV Network has now launched its own streaming TV section. The selection of videos isn't nearly as rich as what you'll find from Hulu. But CTV does air a number of popular programs in Canada and many of them are available online including Mad Men, Fringe, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report.

Videos are shown with limited advertisements, and you can watch in full screen. As you'd expect, the site only works if you're in Canada (or using a proxy network to make it appear as if you are). But blogger Dale Dietrech took the service for a spin and assures us that it works.

[via Zatz Not Funny]

Tags: canada, ctv, online-video, television, tv

Filed under: Video, Social Software

Post YouTube videos to Twitter with YouTubeTweeter

by Jay Hathaway Apr 27th 2009

There are lots of services for sharing photos and music over Twitter, but sharing YouTube videos has lagged behind a bit. Sure, you could just link someone to YouTube, but it's not the prettiest site in the world by any stretch of the imagination. Where's TwitPic for embedded videos? A new site called YouTubeTweeter gets pretty close.

Put in your username and a YouTube link, and YouTubeTweeter generates a short url and a button to post it to Twitter. The video pops up in a nice-looking overlay on a copy of your Twitter page, so it's obvious who's sharing the video. It also shows you how many people have viewed your video. Closing the video takes the user to your Twitter page, which is probably better than having them land on YouTube. It's not a perfect solution - it would be nice if it worked with embed codes from other video sites, especially - but it's a step in the right direction.

Tags: sharing, twitter, video, youtube, youtubetweeter

Filed under: Video, News

RealDVD disc-ripper goes on trial

by Brad Linder Apr 24th 2009

RealNetworks is probably the most visible company to come out with a DVD ripping utility. There are dozens, if not hundreds of other applications that let you copy the data from DVDs to your hard drive. But being high profile is sometimes all it takes to land yourself in court -- which is exactly where RealNetworks has found itself, even though the company's RealDVD software includes DRM restrictions that keep you from sharing ripped movies with your friends.

RealNetworks launched RealDVD last fall, but it was only on sale for a brief period before it got sued into partial oblivion by groups representing movie studios. Now the court trial is set to begin.

One interesting tidbit is that the RealDVD software, which lets you rip movies to your hard drive, is just the tip of the iceberg. The New York Times reports that RealNetworks has developed an application for Linux-based set top boxes like DVD players that would let you insert DVDs and save movies to a hard drive for later viewing without the use of a computer. If RealNetworks wins the case, you could see this feature showing up on set top boxes that would sell for under $300.

Tags: dvd-ripper, realdvd, realnetworks

Filed under: Video, Windows, Microsoft, Freeware

Portable Windows Movie Maker

by Brad Linder Apr 22nd 2009

Windows Movie Maker is a free Microsoft utility for Windows that lets you create and edit video files. But for some reason, the most recent versions of Movie Maker for Windows Vista and 7 don't have all the features and transitions you can find on earlier builds.

So one developer decided to take matters into his own hands and create a portable version of Windows Movie Maker based on Movie Maker 2.1. You can run Portable Windows Movie Maker on any computer with Windows XP, Vista, or 7. And since it's portable, you can run it from a USB flash drive or a folder on your hard drive without installing it.

As an added bonus, the developer added some extra transitions and effects.

[via instant fundas]

Tags: portable, portable-windows-movie-maker, windows-movie-maker

Filed under: Video, Beta, Web

PBS launches web video portal

by Brad Linder Apr 22nd 2009

PBS already makes some of its programs available through online video sites including Hulu. But today the public television network has rolled out a new beta web portal that acts as a central hub for most of the PBS original programming that's available online. You can find full length episodes of American Experience, Frontline, Great Performances, Masterpiece, Nature, Nova, The NewsHour and other PBS programs.

Videos can be sorted by program or topic. And you can watch videos in full screen or windowed mode. Taking a cue from Hulu, YouTube, and other online video sites, PBS has added some social tools including a share button that lets you link to the video on Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, and other social news and bookmarking sites. You can alsso email links to videos to your friends. But there's no simple way to embed videos on your own site.

The PBS Video player is still in beta, and I found that some videos simply didn't play. But overall, the new site makes it a lot easier to find PBS content in one central location.

[via paidContent]

Tags: online-video, pbs, pbs-video, tv

Filed under: Developer, Video, Education, sxsw

MindBites launches Screencast 4 Cash contest

by Christina Warren Apr 21st 2009

At SXSWi 2008, Grant and I met Jason Reneau, the founder and CEO of MindBites, a platform and marketplace for video lessons. We were really impressed with the MindBites vision last year. When we met up with them this year, it was awesome to see how far the community, the site and the market for quality video tutorials has come.

Today, MindBites is launching the Screencast 4 Cash contest in conjunction with Techsmith's Jing Pro and Download Squad (that's us!). Entrants can submit an original screencast to be eligible to win a Grand Prize of $1000, plus a copy of Snagit/Camtasia Studio. There will also be a People's Choice Prize, determined by popular vote, and the winner will get $500 and a copy of Snagit.

Every vote cast in the contest will yield a $0.10 US donation to the Youth for Technology Foundation, which exposes children in underdeveloped parts of the world to technology through instruction and staffed technology centers. So just by voting, you can help underprivileged kids get access and instruction to technology.

Screencasts are a great way to learn, or teach a specialty. We covered some iPhone-specific screencasts last month and found the medium really, really ripe for learning or supplementing other forms of instruction.

If you've got a great idea for a screencast, enter the contest! Grant and I are two of the judges and we can't wait to see what stuff gets submitted! You can read more details on deadlines and voting dates over at MindBites.

Want to know more about MindBites? Check out this video from SXSWi 2009!

Tags: camtasia, jing, mindbites, screencasts, techsmith

Filed under: Internet, Video, News, Adobe, Web

Adobe brings Flash platform to TV and set top boxes

by Brad Linder Apr 20th 2009

Adobe Flash is the dominant platform for rich media content on the web. If you've watched an online video, viewed an interactive ad, or played music through a web site in the last few years, you've seen Flash in action. While Microsoft is trying to push Silverlight as an alternative, Flash pretty much owns this space -- on computers.

But HDTV and broadband internet are blurring the lines between web video and television. And Adobe wants to help bring the walls down by pushing Flash for TV and set top boxes including Blu-Ray players and cable boxes. Adobe has already partnered with companies including Intel, Broadcom, Comcast, Netflix, and Disney on the project.

In other words, you can imagine a future where you turn on your TV and in addition to video, on-demand programming, and a program guide, you can pull up weather, news, and other information provided through an internet connection, as well as quick and easy access to web video from any site like ABC.com or Netflix that makes content available for the platform.

Of course, if this all happens, it means you're going to need to get a new TV, set top box, or other hardware in order to enable the new features. Or you can just stick an old computer next to your TV and use Flash the old fashioned way.

[via NewTeeVee]

Tags: adobe-flash, flash, online-video, tv

Filed under: Internet, Video, Web services, Yahoo!, web 2.0, Web

Yahoo! pulls the plug on JumpCut web based video editor

by Brad Linder Apr 17th 2009

Yahoo! has finally decided to pull the plug on Jumpcut, a web based video editor that has been on life support since December. That's when Yahoo! stopped letting users upload videos to the service, instead suggesting that they upload short videos to Flickr.

Now TechCrunch reports that Jumpcut is sending out emails to users letting them know that the service will be closed on June 15th, 2009.

It's too bad to see Jumpcut go down. The service could have been really useful. While it may seem strange to upload a video to the web before you've editied it, the truth is many of the free video editors for Windows and Linux computers either lack features or are too complicated for casual users. Jumpcut was simple to use, but offered a limited feature set. For instance, you couldn't download finished videos and you couldn't send them to YouTube, Yahoo! Video, or other sites. Rather, you had to direct viewers to Jumpcut or embed the Jumpcut video on your page.

Yahoo! will soon release a tool allowing existing users to download videos saved on the site -- something the company probably should have done ages ago.

Tags: jumpcut, online-video, video-editing

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