HD video service from Vimeo

After years of enduring the quality levels offered by YouTube and other video sharing services, Vimeo has launched an HD service. Users can upload 1280x720 files from consumer HD cameras such as the Canon HV20 (it appears that Canon is sponsoring at least some part of the service). Hit the full screen button and enjoy the view. Note that the embedded file on this blog is in SD, while the files on the Vimeo site are in HD.

To upload my HD files, I prepared them as h.264 movies, with a bitrate around 1.5mbps, and audio at 48khz. The Apple TV settings in QuickTime and Visual Hub work nicely. They say they support DivX, AVI and other formats, but I haven't tested them.

There is a 250MB/week upload limit. I've got a couple of gripes: The file below doesn't seem to play in HD with the embedded player, and I don't know why. Also, the RSS feed generated by the service doesn't create media enclosures, so I can't use Vimeo as an origination point for iTunes or other podcatchers.


Mt Ritter in June 2007 from John Duhring on Vimeo.

Blogger Draft takes video

Now that Google has removed Google Video in favor of its YouTube brand, it is making moves in the authored content area. While the line between "video sharing" and "video publishing" might be thin in some cases, the new version of Blogger (currently in beta at Blogger Draft) reveals significant differences.

Blogger Draft enables Google to test out new technologies. Right now, it has a video upload and distribution system that leverages Adobe Flash 9 (with h.264 support). Videos are uploaded as media enclosures, so the blog is automatically a feed (Google's Feedburner service is nicely bolted in as well). The resulting videos can be played onscreen (in their Flash wrapper), and also downloaded as .mp4s for use on iTunes, Apple TV, the iPhone, etc.

There is currently no support for audio files.

YouTube Re-mixer

It had to happen sooner or later.

Google has made Adobe's Premiere Elements functionality available as a web-based service via it's YouTube site. This tool promises to make mashups a snap, while rewarding higher quality uploads.

At first blush, this tool has the potential to provide a free wide area workflow solution. Think about the steps to manage an "amateur broadcasting project":

• Create a YouTube account and have your group upload their materials to that account's "My Videos" area.
• Trim and create transitions between videos. Music will be available "soon", and I'm assuming you could do some simple voice-overs.
• Titles can be added, and you have a complete assembly.

Of course, the YouTube label is displayed on your finished project, but you have all the distribution benefits (embeds, conversions, etc). I expect PowerPoint presentations to be filled with YouTube videos everywhere, and soon.

The RSS feed as a video channel

Pyro.tv has come out with a new embedded player, which allows a web page to offer users a selection of episodes from RSS feeds. Here's an example, using the Captured Speed feed. While collegiate rowing might not be your area of ineterest, syndication of this kind should be!



Compare this with the exerience of navigating to the Captured Speed page at pyro.tv.

Here is a way to leverage RSS onto any web page. It remains to be seen if Facebook users will place entire channels on their profiles pages, for instance, but Pyro has taken some nice steps to allow people to move in that direction.

HD cameras are here... but which to buy?

In the New York times, David Pogue does a great job submitting short videos along with his written pieces. Click on the image to see what he says about HD cameras from Sony and JVC that store everything on hard disks, not tape. Bottom line, he seems to recommend tape, since you can easily archive your old tapes and get new ones.

The good news, with this and tape cameras like Canon's new HV20: These are true high definition cameras at affordable ($1k - $2k) prices.

One for all format for Computer, iPod and Apple TV

Leave it to Geek TV:

They have arrived at the "HD" format that plays on an iPod, a PC and AppleTV! They call it their "large format":

It's an H.264 encoded Quicktime file. It's shot in HDV, has a 16x9 aspect ratio, saved as a 640x360 sized movie. Datarate is 1.5 megabit/sec. (sound is 44khz, 16 bit AAC).

I have tested it on the iPod and PC/Mac, although not (yet) with an Apple TV. It's within the Apple TV specs, and should look a lot better than the demo podcasts they had running at the Apple store in Palo Alto.

Note, GeekBrief is taking in money from sponsors (a coffee company, of all things!) and donations from individuals (direct to PayPal). Sound like a plan?

I've uploaded a the segment I tested to my own server, so you can right-click to download the file. Or, watch it by clicking on the picture below:

Whadda rumor: H.264 hardware in all Macs?

For that past two years, I've been learning to appreciate H.264, or MPEG-4 AVC. For DV videos that I want to distribute on the web or via podcast, I get 50-to-1 compression while retaining a very sharp picture. Here are some examples.

The painful part of this very high quality, very small file magic is the time it takes to render. It's like watching paint dry (we're talking hours for anything over a few minutes, even on a dual core machine). And that's for SD. To make videos look "better than YouTube", you only need to create something in h.264 with a datarate 800kbps and a window footprint of 512x384 (for 4:3) or 640x360 (for 16:9), but still, a major part of the processes is the compression step.

I am hesitant to edit materials in HD, since I fear a 4x time requirement. So, now the rumor:

A fairly well-known source is saying that later this year, Apple will put a $50 hardware encoder into every machine it sells. Read about it. Cringely sez,

"This will change everything. Soon even the lowliest Mac will be able to effortlessly record in background one or more video signals while the user runs TurboTax on the screen. Macs will become superb DVR machines with TiVo-like functionality yet smaller file sizes than any TiVo box could ever produce. In a YouTube world, the new Macs will be a boon to user-produced video, which will, in turn, promote the H.264 standard. By being able to encode in real time, the new Macs will have that American Idol clip up and running faster than could be done on almost any other machine. Add in Slingbox-like capability to throw your home cable signal around the world and it gets even better. Add faster video performance to the already best-of-league iChat audio/video chat client, and every new Mac becomes a webcam or a video phone."

Thanks to Dan Morken for finding this.

Rob Curley: Punk makes good

I just watched a phenomenal documentary called "News War", which brought up all sorts of memories from working as a consultant with Dow Jones in the late 80s. At the time, they felt they couldn't just give cameras to reporters because the camera scared people from talking. Boy, times have changed.

If you are what you do, Rob Curley is the ideal guy to help the Washington Post deliver media that reflects the community it serves. His blog is worth reading regularly, since it's pointing to practical applications of technology that hold promise. Click on the picture to link to the Frontline site (Rob is in the "Hyperlocalism" chapter of Part Three).

Video market developing... in the middle?

One of the leading new media properties is Hip Mojo, which produces real TV programs as well as their online properties. They are pretty open in their blog. They basically think the TV networks haven't figured out the internet viewer. The world of user-generated content cannot be monetized, in their view, so the opportunity they are pursuing is content produced uniquely for internet distribution.

CMG Australia video

Like a true pioneer, CMG has installed a small video player on their Australian web pages, such as this ComputerWorld page. A single line of code and a series of video stories play when a user clicks the button.

So simple, and yet so powerful!

Walt Mossberg now on video via BrightCove

With guidance like this, we can expect and explosion of tiny productions from organizations. Imagine sales people interviewing clients and making the videos available to corporate management. No reports, and better content! In reality, it's apparent that Walt gets editorial help when his voice is overlaying the video. Also, the BrightCove software takes a long time to load, so be patient!

Click.tv .... tag, you're it!

This article points to Click.tv and its nifty interactive Flash player. I tried it out and can say this goes beyond Veohtag and MotionBox... Click.tv engages viewers and invites their participation. WOW. Nice step.

It's a new service with some bugs, but highly recommended to anyone producing web based videos with a purpose. With a bit of help from KeepVid, I was able to download a video I had posted a while back to Google video. I uploaded the resulting .flv file to my own ISP and then used Click.tv to tag it and embed it below. My only gripe is the links I embedded in my comments conflict with my popup blocker. Mike Lanza (CEO of Click.tv), are you listening?

Now THIS is a video podcast: New York Times

At last, and just in time. Magazines and news organizations now recognize that they have unique access to news, which they can now distribute via video. While this post came from YouTube (with over 100,000 views at this time), the iTunes version is a full 640x480 file... suitable for Apple TV? We will soon find out, and at least I know I can get news this way as opposed to TV news. I, for one, much prefer this.

Sun CEO comes clean, via podcast

This is hot. Not that it's a cool video, or a nice embedded player, or even a great interview. It's hot because it's a CEO of a major corporation speaking directly to the world.

Sun CEO Jonathan Swartz blogs! What's more, he gives great interviews to Robert Scoble. Why doesn't the Wall Street Journal do interviews like this? Or the Chronicle, the Times, the Economist? Wait, maybe they should just syndicate Scoble and other "trusted correspondents". Now you see?

If creative journalists can be discovered on their own, without affiliation, they become even more valuable. Robert Scoble is truly a star, illuminating what "bottom up" media is all about.

Joost beta

For several months, the creators or Kazaa and Skype have been at work on "The Venice Project" (watch these video interviews). Now it has been launched as beta, and named Joost. This is what they say:

Joost™ is a new way to watch TV, free of the schedules and restrictions that come with traditional television. Combining the best of TV with the best of the internet, Joost™ gives you more control and freedom than ever before - control over what you watch, and freedom to watch it whenever you like. We're providing a platform for the best television content on the planet - a platform that will bring you the biggest and best shows from the TV studios, as well as the specialist programs created by professionals and enthusiasts. It's all overlaid with a raft of nifty features that help you find the shows you love, watch and chat with friends, and even create your own TV channels.

Netflix downloads... the beauty of subscription revenues

With Netflix's new streaming service, the New York Times suggests a period of growth for the company. For an $18 a month subscription, users can watch 18 hours of video, starting and stopping movies as much as they like. It reminds me of the AOL subscriptions that poured in during the 90s. Most people never used the time they had allotted to them, but payed for the access anyway. Sounds like NetFlix will grow handsomely.

NetFlix now gets nearly a billion dollars a year from over 6 million subscribers. They are partners with the major movie studios, they rent HD DVDs, and now they offer freedom to download with subscriptions. Nice move. Only 1,000 movies will be available at first, but that is quite a selection.

Video search: where are we?

This 5 min video (from Media 3.0 with Shelly Palmer) gives a pretty good overview. Basically, video sharing services have created a need for better tools to help us find what we want. They mention Blinkx and Fast Search but it's clearly pretty much an open question today.

Post macworld post: Apple TV

So now the presses are rolling about iPhone, which looks like a great device (OK... not video tracking, but, hey... note there is Wifi and a slot for SIM cards, which means the phone will work on any GSM or Wifi network, worldwide... my question is: When will Skype be available on the device?... then... I can just buy it and not sign up for Cingular or anyone else... if Cingular has 58 million users and Apple hopes to sell 10 million iPhones in 2007, then they have to have other options, no?... of course, others see this too)

Now, about the Apple TV. There will be a lot of speculation about it as a DVD replacement. But, publishers might be the ones to push it forward. They have now moved online, and video is a big reason why (The journal of record for the New England Journal of Medicine is now the website, and the Wall Street Journal is now an online service with a paper attached). These publishers have no need to produce DVDs, but they could create compelling materials for distribution through devices like Apple TV. Cool!

Stay Tuned.

Sony set top box takes RSS feeds

Sony is making a new box available for use with a few of it's HDTVs. It connects to special AOL, Yahoo, and Grouper video services but also supports "user generated content" access and streamed videos via RSS feeds. I'm sure we will hear a few more announcements that bring internet-sourced content to HDTVs.

Starting points for making money with internet video

This post from Robin Good provides a summary of today's options for monetizing content.

Of significance, along with pointers to Revver, BrightRoll, and BrightCove, is an interesting reference to Ze Frank's "duckies". This simple page allows anyone to "buy and duckie" and add a message to The Show.