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All posts tagged "youtube"


Saturday, November 5, 2011

What Will Happen With Cable And Television In 2012?

Posted by Brad Wasson in "Digital Home Talk" @ 05:30 AM

http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-t...expect-in-2012/

"But change is going to come, and amid news that Google is interested in entering the cable TV business and continued rumors that Apple will be releasing its own branded television set, we also have to wonder what's going to happen with streaming services like Hulu and Netflix. TalkPoint CEO Nick Balletta says that the real battle to hedge is with cable companies."

Molly McHugh over at the Digital Trends website has written a short piece about what we might see in 2012 with Internet streaming services, cable, and television. While streaming of content over the Internet and to your mobile or desktop device has been growing, cable and television are not sitting idly by. Changes in traditional content provision and consumption models have far-reaching implications and will play out over a multi-year period. So, in this slowly evolving industry, what movement might we see in 2012? One thing the article suggests is that connected TV's may hit their stride during the holiday shopping period next year. The Read link will take you to the Digital Trends site where you can read more.


Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Uploading Unauthorized Video To YouTube Could Eventually Cause You Some Legal Issues

Posted by Brad Wasson in "Digital Home Talk" @ 05:00 PM

http://www.digitaltrends.com/entert...on-be-a-felony/

"If you're considering uploading a movie or TV show to YouTube, go ahead and get it out of your system now, because pretty soon, such an act could land you behind bars with a felony count on your rap sheet - at least if Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) get their way."

While there is nothing imminent at this point in time, you've likely been thinking this idea was not far off. The proposal for this future bill is focused on increasing the penalties associated with streaming unauthorized content. The issue has been studied by Victoria Espinel, President Obama’s US Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator. Currently, related laws state that “reproducing” and “distributing” copyrighted content are felony offenses. Streaming, on the other hand, is still considered a “public performance,” which carries lesser consequences. It seems significant new deterrents will be in place, including up to a five-year jail sentence and fines. Hit the Read link for a more detailed discussion of the proposed bill.


Tuesday, March 29, 2011

YouTube Feature Can Help Stabilize Shaky Video

Posted by Brad Wasson in "Digital Home Talk" @ 05:00 PM

http://lifehacker.com/#!5786091/sta...os-with-youtube

"If you take handheld videos (on your smartphone, for example), the videos may suffer from shakiness. YouTube has an easy fix for this issue with their video stabilization editing feature."

Lifehacker has posted a nice tip about the YouTube video stabilization feature. If you are the type of person that takes a lot of videos with, say, your smartphone, then you'll be very familiar with the issue this feature is trying to resolve. Those shaky videos can be improved quite easily, although the processing time for your video may make you wait a fair bit to see the result. Nevertheless, results can be quite good and may help you get the most out of a seemingly poor video.


Thursday, December 30, 2010

Canada is the Most Web-Addicted Nation: No Way Eh?

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home News" @ 01:30 PM

"The measurement company comScore reported Canada has the highest penetration of Internet access, with around 68% of Canadians routinely surfing online, against 62% in France and Britain. Close behind is 60% of Germans going online and, south of the border, 59% of Americans. The laggards are Italians, where only 36% of the population goes online, according to comScore."

Above: Yeah, that's my kid, and yeah, this post is just an excuse to show you all how adorable he was when this photo was taken at the beginning of 2010.

We're #1! We're #1! I have to admit I'm a bit surprised by this - I didn't think Canada was any more Web-addicted than other Western nations. Maybe it's because significant portions of our population live in areas that, for half the year, get a wee bit cold [as I look outside to a foot of snow and -18 Celsius temperatures]. The fact that 51% of our population is on Facebook is quite staggering - has there ever been a singular service that has had such massive penetration into a society?

Of course, we're still sucking wind when it comes to Internet access speeds and we're paying too much for it to make matters worse. I was excited to have an Internet connection at 50mbps down and 3mbps up, even if it cost me $97/month...until a friend in New York told me he has 30mbps down and 30mbps up for about $60 per month. Gah!


Friday, August 27, 2010

YouTube Launches Movie Section

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home News" @ 04:35 PM

http://www.youtube.com/movies

YouTube.com/movies? Yes, it's finally here - but it's not exactly off to a big start. There are about 400 movies in the collection, but I haven't heard of any of them. I can only imagine how hard it would be for YouTube to get any good content in here from the start - we know that the content providers hold on to their content with fierce determination, even when there are paying customers willing to buy it. So is this just an experiment from YouTube's perspective? Or the start of something much bigger? I find it hard to believe that the single ad at the beginning of the video would be enough to pay for the bandwidth and server resources used. My guess is that by this time next year, YouTube's movie site will be history.


Friday, July 30, 2010

YouTube Gives You 15 Minutes Of Fame

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 11:00 AM

http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/...15-minutes.html

"We want YouTube to be the best place to upload video. Without question, the number one requested feature by our creators is to upload videos longer than 10 minutes. We’ve heard you, and today we’re pleased to announce that we’ve increased the upload limit to 15 minutes."

While I am sure that many will welcome the increased time limit, I have to admit, in a way, I will miss the old limit. With 10 minutes, people were forced, if only gently, to keep their videos short and concise. Sort of like a Tweet. I kind of liked the idea that I could hop on, watch something quick, and then be done before the boss has a chance to notice what I am doing. An extra 5 minutes can make a entertaining video into a long, drawn-out affair. Anyone have plans to make use of your extra time? What will you do with it?


Monday, July 12, 2010

YouTube Now Supports 4K Videos

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 02:00 PM

http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/...ideo-comes.html

"We always want videos on YouTube to be available in the highest quality possible, as creators intend. In December of last year, we announced support for 1080p, or full HD. At 4096 x 2304 pixels, 4K is over four times the size of 1080p. To view any video in a source resolution greater than 1080p, select "Original" in the video quality pulldown menu:"

Sure, webcams, cameraphones and mini-camcorders are still struggling with smooth 1080p HD, but why wait for consumer recording technology to catch up when you can come out with support for resolutions that allow you to see the pores on your face? YouTube does seem to be growing up and has mostly shaken off its original feeling of being a provider of low quality, blocky videos. The addition of 4K may not make any difference to the typical uploader, but it shows that they are committed to supporting higher standards, pushing the envelope and providing formats that might be of interest to more commercial or business oriented interests. It seems like it is all part of a push to compete against other video providers from Vimeo to iTunes and NetFlix. Yes, I think that is where this is all going. A competition against all these companies to whom will become to dominant provider for video in the future.


Thursday, July 8, 2010

Win a Lenovo A70z All-in-One Desktop Computer: Enter Now!

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Events" @ 11:30 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhW13yE24Xw

I'm giving away a Lenovo A70z worth $729 USD, courtesy of Lenovo. It's a great all-in-one desktop computer that I did an unboxing and first impressions video of, and you can win it in a random drawing. You'll be winning a brand new A70z, still in the box, not the one I used in the video. I'll be selecting a random comment posted on this YouTube video telling me why this A70z is better than the computer you currently have, or how you'd use the A70z as a secondary computer. To win, that person has to be subscribed to my YouTube channel and has to have marked the video as a favourite. I forgot to mention that you should also Like the video, so that's not part of the official rules - but doing so would be the nice thing to do. :-)

The contest starts today, and runs until midnight on the 12th (GMT -7) - I'll be randomly selecting the winner on the morning of the 13th. One entry per person, and the winner must be located in the USA or Canada. Don't forget too that this is part of a much bigger giveaway ($15,000+) so be sure to check out all the of the other sites that are giving away their own A70z's. Good luck everyone!


Monday, May 10, 2010

How Fast Does YouTube Say Your Internet Speed Is?

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Articles & Resources" @ 01:11 PM

http://www.youtube.com/my_speed#

I'm not entirely sure how I ended up finding this page on YouTube's site, but I'm always interested in seeing real-world bandwidth tests, and YouTube probably burns up more bandwidth than any other domain on the planet, so they have some rich data from which to draw upon. Make sure you're logged into YouTube, then check out their historical speed page. The above screenshot shows that I consume YouTube videos at 11.98Mbps average speed; I was surprised to see that the average Canadian rating, and the global rating, were so low. Read more...


Monday, March 8, 2010

Windows Home Server Has It's Own YouTube Channel

Posted by Andy Dixon in "Digital Home News" @ 01:00 PM

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/wi...be-channel.aspx

"Whenever I'm confused on how to do something and am looking for some help, YouTube is one of the first places I go. Without fail, I can always find some form of video that gives me the answer I need. The Windows Home Server team has also seen the benefits of YouTube, and we thought it would be helpful and fun for our customers if we started making our own videos!"

The Windows Home Server team have announced on their blog that they have created a new channel on YouTube for their videos and tutorials. There are interviews with the WHS team members, overviews of what WHS is, and informational how-to videos. So if you don't have WHS yet and wonder what the fuss it about, or you are looking for a tutorial on how to use and get the most out of WHS, then check out the link.


Friday, November 13, 2009

YouTube Packing More Pixels With 1080p Video

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 03:00 PM

http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/...to-youtube.html

"We're excited to say that support for watching 1080p HD videos in full resolution is on its way. Starting next week, YouTube's HD mode will add support for viewing videos in 720p or 1080p, depending on the resolution of the original source, up from our maximum output of 720p today."

It had to happen. Camcorders are increasingly offering 1080p HD level video. Movies are coming out in 1080p HD. TV shows can be seen in 1080p HD. I even hear that life has gone beyond 1080p HD resolution. So now YouTube has joined the pack and will stream 1080p video starting next week. You better make sure your computer is up to scratch and have a fat pipe as I imagine that rendering YouTube videos at 1080p, even with hardware acceleration, will be quite a strain. Time to get ready and see your favourite YouTube stars in more detail than you could ever want!


Monday, September 28, 2009

YouTube Goes Mega-Ultra-Crazy-Wide?

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Talk" @ 02:20 PM

YouTube is a Google company through-and-through. By that I mean they change things without telling their partners (of which I'm one), and there's rarely if ever an explanation why. Above is a screen shot of YouTube's crazy new ultra-wide video display mode. You can see it on my Zune HD unboxing video if you click over to the HD version. I measure the pixels as 960 wide by 480 pixels tall. That's a 2:1 aspect ratio...so is there some new 2:1 HD camera that only YouTube knows about? I can't think of a valid reason why they'd implement such a wonky aspect ratio, and my Google searches on this topic have come up dry. Does anyone know what YouTube is up to?


Monday, July 27, 2009

HP Launches "You on You" Contest, $300K in Cash and Prizes Up for Grabs

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Events" @ 04:53 PM

http://www.youtube.com/hp

"HP Friday announced the HP You on You project, a contest on YouTube that invites entrants from around the world to create and share videos that express who they are - without showing their faces. The contest uses new video creation tools on YouTube, including improved video remixing and webcam video tools, to allow people of all skill levels to submit videos that run the gamut from comedies to mini-biographies and documentaries, and showcase their individual passions, causes and creative gifts. Running through Aug. 30, the contest offers the opportunity for contestants to win more than $300,000 in cash and prizes from HP. The contest is an extension of HP's award-winning "The PC Is Personal Again" campaign, which features achievers including Shaun White, Serena Williams and Fergie discussing what they do with their HP PCs in a series of "Hands" commercials that don't show their faces."

Feeling creative? Got a video camera or Web cam? Go for it and win some prizes!

Tags: youtube, event, contest, hp

Friday, July 3, 2009

YouTube Adds HD Embeds, Doubles Video Upload Size Limit

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home News" @ 12:30 AM

http://lifehacker.com/5306264/youtu...d-linking-added

"If you upload videos to YouTube and feel restricted by the 1GB limit, YouTube now offers 2GB of wiggle room as well as the ability to directly link to and embed high definition video."

If you use YouTube, you're going to like this: YouTube has expanded upload limits to 2 GB, which is around 60 minutes of 720p HD quality video. And if you have a blog where you like to embed your YouTube videos, you can now embed it in HD. One thing worth noting: if you're embedding at 600 pixels wide, there's not much point in using the HD option. The high-quality (HQ) option looks quite good at that size. To show the HD option, you'll want 800+ pixels in width - or tell people to go full screen. Good stuff - thanks YouTube!


Saturday, June 6, 2009

At YouTube Success is Spelled "500 Internal Server Error"

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Talk" @ 11:00 AM

YouTube is sure giving me headaches lately. I uploaded a 10 minute video Thursday morning at 9AM, and 48 hours later, the video is still processing. The same problem is happening with another video I uploaded, and a third video I uploaded as a test is seeing the same issue. And we're not talking about the HQ/HD version, just the basic low-quality Flash version. And the screenshot above? That's what I've been seeing for months and months - it's how I know that my large (300 MB or so) videos have been successfully uploaded. At YouTube, 500 Internal Server Error spells success!


Friday, May 22, 2009

YouTube Promoting iTunes Songs for Sale

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Talk" @ 11:00 AM

I don't know how long YouTube has been doing this, largely because I don't use YouTube as a music discovery service very often, but I think this is a great idea. From what I can tell, it doesn't look like the video I saw this in was an official Tokio Hotel account - it looks like a fan upload. Instead of YouTube taking out their heavy copyright club, they instead use it as a promotion for people to buy the song. Clever move! Rather than turing the fans into "copyright criminals", YouTube (and the copyright holders) are taking this opportunity to turn this into an opportunity to sell people the song. This is the way it should be done. Bravo YouTube!


Tuesday, May 12, 2009

YouTube Goes Social With YouTube Realtime

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Software" @ 01:16 PM

http://help.youtube.com/support/you...y?answer=145714

"YouTube has invited you to try out YouTube RealTime - an exclusive new way of discovering what your friends are doing on YouTube. Next time you login to YouTube you will notice a fancy new toolbar at the bottom of the window. Turn it on and start exploring! The more friends you have on YouTube, the more fun it becomes - so make sure you add your friends."

YouTube has certainly had features that fall into the social networking realm for some time, but this takes it to the next step: sharing with your friends exactly what you're watching right now. Can you see the hilarity ensuing as your friends catch you watching videos no one would expect you to? Oh yes - this should be good for a laugh or two. YouTube is clear about the privacy impact, making it very obvious when you're sharing what you're watching and when you're not. The toolbar appears at the bottom of your browser and follows you around YouTube.

I have 25 invites to give out, so if you want one, feel free to post your YouTube name in this thread and become friends with Thoughts Media on YouTube.


Tuesday, November 25, 2008

VuNow PoD From Verismo Coming December 15

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 10:00 PM

http://www.verismonetworks.com/

"Consumers are spending hours on their PC watching videos online. comScore recently reported that Americans viewed more than 11.4 billion videos for a total duration of 558 million hours during the month. YouTube alone had 5 billion video views in July 2008. More than 142 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 80 videos per viewer. VuNow will enrich the online video viewing experience by bringing the videos directly on TV instead of the PC. You can enjoy movies, TV shows, sports, live events, special interests, travel and user-generated content, from content owners, content aggregators and video portals around the world! You may be surprised by what’s out there on the Internet!"

YouTube, vtap, CinemaNow, videos stored on your LAN, this lilliputian device seems to handle it all. It even downloads videos via BitTorrent. The best part? It starts at $99. It comes in Standard and High Definition models and connects to your network via Ethernet, though a WiFi module is available. If it does all that the manufacturer, Verismo Networks, claims it will do at that price, it definately looks like the video playback device to get, trouncing AppleTV, Windows Media Center and the Netflix player. Unfortunately, it doesn't record TV, but it looks like it can act your main gateway to watching movies and videos. Anyone else as excited about this wee playback box as I am?


Thursday, June 12, 2008

HP TouchSmart Videos on YouTube

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Articles & Resources" @ 04:00 AM

http://youtube.com/user/TouchSmart



A product like the HP TouchSmart PC is easiest to show rather than tell, and HP seems to have figured that out - they have a Youtube channel with 14 videos that show how the TouchSmart PC operates. The full-screen interface is very slick - it looks fast and nicely tuned for finger-based operations.


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