It seems like every day a new company is launching a new way to stream movies online or download them to your computer. Today, there's one less. Vongo, a service provided by Starz Entertainment, was one of the first major players in the online movie space. But it looks like Starz has decided to pull the plug on Vongo.
Starz will now focus on Starz Play, a service the company recently launched for Verizon. Starz Play looks and feels a lot like Vongo -- but it has Verizon branding all over it. Starz is pursuing similar partnerships with other companies.
Current Vongo customers can continue using the service through September 30th. There's some good news in the announcement. Vongo customers paid $9.99 a month for unlimited movie downloads. Starz Play charges just $5.99 for access to the same content library.
The plain truth is I don't like working with media files. Watching them, or listening to them, sure, I'm just as into that as the next girl. When it comes to actually converting them from something captured off an external device or my screen, though, my stomach turns. It's not an aversion that's peculiar to Linux. I hate using the Windows for those same tasks. Since I don't have access to a Mac, I can't vouch for the ease of media conversion on them, but I can safely say that as ubiquitous as Quicktime is, I have very little luck working with (or viewing) Quicktime files on any machine with any operating system in my possession.
Linux presents special challenges with media file conversions. The good news is that though some of the tools might be a little tricky to decipher, they do a great job with conversions and tend to encompass a wide range of file types. Some tools can be used with GUI front-ends, and some I've found are just a lot faster and easier to bang out a command in a terminal window. Many of these tools are either installed by default in a number of Linux distributions, or can be added with a few clicks through the distro's repositories.
So I admit it was with a whole lot of fear and loathing that I decided to include screencasts in a recent post on KDE. My video grab software was working wonderfully, but it saved my files as .ogv. That wouldn't be a problem if I weren't hosting it elsewhere, and if the conversion software on that site didn't require it be in a format other than .ogv. And Ogg files, being funny beasts, aren't always the easiest things to convert.
And certainly, they aren't the only things you'd want to convert in Linux. So let's shake down how it's done.
I'm pretty bad about remembering to pull out our video camera to record our family's adventures. I think the thought of a bunch of raw, unedited footage piling up just makes me anxious. Of course, something that feels like work can instantly be turned into fun if you throw in a bit of technology, particularly software, right?
My first exposure to Seero was when my dad sent along a link to a video clip of the classic chase scene from the Steve McQueen classic movie Bullitt. Someone had taken the time to painstakingly geo-tag each scene of the movie so that as you watch the scene you can also watch a map of downtown San Francisco showing just where McQueen was during each scene. It's oddly compelling.
It turns out that the Seero site, while well suited to this particular use, is intended for users to record their own adventures with geo-tagging so that others can see just where they were when they saw what they saw.
So, now instead of just having to edit a pile of raw footage, I'll have to edit, then geo-tag it. But depending on what we're recording, the resulting mashup just might be worth it.
Popular video hosting site Vimeo has announced that they will no longer allow videos of video games on the site. Specifically, they're going to be deleting "game walk-throughs, game strategy videos, depictions of player vs player battles, raids, fraps, or any other video gaming videos that simply depict individuals playing a video game." As of September 1st, all videos that fall under that description will be deleted.
The staff blog post on the subject lists some reasons for the decision, including the staff's feeling that these videos don't meet the standards of "creative expression" that the site tries to uphold. More importantly, though, video game vids tend to be some of the longest and most common videos on the site, slowing down transcoding times for the other content that Vimeo is apparently trying to encourage.
Debate has already fired up in the comments section of the Vimeo blog, as users wonder why the site would cut off a type of video that is evidently popular enough to take up significant system resources. There's also a fair share of relieved comments from folks who are glad to see this type of "unoriginal" content removed from the site. We can see the points that both sides are making, but what's your take?
Adobe just added new video content to its AIR-based Media Player, but it all pretty much sucks in one form or another. The Adobe Media Player is a slick media browser that can play and subscribe to videos from the web, and it also provides somewhat high-resolution content from Adobe's media partners such as MTVN and Comedy Central.
Despite the fact that the player is very visually appealing and easy to navigate, it's just not that useful. It's possible to use any regular, free browser such as Firefox to watch online video content, allowing web-travelers to avoid the installation of an extra app. As a result, the main reason for installing the app (unless you really, really like the subscription feature) is to watch the 25,000+ videos provided by Adobe.
And that's exactly what's wrong here. Adobe's video library is still weak, and most good of the good TV shows aren't full episodes but rather short clips. Furthermore, the full videos Adobe is adding aren't current TV hits like Lost or Battlestar Galactica. Instead, Adobe partnered with CBS and Sony to add tons of clips and a few movies/episodes from old stuff like Men in Black, Jerry Maguire, The Love Boat, Beverly Hilly 90210, Family Ties, and even The Price is Right. They might as well call the app something to the tune of Adobe Senior TV On Demand.
Sure, Adobe has the money to keep it up and running, but why bother if the company isn't bringing its best to the table? Why not partner with Hulu and create an official, fully functional Hulu AIR app instead?
Have you ever wondered what Comic Sans, Times New Romans, or Futura fonts would look, sound, and act like if they were people? Yeah, neither have we. But after watching the video above, we can't believe the thought had never occurred to us. This video from College Humor probably qualifies as the funniest thing we've ever seen. At least today.
The short film also raises some serious issues though, like who the heck comes up with the names for these fonts? And has anybody ever used wingdings for anything? Why exactly is that font taking up space in Windows?
Want to watch your DVD collection on your iPod, iPhone, PSP, Smartphone, PDA, or Zune? DVD Catalyst is a simple Windows application that can rip a 2 hour movie from your DVD and apply video compression so that the file fits on your portable device's storage card and still looks halfway decent on your mobile screen.
DVD Catalyst offers one-click DVD ripping and encoding. Just launch the program, select your portable device, slide a DVD into your disc drive, and click the little green button. The program will choose the best resolution, bit rate, and other settings for you.
Up until recently, only a commercial version of DVD Catalyst was available. But now there's a free version with a limited feature set. If you want advanced features like the ability to set 2-pass conversions, split videos into multiple parts, or adjust the volume and framerates, you might want to shell out $15 to $20 for a full version. But if you're looking for a quick and easy way to cram a few dozen DVD movies on your iPod, DVD Catalyst Free might be all you need.
Digital and satellite TV stations have given us so many channels to choose from it's sometimes difficult to decided on what to watch. And with the availability of shows on the Internet that decisions has become even harder. What if you could just type in what you felt like watching, maybe something romantic or some dancing and a list of videos that fit your criteria all came to you ready for viewing. If you like the idea of watching videos this way then iSofa may be what you've been waiting for.
In order to use iSofa, simply type in a search string and iSofa will bring back videos that matches your search and displays them in a heads up display type interface. From there you can just let them play in order or pick and choose what videos you want to watch.
The site is clearly in beta as some options only have graphic placeholders instead of actual functions. Also video quality is poor when you have your browser scaled larger than a post-it note, so we wouldn't even recommend you try the full screen option at this time.
Despite the negatives, we really like the idea behind the site and hope that in future versions iSofa increases the video quality as well as include an option to save favorites videos.
So far we like what we've seen and iSofa just might have something here.
Amazon is expected to launch a streaming video service today that will either compliment or replace the company's Amazon Unbox download store. The New York Times reports that Amazon Video on Demand will let users begin watching movies the instant they click they place an order. It's not clear from the article, but it sounds like the new service is browser-based, whereas Amazon Unbox requires users to download and install Windows-only software.
About 40,000 films and movies from all the major studios will be available for rental or purchase. If you've purchased a title, it will be stored in your Amazon account, allowing you to watch the movie or TV show from any computer.
Amazon is also working with hardware makers including Sony to provide access to the video store on television sets and set top boxes.
The service will only be available to a limited number of users today, with a wider rollout scheduled soon. If you visit the Amazon Unbox landing page, you'll notice a little button on the right side of the screen asking you to sign up for a beta. We're betting that this is how you get early access.
Google is rolling out a speech recognition tool that adds a whole new dimension to video search. Previously, if you wanted to search for a YouTube video, you'd have to rely on the title and tags. Now you can actually search for spoken text in a video. Well, in selected videos only. Right now the speech recognition is only available in a handful of political videos.
You can check out the new feature by adding the Google Election Video Search Gadget to your iGoogle page. Or you can view the gadget as a standalone page. Just enter a search term and Google will locate videos where the word is uttered. Google will also add little yellow markers to the timeline letting you know where the word occurs.
Google uses speech recognition technology to automatically transcribe the text of these videos and add them to an index. Videos uploaded by politicians to their official YouTube channels are indexed within a few hours.
Google certainly isn't the first site to combine speech recognition with video search. Blinkx and EveryZing offer similar services. But Google is the 800 pound gorilla in both the search and online video worlds.
Sometimes we find ourselves watching funny YouTube videos in a language we don't understand, and we feel like we're missing part of the joke. What did he say, and why did she drop that on his head? Maybe we'll find out now, thanks to Subyo. It's a service that lets you create your own subtitled translations of YouTube videos, and search for subtitles submitted by others (by entering a video's YouTube URL, naturally.)
The downfall of sites like these isn't the functionality -- Subyo works just fine, and we finally figured out what the rappers were saying in some of those music videos -- it's the challenge of getting widespread user adoption. The site's only as good as its users, so it will be interesting to see whether Subyo catches on and becomes an essential add-on to YouTube.
Media Player Classic is an audio and video player for Windows that looks like Windows Media Player 6.4, but works a bit more like all-in-one media application VLC. Each application is open source, and each can handle almost any audio or video file you throw at it. But that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement.
Media Player Classic Home Cinema Edition takes the basic version of MPC and adds a few extra features, including:
Support for additional decoders, including H.264 and VC-1 with DXVA support
Improved support for Windows Vista, including a 64 bit release
Translation into additional languages
The media player takes up just a few megabytes and doesn't require installation, so you can throw it on a USB flash drive and carry it around with you.
After spending a few months in private beta, Odeo has launched a new version of its podcast aggregation service. OK, actually it looks like the new version of the site launched a few weeks ago, but we just noticed it, thanks to a short writeup over at TechCrunch. The updated site features a sleek new design and video. Lots and lots of video.
Odeo now has videos from about half a million different partners, including major content partners like Blip.tv and Revision3. There's also an improved Flash player for watching videos or listening to audio on the site. At its heart, Odeo is still a podcast aggregation site, which means that there are download links for most audio and videos. Because while you can spend all day watching videos online, sometimes you want to download them and take them with you on your portable media player.
Users can also create profile pages, create playlists, rate podcasts, and share content using email links or embed code. The developers are also working on an improved version of Odeo Studio, a utility that lets users record or upload podcasts using a web browser.
After about 5 weeks of downtime, Chinese video sharing site 56.com is back up and running. The site is often referred to as a Chinese version of YouTube. But unlike YouTube, 56.com and similar sites like Toudou and Youku don't impose 10 minute limits on uploaded videos. And that makes them a haven for illegally uploaded videos including full-length movies and TV episodes.
Some folks had wondered if the fact hat 56.com was down for over a month was an indication that the Chinese government had cracked down on the site, which didn't have an official video license. There's no real explanation for why the site was down for so long or why it's back now. During its downtime, the web site featured a message about a server upgrade. But that's not the kind of thing that typically takes 5 weeks.
If 56.com were in any country but China, we'd expect the MPAA and RIAA and similar organizations to put pressure on the company to remove copyrighted materials. But China doesn't have a very strong record of enforcing Western copyright laws.
uTIPu has released an updated version of TipCam, the company's free screencast recording application for Windows. TipCam 2.0 has the same basic look and feel as the older version, but sports a few new features, including:
Upload videos to YouTube directly from the application (previously you could only upload videos to uTIPu)
Export files in AVI format (previously you could only save Flash video files)
800 x 600 pixel and 480 x 360 pixel resolutions now supported in addition to 640 x 480 pixel resolution
Option to display a countdown before the recording starts
Option to cancel an upload in progress
TipCam still limits recordings to 20 minutes. But at $0, the price is right, so we're not going to complain too much about the time limit. If you're looking for other free screencast recorders for Windows, you might want to check out Debut or Jing.
The plain truth is I don't like working with media files. Watching them, or listening to them, sure, I'm just as into that as the next girl. When it comes to actually converting them from something captured off an external device or my screen, though, my stomach turns. It's not an aversion that's peculiar to Linux. I hate using the Windows for those same tasks. Since I don't have access to a Mac, I can't vouch for the ease of media conversion on them, but I can safely say that as ubiquitous as Quicktime is, I have very little luck working with (or viewing) Quicktime files on any machine with any operating system in my possession.
