Tag Archives: video Blog

Google vs Auto-Play

Google, in its ongoing effort to define the web according to its vision, will soon block auto-play video in its Chrome browser. This new step, along with a few others that Google has taken recently (and which rewards websites that comply with its views), is actually a good thing for users. Auto-play is a brute force marketing hack used to get advertisers’ messages in peoples’ faces. Deemed a ‘win’ by marketers, it makes for a lousy user experience, especially when visitors scrolling down a page are chased by a non-stop, blabbing video. Silencing these techniques, along with rewarding sites that incorporate features like fresh content, responsive (mobile friendly) design, and HTTPS (for greater security) with higher rankings, results in a better web for everyone. We just wonder whether one company having that much influence over the web is desirable. In any event, websites that use auto-play video should become familiar with Google’s plans to implement this new policy, detailed in the following article, and adapt accordingly.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/2wgosGh

Snapchat Specs

Spectacles from Snapchat is new, wearable tech that looks cool, takes video, and may well stick. It may also inspire Google to do something with their shelved (for now) Glass product — an over-ambitious project that wasn’t well-received last year. But I hope not …

If the Spectacles unveiling was pure L.A. cool, it contrasted starkly with the Google Glass debut four years ago, which was pure Silicon Valley geek … Where Glass wanted to be important, Spectacle claims it just wants to have fun.

Details: https://spectacles.com

Article: http://nyti.ms/2ddhZxM

More: http://bit.ly/2dsf6NY

Google’s Latest Products Enhance Video Collaboration

Video is at the forefront of technologies that enable enhanced communication and serves as a viable business tool on the web.  With Google’s latest product announcements, it’s evident that businesses will soon conduct collaboration online using video. It’s now possible to transmit high-quality sound and images to remote locations so that disparate parties can work together. No longer is video communication hampered by limited bandwidth and machine capability. The resulting efficiencies allow the best people to work together regardless of location. Add to this web-based collaboration tools and cloud storage, and traveling is almost unnecessary.

The following article points out how Google’s new products, specifically Chromecast, Hangouts, and the Nexus 7, make video the tool of choice for these kinds of collaborations. Think of the possibilities of consulting with ad hoc teams globally, assembling on short notice, reviewing work in progress, or bringing in unique expertise. The time is right for businesses to look into video collaboration tools.

Read full article: http://www.eweek.com/mobile/nexus-7-chromecast-google-hangouts-mean-big-business/

The State of HTML5 Video

It looks like the promise of standardizing video delivery with the advent of HTML5 will take a little longer to fulfill. As usual, no one among the companies that already dominate the web wants to agree on how to best serve users.

HTML5 added the <VIDEO> tag, theoretically freeing us from using the de facto standard for video playback, the notoriously crash-prone Adobe Flash. The reality, sadly, is much different. Of all the major browsers, not one of them fully supports the tag. Firefox and Chrome can only play HTML5 video if it uses the WebM codec, while IE and Safari will only play H264-encoded video. When you throw mobile browsers into the mix, things get even more confusing. Most mobile browsers use Webkit, the open-source browser platform that Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome are based on. This would be great, but different mobile devices support different profiles and aspects of the highly complex H264 codec, which means potentially more encoding for those devices.

In the view of these companies, upon whom we rely to make the web useful for everyone, it’s apparently more important for each to promote their own standards so they can dominate some facet of the web for themselves. And, of course, it’s users who suffer. Don’t they understand that no one should own the Internet? Be prepared for more laborious workarounds for both users and producers of video to deliver video to people.

Read full article: http://localtype.org/html5-video-sucks/

Streaming TV, not 3D, is the ‘Next Big Thing’

Tempted to buy a 3-D telly? Didn’t think so. If HD was a study in hype, the 3DTV pitch is beyond belief. Who, other than a floundering content delivery industry, would believe that wearing glasses and watching objects fly into your face would sell? At least HDTV was a big step up in the quality of the viewing experience. 3D is still, and always will be, just a “special effect” (and not a very good one at that).

When I visited the Panasonic booth at a recent trade show, what did the model on the 3D set do when I looked into the monitor? She picked up a glass and reached toward the camera. Like wow! The glass looked like it came off the screen and was actually coming toward me. I shrugged, and then moved on and spent a half-hour talking to a rep about the AF-100, micro four-thirds camera. Now there’s something to write home about (in another post perhaps). The moral: 3DTV is just a sideshow act. There are better ways to spend your money. For example, on streaming.

Despite what television manufacturers want to believe … the Next Big Thing in TV is where the content comes from, not how it is displayed.

Wouldn’t it be nice to access music and video content on any device? That’s the promise of streaming. Subscribe to your favorite shows. Rent movies. Access a music library online. Streaming frees us from managing bits, storing plastic, and conflicting formats. Apple has proven that coupling good content, superior technology, and a sound business model can generate mass appeal. It will be interesting to see if the new Apple TV fulfills streaming’s promise and cracks the mass market for digital content. (No glasses required.)

Full article: http://bit.ly/9d6SdX

Update: 22-Oct. Panasonic announced specs and availably this week for the new AF-100 camera. It sounds like a dream come true for video shooters. Except for one big problem: the micro four-thirds sensor has a crop factor of 2X, meaning that your 50mm normal lens becomes, in effect, a 100mm telephoto. For many, this may be a deal-breaker. I’m looking forward to the reviews as people start using this camera after its late December release. In the meantime, however, I lament.

H.264 Standard Will Remain Royalty-Free

Keeping the H.264 standard open is important because there’s potentially big money in Web video — in advertising, sure, but also for creators who monetize their content for a living. With a free, high-quality standard in place, we get past the encumbrance of Flash and provide more rich content sent directly to the Web from any number of devices. Content that’s available to everyone means more engaged visitors across the board. This is a good thing:

“MPEG LA, the group that oversees licensing for a number of Internet media standards, today announced that Internet broadcast content using the H.264 video coding standard will remain royalty-free for the entire life of the license, quashing fears that the standard could suddenly become subject to royalty payments in 2016 after the current licensing term expires and is required to be renewed.”

Read full article: http://bit.ly/bATpsf

Facebook’s Emergence as a Video Platform

Social phenomenon Facebook is now climbing the ladder as a video delivery service, according to a recent article on ClickZ:

“As traffic to Facebook continues to grow, the social network is beginning to emerge as an important stakeholder in the online video space. According to online measurement firm comScore, the number of users viewing video on the site has been growing consistently over the past twelve months, and it could end the year with the second greatest reach of all online video providers in the U.S., second only to YouTube owner Google.

Data from comScore’s Video Metrix service suggests the number of unique U.S. users viewing video content on Facebook has grown from 13.3 million in April 2009 to 41.3 million in April 2010, representing year-over-year growth of almost 211 percent.”

One of the disruptive effects of Facebook is that people are using the service instead of other websites they’ve typically used in the past for functions such as email, IM, photo sharing, and now video sharing. FB’s next step is to find a way to “monetize” this activity.

Read full article: http://www.clickz.com/3640570

Web Video Is Still a Mess

It looks like no one can agree on what is the best way to deliver video over the web. Why is this important? Because with ubiquitous fast connections and processors now available to most people, video is the preferred medium online for entertainment, and in many cases, information. If a picture is worth a thousand words, and a sound is worth a thousand pictures, then video is, well, you get the idea. If this weren’t so, TV and movies would not be at the center of the entertainment world. And because the Internet can deliver these media digitally, it is naturally the best way for consumers to access them. And that equates to big business.

So what do the people who have the power to establish the standards that allow everyone to benefit from video online do? They fight with each other, of course, since it’s much more important to own the whole pie than to create a level field for all to compete on. And the battle goes on.

First, it was Real vs. QuickTime vs. Windows Media. Then Flash stepped in and, because of YouTube’s adoption of Flash and the ubiquity of the Flash plug-in, it became the de facto web video standard. Today, it’s Flash vs. the H.264 codec, which plays without plug-ins in browsers via HTML 5.

So what’s the problem? In brief, Adobe wants to own the world of web video, and Apple doesn’t like this. Nor does Microsoft, which has designs on web media domination with its Silverlight technology. Several patent holders own the rights to H.264 and they can’t agree on anything, especially royalties. And the Firefox and Opera browsers support a format that few have even heard of (Ogg Theora – ugh).

We can only hope this mess resolves quickly, the way the format war between Blu-Ray Disc and HD-DVD did in recent years. But according to this article from Webmonkey, that doesn’t appear to be likely. So in the meantime, keep that Flash plug-in handy — although it won’t help if you own a mobile product made by Apple.

Full article: http://bit.ly/cgxcSu