YouTube can be an attractive place to host your video work, especially since YouTube doesn’t charge you any money. Some content producers —who don’t (yet) have their own contracted unlimited web server— choose to use YouTube in order to avoid excessive bandwidth surcharges from their current web host, and then embed that video in their own website. Other producers use the YouTube service as a public gallery, hoping to get interest in their products or services. Many of those producers are oblivious to the fact that when uploading content on YouTube’s servers, they are granting YouTube a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works, display, and perform the content. You may imagine that there are cases where this can jeopardize your copyright, leverage, and bargaining power in any subsequent transaction with a potential purchase of the material or concept. In this article, I’ll explore the details, and discuss when I believe it makes sense to use YouTube, and when it makes more sense to use your own contracted unlimited web hosting service. (Read the rest here…)
When using YouTube jeopardizes your own content rights, leverage, and bargaining power
NewTek’s TriCaster TCXD300 ignites 3rd multicam revolution, now in HD
Standalone, portable HD studio mixer, character generator, recorder, streamer…
Any video professional with a couple of decades of experience under her/his belt will remember the original Video Toaster, which was a card that ran in a Commodore Amiga computer, and (among many others) included the infamous Kiki wipe. Despite very minor defects, the original Video Toaster —in its era— represented a revolution for multi-camera live (or live-on-tape) productions. Now NewTek has given birth to the HD-capable version of the 3rd-generation product. The TriCaster TCXD300 is an amazing standalone box that works in either SD or HD, and can record internally or externally, in addition to encoding live webcasts in HD. It has a high quality character generator and includes virtual sets. After attending an intense, multiple-hour demonstration in Miami, conducting a radio interview for both of TecnoTur’s audio channels (the current Castilian channel, and the upcoming English channel) with two TriCaster team members, and a followup e-mail interaction with NewTek’s executive VP of engineering, I now know that there is no exaggeration in stating that the TriCaster TCXD300 is indeed the 3rd multicam revolution for HD live-to-disk, HD live-to-air, or HD live-to-web production. Experience many of the details in this article.
Podcasting has gone way beyond the Pod
Podcasts directly on your tabletop radio, car radio, HDTV, or Blu-ray player: No computer required!
The medium that most of us call podcasting has gone way beyond the Pod. When I say that, I am referring to both known etymologies of the term podcast: 1) The first, which refers specifically to Apple’s iPod devices. 2) The second, which states that the letters P—O—D in podcasting are actually an acronym for the words Portable On Demand. Of course, almost everyone knows that the programs which are popularly called podcasts can now be played on computers and multiple portable mobile devices, including iPads, iPods, iPhones, Blackberries and a handful of other portable audio players and other smart mobile telephones. But beyond that, some people are not yet aware that the market is now being flooded with many other devices that can receive and play these “podcast” programs directly, without any computer in the loop, including some HDTV sets, and even an in-dash car radio which connects to the Internet wirelessly. In this article, you’ll discover those, plus Internet table radios and inexpensive set top boxes which tune podcasts directly, without a computer. You’ll also get to reason with me about whether we should still be calling this medium podcasting, and keep calling the programs podcasts… and what this all means, both for content producers and for listeners/viewers. (Read the rest here…)
JuicedLink launches benign method of defeating AGC in hybrid cameras
JuicedLink affirms that using a 20KHz tone is “evil”, and that their solution is benign.
By introducing the DN101, any of the existing CX family of preamps from JuicedLink can now interface properly with the current audibly-challenged hybrid cameras and defeat their AGC (Automatic Gain Control) in a benign way. We know that the best way to record audio with these cameras is with a separate professional audio recorder. However, there are occasions when there isn’t time to sync separate audio in post (even when you have the help of a wonderful tool like PluralEyes). In those cases, we want the best possible audio available from the camera, even though it certainly won’t be as good as what an independent pro audio recording would be. JuicedLink has always shown a purist engineering attitude, and is known for their tutorial videos which successfully translate audio engineering terms and concepts for the layperson. In one of its latest videos called Tones are evil!, JuicedLink’s president and engineer explains why he believes that his method of defeating the AGC in cameras is superior to 20 KHz tone-based methods used by competitors like Beachtek. Learn more about this issue, the JuiceLink company, philosophy, and audio products in this article.
Vimeo finally goes mobile + adds 1080p and HTML5 (ßeta)
By adding mobile compatibility, Vimeo loses one of its few remaining Achilles’ heels.
Vimeo, a leading video hosting/gallery site offering both paid and free models, has finally added mobile capability for its paying clients. This capability finally allows Vimeo Plus members to make their videos compatible with mobile devices like the iPhone, iPod Touch, Palm Pre, and Google/Android devices like the Nexus One. Vimeo Plus members can also now have the option to have web-based 1080p videos (although the wisdom of that today is debatable). Finally, all videos on Vimeo —whether from Plus members or standard members— will now have the option to be viewed either with the new HTML5 (ßeta) player (browser dependent), or the pre-existing Flash player (device dependent). This article will cover these three new features in more detail, and discuss their ramifications, both for content creators and content viewers. (Read the rest here…)
GoogleVoice improves its functionality on the iPhone
GoogleVoice has recently improved its functionality on the iPhone by upgrading its optimized iPhone website, both esthetically and operationally. In light of the misinformation published by some other tech journalists, I must clarify that GoogleVoice has been working fine on the iPhone for many months, at least with three of its features. I have been using GoogleVoice on my iPhone since July 2009 to place inexpensive outgoing international calls, which has been my main reason for using it. Since that date, GoogleVoice has also worked for incoming calls to the iPhone, although I don’t regularly use that feature for now. Even though I don’t regularly use the incoming call feature —or GoogleVoice’s other features so far— I do cover all of them in this article, in addition to explaining specifically how GoogleVoice has improved when placing outgoing international calls from the iPhone as a result of this recent update. I’ll also cover how I expect the GoogleVoice service to grow even further in the coming months. (Read the rest here…)
Apple approves voice & video over iPhone’s 3G/Fring + iCall beat Skype
Apple recently approved voice over iPhone’s 3G data connection, and now Fring and iCall have beaten both Skype and Truphone in updating their respective iPhone applications to take advantage of the newly approved feature. The other two possible voice conduits —which already existed for the iPhone and some other smartphones— are GSM and WiFi. In this article, I’ll review what these two applications have done so far, and what they’ve added with this newly approved third option. I’ll also cover Fring’s new video calling over 3G option. (Read the rest here…)
Skype’s certified HD webcams: a first look
As I explained in the related article Skype goes HD, Skype software now supports full-raster HD 720p (1280×720) for Windows computers, and I expect the same support for Mac computers very soon. So far, Skype has certified HD webcams from two different manufacturers. All of these certified models use onboard H.264 hardware encoding to alleviate CPU cycles and bandwidth, and are expected to be available in early 2010. In this article, you’ll see the their photos, prices, and published specs. Each manufacturer has chosen to emphasize different types specifications, as you will see. (Read the rest here…)
Skype goes HD for computers + embedded in certain consumer HDTV sets
Earlier this month, Skype announced its support for progressive, full-raster HD 720p (1280×720) on Windows computers, and is to be embedded in certain consumer HDTV sets. For readers unfamiliar with it, Skype is free software for Mac & Windows computers —in addition to certain mobile phones and other handheld mobile devices— which facilitates 1-on-1 or multi-user communication. Skype software offers any combination of text chat, high-quality audio chat, and video chat (device dependent). Regardless of the device used at either end, all Skype-to-Skype communication is free (less the cost of the device itself and the Internet connection. In addition, at extremely low cost, Skype optionally offers the placing Skype calls to POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) numbers, and/or receiving POTS calls via Skype. As has been Skype’s historical fashion, the company has upgraded the Windows versions of the software first, although I expect the HD capability added to the Mac version shortly. Skype is also used for remote invitees in TV talk shows, and the addition of HD 720p will certainly augment its use in that application. (Read the rest here…)
Avid Media Composer 101 courseware translated/localized for Latin America/Spain
Avid contracted the translation/localization to Rubén Abruña and Allan Tépper.
After many months of teamwork, the Avid Media Composer 101 courseware is now available in a translated and localized version for Latin America & Spain. As a result, many Avid MC101 students in those areas can now benefit from having this courseware in their own language. My friend Rubén Abruña of iLevel and I had the honor of receiving this contract from Avid in 2009. The first draft of our translation/localization was initially used in September 2009 at an Avid training event in Santiago, Chile, South America, both to teach a group of new students, as well as to generate feedback from certified Avid instructors from the region. In this article, you’ll see the behind the scenes of this project, which combined our knowledge of the techie video terms in each language, as well as that of the regionalisms and political debates that surround this type of a project. (Read the rest here…)
