Archive for the 'Vidcast' Category

SeesmicSeesmic has been gaining a lot of media attention, much of this however has been pretty negative. Mild mannered Loren Feldman (yeah right) of 1938 Media, didn’t hold his punches when describing the service. Being the cynic that I am, it wouldn’t surprise me to find that it was all just a front, aimed at raising public awareness, which indeed it has, as they say “all publicity is good publicity”. That’s not to say everything is right with this video conversation service. The user interface is very dated, harkening back to the early Flash based sites. The progress bars in particular drive me nuts, at least integrate them with the rest of the site, so they are unobtrusive.

The real disappointment however is the quality of videos recorded through the site, which not only suck, but for the most part are out of sync with the audio, making the resultant video just plain unusable. I’m pretty sure these issues will eventually be addressed, the site is after all in pre-alpha. You can also upload video, but why would I want to do this, when YouTube does it infinitely better.

The big question however is, who is Seesmic’s target audience. Video conversations just don’t work for me. I’d much rather use email, IM or the good old fashioned telephone. It’s certainly not good enough to use as a video blog. I thought it would be good to use as a way to capture quick hellos to my family back in England and friends around the world, this is only just passable, given the current state of the service.

Seesmic is certainly a service to keep an eye on, however there are many other companies vying for a piece of the video action and many of them have much nicer interfaces and services. Video is an interesting space at the moment. As bandwidth goes up and prices come down, higher and higher quality is now possible. 2008 is certainly going to be an interesting year.

The Democracy player has now officially been renamed to Miro, which means that the new official webpage is http://www.getmiro.com. I’m a big fan of Democracy, having it installed on my Mac Mini, which is nestled next to the flat screen TV in our living room. I’m looking forward to all the exciting things that Miro will bring with it.

With the Joost hype machine cranking into overdrive, this little gem is nipping at Joost’s heels and has barely caused a ripple in the Internet pond. However that’s not to say that this is a site to be dismissed. Whilst Joost is an IPTV solution, it’s still dependent on a separate piece of client software installed on your desktop/laptop computer. This does however have the advantage of giving you a very rich environment in which to watch the provided content. Chime.tv has gone for the totally portable, web based solution and has still managed to pull off quite an interesting and full featured interface all of it’s own.

Both Chime.tv and Joost have a variety of channels from which to choose. Each of these channels has a range of hand picked content. Chime.tv draws it’s selections from the many videos available on YouTube, Google Video, Veoh and a whole host of other video sites. Whilst the content is somewhat limited, it is however of a fairly high quality, in content that is.

When watching YouTube videos, everyone has come to expect less than perfect video quality. On the whole this fails to be a significant problem, when played at the usual default YouTube page size. However when watched via Chime.tv at full screen, the pixelated quality is all to prevalent. If you are watching in your browser at full size, the quality soon gets in the way of the user experience, however when watching via a regular TV, if you have your desktop/laptop hooked up and you are watching from a distance, this is a minor annoyance. It does however become an issue, the higher the quality of your TV display, especially high definition flat screens. On the whole however it’s something you get used to pretty quickly and doesn’t distract too much.

Certainly an engaging site. It will be interesting to see if they manage to keep the available channels fresh and interesting.

New version of Democracy launches and hidden in there, is mention of a name change with version 1.0, from Democracy to Miro… mmm shame, I much prefer Democracy. You can, as always get it here.

New features are as follows :

1. Folder watching.
2. Resume playback. If you’re watching a 15 minute video and stop halfway, we’ll remember where you were when next time you watch it. There’s a preference setting to turn this on and off.
3. Auto-updating for Mac users. This should be the last time that Mac users will need to go to their browser to download a new version. From now on, when a new version is released you’ll be able to install it within the app and relaunch (we’re now using Sparkle). Windows users don’t have auto-update yet, but we’ll be able to give you details about what’s new in each release from within the app (right now it just tells you that there’s a new version, with no details).
4. Minimize to tray on windows– when you click the red x in the upper right, the application will hang out in the system tray. A much requested feature.
5. Windows Vista compatibility. This solves playback issues for some Vista users.
6. Resizing of thumbnails. We now resize and cache thumbnails so that the images displayed are smoother. This also makes switching between channels much faster.
7. More thorough proxy support.
8. Ability to play audio files on mac (previously we sent you out to an external player).
9. Many more keyboard shortcuts on Windows. This will make remote control support easy. Full keyboard shortcuts for Mac are coming soon with the first version of Miro.
10. Bug fixes, memory use reduction, memory leak fixes. Updated Perian on OSX to version 1.0b5.

I found out about this site, quite by chance. I’d read a blog entry over at John (I get no Spam) Dvorak’s site on learning to kiss passionately, which lead to a video on YouTube. No I don’t need any to tips, but if Dvorak covers it, it has to be worth a look, which indeed it was. Anyway the site behind the video, was one I hadn’t come across before. As soon as I hit the home page, I knew I’d found something special.

Basically the video site, VideoJug, aims to give advice and help on everyday things and situations, from computers to parenting, using videos. This in itself wouldn’t be a big deal, if the videos weren’t so good. Check it out. All comments welcome.

• Tagline : The Totally Rad Show is the summer blockbuster of geek news shows
• Website : The Totally Rad Show
• Subscribe Link :
  
• Parental Rating : 18
• Star Rating : 8 out of 10

The Totally Rad Show is one of those programmes that would have thrived on the G4/TechTV cable channel. It’s very down to earth with the very affable Alex Albrecht at the helm, also co-presenter of one of my other favorite Revision 3 shows, Diggnation, with Kevin Rose. Fortunately no grubby cable company has their hands on this or indeed any other Revision3 show and it’s for this very reason that these shows deserve to thrive. Also the fact that they’re also pretty good is another very valid reason.

Of the three hosts, Alex is the one that really holds things together. Dan Trachtenberg and Jeff Cannata, whilst being likable enough, just seem to lack that special chemistry. Admitedly we’re only at show #9, so this is something that can still develop, nonetheless it’s still enjoyable to watch.

The shows premise is to basically review movies, video games, TV, comics and all things geek. Everything seems to be above board, rather than a sycophantic vehicle for PR.

One of the major criticisms I have of the show, is that the sound levels seem to flail all over the place. One minute I’m turning up the sound to hear what is being said and the next, I’m hunting for the remote to turn it down again, especially when our hosts are laughing and joking around.

Conclusion: It’s still the early days for the show. While it’s still a bit rough around the edges, the content is great and I imagine it will go from strength to strength.

GigaOm, NewTeeVee and Joost are excited to invite you to experience the next generation of television

Get your invitation to Joost today and you’ll enjoy a TV-like experience enhanced with the choice, control and flexibility of Web 2.0. Joost can be accessed from your PC or Mac with a broadband Internet connection and offers broadcast-quality content for free. Get your Joost invite here.

After weeks of behind the scenes twiddling, New Media Launchpad finally launches, incorporating Podcast Launchpad and Vidcast Launchpad. With two website covering very similar things, it all got a bit too distracting. I’ve also been wanting to cover blogs and many other new media websites and tools, so thought it best to merge everything into one website and take the opportunity to improve the whole browsing experience. I hope you enjoy it.

If you have any suggestions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me.

• Tagline : A vidcast about technology you already own
• Website : Lab Rats
• Subscribe Link :
  
• Parental Rating : G
• Star Rating : 8 out of 10

Lab Rats host Andy Walker, another former presenter from G4/TechTV Canada’s Call for Help, joins with fellow respected tech head, Sean Carruthers in a very well produced technology vidcast, which is one of the few I’ve seen that actually breaks for commercials. Now I don’t mind vidcasts having a splash of advertising here and there, you’ve gotta pay your bills, but only as long as they are unobtrusive. These are really bordering on the edge. Fortunately the content of the shows more than makes up for the advertising shortcomings.

An average show spans about 20 minutes and concentrates on a single subject, from replacing a power supply to setting up a wireless home network. On the whole everything is explained in a very down to earth and easy to understand manner, but sometimes they stray from the path a bit, especially when describing the principles of disk defragmentation, in which they use an eggplant and zucchini. Not one of the better shows, but entertaining nonetheless.

With the continual implosion of the G4/TechTV Network, more and more vidcasts are only too eager to fill the void, and on the whole they fill it admirably.

Conclusion : A definite one to watch for everyone out there who wants to know more about that scary box sitting under their desk. Even for more experienced tech heads, this is still an entertaining show and who knows, you may just learn something new.

• Tagline : Live unplugged acoustic music with Rachel Fuller and The Who’s Pete Townshend backstage at gigs, festivals and venues around Europe
• Website : In the Attic
• Subscribe Link :
  
• Parental Rating : 18
• Star Rating : 9 out of 10

“Tell me who the f**k are you”, sang the Who in one of their most recognisable songs. I have to admit feeling this sentiment when finding this vidcast featuring the inimitable Pete Townsend and some bird called Rachel Fuller, who it turns out is Pete Townsend’s other half. She can be lewd, crude and an absolute blast to watch and man can she sing. That Pete geezer ain’t bad either.

What we have here is something that exemplifies what a music vidcast should be. Great hosts, great guests and kick arse music. Currently there have been a 7 episodes, featuring some amazing bands and performances, all recorded in a 34 foot Airstream caravan, which is wired for sound. Great rock bands like the Flaming Lips, The Eels and The Fratelli’s, the latter being a new, welcomed introduction to me.

Being the nit picking git I am, I do have a couple of things I’d love to see. First of these is podcastable versions of the tracks featured. The second things is more coverage of lesser known independent bands, although some are featured. These would probably go hand in hand, as gaining podcast permission from big label bands would be very problematic. I could name a couple of hundred bands that would be more than happy to oblige, hrrrm Indie Launchpad hrrm.

Conclusion: Fanbloodytastic. Every show has some great content, a throwback to Pete’s Who work and a song from Rachel herself. What more could a discerning music fan ask for. Err, yeah I know. More!