There’s a great new video tutorial showing you HOWTO install and use vPIP.
vPIP (which is part of Show in a Box) is a WordPress plugin that adds video support to WordPress.
vPIP was created by Enric Teller. The tutorial was created by Ryanne Hodson.
Irina (of the GETV fame) wrote in to the Video Blogging mailing list to say, that all of us Internet TV creators should enter this contest.
From her message…
ALICE’S 3-MINUTE INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL
Alice’s 3-Minute Independent Film Festival announces its CALL FOR ENTRIES Deadline for submissions is March 24, 2008 5PM. Entry is FREE The 3-Minute Film Festival and Awards ceremony will be held April 11th at Bimbo’s 365 Club, San Francisco. With $16,000 in cash and prizes, radio exposure and more, Alice’s film festival offers filmmakers a unique opportunity to showcase their short cinematic masterpieces in front of a live audience. This year, Alice’s 3-Minutes film festival is honored to have judges from Pixar Animation Studios, Dreamworks, Lucasfilm, and the SF Film Society. Accepting 2–5 minute films in four categories: Drama/Documentary, Comedy, Animation and Original Music Video. Submission must be sent in DVD format to Alice Radio 865 Battery Street, San Francisco, CA 94111. Official entry forms and film festival details at www.radioalice.com.
Recently there have been a few announcements of Internet TV sites doing HD Video.
Some of the recent High Definition Video announcements came from: Dailymotion and Vimeo. There’s even ways to do HD quality video on YouTube.
Chris Albrecht is arguing that no one wants HD video on the Internet yet. Chris’ article points out that….
AOL pulled the plug on its HD-like offering last year after low user adoption and CBS was hesitant to jump into HD content, believing that audiences don’t care so much about video quality.
Chris’ article also says…
And in an odd way, Dailymotion’s HD offering may prove the naysayers’ points. The Dailymotion blog concedes:
Word to the wise, however: HD is both bandwidth and processor intensive, so a 1.6 Mbps connection is advised (and dual-cores don’t hurt ;).
In an initial test, I had trouble with one video stopping almost every three seconds. A subsequent video worked fine, though there was still some stuttering.
I think that it’s not that users don’t care about video quality, as CBS states. I think it’s that viewesr want their video to start playing instantly and to play smoothly.
But currently, with HD video, the video takes a long time to download and is jittery when it plays. That’s the real reason HD if failing on these video sharing sites.
Let’s face it… HD Video looks better. If viewers could get HD right now without all the slowness and jittery playing, they’d watch it. (Especially those people who are already watching Internet TV on their big screen TV’s.)
The problem is, with these video sharing sites, you can’t really do that yet. The video takes a long time to download and it’s often jittery when it plays. (Which drives viewers crazy.)
If this situation keeps up, we could see a return to Broadcatching!
Not too long ago, before everyone and his pet cat created their own video sharing site… before YouTube, Blip.tv, Revver, Dailymotion, Veoh, and all the rest… people were getting Online Video using a technique called Broadcatching. (Basically… broadcatching involved pre-fetching the video before you want to watch it. So that when you want to watch it, the video was already on your computer’s hard drive, and playing is instant and smooth.)
Broadcatching may see a new surge of popularity because of HD video.
HD video may push people to primarily get their video using Broadcatching software, like: Miro or iTunes.
Vlog Razor linked to an article written by a person from the Cable TV companies titled: “What Happens When Nobody Needs a TV?“.
It should have probably been named: What Happens When Nobody Needs Cable TV Companies and Just Watches Internet TV.
Seems at least one person from the Cable TV companies is starting to become aware of Internet TV… and he is starting to get scared. Scared that Internet TV may, in the not too distant future, become the dominant form of television.
With younger generations — tweens, teens, and 20-somethings — this is already happening. And like with news, where young people are going to the Interenet as their source for news, and not newpapers; young people are going to the Internet as their source for TV, and not Cable TV. (Just wait until it becomes common for people to play Internet TV on their big screens.)
From the article….
Nearly everyone told me that their household currently has a high-speed Internet connection, but no household connection to cable or satellite TV. I suppose I assumed the high-speed Internet connection went hand-in-hand with a cable/satellite subscription, but apparently I was wrong. The general consensus among the group was: “I don’t need cable. Anything I want to watch on TV, I can get on the Internet.”
(Emphasis mine.) The article goes on to say….
But what happens when the Web starts to replace the [Cable] television? Where is there a place in this environment for local television, local news or local television advertisers? Going to ABC.com to watch the most recent episodes of Ugly Betty or Grey’s Anatomy is all well and good for the ABC Network, but what about the local ABC affiliate, whose revenue depends on viewers tuning in to their favorite ABC programs on local television? Is there a place in this new Internet-driven, consumer-focused media world for the local television affiliate?
… I did a quick check with Scarborough Research, and I estimate the total number of homes falling into this category to be about 7.5% of the total Tampa market. While 7.5% is not a huge figure, if you look at the adults 18-34 demo, 11.4% of these homes are Internet-only.
[The Cable TV] market ignored the impact of homes with only cellphones (no home phones), thinking that the number of homes was too small to worry about. When the percent of cellphone-only homes reached 18%, and Nielsen changed its methodology to include these homes, the resulting ratings drop caused TV general managers across the market to sit up and pay attention.
I think the author is right in starting to sound off doom and gloom for the Cable TV companies. The article ends with a “wake up call” for the Cable TV companies… but will they adapt? Time will tell.
Ever wanted to create your own video sharing site?! Ever wanted to make your own YouTube-clone?!
This slideshow gives you all the information you need to get started creating your own video sharing site using Free and Open Source software.
Some links from the slide show…
The people at Videomaker tell us that the difference between doing a “good quality voice over and a “crappy” voice over is a matter of using the proper microphone and setting up the proper environment to do your recording.
This video teaches you how to do it “properly“….
The video also refers people to the following articles, to learn more about recording voice overs…
What happened to the original Live.com site? No, not Microsoft’s Live.com site. Long ago there was a different site on the Live.com domain.
So what does that have with making Internet TV?
Live.com once belonged to a group of developers who created Free and Open Source software for all sorts of goodies that Internet TV producers could find very very useful.
They created software for streaming video and audio back when doing this was extremely cutting edge.
I found out later that the old Live.com moved to Live555.com (after, I can only guess, Microsoft bought the Live.com domain from them). (The sites a bit dated, but the software is still good.)
If you’re looking build an Internet TV system that does video and audio streaming, or know what the initials RTSP, RTP, or SIP mean, then Live555.com’s offering might be just what you need.
Videomaker brings us a great tutorial on how to record sound effects.
I remember taking an “audio” course in University, as an elective, that covered the topics in this video tutorial. This video is a great refresher.
One thing that my prof pushed was that having a good directional microphone is a must for anyone recording their own sound effects.
Also, ambient noise is something most people don’t even think about. I.e., the sound you hear when you don’t think anything is making any noise. (Like the noise in an empty room.)
Without ambient noise, your audience will “subconsciously” notice something is wrong with your video.
This usually isn’t a problem if you are shooting the real world. But you see the mistake of forgetting to add ambient noise in animations. (Both classical and computer generated.) Classical and computer generated animations with ambient noise added seem “alive“.
Members of the Chinese government have banned horror movies. From an article on the story…
China has added ghosts, monsters and other things that go bump in the night to its list of banned video and audio content in an intensified crackdown…. Producers have around three weeks to look through their tapes for “horror” and report it to [the Chinese government]
The article goes on to say…
Offending content included “wronged spirits and violent ghosts, monsters, demons, and other inhuman portrayals, strange and supernatural storytelling for the sole purpose of seeking terror and horror,” the administration said.
It is unclear yet whether this ban only includes home-grown works of “horror”. Or also extends to foreign created works of “horror”; and could result in a ban of all works of “horror” on the Internet, enacted through the “Great Firewall of China“.
UPDATE: John Cardenas wrote in to say that, basically, bans like these by the Government in China are ineffectual. So… likely nothing to worry for video bloggers and other people involved with Internet TV.
Gena Haskett told us that CNN is attempting to network with Amateur Journalists and Video Bloggers.
They’re trying to do this with a brand new online video site called iReport.com.
Gena says…
If you record something of interest [and put it on iReport.com] they may air it on CNN. I didn’t see anything about [monetary] compensation if that happens [at all].
Gena makes a good point. Is there an incentive to get people to really participate on iReport.com?
For many that incentive needs to be money. But maybe the incentive is (the chance of) seeing your video on CNN.
But… even if your video does appear on CNN… will CNN plug your name and website URL on CNN too?
If done right, having those 2 things promoted on CNN might be plenty incentive to get the right people involved with iReport.com. But we’ll have to keep an eye on it, to see if CNN is will to give this kind of promotion, on air, to the Amateur Journalists and Video Bloggers that CNN wants to participate on iReport.com.
