Looking at Video on the Web with Ken McCarthy

There have been illegal TV episode viewing sites for years, each getting shut down by the MPAA and similar entities for illegal distribution. You might have visited one of these sites, watched a few episodes of The Simpsons Season 4 and the next day, the site vanished. Apple Inc. in the past year has been making agreements with cinema and television companies in order to provide video content for iTunes and the iPod. Other companies are beginning to follow suit.

An Online TV Application called Joost was recently released to the public. Joost claims to be the first Broadcast Quality Internet Television service. The Online TV Company secured $45 million in financing back in May 2007. Joost has since made agreements with major networks like MTV, CNN, Discovery Channel, WB, and CBS so they can provide over 15,000 shows and several channels at launch.

Joost is an application that you can download for free for Windows and Mac. You need a broadband connection to use the service. Joost boasts an amazing interface that allows you to browse channels via a grid. You can search for a show you want to watch. There are chat rooms, so you can talk with others watching the same show, similar to watching TV in your own home. There is instant messaging support for gMail and Jabber. Joost supports multiple accounts, so different users can customize the interface to their liking. There are commercial breaks with only one commercial per break.

Look at Joost Press Releases Here.

Download Joost from the Official website to see what the buzz is all about.

VideoPiggy is an Application for Windows XP and Vista that will let you download videos straight from YouTube, Google Video, and Metacafe. This program even has built in Video Conversion to watch videos on your PC, iPod, PSP, or Cell Phone!

I recently asked Google this question not too long ago and found nothing but misleading information in the top ten results. There are very few resources out there that spill the beans concerning which video format you should use for the web. If you turn to the video sharing sites for information, you may find nothing but a half-assed manual that reads like stereo instructions. What’s even worse, is that even if you do know which video format is good for YouTube or Google Video, getting the video to that point and making it look good is another struggle.

What do I mean by video format? What I am really saying comes in two parts: the "video container" and the "video codec". Perhaps you’ve seen some of these containers online: Windows Media Video (WMV), Quicktime Video (MOV), or Flash Video (FLV) to name a few. Maybe you’ve heard of some of these codecs: MPEG, DV, Sorenson, H.264. These are just the names, but what do they mean?

Think of the "video codec" as if it were the brand of film you would put into a 35mm camera (the container). The camera needs the film to take pictures and the film needs the parts of the camera to expose properly. Professional photographers often use different types of film for different situations. Black and white for weddings, slow speeds film for astronomical imaging, fast speed film for sports events. Codecs like DV are suitable for videotaping, editing, and uncompressed Master Tapes. Codecs such as H.264, MPEG4, and FLV are made for streaming on the web. But all of these codecs can be found in a container like Quicktime or Windows Media.

So which codec and container is the best for my website? This really depends on a few key factors: your website’s content, audience, and server capabilities. It is best to consult a professional when attempting to provide video content on your own server. But if you use video sharing sites to host your content and then just embed the videos on your site, this question then becomes "Which video codec is best for the video sharing site I am uploading it to?". 

When providing video on your own server, the best answer I can give you is to provide multiple containers and formats at varying data rates. The worst number in video streaming is 1. If someone cannot view your video and they get a message saying "please download plug-in here", say goodbye to a potential viewer.

Make the same video available in 300kpbs FLV, 150kpbs WMV, and 300 kbps MOV. This setup will ensure that anyone using any Operating System will be able to view your video content.

I will be providing step by step tutorials over screen captures in the future about the specifics of outputting video in various applications in Windows and Mac OS X. If you want to know how to output video for the video using a specific program, just shoot an email to me at videopro@iuseapple.com. I cannot promise a return email, but I will try my best to reply in the form of a blog post.

Howdy,

My name is Steve Blue. I am a Video Pro who will guide you through the stormy seas of Internet Video Creation. I am a jack of all trades when it comes to video production. I’ve edited and shot it all: commercials, documentaries, music videos, wedding videos, artistic video installation, professional sports videography, even large marketing multi screen presentations for CES. I help Ken McCarthy edit and post videos online for The System Seminar.

I will be posting to SystemVideoBlog, in the capacity of a Video Pro.

Trends in Internet Video are shifting everyday it seems. It can be quite difficult to keep up with the latest video technologies and services out there.   I hope this blog post will be your yellow brick road to the future of internet video. As "The Wizard of Oz" transformed movie screens from black and white to color, companies like Google and Apple, Inc. are changing the quality and delivery of Internet Video right now.

If you are a business owner, you probably outsource video creation to a professional. Some professionals, even those in the business for twenty years, may not know a single thing about internet video. Most professional videographers are concerned with the latest quality innovations, such as DVD and HDTV. Some even denounce internet video right off the bat, saying it looks horrible, so why would anyone even use it?

Picture quality doesn’t matter to the average viewer. Everyone is wowed and amazed by HDTV at first, but still content to watch the worst quality video of some guy skiing off a jump on YouTube.

But what if I told you I can create a video designed for streaming over the Internet that has close enough quality to broadcast, that the casual viewer can’t even tell the difference? I will show you how in upcoming blog posts.

Internet Video has grown up and is now moving out of the house. If you visit Apple’s iTunes website right now, you will be greeted with a message that says "YouTube, meet AppleTV". AppleTV viewers will soon be able to view thousands of YouTube videos right on their television sets. Did you know AppleTV also supports 480P, which is the standard for DVDs right now? Internet Video and Broadcast Quality are converging right now. But at the same time, YouTube also struck a deal with Verizon Wireless at the end of 2006, establishing a cell phone television-like channel for the most popular videos on YouTube. Now YouTube is moving onto the iPhone too, which means AT&T has access to the Internet Video Giant. Internet Video is now available on millions of digital devices out there. Internet Video is spreading like a virus.

It amazes me how YouTube is the most popular video sharing service by far. YouTube has 44% of total internet viewership. YouTube also has the worst interface out of all the video sharing sites I have encountered. I upload maybe 10 clips at a time to YouTube about a certain topic. It is one huge pain in the butt when I have to change preferences about them. In contrast, what makes a good video sharing site? Well, the ability to upload multiple videos at once for starters, with a large file size and duration on each clip. It’s called Google Video, which is still in fifth place lagging behind MSN, Yahoo, MySpace, and of course YouTube.

Upload videos to a cocktail of sites. I upload videos to YouTube, Google, MySpace, and iTunes. In future posts, I will detail step by step instructions on the best methods of uploading videos to these services.

When you are ready to upload to the internet, output the best quality video with the smallest filesize possible from your editing program. This can be a struggle. I use Quicktime H.264 for this task, others go straight into Flash FLV. Most of the online sharing sites use FLV and will convert most anything you give them to this format. Make sure you upload the best quality video possible to services like YouTube or Google Video. Those sites will make your video look crappier. But do not fear. Because of the Apple’s efforts to upgrade the video quality in iTunes, all the other internet video sharing sites will follow suit and gradually improve the quality of online videos. YouTube did it just the other week. If you view a movie on YouTube using their new beta interface, you will find a slightly larger screen for the video. YouTube just switched over to the H.264 standard probably because of their dealings with Apple. Why would the Internet Video Giant think of switching over their entire library to a new standard? H.264 is not just a standard for the Internet.  H.264 can handle everything from the crappiest looking online video to full HD quality 1080i.

Broadcast and Internet Video standards are converging right now.  So, in addition of making your video suitable for current online conditions, make sure you always have a master copy available that is Broadcast Quality.

I hope you just gained some nuggets about Internet Video. I will be writing articles on SystemVideoBlog.com, even with step by step instructions, that will get down to the nitty gritty about all different aspects of internet video creation. If you have questions that you’d like to see me address on the blog, please mail them to me at videopro@iuseapple.com. Due to the volume of mail I won’t be able to respond personally and I won’t be able to answer every question, but I’ll do my best.

Steve Blue