Tag: YouTube
YOUTUBE VIDEOS OF THE WEEK: Unbelievable spinning wrestler, and Bush's top 10 moments
This is turning into a great week for web video. On top of the awesome trebuchet we featured yesterday, I couldn’t pick today between the amazing Mexican wrestler, Mascarita Dorada, above and a farewell compilation of George W Bush’s 10 best moments from the David Letterman show in the States. You can see that just over the jump. Which is your favourite? Let us know in the comments.
YouTube trying out video downloads?
If you’ve ever enjoyed a YouTube video and then thought “I want to take this with me wherever I go”, then prepare to be mildly pleased. YouTube appears to be experimenting with offering downloads of videos. The first to gain this feature have been the videos on Obama’s ChangeDotGov YouTube channel.
The videos come in a decent format – MPEG4, using the H.264 codec. That’s the same as the same videos that you get on the iPhone portal. The capability to download video has been offered by competing sites like Vimeo for ages, but YouTube has avoided it – presumably to quieten the intellectual property issues involved, though anyone can download YouTube videos with a simple Google search.
It’s likely that content owners will soon see an option as to whether to allow downloads of their videos or not. I hope that many do, and that those who don’t begin to feel the pressure to allow it. Just don’t expect to be able to download a million music videos tomorrow.
YouTube (via Ars Technica)
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YouTube Video of the Week: Western Spaghetti
This fantastic video was produced by a chap called PES, and is part of the 2009 Sundance Official Selection. It’s a beautiful piece of stop-motion animation using rubber bands, pick-up sticks, rubik’s cubes, and bubblewrap. Got a favourite YouTube video? Link us to it in the comments, and you might see it as a future Video of the Week.
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YouTube shoots self in foot – mutes all video with 'unauthorized copyrighted music'
In a strange, sudden and unannounced move, YouTube has suddenly muted a bunch of videos that it claims have ‘unauthorized copyrighted music’. Under the video, it says “This video contains an audio track that has not been authorised by all copyright holders. The audio has been disabled.”
Two things bother me about this. Firstly, the users are going to absolutely detest it. They’ll leave in their droves for YouTube’s competitors. I don’t understand why YouTube would agree to something as ridiculous as this – they’re not stupid, and I’m sure they realize what the effects will be.
Secondly, how does this square with the deals YouTube made two years ago, when labels made their content “available for inclusion in sanctioned consumer uploads”. This move seems to run 180 degrees in the reverse to what those deals aimed to facilitate. I’ll be keeping an eye on this one, and update the post when I hear more and/or YouTube releases some sort of official statement.
(via Media Futurist)
Related posts: Universal Music: We’re getting heaps of cash from YouTube | YouTube goes full HD at last?
YouTube Video of the Week: Insane Japanese Water Jetpack
Whoa – this is awesome. Supersize a simple bottle rocket, and strap it to a terrified-looking Japanese bloke. The most impressive thing? The science involved, neatly summarised by PopSci. In short, this bloke leaves the launchpad at over 200MPH, experiencing acceleration of approx 10gs! Don’t try this at home, kids.
PopSci (via Digg)
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CES 2009: Samsung intros new YouTube-friendly camcorder, plus an ergonomic high def one
Samsung is just one of several companies showing off its latest range of camcorders, with a model to suit most consumer needs, from YouTube enthusiasts to budding high definition filmmaker. We’ve already seen the H Series of HD handhelds, but Samsung is also catering for those who haven’t jumped on to the high definition bandwagon yet, but are most definitely riding along on the YouTube train.
The SMX-F34 camcorder can’t boast the same filming resolution as the H Series – we’re talking strictly standard definition (up to 720 x 480) here — but it does have a ridiculously large 34x optical zoom range that can be boosted to 42x with the Intelli-Zoom function…
CES 2009: LG brings YouTube to Bluray
LG announced today that as well as bringing the full Bluray experience to your living room, in the form of Profile 2.0, their new BD370 Bluray player will also stream content from YouTube. Yes, you can enjoy top quality content like the latest in RC ducks right there on your sofa.
VIDEO: Tilt-shifted monster trucks look like toys
This remarkable video is the work of Australian Keith Loutit, who specialises in tilt-shift photography. This technique involves manipulating the focus of an image so that it appears toylike. There’s a great Photoshop how-to here, and a gallery of other tilt-shift pics here. Post your favourites in the comments below.
(via the Telegraph)
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Universal Music: We're getting heaps of cash from YouTube
For a long time, Google has struggled to monetise its video-sharing site, YouTube. Experiments with advertising have been coldly received by the community but perhaps things are starting to perk up – the executive vice president of Universal Music Group’s eLabs, Rio Caraeff, has said that his company is getting “tens of millions of dollars” from YouTube.
Universal is one of a handful of companies who have a deal with YouTube where ad revenue from Universal’s content is split between the parties. As Universal has a hell of a lot of back-catalogue content, that’s a decent chunk of revenue, but “tens of millions” is far more than I would have expected.
YouTube goes full HD at last?
Looks like YouTube has finally switched on full HD – at least for videos uploaded in high-definition. Going to the site now, and tracking down a video recorded in high-definition, like this one, for example, will give you a “Watch in HD” in the bottom-right corner of the video display.
The results are spectacular. Compare Hilary Duff in normal YouTube video quality, with HD, here. It’s jaw-droppingly impressive, especially when viewed fullscreen. As soon as we can, we’ll start uploading our review vids in HD, so you can get a better look at the gadgets we get sent.
YouTube HD (via TechCrunch)
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