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New Media News Every Morning

Find Out Your YouTube Video Speed via the Speed Dashboard

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As part of Google’s ongoing effort to make the web faster, YouTube has just introduced its Video Speed Dashboard.  This tool was created to give you an insight into what your YouTube speed looks like compared to the YouTube speed of users in other regions with different ISPs. In short the YouTube dashboard could either tell you that your YouTube video speed is either too fast or too slow, like mine.

In measuring the speed by which you stream YouTube video, the Video Speed Dashboard takes into account  various factors including speed of your Internet connection, the Internet Service Provider (ISP) you are using and your distance to the YouTube video servers.

Aside from telling you information about your own video speed, the Dashboard can also list  down the YouTube speeds of users in your neighborhood who have different ISPs as the one you are using. That way you can decided whether you should ditch your current ISP in favor of your neighbors’ ISPs.  No, I’m just kidding. Or perhaps I may be true.

Incidentally, the YouTube Video Speed Dashboard measures video speed based on the speed at which YouTube video is received by the browser. The Dashboard then averages this over the previous 30 days you’ve used the same browser during the same period.

So, how fast is your YouTube Video Speed? You may check it out from YouTube Video Speed Dashboard. Hope it’s not as pathetic as my ISP’s 256kbps speed.

Originally posted on February 11, 2010 @ 5:18 pm

Ustream Launches Producer, a Desktop Client to Help You Do Live Broadcasts

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Ustream, known for its live interactive video broadcast platform has just launched a new desktop client called Ustream producer. It’s a nice tool for doing live broadcasts from your PC with high video quality and editing tools. Available for both Mac and PC, you can have the tool either as a free client or a paid one which will cost you a one-time fee of $199. Of course, that amount would give you more options and features to make your live broadcasts look more professional.

Ustream Producer lets you do the following:

  • easily manage video and audio sources
  • browse, drag and drop audio and video files
  • start and stop recordings
  • pop-out a chat room or social streams
  • display your desktop via screencasting capability
  • update your status and syndicate to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and AIM
  • broadcast using Picture in Picture
  • create multiple transitions

If you’re into live broadcasting and you want to take this to a higher level, the $199 price tag for the Pro version seems a reasonable price. While the free version is enough to get you started with live broadcasting, the PRO version however will make your live streams even better and more appealing to your intended audience.  The PRO version gives you additional features such as unlimited cameras, unlimited transitions, 7 encoding presets including HD and more.

To give you a taste of what Ustream Producer can do, you might want to watch the live broadcasts of a new song that will be featured in the upcoming Alice in Wonderland flick. The live stream will start at 4PM tomorrow.

Via

 

Originally posted on January 28, 2010 @ 6:06 pm

UStream Offers Pay-Per-View Live Video

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UStream, the same video service which made some significant ground-breaking feature earlier with the Avatar premiere and their New Year’s Eve  live coverage is offering yet again another new service. This time it’s a live video streaming format with specific featured performers.

But don’t get your hopes so high yet though, as this new service will be on a pay-per-view basis. Just like in any live performance acts, you need to purchase a ticket to be able to watch the shows on UStream’s Live Video platform. Ticket prices for UStream’s Live Video events will start from $5 and could possibly go higher depending on the featured acts.

To kick off the its new Live Video Platform, UStream is bringing in comedian Dane Cook with his stand-up routine entitled “ISolated INcident.” Tickets are available for $5 and the event  is happening on February 6, 6:30 p.m. EST.

Aside from being able to watch the whole show online, paying users will also get other freebies including the chance to chat with other fans right on the Live Video Platform itself. You can also ask Dane Cook questions as well as access some backstage content. All in all, UStream promises to bring in 5 hours of entertainment in exchange for your $5 bucks.

But this is just the start. UStream hopes to get some other big acts to be featured on their Live Video platform.

Interested?  you may grab your tickets to this gig by visiting this link.

Originally posted on January 22, 2010 @ 5:25 pm

YouTube Tests a Cleaner, Less Cluttered Video Page

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YouTube is currently testing out a new layout of its video page, a more simplified and streamline video page if I may say so – all for the hopes of offering the best possible watching experience to users. The new video page is currently on an opt-in  basis, but anyone can try it out even if their primary language is not English. However, all the elements in the video page will be in English.  Like any of its opt-in feature, you can easily go back to the old video page via a single click.

So, what does the new video page offers? There’s quite a lot actually and these include:

Streamlined look and functionality – The new YouTube video page is now more subdued, stripped down, and simpler than before.  The redesign was aimed at offering advanced features in the highest way possible for users. The new YouTube video page focuses more on the video rather than the add-on elements that you see on a normal YouTube video page.

Smarter “next up” video list – This is a pretty cool feature of the new YouTube video home page. It takes into consideration how you found a particular video and will queue your next video to watch based on how you arrived at the current video. For example if you’ve used the search facility, the rest of the search results will be placed on the right side of the video page – making it easier for  you to check out the rest of the video search results.

Less cluttered design and united description and stats – You can now find more specific information about the video you’re watching in one place – underneath the video. If you click on “description”, you’d see more information about the video you are currently watchin.

Action Bar  is Now Cleaner –  The new YouTube video home page now has a cleaner “sharing” action bar. Sharing, rating, saving or flagging a video are now all grouped in one place.

Simpler Video Rating Scheme – Yes, it’s now a matter of selecting – “like or don’t like. Sound s familiar? In addition, if you like a video, it will be automatically added to your favorites.

New labels for video size and video quality controls – Aside from the usual selection of how you want to view a video, YouTube is also offering new size control .

Search while you watch – While watching a video, you can conduct a search and the results will be displayed on the right side of the page.

More prominent channel/subscriber placement and a new “see more videos” feature –

The “subscribe” button is now placed on the top of the video, right near the title. In addition, there’s is now an arrow next to the number of uploads on the person’s channel to let you view more videos from uploaded by that person.  Hence it’s now easier to find other videos.

If you want to try out the new YouTube video page, click here.

Originally posted on January 21, 2010 @ 4:06 pm

Vimeo to Go Full 1080p HD for its Premium Vimeo Account

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Introducing Vimeo Plus! from Vimeo Staff on Vimeo.

If you’ve been paying attention to the videos that we usually embed to some of our news coverages here in 901am (I hope you’re watching these videos), you’ve probably noticed that aside from YouTube some of those came from Vimeo, a video uploading and sharing site similar to YouTube. If you’re a Vimeo user, specifically a paid Premium member, by the end of this month you can now start uploading full 1080p HD videos to Vimeo.

Wait, just hold on a second. Wouldn’t that affect online playback of your videos? Especially since HD videos demand higher and faster bandwidth? Actually, yes it does affects online video playback. So Vimeo is giving you the option whether to choose sharing 1080p videos or stick with the current HD-quality 720p resolution.

Vimeo is perhaps enabling this feature to answer the signs of the times since the influx of cheap portable videocam has made it easier to produce HD videos at 1080p resolution. And besides, YouTube has been  allowing it for quite some time now.  Since Vimeo is being touted as the best YouTube alternative, it is but logical for Vimeo to have that feature as well.

Of course, this would also give Vimeo’s $60/year Premium package more attractive to users, since 1080 video uploading feature will only be enabled to paying members.

In addition, Vimeo is also allowing premium account holders to make their uploaded videos available, downloadable and viewable on mobile phones.  And pretty soon, a native Vimeo iPhone application will be available.

So if you are not a Vimeo Premium account holder yet, now could be the best time to get the Vimeo Plus subscription.

Originally posted on January 6, 2010 @ 4:31 pm