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Please see below for a list of blogs.


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Which MPEG-2 Compressor Plug-in is Best?

I'm writing a story for Digital Content Producer on producing MPEG-2 video from HD source in Final Cut Pro/Compressor. Which plug-ins are best? - I'm trying to get Cinema Craft in, but they're not responding to my emails. - I've got a trial version o...

VP6 Encoding Parameters of the Technology Laggards

OK, being somewhat of a jerk here with the headline, but I've been pretty public in my thoughts that it's time to transition from VP6 to H.264. Still, if you're not ready for that move, perhaps you might want to rethink your current VP6 encoding para...

H.264 Encoding Parameters of the Rich and Famous

Whenever I speak in public about streaming production, I try to back up my recommendations with file parameters gathered from prominent media and corporate sites. Here are some file statistics gathered for a series of sessions that I taught this spri...

Why Flash Still Plays "Critical Role" for YouTube

From my general perspective, HTML5 has been lots of smoke with very little fire, in part because it's not yet a complete spec that meets the needs of large scale video publisher. Though Google/YouTube has been an avid HTML5 proponent, a recent blog p...

Google Open Sources VP8 Codec

As expected, Google open sourced the VP8 codec today at their IO conference in San Francisco. You can read my overview article for StreamingMedia.com here, or check out www.webmproject.org, a site that details the announcement. Briefly, as you may re...

Wi-Fi on US Air Flights -

OK, I have a presentation to finalize for at StreamingMedia East, but my US Air flight bound for LaGuardia offered a free trial of inflight Wi-Fi (via Gogo, a service of Aircell), so how could I resist (particularly with the Players Championship comi...

Create an iPad-Compatible Video Site in 30 Seconds or Less

iPad compatibility has been top of mind for the last couple of months or so, and like all web producers, I'd like the ability to deliver video to the million plus iPads that have sold in the first few weeks since launch. Well here's how in thirty sec...

Microsoft Sends Ogg Down for the Count; What's Mozilla to Do?

In a recent blog post, Microsoft stated "We think H.264 is an excellent format. In its HTML5 support, IE9 will support playback of H.264 video only."  Though Mozilla currently enjoys (by far) the largest HTML5-compatible installed base of any brows...

Time to Switch from VP6 to H.264

Got an email today from a colleague today that triggered the headline thought (time to switch from VP6 to H.264). His rationale was that now that MPEG-LA has extended the royalty-free period for free H.264 Internet video, it was time to change over t...

New Apple API Enables Flash GPU Acceleration on the Mac

One of the most divisive technology issues in recent times has been Flash performance on the Mac.  Apple fanatics claimed that Flash was buggy, unsecure and a CPU Hog, and Adobe acolytes claimed that performance suffered from Apple's refusal to allo...

Inlet's new Live Ad Insertion for the iPad/iPhone

At NAB, Inlet Technologies introduced live, automated advertising insertion to the iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch, Flash-based desktops and several other platforms. It's an interesting technology for any content owner seeking to monetize their videos to mult...

Encoding for the Apple iPad, Part I

I spent the last five days learning how to best encode video for playback on the iPad, and during the day (when my kids didn't claims exclusive use of the device), actually uploaded and played the videos. Based on this rsearch, I've created a two par...

Excellent, Objective Summary of HTML5 vs. Flash in the Economist

I don't agree with all the conclusions, but the Economist's Tech View presents an excellent, objective summary of Apple's true motivations in the Flash vs. HTML5 wars, and the potential results of Google open-sourcing VP8. Great comments, too, amazin...

Review of Premiere Pro CS5

I reviewed Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 for Eventdv.net in a review you can find here. What did I find? Here's a snippet. So what’s the overall verdict on Adobe Production Premium CS5? If you have the computing horsepower, the Mercury Engine and CUDA a...

Webinar: What You Need to Know About Premiere Pro CS5

            I'm presenting a free webinar entitled "What You Need To Know About Adobe Premiere Pro CS5" for NewMediaWebinars.com on May 18, 2010 at 10:00 AM PST to 11:30AM PST. The webinar is designed for anyone considering upgrading to or buy...

Encoding for the iPad

Much of the early buzz about the iPad centered around DVD or higher quality video, and certainly with the ability to play 720p video, the iPad can handle lots of high bandwidth, high quality streams. But what about if you're encoding video to send vi...

Encoding for Adaptive Streaming - an Overview

I've been researching how to encode video for adaptive bitrate streaming, specifically the encoding parameters for the different files streamed in the process. Here's what I found for Adobe's Dynamic Streaming, Apple's HTTP Live Streaming and Microso...

Seawell and the future of Scalable Video Coding

I’ve been tracking Scalable Video Coding (SVC) for the last year or so and there’s been little tangible evidence of adoption. Recently Toronto-based Seawell Networks came out of stealth mode, but only barely, announcing that they are in the H....

Ogg, MPEG-LA and Submarine Patents

A few weeks ago, I published an interview with MPEG LA CEO Larry Horn on the patent group's decision not to charge for free content encoded with H.264. Then I got a note back from a reader who stated: I'm disappointed. The interview seemed to be pr...

If you're encoding in QuickTime/Compressor, you gotta checkout x264

So, I was doing some consulting work for a client who's currently encoding with the x264 codec. Part of the work involved benchmarking their current quality against other encoding tools I have around the office, so I downloaded the x264 QuickTime Cod...

Another Ogg to H.264 comparison

I recently posted an H.264 vs. Ogg comparison, which you can see here. http://www.streaminglearningcenter.com/articles/ogg-vs-h264---round-one.html I got lots of good feedback and am in the process of reworking my tests, primarily (I hope) to use a m...

Google Closes On2 acquision - Better check your wallet

Late last week, Google closed the On2 acquisition that they started in 2009, and now owns the VP4 - VP8 video codecs. At the time, there was much debate about Google's intent, now most analysts assume that Google bought On2 to open source the codec a...

Reclaim disc space from Premiere Pro

I do a lot of production work and testing on my HP Z800 workstation. Though it's got a 250 GB C:\ drive, with a 1 TB video drive where I store all projects and associated video, I started getting messages that I was running out of space on my C:\ dri...

HTML5, Flash, H.264 and Ogg Theora

Ever since the iPad announcement, the inter-relationships between HTML5, Flash, H.264 and Ogg Theora have been intriguing me, so I spent last week trying to figure it all out. The result is The Future of Web Video, Part 1; HTML5? Someday. Ogg? Probab...

H.264 Main or High Profile? Use High says Ben Waggonner

Interesting line of questions on the Advanced Streaming List recently. One producer shared that he was encoding using the following parameters: 768kbps512x288H.264 Main Profile Level 3.1 Microsoft's Ben Waggoner, author of Compression for Great Vide...

An essential gizmo for Mac video producers

This is not an earthshaking post, but I thought I would share it anyway. I've never been a fan of Apple's decision to use FireWire 800 adapters on their most recent lines of computers since it meant that I couldn't connect my camcorders to them with...

What's the right keyframe interval?

Interesting post came from the StreamingMedia Advanced list today: Question:  Anyone have any advise on key frame placement in h264 flash? I felt like I should know the answer to this, so I pulled together the following: Answer: Interesting question...

H.264 Licensing and the X.264 codec

Ever since MPEG-LA announced their policy of not charging royalties for H.264 video distributed free over the Internet, I've been getting a bunch of emails, so I thought I would share them. I'm not inviting more emails on this topic, by they way, unl...

Streaming Production and Flash Delivery Workshop in Manhattan on March 23, 2010

Lisa Larson-Kelly and Jan Ozer will be hosting the Streaming Production and Flash Delivery Workshop on March 23, 2010, at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. The workshop will feature two tracks, Streaming Production and Flash Deliv...

Vimeo, YouTube or Both?

A continuing series of questions from an 'Net acquaintance on whether to post on YouTube or Vimeo.  Question: Incidentally, I heard that Vimeo encoded 720p at higher bitrates than YouTube (or that it had more bandwidth to serve it, or both... can't ...

Optimizing upload quality to YouTube

Got a question from an acquaintance on the best strategy for uploading files to YouTube, and I thought it might have broader interest, so here's the Q & A. Question: I was wondering, since YouTube doesn't appear to be using B-Frames in its encod...

YouTube's new HD format

Last Friday, I produced a concert for old time band Allegheny Blue to test out the NewTek TriCaster TCXD300.  I uploaded a 720p file to YouTube to present to the band, and when I went to view the file, I noticed that the Google subsidiary had subtl...

Windows 7 performance for Premiere Pro and Vegas

If you're a Premiere Pro or Vegas editor, and you're thinking about purchasing a new system with Windows 7, or upgrading to the new Microsoft OS on a current system, you might want to check out an article that I wrote for Millimeter/Digital Content P...

Time to switch from VP6 to H.264? Yes, but .. mind the royalties

Got this question today via email: Found your article in Streaming Media (http://www.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=10969) particularly useful, and wondered if you had any updates on .flv vs H.264 penetration and usage.  We're considering going 1...

Need article sources - iPhone streaming and OVPs

I'm pulling together some streaming-related articles and need some user input.  Specifically, I need:- HTTP Live Streaming to iPhone case studies - companies who have started streaming to iPhones, why, how and how it has worked out. Prefer act...

Uploading SD video to YouTube - exploring the options

My article The Moving Picture: Decoding YouTube Upload Options just posted on www.eventdv.net. It explores the options available when uploading original SD video to YouTube, detailing my conclusions after uploading six files ranging in...

Interesting video on viewing analytics

The type and amount of statistics and analytics provided by an OVP is a critical selection criteria. Veeple is an OVP that features clickable hotspots in the video. Here's a short (under 3 minutes) video of Veeple's viewing analytics that I found use...

Shooting for streaming - top 5 tips

Just because you have a fancy 3CCD camcorder doesn't mean you know how to shoot for streaming, but this article in AV Technology will help you get started. I hope you find it useful. ...

Tips on ScreenCam Production

Just got off the phone with Jay Simons from Atlassian, an Australian software company specializing in collaboration and development tool like Jira, Confluence and FishEye. Atlassian uses screencam videos to illustrate new features and quick training ...

If you're creating any customer testimonials, you need to know about this

Talk about something that totally blindsides you - the FTC has apparently decided to start policing customer testimonials and the like. Here's a snippet from the FTC website. Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and c...

Upload Videos To Multiple Video Sharing Sites

So, you’ve got some videos made and you want to get them out there as fast and efficiently as possible. That means you probably want some tools to upload them to multiple video sites automatically right? Right! Here’s some of the c...

Reflections from StreamingMedia West

Just back from StreamingMedia West, it was a great, high energy show. I just posted a lengthy article on my reflections from the show on the main site, here. ...

The skinny on Apple's HTTP Live Streaming

Digital Content Producer just published an article that I wrote explaining the basics of Apple's HTTP Live Streaming to the iPhone/iTouch platform, both how the technology works and your implementation options. I think that stream...

How to demo to the press

Long day of demos at Streaming Media West. All very interesting, some suboptimal from the standpoint of effectiveness, so while I'm waiting for the Tiramisu I had after dinner to function like organic Ambien, I thought that I would write down some ti...

Fun, Fun, Fun at StreamingMedia West

At StreamingMedia West in San Jose where I debuted my new blonde 'do to the adoring (OK, skeptical) crowd. That's Tim Siglin on the left, Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen on the right and blondie in the middle. I started the show with a session entitled Pro...