Entries tagged with video - Channel 10

The New Microsoft Video Portal is Coming Soon

Sarah Perez — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:02:00 GMT

There is so much video content across the Microsoft network, it only makes sense to aggregate that content into one area of the site to make finding videos even easier. Announced at MIX08, the Microsoft Video Portal will do just that. On this Silverlight-powered site, you'll be able to scan "Quick Picks" for the newest videos, browse by category, or search for videos by keyword(s). You'll also be able to share videos with friends or link to the video on your web site or blog. The site is currently available at http://preview.microsoft.com/video/, but there isn't much you can do there now, besides bookmark it for later, but the wait won't be too long, as it will be launching sometime in April.

Crazy XBox 360 Ad

Sarah Perez — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:57:00 GMT

The ad "Shoot Out"created for the Microsoft XBox 360 was shot at the railway station of Retiro in Buenos Aires. You can watch the original ad here. However, even better than the video itself, was the uber-hilarious outtake from one of the casting calls for the ad. Let's just say that the lady in the casting call got really into it! Now, with over half a million hits on YouTube, it looks like this outtake is going to be more popular than the ad itself. Funniest thing I've seen in a long time.

TechFest 2008: Video Collage

Tina Wood — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:30:00 GMT

Photo Collages? So old school...it's time to check out Video Collage.

Video Collage is a compact representation of video. It uses one automatically synthesized image to summarize the content of a video. Video Collage selects the most representative frames from a video, extracts salient regions of interest (ROI) from these frames, and seamlessly arranges ROIs on a given canvas. Video Collage can be printed into booklets or albums. Users thus can browse those booklets or albums just as if they were browsing ordinary photo albums. When they want to watch a certain segment indicated by a thumbnail in the booklet, they can use a camera phone or a similar device to capture the corresponding thumbnail. Then the captured image is sent to a computer via a wireless network, automatically retrieved in a video library, and the corresponding video segment is presented to the user. Video Collage provides a novel user interface that enables users to browse video content in a more compact, visually appealing, and natural way, in contrast to many existing video browsers. Video Collage can be integrated easily into existing video-management systems, video-sharing sites, and video search engines to support an attractive video-browsing and -sharing experience.

Silverlight Music/Video Streaming Service Launches

Sarah Perez — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:18:00 GMT

Unicorn Media, a Silverlight-based music/video-streaming service, launched at this year's SXSW conference. The service gives artists a way to offer their music and video content for high-quality streaming while participating in ad-based revenue sharing. The media that Unicorn Media offers will only be pro-quality or near-pro quality -no fuzzy videos here.

The bands and video producers featured on the site will be contacted by the company in advance and will have to sign a distribution deal to be featured, but it's non-exclusive, so the artists can still put their content out on other services, like iTunes, or on their own site.

Artists using Unicorn can upload as many high-def files as they want and the videos they upload will have integrated advertising. Because the ads are built with Silverlight, the content producers can determine how many ads they want and where they should fall. Once online, Unicorn sends artists a monthly check based on traffic and CPM for the ads.

Right now, the site is streaming only, but downloads will be available soon.

Livestation Begins Beta

Sarah Perez — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:13:00 GMT

Livestation, the new video streaming service that features Silverlight technology, has begun its invite-only beta this past week by sending out invites to those who signed up for on the Livestation web site.

With Livestation, you can watch a range of live radio and television channels on your computer if you have a broadband connection, with no need to install a tuner, aerial, or any additional hardware. Unlike other Video-On-Demand services, Livestation delivers live broadcast channels, so you can watch news, sports or live events as they happen.

After downloading and installing the software, you sign in with your username and password in order to launch the player. By default, the player stays on top of your other windows, making it easy to keep watching while doing other things on your computer. While you are listening or watching, Livestation shares some of the stream with other users. This allows Livestation to serve a very large number of simultaneous users - even millions - without running into limitations of other streaming services.

Right now the selection of channels on LiveStation is somewhat limited. LiveStation offers you channels based on where you live. For example, U.S. users can access BBC World Service and Channel 4 radio streams, Al-Jazeera in English, and France 24, making LiveStation a must-have for any news junkies out there.

Currently Livestation is available for Windows XP and Vista only.

JD and Brian Podcast - Episode 2

Brian Johnson — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:14:00 GMT

JD is traveling, but I talk to Rob Morris, founder of windowsmoviemakers.net about his hugely popular community site. We discuss communities, Windows Movie Maker, getting started in video editing, and hosting your videos on the Web.

Links from todays show:

windowsmoviemakers.net

Tutorials

PapaJohn's Home Page

Windows Movie Maker on Microsoft.com

Media Center Plug-In: Internet TV

Sarah Perez — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 05:31:00 GMT

MiraWorldTV is a free plug-in for Windows Media Center that lets you to stream Internet TV from around the world straight to your Windows Media Center PC or TV. The plug-in, which works on Vista Ultimate or Vista Premium, provides thousands of mainstream channels built into the app and its database is updated frequently. The videos themselves stream from their respective sources, but the MiraWorldTV app offers a program guide which gives you information about the channel and the program playing, if that is made available by the content providers. You can even create your own channels from your favorites. In addition to American channels, there are also channels from Germany, the U.K., Turkey, and others. The app is free, but donations are accepted. However, there is no support, so you're on your own if you have issues. Still, it's cool enough to be worth checking out! (via AppScout)

Teleprompters....putting the words right in my mouth

Laura Foy — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 16:05:00 GMT

I'm going to be honest with you guys- the Teleprompter is one of my favorite inventions ever. Don't get me wrong, it's not always easy to make it appear as though you are not reading to the audience at home but once you've got it down it makes a world of difference. The problem has been that teleprompter cameras are expensive, bulky and time consuming to program- but not any more. Watch this clip and check out the first truly portable and SUPER simple teleprompter.

Compressing & encoding made easy with Squeeze

Laura Foy — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:49:00 GMT

I am frequently approached by friends and co-workers with questions about posting videos on the web. I don't know why, but I am. Anyway- as you know, Channel 10 offers you our videos in many different formats. We use a top secret method with very classified details in order to do this which I am not at liberty to discuss with you. But, what I can share with you, is an alternative that just might suit any compression or encoding needs you may have. I give you The Sorenson Squeeze.

Silverlight, Blockbuster and Jackass team up. Really?

Laura Foy — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:55:00 GMT

Who would have ever thought that Johnny Knoxville and Steve O. would be paving the road to the future? Well, On December 19th, Blockbuster will premiere the first (and did I mention FREE) full-length feature film, Jackass 2.5, directly to online audiences using Microsoft Silverlight. This is one of the largest projects in Blockbuster history and it's all made possible by using the rich media CDN from Limelight Networks and Silverlight. This really shows a shift in how people are choosing to consume their media and it brings a tear of joy to my eye to note that Microsoft is paying attention to that trend. Check out the flick at www.blockbuster.jackassworld.com starting Dec. 19th.

Enjoy Music & Media on Your Smartphone

Sarah Perez — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:29:00 GMT

A recent post on LifeHacker mentioned a little program called MPlayer, which allows you to play nearly any media file (like RealAudio/Video, Ogg, & M4A) on your Windows Mobile 5 or 6 phone. However, the post mentioned the program was a rough port of a Linux version of the app, and was somewhat of a killer on processor (and thereby, battery) usage. However, a commenter mentioned another program called Conduits Pocket Player, which they liked better, so I thought it was worth checking out. The Conduits Pocket Player, although not free (it's $19.95), supports all Windows Mobile devices and offers a myriad of features. The Pocket Player supports MP3, WMA, WMV1 2, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, WAV, Protected WMA, u-Law, A-Law, AU, &ADPCM WAV formats. It also has a Media Browser menu system with touch scrolling & gesture support; a Media Library with ratings, an auto-imports up to 1000+ tracks; an internet radio web guide for finding mp3 blogs & podcasts; voicemail playback as WAV attachments which integrates with your inbox; a skinnable player with visualizations and album art support; a playlist manager; bookmarks; a sleep timer; and so much more! If you're looking to do more with your smartphone, this looks pretty cool!

Vídeo: Conheça o Smartphone HTC-S621 com Windows Mobile

Galileu Vieira — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:58:00 GMT

O on10 conta com muitos vídeos para enriquecer o portal. Meus colegas dos Estados Unidos têm acesso invejável a informações e produtos da Microsoft. Eles revelaram, ao longo dos últimos meses, coisas como o Xbox 360 Elite, o Microsoft Popfly e o Microsoft Surface Computer, aquele fenomenal computador de mesa. Esses são excelentes exemplos de como um vídeo facilita o entendimento das funcionalidades e características de um produto. No caso do Microsoft Surface, on on10 teve o lançamento exclusivo do produto à meia-noite do dia da revelação oficial no D5: All Things Digital.

Para o Brasil, vou tentar trazer alguns vídeos de lançamentos locais, de entrevistas com meus colegas da Microsoft Brasil e também de vocês, usuários de nossas tecnologias! Nesse primeiro vídeo, vou mostrar o novo Smartphone da HTC, o HTC-S261, também conhecido como Excalibur e Dash. Ele é fabricado aqui no Brasil e será vendido pela TIM e Oi.

You want a Stage? Check out Ourstage.

Laura Foy — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:02:00 GMT

Ourstage lets you be the film-maker you've always wanted to be. Create your own videos and let your peers be your judge...for cash prizes. Artists upload, fans decide, everybody wins.

Make your own TV Show

Nick Hodge — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 08:01:00 GMT

50 years ago, creating your own TV show required an expensive license from a government agency, loads of expensive equipment and a frequency to transmit. I ran across UStream today.

In the first days of the internet, tools like CuSeeme permitted video casting and transmission: however bandwidth was not cheap, and the audience was small.

Today, the bandwidth required to run a video service is relatively large. I calculate that I've generated 4.5 petabytes of traffic with the 5 hours the "The Geek Stories" - alone.

With UStream, you can be your own TV station. Now the alpha-geeks are there, and even my videos seem over-produced. Is UStream the next Twitter.com? Soon to be overloaded with the alpha-geek herd? Hope so.

(Photo cc licensed from Flickr.com)

Technorati Profile

TechFest '07: Digital effects for internet video clips

Laura Foy — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:05:00 GMT

This booth at TechFest was sooooo much fun. It made me want to run home and get on video messenger with my friends. They've taken some advanced digital effect concepts and simplified them so that we can use them in our every day internet life. You can add special effects to your videos, do it live, and fix problems you might have had while shooting. Try it for yourself!

The Geek Stories: BarCampSydney, Tangler and Cylo

Nick Hodge — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 03:07:00 GMT

Whilst at BarCampSydney, I caught up with two Australian startups: one hardware and the other online.

Cylo have produced the 3Dstyle mouse, highlighted at the recent CES Event.

Tangler.com is a group interaction and communication site.

Hear Mick from Tangler and Laurence from Cylo describe; and show; their products for me.

The Geek Stories: Behind the Scenes of BarCampSydney

Nick Hodge — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 22:11:00 GMT

BarCampSydney, held at University Technology Sydney on Saturday 3rd March 2007. Being a Saturday, I hired my 15 year old son Liam to be my cameraman for the day. Thanks, Liam!

The better audio quality is thanks to a new condenser microphone, which is highly directional and sound recorded with excellent quality. The only real mistake this video is not tweaking the background lighting in different lighting circumstances, and having to resort to the Shadow/Highlight video effect from some parts of the video.

Image: fellow Microsoft Geek, Michael Kordahi at BarCampSydney.

There was no formal storyboard for this show, as it was a vox-pop (vox-populi, or voice of the people) style rather than single talent with a formal 'story flow'. The simple idea was to capture interesting people/things, and ask the "what is your geek story" and see where the interview would lead. Voxpop is easy without the tripod; and you have to get around to get the stories.

During the day, Liam and I photographed still shots with my Canon IXY 600. Using Windows Vista Photo Gallery, I could quickly import, tag and upload images to Flickr (conference picture colloboration site). Tagging in Photo Gallery, and the grouping by date captured conveniently sorted into sets so I could see what had been/had not been Flickr'd.

The new "the geek story" branding has now appeared. Thanks to Adobe After Effects 7.0 and the Venetian Blinds, Optics Compensation (to get the edge-of-a-TV-tube feel) and finally a Glow. I just love After Effects; it is Photoshop with time. Since being at Microsoft, I've used more Adobe products in "production" than my 8 years at Adobe. Interesting, that.

Editing Alone.
There will be three on10.net videos from the 90 minutes of footage. Again, my finding of 1 minute of footage is 8 minutes of post-production is holding as a metric. Still pictures are easy, video is relatively tough and time consuming. The editor is working with the theme, the footage, the audio and the final output - and all this takes time. Being the onscreen interviewer, director and editor can take it out of you. Don't know how Scoble does it.

To make life a little easier, there were interviews that were not in the theme on on10.net, so they were quickly cut, encoded and uploaded to YouTube (conference video collaboration site). Yes, you will see a Microsoft person asking about Linux distributions, Ubuntu, PHP and dynamic languages. For next time: add "The Geek Stories" outro video so people know where the video came from.

Image: Joel Pobar at BarCampSydney, Photo by Rex Chung.

Sadly, I absorbed the feeling of the BarCamp without being in any of the sessions. I would have loved to see Joel Pobar's MapReduce work. However, I have a feeling this won't be the last opportunity to see Joel talking on this topic.

The Geek Stories: BarCampSydney

Nick Hodge — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 22:05:00 GMT

In the quest to capture more of Australia's Geek Stories, I attended the first BarCamp in Sydney.

Hear stories of joy and delight, power and passion. And of course, just downright geeky.

DorkBot experiments with experimental film & video

Laura Foy — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 00:26:00 GMT

Dorkbot is a nationwide friendly meeting of "dorks" who get together to collaborate and share their artforms. My first visit to dorkbot led me to a pre-burning man extravaganza. This time we dabbled in the workd of experimantal film and video. Check out some solo multimedia film performances, from the fabulous Karry Fefer and Justin Gorman.

Netflix adds new business model: online movie viewing

JD Lewin — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 15:46:00 GMT

The worst kept secret about Netflix, just stepped out into the light. The goal is to distribute rentals over the Internet -- shipping DVDs is only for generating revenue and biding time. This morning Netflix announced the rollout of their immediate viewing feature.

By June all existing Netflix subscribers will have access to the 1,000 titles initially licensed for online viewing, which requires Windows XP and IE. Each user will have somewhere between 6 and 48 hours of online viewing per month depending on their membership agreement.

Via Hacking Netflix

Rockin music video shot completely on a Nokia N93 Camera Phone!

Laura Foy — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 22:57:00 GMT

The new video for "Oceans" from the "Fresh Wine for the Horses" album by former Catherine Wheel lead singer Rob Dickinson is shot completely on a Nokia N93 camera phone. It's unbelievable how great it looks! The video is directed by Mike Hodgkinson who I spoke to on the phone- as he filmed his end of the interview on the same Nokia n93 camera phone. Check out this clip to find out how he did it and then watch

this video to see some behind the scenes action of the video being made.

HD-DVD and Xbox the early winners in next-gen format wars

JD Lewin — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:07:00 GMT

Remember back in May when the question was which next-gen disc format would take the lead and own the market for removable storage, video games, and movies? Well now it appears we're starting to see some signals that HD-DVD will soon be dancing around the ring in triumph.

Over at Digital Trends, Rob Enderle is calling the fight for HD-DVD after watching Sony fumble their launch of Blu-Ray with higher-priced players, as well as the bad-to-worse release of the PS3. The killing blow however, is said to come from the launch of our own Xbox HD-DVD player, which stands to make HD-DVD a reality for more people than it's competitor.

How to shoot video!

Tina Wood — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 18:21:00 GMT

Here at 10 we have a resident shooter whom we call Finley. Scott Finley to be exact. He is one of favorite camera men to work with. Here at 10 as well most of us shoot many of our own segments and are learning how to properly shoot video as we go. Scott and I spent some time at my house shooting my refrigerator. Yes, that's right. Very exciting. We go through some tips on how to shoot better video. We talk lighting, audio and camera shots. This was actually just an internal video but Laura twisted my arm and legs until I posted it publicly on my blog. So I hope you learn something and if not, I introduce you to my refrigerator. :)

The Adventures of Constipated Johnson!

Tina Wood — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:48:00 GMT

For a few years now I have been a huge fan of artist Ted Bracewell. He's designed some personal comics for me over the years and his short animated films are some of the best around. He's clever, creative and as you will see, really funny. To make constipated Johnson he used mostly adobe products like Photoshop, after effects and premiere. He's been an integral part of the 10 community and he's a great example of somebody who uses the power of the internet and technology to market and showcase their talents.

Video: The Adventures of Constipated Johnson: Episode 1

It's just a matter of time before Ted gets scooped up by some major network and signs some fat television deal. So before that happens sit back, relax and enjoy The Adventures of Constipated Johnson!

MSN Soapbox Demo and Invites to the Private Beta

Laura Foy — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 17:06:00 GMT

There is more than one way to share a video online. :-) We sat down with Rob Bennett from the MSN Soapbox Team where he answered our questions and gave us a demo of the web site and device experience.

You are most likely saying, "We’ve heard of all the online video sharing sites before, what makes Soapbox so special?” Well you can find out for yourself. Even though Soapbox is currently in a private beta, we've secured 10,000 invites just for the folks that come and visit 10. Visit our special beta registration site, supply your email address and you're in the beta.

Its time to create your own videos for 10 on Soapbox. Create your own video showing how you are using Technology to change your world, upload it to Soapbox and tag it with on10. We'll profile the most interesting videos here in the future!