Blogs

“The bottom line is that in the great struggle to find the true signal among the noise, you should ignore the claims of those who create and sell the codec, and prioritize those who actually have to put it to use. But you knew that already, didn’t you?” In a story reported by Streaming Media magazine, Netflix’s David Ronca, manager …

I know, I know, Flash is dead, the war is over. We’ve all moved on to other battles. Still, I had to laugh the other day when I noticed how YouTube was encoding files for some browsers in HTML5 mode.  Here’s the story. I was writing another Video Doctor article for OnlineVideo.net. I remembered a YouTube video that looked like …

Last week at Streaming Media East, I held 2 three-hour sessions (parts 1 & 2) on Producing a Webcast from Soup to Nuts. The descriptions are below, as are the handouts for downloading.  SM2: Producing A Webcast From Soup To Nuts: Part One Part one of this workshop will discuss factors to consider when choosing a camera, audio system, lighting …

Last week, at my session Producing a Webcast from Soup to Nuts at Streaming Media East, Lowel Light Inc. was kind enough to loan me a Lowel TRIO light kit. I was looking for a light kit that I could setup in minutes, with focusable lights that I could use to demonstrate a number of different shooting scenarios. I’m happy to …

My online course, Video Compression for Web, Disc and PC/TV/Console Playback has been live on Udemy for a couple of months. After two quick five-star reviews, a third has finally come in from Daniel Suarez, as shown below. Thanks, Daniel! Interesting that you should ask about this, as I’ll be adding Adobe Media Encoder-specific modules to the main course and launching a …

I’m pleased to announce my new course, Mastering the Adobe Media Encoder CC: An Online Course, on Udemy. Why this new course? Well, I use the Adobe Media Encoder every day, and have for many years over multiple versions. I know which presets operate effectively as is, and which require some modifications. I know which controls really do improve quality (always …

Just a quick note to let you know that I’ve added 16 lectures of Adobe Media Encoder training to my existing course on Udemy, Video Compression for Web, Disc and PC/TV/Console Playback. You can see the modules added below.  I’ve also launched a separate course entitled Mastering the Adobe Media Encoder, which contains only these modules. The new course will cost …

Lots of excellent articles on DASH recently; I’m trying to summarize them for a presentation on Multiple Screen Delivery at Streaming Media East. The table below is my attempt to do so, and to compare how easily one can implement DASH as compared to HLS.  I’m looking at the three platforms (desktop, mobile and OTT), and the multiple mechanisms to …

Beet.tv did a fabulous job covering technology trends at NAB with interviews from a seemingly endless list of A-listers, from Akamai and Adobe, to Microsoft, Netflix, Viacom, Broadcom, you name it. One of the interviews was with Ashley Still, director of video product management at Adobe, where she talked about the DASH support Adobe added to Primetime 2.0 (old news …

It’s probably a serious faux pas, if not a clear sign of declasse, to blog about a tweet; someone let me know. But a recent tweet about my book really made me smile, and the sound byte–A Beacon of Light in a Valley of Half-Knowledge–is priceless. Here it is. Thanks Mustafa, aka @codesurgeon. 🙂