September, 2010

• 9 September

  Adobe Ships FMS 4 (HTML5 Falls Even Further Behind)

  Today, Adobe announced the immediate availability of Flash Media Server 4. My buddy Tim Siglin did a wonderful job reviewing the new features in this article at StreamingMedia.com, or you can read the press release here.  Here’s a partial list of new features: – HTTP based Dynamic Streaming – Peer to Peer delivery – IP Multicast support The second and …

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• 1 September

  The Five Key Myths About HTML5

  I was preparing for a webinar last week and scanned 46 websites to see how many used HTML5 as the primary playback option for video. This was a mix of media sites (14), business to consumer sites (22) and business to business sites (10). The answer was 1 – Wikipedia – with YouTube offering HTML5 as an alternative to Flash. …

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August, 2010

• 30 August

  x264Encoder vs the Apple Codec

  If you’re looking for the highest quality H.264 output, and encode on the Apple platform, you should try the x264Encoder encoder, which you can download here. This article contains comparison images that accompany my comparison review for Digital Content Producer (link to come). This review debuts a new streaming test video comprised of clips from stock footage company Artbeats and …

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• 30 August

  Creating Flash-Compatible MOV files with Compressor

  You’ve got an H.264-based MOV file that you want to use for Flash production, but it won’t load into Flash or Flash Catalyst. Can you simply change the extension from MOV to F4V? If you’re encoding the file, should you choose None, Fast Start or Fast Start – Compressed Header when producing for progressive download. Read on for the answers …

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• 26 August

  WebM vs. H.264: A First Look

  This article compares H.264 to WebM, Google’s implementation of the VP8 codec, using three variables (encoding time, compressed quality, and CPU requirements) for playback on three personal computers. Here’s the CliffsNotes version of the results: Using Sorenson Squeeze to produce both H.264 and WebM, the latter definitely took longer, but there are techniques that you can use to reduce the …

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• 26 August

  Producing H.264 Video

  H.264 is the most widely used codec today, whether for streaming via Flash or Silverlight or for the Apple iPod, iPhone, and iPad product lines. If you’ve worked with H.264 before, the format is old hat for you. But if you’re cutting over from VP6 or Windows Media or expanding distribution to H.264-compatible devices, you’re faced with a learning curve. …

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• 26 August

  MPEG-LA Announces No royalties on Free Internet Videos – Ever

  This is a story I’ve been following for awhile. By way of background, MPEG-LA represents the H.264 patent holders and is charged with administering all licenses and collecting all royalties, which are paid by companies who build H.264 encoders, players and, in some instances, content. In the past, MPEG-LA hasn’t charged royalties for content delivered free over the internet, though …

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• 12 August

  Interesting Newsletter on Video White Papers

  I haven’t followed the video white paper market at all, but according to a newsletter from Accela Communications, usage is booming. Here’s a blurb. “The rate of adoption for video white papers is definitely increasing, as evidenced in this collection of articles and research. The growth may be largely driven by the ability to engage viewers more effectively than with textual papers, but …

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• 4 August

  VP8/WebM – A Collection of Resources

  WebM/VP8 is Google’s recent entry into the codec market. Here’s a roughly chronological list of resources about the codec/technology. If you see any prominent articles that I’m missing, please let me know. Webm – an open web media project – Google site for WebM. The Moving Picture: Past Performance is No Guarantee of Future Success – (8/2/2010) – EventDV, by …

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• 2 August

  The Moving Picture: Past Performance is No Guarantee of Future Success

  Google recently open-sourced the VP8 codec for video on the web (for the key facts on this development, see Tim Siglin’s latest Streamline column). Should you care? Not so much, I’d say; Google’s recent launch of VP8 reminded me of a couple of theories that I hold dear, one current, one from long ago. The current one is that past performance …

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