My Backyard This Morning - Macro HD Video from youdiejoe on Vimeo.

Move over YouTube! Vimeo is here to save the day with HD web video! Finally… the days of easy to share, high quality web video are here! I’m a bit late on posting this, but better late than never. The best part of this is the HD video is delivered via Flash so you don’t need to download annoying plugins, etc. like you do with Stage 6.

Of course, you will need an HD camcorder. The good news is HD camcorder prices keep dropping so soon everyone will be shooting in HD. On my wish list is the Panasonic HDC-SD5 camcorder which sells for $999.95. Now… I just need to remember where I put that spare grand I left lying around somewhere…

This may be a no-brainer for some of you out there, but I struggled with getting my built in iSight cam to work on Ustream.tv on my recently purchased iMac. Overall, the main thing that I think Ustream needs to fix is to make the “Advanced Settings” button on the broadcast control panel a little more obvious. If you look, you can see that it is a very tiny link in the lower right corner:

The instructions on the Ustream.tv help page gives you these instructions:

“To change to your iSight, go to My Shows. Create a new broadcast. Click Go Live and your broadcast window will pop up. Then, Click “Advanced Settings” in the broadcast window and pick USB Video Class Video from the drop down box that says Video Settings. You can also adjust it through Flash. On the local stream monitor box hold down CTRL and click. Select Settings and click the webcam icon. Under the Camera section select USB Video Class Video. Click Close. You should now see your stream on the local server monitor. “

I never saw the tiny “Advanced Settings” link in the lower right corner, but did see this button after you hold CTRL and click on the local stream monitor:

So, I spent a good deal of time clicking that button, selecting “USB Class Video” and noticing that nothing happened. So, if you’re having problems with this, click the “Advanced Settings” in the lower right corner and you will see something like this, where you can choose your iSight cam:

Got it? Now you should be able to see yourself on your local stream monitor and will now be ready to broadcast on Ustream.tv. Maybe they will make this a little more prominent during their next update?

At long last, we may be able to watch videos on YouTube in high definition, thanks to Adobe’s latest version of it’s web video software: Flash Player 9. The new player supports H.264 video, which is the same as used in Blu-Ray and HD-DVD video players.

I tested the new player out by going to the Adobe Flash Player 9 download page.  I uninstalled my older version and installed the new one and tested it watching their demo video here.  The video looked excellent, but I don’t think I got the full effect as the hardware on my computer is too old to get the full experience.

I’m glad to see there is hope for higher quality web video on the horizon.  Hopefully sites like YouTube will take advantage of this and perhaps within a year or so HD web videos will be standard.

[via Read/WriteWeb]

Sample footage of the Canon PowerShot TX1 courtesy of Oceanline. I’m seriously considering getting one of these and selling my Panasonic PV-GS320. Don’t get me wrong, the PV-GS320 is an excellent camcorder, but transferring the video to your computer is kind of a pain in the neck. I think the main reason I want one of these is I’d rather store video on and SD card instead of Mini-DV. The TX1 is smaller than a deck of cards, shoots high definition video and goes for around $499.

Here’s some sample TX1 footage showing off the slow motion features…

And more sample TX1 footage which looks like was encoded very well for YouTube:

Don’t let these YouTube clips discourage you… if you really want a good example of the quality, watch these two sample videos on DPReview (scroll near the bottom of the page).

Also see this Canon PowerShot TX1 review

Are you tired of making killer videos only to see them get a couple hundred views and then fizzle out and die? After you upload your video to YouTube or your preferred video sharing site, you need to promote it to give it the best odds of going viral. Unless your video sucks. But, if you think your video has a chance, spend some time promoting it using the tips below. Be sure to bookmark this article and use it for all your video promotion needs.

1 - Submit your video to these social bookmarking sites: Digg - StumbleUpon - Netscape - Del.icio.us - Reddit - Furl - Yahoo MyWeb - Blinklist . There are many other social bookmarking sites, but these are the most important to submit to.

2 - Submit to these entertainment sites: Fark - I-Am-Bored - The 9 on Yahoo! - YouTubeClips

3 - Promote within YouTube: Find a popular video that is related to your video and submit as a video response. Also be sure to submit your video to all of the related YouTube Groups.

4 - Submit to forums on the Internet: Go to Big Boards and look for forums that related to the subject of your video, find a section within the forum that might find your video interesting.

5 - Submit to the major network television shows: Get your video on one of these huge shows for a chance of big time publicity: Tonight Show with Jay Leno - Late Night with Conan O’Brien - David Letterman - Last Call with Carson Daily

6 - Post to your blog, especially if you have a high traffic blog! An obvious but perhaps overlooked step is to post your video to your blog. This will boost your rankings on YouTube or wherever your video is and help build momentum for your video.

7 - Forward to family and friends. Finally, email your video to family and friends. You never know if one of them could be the type that forwards everything they get to everyone, which may go to someone who does the same making your video a popular email forward. If a million people can get a stupid Fwd’d email about 7 angels to bring you good luck, then why couldn’t a million people get Fwd’d your video? You never know…

Anyway, this is by no means a complete, exhaustive list, but it should definitely boost the popularity of your video. It will certainly increase your odds compared to simply uploading your video and doing nothing more. Also keep in mind how you title your video, what categories you use, keywords, etc. If you have a web site, you should consider watermarking it on the video in case sites like ebaumsworld decides to steal it from you.

If anyone knows of other places to promote videos or if you have other tips and techniques on this subject, please leave a comment. Thanks!

When I first started this blog my intention was to focus on video sites like YouTube, Metacafe, etc. But, since Ustream.tv has arrived on the scene I’m going to include tips to improve your live streaming video as well.

My first tip is on how to embed your current Twitter status in your Ustream video. I spent a few days obsessing on how to get this done and finally figured out how. I’m sure this isn’t the best technique, but as far as I know it is the first… and it works.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you have been uploading your videos to YouTube and other video sharing sites raw and unedited, you need a slap in the face. Take a little time to edit and spice up your videos and it can make a big difference.

The best way to edit is to use an offline editor such as Sony Vegas or Adobe Premier. If you don’t have the budget for professional video editing software you are still in luck - there are several online video editing solutions where you can edit your videos online. This will be the first installment of a series of reviews of the many online video editors out there.

The first online video editor I tried was Eyespot. Eyespot is pretty basic and easy to use. Upload your video, give it a title, drag and drop video effects and transitions and add royalty free music or your own music or audio. Once you think you are finished you can mix and preview it. You can then remix it if you think it needs more editing or you can publish the video if you are satisfied with it.

Each video you upload and edit then becomes a “mix” which you can always remix at any time. The original raw videos you upload are saved as “clips”. You can publish your videos to be viewed on the eyespot web site or you can save them if you would ilke to upload to other video sharing sites. Download formats include Mac, PC, Ipod, PSP and Divx. Eyespot definitely lacks with downloading - they email you the video file and every time I tried it it took several minutes to receive the file. I would like to see them have the option so you can download directly - or just faster downloads!

The drag and drop features of Eyespot are very nice - simply drag video clips, audio files, video effects, transitions, titles, trims and photos where you need them and preview to see how it looks.

Overall, Eyespot is a good online video editor but will seem a bit basic to seasoned professionals. If you just need a few simple edits for your video, Eyespot will work fine. But, they really need to speed up the file download feature. I started downloading a mix at the beginning of this article and still haven’t received it.

Visit Eyespot

Ok, I think the Joost Haiku Contest has gone on long enough, so I hearby declare Betsy Devine to be the winner!  Congrats!  Here’s her entry:

Mmmm, it’s the sweet new
Tele-visionary app…
Gotta get Joost juice

Have you ever seen those nifty little video intros some of the YouTube A-listers have and wanted one of your own? Well, look no further - Kevin from RHComics.com is the man for the job. Drop him an email for a quote. He has done work for Nalts, Xgobobeanx, SXEPhil and more. Here are bunch of his other video intros if you’re curious.

A few weeks ago I posted about a homemade steadicam you can build for around $20 from materials you can find at your local Home Depot or Lowes. I finally built one of these, only I used PVC caps for the ends of the pipes instead of steel as they are much easier to drill.

The homemade steadicam definitely makes things smoother, but it takes some time to master it. From the official Poor Man’s Steadicam site, Johnny gives this advice:

How you use it is 80% of the smoothness…Don’t expect this thing to perform miracles, you have to practice using your arms and body to create a smooth motion…Keep your legs bent and learn how to “glide”. Getting good results is not so much about the equipment, but how you use it.