The first thing I thought of was the Tablet PC when I saw Sketchcast as a delicious popular post in my RSS reader this morning. With Sketchcast you can share drawings with or without voice all through a pen-friendly Flash interface in the browser (Firefox or IE). I made a mockup of Hmmcast #174 entirely using Sketchcast. Unfortunately it’s not available in HD or as a download so I don’t think this will be the ‘official’ Hmmcast #174, which is one disappointing aspect of Sketchcast. Accordingly, not releasing this at the 4:20 publish time.
Here’s what my very first effort — complete with a few errors — looks like (if you can’t see the object embed in your reader, clickthru on this post to view from the website):
The Sketchcast fine print
Also, it’s only for personal use licensing unless written permission from Sketchcast is obtained per the Sketchcast Terms of Service:
(v) You agree not to use the Website for any commercial use, without the prior written authorization of Sketchcast;
Delving deeper into the Sketchcast TOS we learn what rights you give up with anything produced using Sketchcast:
For clarity, you retain all of your ownership rights in your User Submissions. However, by submitting User Submissions to Sketchcast, you hereby grant Sketchcast a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, and display the User Submissions in connection with the Website and any of Sketchcast’s, and its successors, assigns and affiliates, business and operations, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Website (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels.
So basically, Sketchcast can take your work, no matter how long you’ve worked on it, and use it to promote Sketchcast without any additional permission needed from you, the publisher. This isn’t too unusual in the video world these days (publishers, check your favorite video site for similar language). The licensing goes further though, allowing anybody to remix and mash anything you publish through Sketchcast:
You also hereby grant each user of the Website a non-exclusive license to access your User Submissions through the Website, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display and perform such User Submissions as permitted through the functionality of the Website and under these Terms and Conditions. The above licenses granted by you in User Submissions are perpetual and irrevocable.
Not terribly useful for groups desiring privacy
It’s too bad Sketchcast couldn’t allow publishers to choose the licensing of their choice. I’m curious if more fun type sketches and less serious ones will fill the site? Looking around at what’s there so far, it’s a mixed bag. In general, I like it, and it could be useful for quickly sharing ideas — just not very private ideas, unfortunately — with others. If they add a private groups feature, it would be handy for sharing sketches with project ideas that groups aren’t ready to share with the whole world. Then again, I think there are a few whiteboard apps out there for other programs.
Haven’t written about my Tablet PC experiences as much in the third year of ownership and recently passed the 1,000 day mark as being a Table PC owner. However, it was nice this morning to see an online application where the Tablet PC shines — in Firefox too, another rarity of sorts.
No clue how long the YouTube clip embedded below will last so will explain what unfolds. At one of the supposedly “secret” Van Halen rehearsal concert about 500 people were invited including the band’s friends and family (thanks Blabbermouth). In between songs, Black Label Society and Ozzy guitarist Zakk Wylde tries to get onstage with Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth comes over and says, “‘Nah, nah, nah. Are you in show biz? Then get off the stage.” Classic DLR!
And wow, Wolf is sounding solid on bass. The vocals don’t sound in Michael Anthony territory, but from what can be heard in the scattered YouTube rehearsal clips (quality usually suspect there) it’s not bad. More Van Halen rehearsal songs can be found at YouTube.
Tickets go on sale for the December 3 Van Halen show in Seattle this Saturday at 10am (PST? EST? Not very clear on the tour page). The Portland show tickets will also be available. No idea on pricing, but I’m guessing nothing less than $75.
Not too worried about an immediate VH sellout as out of the 21 dates selling tickets so far only 4 shows (3 venues) have sold out: Charlotte NC, Toronto ON (2 shows) and Boston. Our oldest son who I took to Ozzfest in 2004 and went with his friend to this year’s Ozzfest wants to go. Kind of wild realizing that he’s a year older than Wolfgang. Talk about every 16 year old’s music dream: playing with the original Van Halen lineup.
As mentioned in Monday’s Jack in the Box Tux Hmmcast, my newest videoblogging focus is video quality and I’ve chosen Blip.tv as a third party video site testing ground. I’m going to miss the Google video permalinks as it seems like Blip.tv doesn’t have a similar feature (y/n?). Good to see validation for this choice from PC World who tested the following 10 video services (in order from best to worst): blip.tv, Stage 6, Brightcove, Revver, Veoh, MSN Soapbox (beta), YouTube, Vimeo, Jumpcut and MySpaceTV.
Yesterday Kent posted a piece rightfully questioning the value of video being used in place of journalism on blogs and elsewhere. He concludes that YouTube is the place for video but doesn’t begrudge some of his reads from toying with video here and there. YouTube definitely has the strength in numbers, but is underwhelming in others, most notably the ability to distribute multiple formats (including different resolutions of the same video). Kent concludes with:
My hunch is that video blogging will experience the same life cycle as many prior hype du jours. Few to many to few. Novelty to hype to irrelevance. I hope so.
Irrelevance is doubtful considering the barrier to entry for producing high quality video is also coming down. You can go out and buy a pretty decent HD camcorder for under $1,000. In a year I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re seeing 1080p camcorders for under $2,000, maybe even sub $1,500 as well as 1080i camcorders under $500. The cheapest 1080p camcorder I could find online was a little over $3,000.
Higher quality video will spur more interest and blur the lines between what is traditional TV content (through cable, satellite or antenna) versus videos to download and watch and/or stream on the computer.
Kent is dead on that the time required to create a few minutes of high quality, entertaining, edited video footage will decimate the amateur videoblogging ranks. A lot like podcasting actually in that the return versus the time spent (with higher quality production values) is often not there. We all know by now that writing a blog post is much faster than using videoblog or podcast to convey the same message. Even an extremely well researched text blog post barely scratches the surface of editing 10 minutes of raw HD video footage. If you follow the link above in this paragraph, you’ll see in June 2005 I too came to the unfortunate realization that time was not the videoblogger’s friend. While text bloggers can crank out 3-5 high quality posts in the same amount of time the videoblogger is still on the cutting room floor.
Criticizing without doing isn’t very enlightening
So why did I bother starting a weekday videoblogging experiment? To learn more about the process of creating video. I did a little video work in high school, around the time that the MTV video generation was growing in popularity and I enjoyed making short videos.
Perhaps more importantly, you don’t learn about something very well by criticizing it from afar, you strap on the boots and dig in. I recall a past comment from Kent where he indicated not being interested in taking the time. That’s cool, perhaps he can live through the eyes of other video explorers? My journey won’t be complete until I’ve fully explored what video can and does offer over text and even though eight months are gone, it still feels like I’m just getting started. The video medium isn’t be used to its full capacity in every — or dare I even suggest most — videoblogger’s case which is something that rightfully makes people question the time involved.
Then there are times that I don’t want to be multi-tasking. Just want to sit back and consume passively. Don’t you have times like this too? Videoblogs and podcasts are more relevant for these times. Podcasts work good listening in the cars. I can’t read a blog while driving and even if I could it would be unsafe.
Reading blogs on your TV? Doubtful
I’ve tried reading blogs on my TV a couple times and been unimpressed with the experience. Have you tried this? The internet in general is a subpar experience on a TV which explains why services like MSN TV have had a difficult time gaining any traction. Using your computer as a TV is a more likely future scenario. In some ways we’re already here — except for the video quality.
About the only place blogs are readable is at 1080p on our HDTV (and the internet looks great at that resolution, see the screenshot start of post), but with my eyes at a respectable viewing distance unless the font size is huge, it isn’t very practical. YouTube videos don’t look that good on an HDTV either; about as good as you see them on the monitor: pixelated soup. The audio is even worse sometimes. How many HD videos with 5.1 surround sound coming from the web have you seen/heard? Not many.
This creates an opportunity for higher quality videos and channels that could be more easily transferred to HDTVs. It’s a niche market, yes, (perhaps the really, really nerdy camp, Kent?) but one where I see people who don’t have TV service and would like to subscribe to different video channels that produce higher quality video downloads that look good and provide passive entertainment on a TV. Is there a list out there of videos/movies shot and published in 720p or higher?
While the video quality of my Hmmcasts to date has been admittedly subpar, you can download Monday’s Hmmcast (720×480 wmv) at blip.tv and play it on a computer monitor or HDTV and see a big difference.
There wasn’t a Hmmcast yesterday and might not be one today either as that time is being spent learning how to use the new video editing software and new HD camcorder (review is likely forthcoming). I was in a dependable, comfortable publishing rhythm with shooting lower quality video that used the medium, now I need to get better experienced shooting and editing higher quality video. Since the file sizes have ballooned, this has added more of something I have in short supply: time. This makes me think that even fewer videobloggers will be or are forcusing on producing and distributing HD quality video content to the masses.
Then again, maybe I’m living under the videoblogger shell and there is a ton of this content out there, waiting to be explored.
Make videoblogging worth our time
I think what Kent and others are saying — and they are 110% correct — is: make it worth my time. This means I’m switching to quality over quantity mode to hopefully meet that objective in the coming days. Let’s consider the next few weeks education while I hone the necessary skills. I’m also going to be on the search for other videoblogs that use the medium properly and offer HD quality videos for download to TV and writing about them.
The biggest obstacle I see in this niche is the convenience of getting these videos delivered to people’s TV sets. If you have a PS3, it’s easy, just use the built-in internet browser. With a PSP, you can use the Wi-Fi and visit a website and download. With Xbox 360 and a Media Center setup you can make it happen, but if you don’t have any computer hooked up to your TV, it’s a bit more tricky (the Xbox 360 reads USB storage devices). Do the current cable or satellite channels offer any way to get/play video created on the web? I remember USB ports on the Comcast HDTV box we had when we were subscribed.
If anybody reading has some good resources or information about where other HD videobloggers are practing their art, I’m interested. I’m in the videobloggers group at Yahoo and will probably post something there too.
Don’t really care how many or how often others bash the Zune, I’m still using mine. No buyer remorse here.
Note of historical confirmation to one critic, the Zune isn’t dead and gone “within six months” as predicted. Here we are a full eight months later and the Zune is not even “VHS dead” as stated. Still, the critic stood by his article being “100% correct.” I wonder if he’d take anything back now that time has caught up?
With that said, I still enjoy irresistible humor like the following ZunePhone video.
Comparing the Zune to a rotary dial phone isn’t right, but is funny. Hat tip to the iPhoneBlog where I saw this first.
Now with our 2007 PT Cruiser having an external input, I have another prime opportunity to use portable music players like the Zune and iPod (yes, we still own and enjoy both, it is possible). My wife is saying she wants a new music player because our son is frequently using her iPod — and yes, he uses the Zune too — and I told her to wait until September to see what shakes loose from Apple. I heard something about new iPods next month (?). I’m sure new players will be along for both the Zune and iPod this holiday season.
No Hmmcast again this Friday, but in its place I’ll point to a good video from elsewhere. Warning: language not safe for work.
This is the funniest video I’ve seen all week and deals with unruly commenters courtesy of Collegehumor.com first viewed via TheAgitator.com.
As predicted the first comment: “first!” Then someone claiming the graphic was “photoshopped!” And from there you can only imagine how far it goes downhill.
Earlier today coincidentally I was commenting to someone elsewhere about how comments in blogs versus major trafficked sites like YouTube and digg have been better quality. Have you noticed the same thing? Whatever your experience with comment sections, I keep laughing over this video — good stuff!
What a crappy name for a dog, pun intended, but worthy of a chuckle. This lady from Kentucky named him Shithead and then put it on a tombstone when the dog passed on. People are complaining about it, saying it is “disrespectful.” Video not at 11, but below:
I debated whether to pull out the asterisks in the headline. Figured it’s more worksafe this way, so guess I’m dissing the dog too. Wonder what names Michael Vick used for the fighting dogs? Now there is disrespect.
Bummer, don’t you just hate it when somebody you’ve said was funny and praised in the past does something really idiotic and unfunny? Welcome to the sinking ship I’m the unfortunate passenger in for this post.
Loren Feldman from 1938 Media pulled a Don Imus and Michael ‘Kramer’ Richards in one excruciating take by trying to imagine what a black TechCrunch would be like. For those who haven’t seen any of Feldman’s 1938 Media videos and don’t know the guy, Feldman is white.
Bad idea? Absolutely.
Even if Loren’s sketch had been funny — and because it wasn’t that’s the cardinal rule of comedy he violated — the timing was abysmal. Timing in comedy is everything and Lynne D. Johnson is the Senior Editor of Fastcompany.com who also happens to be an African American woman explains (Lynne’s blog pictured right):
It appears that Loren Feldman of 1938 Media believes that it’s still funny and totally acceptable to perform in black face in 2007. And it’s bad black face at that. I’ve never met anyone (in the ‘hood) who speaks as he does in this video he released today called, Technigga. The slang he uses and outfit he wears is not only meant to be a racist parody, but it’s also a throwback — as in, black people don’t speak or dress like that any longer.
Not even Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock or Howard Stern could have pulled off the lame sketch and made it funny. There is a tremendous amount of sensitivity to racism in all forms in this country right now and it’s spilling over into comedy thanks to bad comedians like Michael Richards, guilty of a exchanging racial barbs with a heckler.
I feel pain when a whole class of people are made a target for crude attempts of humor so that one person can gain a micro-meter of notoriety. Is fame really worth this cost?
No amount of money or fame is worth being labeled a racist unless, well, you are a racist. Now Loren has to deal with this storm cloud hanging over him for what? A two minute comedy sketch. High price to pay.
Feldman’s video and the ensuing debacle which involved follow-up video apologies of sorts (you can also watch the sequence of videos in question at this link) seem to have led to a “mutual agreement” to end Feldman’s working relationship with Podtech. So it’s not like it was just one video that made the levee break.
Also out is CEO John Furrier — not over Feldman’s video — because Podtech needed some different leadership and direction. Scoble is currently taking another one of his much deserved blog sanity breaks (it’s a wonder with your pace, Robert, that you don’t burn out more often), and is still hanging on at Podtech doing ScobleShow. He was vocally against Feldman’s video on Yahoo’s videoblogger group writing Monday, August 6 (note: must be a member of the videoblogger group to follow the link):
“I’ve already said that I didn’t like, or agree with, the video he posted (which wasn’t on a PodTech property, but did have a logo next to it).”
Should Podtech have parted ways with Feldman over this “experiment” as he labeled it? I’m going to take the cheap way out and say I’m glad that’s their business call and not mine. What do you think? Right to fire him over this experiment gone afoul or not? Or want to stay out of trying to Saturday Morning quarterback? If you side with Loren keeping his job, then some people will think you are soft on racism. If you side with Loren being fired, some people will assume you are soft on free speech. Ride the middle of the razor indeed.
At the end of the day, Podtech is a business and it has to make moves to satisfy customers and the bottom line.
I still believe Podtech is doomed but am rooting for them to find some way to plug all their holes. Why? Podcasting/videoblogging is a tough niche to make any serious money — I still haven’t figured it out (but keep trying) — and it seems like most comers to the dance of all skill levels and experience are stumbling. It would be great to see more businesses break through in this niche. Somebody will hit on the magic formula and the dam will break. Someday. When Adam Curry broke the Sirius deal (disclaimer: I own SIRI) for Podshow it seemed like the moment was arriving, but that show was a bust and it’s since been canceled.
Maybe when we all have more bandwidth and can more easily stream HD video. Not enough HD quality content out there and watching YouTube quality videos for anything longer than a couple minutes is painful.
One of the things I like to see — especially as an Apple shareholder — is Steve Jobs sauntering around a stage talking up their new products. Today Mr. Jobs is showing off some more powerful iMacs starting at $1,199 for the 20″ model all the way up to $1799 for the 24″ at Apple’s summer Mac product press conference.
Gerald shares some live links to the Apple media event, in case you get this in time, although I found the unlisted one from AOL/Engadget to be the fastest loading.
See a complaint about no HDMI connection on the new iMacs in the comments area and no DVI connectivity either (?), but they are including a new wireless keyboard, and both Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 slots.
The new iMovie ‘08 software will support HD camera footage from the newer AVCHD camcorders. We’ve been watching the prices on the HD camcorders. Still a bit out of reach, but it’s on the list of things we’d like to buy. We won’t buy another camcorder that doesn’t have a hard drive. Our last camcorder with tape was pretty much a bust. Good to see Apple offering software supporting HD cameras. The new iMovie wil also encode and send to YouTube at a click. Nice option.
Speaking of wish list items, the iMac is on my list too. I’d like to get one with Leopard which still isn’t released yet. I wonder how many others will wait to buy a new iMac with Leopard?
No word as of this writing on the state of the Mac Mini, although it was shown in one of their ads.
Passionate Star Trek fans, armed with Paramount Pictures blessing as long as no money is made, are continuing the adventures of Star Trek the Original Series (STOS).
Episode #3 of Star Trek New Voyages will debut on the internet August 23, 2007. For a limited time US residents can register for the contest (official sweepstakes rules) for a chance to watch the premiere and dine with Sulu, George Takei, the writers and director of the episode at the FINE ARTS THEATER in Beverly Hill.
You can find mirrors for the pilot, the first two episodes and some other goodies at the special downloads and episode downloads. A registered members only forum is also available to discuss Star Trek New Voyages which requires admin approval to access (mine took an hour or so to be approved).
As for the quality of the episodes, today’s Hmmcast gives a very brief teaser, so go download and check them out. It’s clear they’ve worked hard to preserve the feel of STOS. The acting is not really pro-quality but the sets and special effects are pretty faithful to STOS.
Some people like to gleefully annoint YouTube as the bastion of original content. It is. And isn’t.
It could be the place to display where the next technological version of Hollywood emerges. While I’m in favor of amateur created videos, watch and share my fair share as well as have been producing my own videos (Hmmcast) regularly since the start of this year, I don’t see any live video sites that TechCrunch mentions in this post making a YouTube-like splash. Why not?
YouTube emerged as a breeding ground for copyright infringement
Miraculously YouTube had enough attention focused on original videos and away from infringing content to persuade Google to buy them instead of meeting the original Napster’s fate. I don’t care how popular YouTube is today, and despite being a shareholder, still strongly believe that the YouTube acquisition has been Google’s biggest strategic blunder to date. If they lose the lawsuit to Viacom and it’s conceivable to believe they might if it makes it to court, this could cost them a lot more than the billion plus they overpaid for YouTube. Courts won’t throw copyright out the window and it’s very difficult for any unbiased third party to objectively analyze the level of copyright infringement at YouTube and say Google is doing everything they can to clear this up.
I know, I know, they are working on it. They are supposed to have some amazing technology that will filter and identify copyright infringing content that rushes in and saves the day and I hope it works. My guess is that it will work about as well as current anti-spam filtering technology.
Back to why there will be no live YouTube video breakthrough site: live video sites aren’t anything new. Historically the only amateur produced live video people have been willing to pay for en masse is adult content and that has been happening at sites like iFriends.com since the late nineties. It’s worth noting that iFriends is more mainstream-focused on their homepage today than they were nearly 10 years ago when they were primarily adult focused. Compare this to Zinio which I wrote about in the last post which has gone the opposite way by being almost anti-adult to creating an entire separate website dedicated to adult magazines.
Popular geeks like Robert Scoble and Chris Pirillo and newcomer Justin.TV might be able to garner a few followers to be casually interested, but the whole Ed TV thing has nowhere close to the legs of sharing clips of copyrighted content or low-quality bootlegged camera phone concert videos. People are looking for the good stuff, you know, the stuff you usually have to pay to see.
Napster, anyone?
Besides, there is the issue of what it takes to produce great live video. Takes a lot more than just a camera and a subject. There are some great reasonably priced tools out there that can produce studio-like live effects like Visual Communicator now owned by Adobe, but the vast majority of live video content is going to be as boring as hell. It’s going to be people saying and doing mundane activities with fixed camera shots and backgrounds. Pet rock video.
What will happen with live video in the future?
I think we’ll see the NFL, MLB and NBA directly or with a big name partner — wouldn’t it be ironic if that was YouTube? — offer live sports through the web everywhere (not only outside the United States). They have already begun to experiment and the first one to pull the trigger worldwide will be their own mini YouTube of live video more than any of the sites TechCrunch mentioned. I’m kind of surprised that the three major professional sports haven’t seen the potential here yet.
And when the US Government gets around to legalizing online gambling — and they will, mark my words — we’ll see live internet broadcast sports with the ability to wager. We’ll see interactive commercials that people can experience while watching the event instead of being forced to skip through at some predefined intervals.
Hollywood will finally wise up and start using the internet as a secondary or perhaps even primary distribution channel. A lot of the networks offer TV shows legally on their websites. The decentralization of TV, bring it. People like our family who can and would like to receive the content through the internet legally are ready.
Finally, a third party aggregation site like YouTube isn’t going to have — or likely be given — the rights to make money off the backs of the people producing compelling live content that people are willing to pay for any time soon. The whole notion of ad-supported everything is flawed.
Loren Feldman from 1938 Media pulled a Don Imus and Michael ‘Kramer’ Richards in one excruciating take by trying to imagine what a black TechCrunch would be like. For those who haven’t seen any of Feldman’s 1938 Media videos and don’t know the guy, Feldman is white.
One of the things I like to see — especially as an Apple shareholder — is Steve Jobs sauntering around a stage talking up their new products. Today Mr. Jobs is showing off some more powerful iMacs starting at $1,199 for the 20″ model all the way up to $1799 for the 24″ at Apple’s summer Mac product press conference.
It could be the place to display where the next technological version of Hollywood emerges. While I’m in favor of amateur created videos, watch and share my fair share as well as have been producing my own videos (Hmmcast) regularly since the start of this year, I don’t see any live video sites that 
