Nick Saber

My Cry for a Unified Video Content Format

by admin on October 24, 2009

Why have technology companies not fully grasped the lesson that plug and play, user friendly, life changing experiences, always win. The goal of technology and innovation is to make enhance the life experience. Have we not learned from the format wars of the past? VHS vs. Beta-Max, HD-DVD vs Blue-Ray, FAT vs NTFS vs HFS, Rocky vs. Apollo Creed, Vulcans vs Romulans, Cats vs Dogs. Nobody wins! I have spent the week working with Bob Collins processing video’s from various sources, i.e. conferences, client webinars, taken by Camcorders, FlipCams and WebCams and it has gotten to me.

Why can’t we have a unified Video format for the computer? AVI, MKV, WMV, MPEG2, MPEG4, AVCHD, H.264, and so on. Containers, Codecs, File Extensions . MACs / PC’s. Windows Media Player, Flash, SilverLight, VLC player, Media Player and so on.. Streaming playback vs. stored playback. Can anyone make sense of it? Look at this chart from Wikipedia. I feel like I am trying to write a book with 100 different languages all at the same time.

While competition is good, it reaches a point where it hurts the consumer and slows down the adoption rate of some pretty incredible technologies.

When creating video content for streaming sites, what format should I choose? AVI, DIVX, Flash, IPOD, MOV, MPEG1-2-4, WMV? Click, Click BOOM! Forget about matching resolutions and frame rates.

Some media players can play some formats well and some don’t. On my MAC can play some MKV files well but most MKV HiDef movies are choppy. I have tried for months and I still cannot get my make to install the correct plug-in for the browser to correctly stream WMV video from some sites. On my PC, I can play WMV files great through Windows Media Player, but MKV files are Choppy. Media Player plays MKV files great but WMV files are choppy.

For Home Entertainment Media Streamers, my XBOX will stream WMV files flawlessly but when it comes to AVI or MKV files it plays some with certain codecs but not consistently and most it does not stream all. LG has a great Blu-ray player the BD390 which will stream AVI’s and HiDef MKV flawlessly. The picture jumps through your TV. It is so good, I wish I could invite the world over to see. It will also stream from Netflix, YouTube, however, it doesn’t even see my WMV files. Sony does not even make a Blu-Ray player yet that streams. APPLE TV only streams certain formats and does not stream MKV or WMV files. Samsung has a nice Blu-Ray player the BD-P3600 that streams Netflix and Pandora but does not stream media from your computer. Some players with stream from Netflix, some Pandora, some YouTube, and the list goes on and on. However none of them do all! The power of being free, to download all your content to your home computer and then stream it to where ever you want is incredible. I cannot tell you how many times I have been on the couch with my daughter Madison and she has said, Dad, can I watch this movie or Dad can I watch that movie, and I just stream it. As long as I own it, delivery should not be the issue.

This makes it so difficult for the consumer. My high-end A/V company still doesn’t know how I fit all the pieces together to make them work so well. Try explaining it to a non videophile.

Can Microsoft, Apple, Google, Adobe, Sony, LG, Samsung, Panasonic, Netflix, YouTube and the rest please all get together, and simplify this puzzle? Rise above our differences and create true plug and play video experience. The world is ready for it.

Thanks

Nick

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Will the Internet Replace Traditional TV Services

by admin on February 17, 2009

I have been amazed over the last 6 months how quickly the Networks have embraced the internet for delivering content. I give them a thumbs up for this. I have always said the best way to protect against people stealing the content is to brand it and make it easily accessible. I believe the more you make quality material available, the less apt people will be to spend time on virus ridden sites downloading bit torrents of music and videos. Coming from a guy who consistently ran out of disk space, there are only so many 2 terabyte drives you can put on your desk before people start asking questions and you can’t control the heat in your house.

You can stream full episodes of shows, some in High Definition, right from the networks website. Also sites like Hulu , Sling Media , Veoh , are a portal to all of the network sites for all types of content. From old shows like the A-Team, the Fall Guy, and Family Ties, to the latest episode of 24. If you missed it, then stream it. They even have full length movies available for legal streaming for free. Not too mention all the content on YouTube, Viddler, and so on …

Another very cool product is streaming from Netflix. Most people who currently have a Netflix account can stream unlimited movies from Netflix to their computer or even to their TV. Companies like LG Electronics and Samsung even make BluRay players that stream directly from your Netflix account.

Technology innovations and adaptations since I was a child have truly amazed me. The way technology has influenced society without it’s knowledge or permission never ceases to surprise me. My mom used to say ‘what in the world is TiVo‘. Now TiVo is a verb, soon to be in the Webster’s dictionary.

In college, we were taught Moore’s law , which states the number of transistors on a chip will double about every two years. Simply stated computer power will double every two years. Most did not believe that was sustainable. But most were proven wrong.

I can’t wait to see how my children look at technology when they are my age.

Let me know your thoughts? How many of you are using Streaming websites? Which sites are you using?

Photo by jackace

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