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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