online video
Business
Google Acquires On2, Could Mean Big Things For Online Video
4:56AM Sean Fallon | Google has entered into an agreement to acquire On2 and their video compression technology. With YouTube in it’s back pocket, it seems likely that Google could push this technology all over the web—giving them even broader control. [BusinessWire] More »
Software
Microsoft Silverlight Now Supports GPU Video Acceleration
7:05PM John Herrman | Download links are live for the latest version of Microsoft’s softly maligned not-Flash plugin, and they come bearing gifts. Ars breaks the new features down: More »
Online
Joost Flash Player Launches Tonight, Has Serious Hulu Envy
2:20PM Matt Buchanan | The poor kids at Joost—and their partners at Viacom—thought the future of TV on the computer would be a discrete app that blended a slick TV emulator with internet power. They were wrong, Hulu and Google were right: It’s all about the browser. So that’s where Joost is going. Its Flash-based player officially launches full-throttle tonight. The early word from paidContent is that it’s still no Hulu—the best place for CBS content, maybe, but it’s got a lot of catching up to do. Though really, it’s not clear that it ever can. There’s a reason our internet TV remote is heavy on the Hulu. [Joost via paidContent] More »
Entertainment
Vudu Version 1.5 Update Lets You Extend Expired Movies (Every Video Service Needs This)
9:30AM Matt Buchanan | Vudu has just been bumped to version 1.5, and the headlining feature should make its way to every video rental setup: Extensions! If you only get halfway through No Country for Old Men (or any other flick) before the 24-hour window is up, you can extend the rental period for a discounted price, US$2 off HD movies and a buck off regular ones. The option is available for a week after the flick expires, and then you have another 30 days to start watching, and 24-48 hours after you hit play. Downside is you can only extend a movie once. Still, awesome and overdue feature. [Vudu] More »
Entertainment
Netflix: Rental-by-Mail Has Five Years Left (Subtext: Discs Have Five Years Left)
6:10AM Matt Buchanan | At Netflix Investor Day, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings revealed their timeline for the end of the rental-by-mail biz, and why they’re digging so hard into digital distribution: It “will probably peak in the next five years.” Taken more broadly, it’s more or less predicting that the real end of physical media is in T minus five years—’cause presumably, as long there are discs, Netflix’s model assumes you’ll get ‘em from Netflix. While the end of physical media has been predicted lotsa times, it’s rare that a company puts a death sentence on its core business, so this isn’t the cheap willy-nilly futurism we’re used to gagging on. [Reuters via Alley Insider] More »
Online
Akimbo Execs Hit Eject, Shutter Company For Good
10:00AM Gizmodo US Edition | The polymorphous life of Akimbo came to an abrupt end this week, as the embattled video-on-demand turned white label video service was shut down for good. The surprising move went down just four months after Akimbo was given an additional US$4 million to fund its video services venture. Now the extra cash will go towards former employees’ severance packages. Let us reflect on the tumultuous past of Akimbo, after the jump. More »
Software
Hunting for Viewers, Joost Moves to Your Browser
7:00AM Matt Buchanan | Joost, the P2P-powered TV killer we reviewed back in the heady days of the writers’ strike that we found a bit wanting (and is on the skids), will work in your browser later this summer with a plug-in, rather than needing to install a whole separate app. As Valleywag points out, this might be a bit futile, since the next version of Adobe’s Flash will have built-in file-sharing. Anyone out there still using Joost? [Valleywag] More »
Entertainment
Watch Full Episodes of Friends, Scooby Doo and The Batman Online for Free
5:17AM Matt Buchanan | Warner Bros. is jumping into the online video arena next month with a pair of sites, thewb.com and kidswb.com, which will show full episodes of its biggest series, like Friends and Smallville on the former, and stuff like Bugs Bunny, Scooby Doo and Batman (hopefully Paul Dini’s brilliant and amazing original animated series, not The Mediocre Batman) on the latter. It’d probably have made more sense for them to join Hulu, but Warner’s probably not keen on splitting the ad dollars. If there’s enough content, it could become a real destination, but we’re guessing you’ll still have to go to YouTube for “Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarves.” [Yahoo] More »
Entertainment
Hulu Video Service Going Mobile?
3:50AM Matt Buchanan | Talking at the National Association of Broadcasters convention, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar implied that NBC and News Corp.’s (mostly) slick video service could be moving to mobile phones, saying that they’re “ripe for the Hulu experience.” But, it might not look like the Hulu we know and almost love, since he mentioned that it “may not be identical” everywhere, but he thinks “anything connected to the internet would be a good fit for Hulu.” Looks like healthy mobile TV might just materialise in the US. [MocoNews, Broadcasting & Cable] More »
Cameras
9:58AM Nick Broughall | YouTube is one hell of a bandwagon. Not only are regular folk getting on it to post inane and/or embarrassing clips of themselves to share with the rest of the world, but companies are starting to come up with products designed specifically for this use.
Take the Sony NSCGC1 “Net Share Cam” from Sony. It’s been around for a couple of months now, and its main purpose in life is to shoot video for the web. It doesn’t even have to be YouTube – any video or photo sharing site is catered for.
More »
I Tube, You Tube, We All Tube With Sony
9:58AM Nick Broughall | YouTube is one hell of a bandwagon. Not only are regular folk getting on it to post inane and/or embarrassing clips of themselves to share with the rest of the world, but companies are starting to come up with products designed specifically for this use.
Take the Sony NSCGC1 “Net Share Cam” from Sony. It’s been around for a couple of months now, and its main purpose in life is to shoot video for the web. It doesn’t even have to be YouTube – any video or photo sharing site is catered for.
More » 