Howdy,
My name is Steve Blue. I am a Video Pro who will guide you through the stormy seas of Internet Video Creation. I am a jack of all trades when it comes to video production. I’ve edited and shot it all: commercials, documentaries, music videos, wedding videos, artistic video installation, professional sports videography, even large marketing multi screen presentations for CES. I help Ken McCarthy edit and post videos online for The System Seminar.
I will be posting to SystemVideoBlog, in the capacity of a Video Pro.
Trends in Internet Video are shifting everyday it seems. It can be quite difficult to keep up with the latest video technologies and services out there. I hope this blog post will be your yellow brick road to the future of internet video. As “The Wizard of Oz” transformed movie screens from black and white to color, companies like Google and Apple, Inc. are changing the quality and delivery of Internet Video right now.
If you are a business owner, you probably outsource video creation to a professional. Some professionals, even those in the business for twenty years, may not know a single thing about internet video. Most professional videographers are concerned with the latest quality innovations, such as DVD and HDTV. Some even denounce internet video right off the bat, saying it looks horrible, so why would anyone even use it?
Picture quality doesn’t matter to the average viewer. Everyone is wowed and amazed by HDTV at first, but still content to watch the worst quality video of some guy skiing off a jump on YouTube.
But what if I told you I can create a video designed for streaming over the Internet that has close enough quality to broadcast, that the casual viewer can’t even tell the difference? I will show you how in upcoming blog posts.
Internet Video has grown up and is now moving out of the house. If you visit Apple’s iTunes website right now, you will be greeted with a message that says “YouTube, meet AppleTV”. AppleTV viewers will soon be able to view thousands of YouTube videos right on their television sets. Did you know AppleTV also supports 480P, which is the standard for DVDs right now? Internet Video and Broadcast Quality are converging right now. But at the same time, YouTube also struck a deal with Verizon Wireless at the end of 2006, establishing a cell phone television-like channel for the most popular videos on YouTube. Now YouTube is moving onto the iPhone too, which means AT&T has access to the Internet Video Giant. Internet Video is now available on millions of digital devices out there. Internet Video is spreading like a virus.
It amazes me how YouTube is the most popular video sharing service by far. YouTube has 44% of total internet viewership. YouTube also has the worst interface out of all the video sharing sites I have encountered. I upload maybe 10 clips at a time to YouTube about a certain topic. It is one huge pain in the butt when I have to change preferences about them. In contrast, what makes a good video sharing site? Well, the ability to upload multiple videos at once for starters, with a large file size and duration on each clip. It’s called Google Video, which is still in fifth place lagging behind MSN, Yahoo, MySpace, and of course YouTube.
Upload videos to a cocktail of sites. I upload videos to YouTube, Google, MySpace, and iTunes. In future posts, I will detail step by step instructions on the best methods of uploading videos to these services.
When you are ready to upload to the internet, output the best quality video with the smallest filesize possible from your editing program. This can be a struggle. I use Quicktime H.264 for this task, others go straight into Flash FLV. Most of the online sharing sites use FLV and will convert most anything you give them to this format. Make sure you upload the best quality video possible to services like YouTube or Google Video. Those sites will make your video look crappier. But do not fear. Because of the Apple’s efforts to upgrade the video quality in iTunes, all the other internet video sharing sites will follow suit and gradually improve the quality of online videos. YouTube did it just the other week. If you view a movie on YouTube using their new beta interface, you will find a slightly larger screen for the video. YouTube just switched over to the H.264 standard probably because of their dealings with Apple. Why would the Internet Video Giant think of switching over their entire library to a new standard? H.264 is not just a standard for the Internet. H.264 can handle everything from the crappiest looking online video to full HD quality 1080i.
Broadcast and Internet Video standards are converging right now. So, in addition of making your video suitable for current online conditions, make sure you always have a master copy available that is Broadcast Quality.
I hope you just gained some nuggets about Internet Video. I will be writing articles on SystemVideoBlog.com, even with step by step instructions, that will get down to the nitty gritty about all different aspects of internet video creation. If you have questions that you’d like to see me address on the blog, please mail them to me at videopro@iuseapple.com. Due to the volume of mail I won’t be able to respond personally and I won’t be able to answer every question, but I’ll do my best.
Steve Blue
– Ken McCarthy
P.S. For over 25 years I’ve been sharing the simple but powerful things that matter in business with my clients.
If you’d like direction for your business that will work today, tomorrow and twenty years from now, visit us at the System Club.
Steve-I am facinated by what you have written.
Could you do something on appropriate camera’s?
I go down my local tech street here in Bangkok and I am overwhelmed by possibilities.
Thank you, Victor
Great information about video. It certainly is exploding in popularity and I am keen to learn whatever you can blog about here.
I recently bought a new video camera and it is HDV format. I know I have to reduce the video down in size dramatically to upload, but it has been an interesting experience in learning new software like Sony Vegas.
What settings do you recommend for video production?
I have been making .avi output (for YouTube) then compressing it in Flash8 .flv format for use with FLV producer on my own sites.
I noticed the new YouTube player format (which I use on my own site http://www.xspcheatsheet.com) now lets viewers access competitors video from within my own page.
Ken posted about this recently and it will drive people onto other formats very fast.
Thanks for your intro.
Regards
James
I have my own streaming server that I rent space on. They do not yet support FLV so everything I’ve done so far has been SWF or WMV. Do you have any suggestions on how to make videos look better for the person who does NOT utilize Google or YouTube for professional reasons? Or should I switch to their hosting to take advantage of their new interfaces? Thanks.
What do you mean DVDs are 720p? .. not last I checked. Aren’t they either 480p (NTSC) or 525p (PAL) …?
There are some upscaling DVD players which do a nice job, but they don’t get 720p .. on HDMI, my estimate is 600p (up from 525p). Of course we all know “you can’t something for nothing”, but there certainly a sense of improved sharpness.
I am looking forward to putting some video on my website; however, I’m afraid (with good reason) that this particular blog is going to get far too carried away with the technical aspects of videos. It will become a forum for those who really get their jollies on technical stuff. So what happens? This leaves us newbies – who are not prepared to go at lightening speed – to thrash around some more to find someone who will deliver very basic – and I mean basic – info on the step-by-step procedures for initiating website video. This is my take on this blog.
Unlike the the previous post by John, I am delighted by the information Steve Blue is providing. Ken has been telling us to get on the ball for more than a year and his view over the horizon is worth its weight in gold. If the technical skill is too much now, it only going to get more complex. The reality is we have to grow with technology, hire someone, or be left in the dust.
Steve – I can appreciate your enthusiasm and I am sure many will benefit from this info. However, there is a lot of info being cast out on the water and much of it is not for beginners. What this means is – a beginner cannot – absolutely cannot – take part in everything that is out there. Most of this stuff out there on the “horizon” will just have to wait. It’s only for the very few technically inclined. It’s not that video is going to get more complex – it’s that the applications are going to proliferate as so-called guru’s will try to capitalize on it with their own twist and they will try to make it appear as though EVERYONE has to have it.
The choices are not (1) grow with technology, (2) hire someone else or (3) be left in the dust. There are other choices such as (4) taking one-step at a time (even if it appears being left in the dust), (5) implementing essentials (what is needed, not what is wanted), and (6) hitting your target market with a message that rings loud and clear. These 4, 5, 6 steps do require a continuous progression of testing, learning and implementing – but they can be done without in-depth complications whether these complications evolve from new or old technology. As I mentioned in my first post – and I’ll bet anyone a six pack of cold Tecate – that this blog/forum will digress into a bunch of obtuse rabbit trails that won’t make one iota of difference in making money.