The PC Informant » Multimedia

Free movies on the Web

Vic Laurie — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:32:41 +0000

Although there are very popular commercial services like Netflix that provide movies for downloading or streaming, there are also sites with free movies. MakeUseOf recently reviewed three sites:

MakeUseOf also has a free PDF, The Internet Guide for the Movie Addict:

This entirely free PDF production will show you anything you’ve ever dreamed about knowing. Whether you want a quick heads-up, are looking for download and streaming possibilities, or even want to fix broken AVI’s — you’ll find it in there!

And don’t forget a site I mentioned before, Sol Libes’ video site.

More evidence against multitasking

Vic Laurie — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:44:44 +0000

Here’s some more evidence to add to previous studies showing that multitasking is not so efficient after all. eWeek reports:

Our increasingly media- and technology-saturated world is leading people to a state of constant multitasking that puts the human cognition system in a disruptive state. So claims an article published in the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the official journal of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

The report—“Cognitive Control in Media Multitaskers,” written by Stanford University’s Eyal Ophira, Clifford Nass and Anthony D. Wagner—claims heavy media multitaskers performed worse on a test of task-switching ability than a group of users who multitasked lightly.

Getting you to watch more YouTube

Vic Laurie — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:31:00 +0000

Google, owner of YouTube, is trying to figure out how to make more money out of it. One way is to get you to watch more. The Wall Street Journal reports:

More than 100 million U.S. users watch an average of 68 videos each on YouTube every month, according to comScore. How can YouTube get them to watch just a few more?

It’s a challenge that YouTube’s engineers are zeroing in on as they try to unlock more revenue from the online video juggernaut. While one group of engineers are hard at work building new ad offerings and formats, another is focused on making sure that people don’t just watch one video when they come to the site. They watch two, or three or 20.

Added later: The New York Times reports that YouTube is adding content from CNN and TNT:

Time Warner and YouTube said they have signed an agreement that would make short clips of various Time Warner television shows available on the popular video-sharing Web site. The deal is the latest to bring professional content to YouTube.

The deal will place short clips from CNN, the Cartoon Network and Adult Swim animated shows, TNT’s hit dramas and Warner Brothers Television productions like “Gossip Girl” and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” on YouTube.

Video search engines

Vic Laurie — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:02:15 +0000

You can use Google or one of the other general search engines to look for specific video clips but you may have better luck with one of the specialized services. CNET describes some of the search engines devoted to cataloging video clips:

If you’re having trouble finding the right video online, video search engines are a great place to start your search. From professional content from major networks to user-generated clips, they will help you find just about anything you’re looking for.

You won’t find Google, Yahoo, or Bing in this roundup. The following list of services are designed specifically for those who want to find video.

The Web will show you how to do almost anything

Vic Laurie — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:11:52 +0000

Video clips of the how-to type have proliferated on the Web with numerous sites now having collections demonstrating how to do all sorts of things. The growth of these sites is important enough that the New York Times Sunday business section had a lede story on a new startup called Howcast:

Sometimes — and this is a difficult sentence for a newspaper to print — it’s easier to learn from a video.

That notion led a handful of Google and YouTube veterans to start Howcast.com, and jump into the bustling and fast-growing crowd of Web sites offering how-to content.

Given the competition, from sites like Howdini and even YouTube, Howcast Media is betting that its particular blend of information and entertainment, presented in short and snappy video, will draw plenty of traffic and, most important, deliver a profit.

Certainly the demand is there. People like to watch videos, and, in a bad economy, the ranks of do-it-yourselfers and would-be MacGyvers are swelling.

The future of movie-watching

Vic Laurie — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:30:02 +0000

More and more, people who are movie fans are doing their watching at home using the PC. In an email, my colleague Sol Libes writes:

The entertainment business is changing rapidly. Netflix, with its steaming movies over the Internet, is trying to keep up with movie competition from Apple, Amazon, Redbox, Comcast, Verizon FIOS, satellite, Hulu, YouTube, free library movies, etc.

The Wall Street Journal just had an interesting article on Netflix. You can read the short article, watch the video interview, and read 50 comments. I read most of the comments, and it was very interesting to read how viewers are struggling try to keep up with the changes.

We use Netflix, Comcast on demand, Internet video,the library. We cannot remember the last time we were in a movie theater.

Will home movie watching kill the movie theater? Where do you prefer to watch movies?

Added later: On a related subject, today’s New York Times has an article, Rise of Web Video, Beyond 2-Minute Clips.

Microsoft DirectX security problem

Vic Laurie — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:37:27 +0000

DirectX, which Windows uses in displaying multimedia, has a security hole that is being attacked. Details are given by Ryan Naraine at ZDNet.

Addendum: Microsoft has a temporary work-around at this link.

Second addendum: I should have mentioned that the security problem does not apply to Windows Vista.

Guide to video encoding

Vic Laurie — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:00:55 +0000

As I have mentioned several times, video encoding is a mishmash of different codecs and formats. A recent series of introductory posts on the subject by Google staff member Mark Pilgrim can help shed light on the subject.

Via AppScout

Videos, movies, and TV on the Web

Vic Laurie — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:00:27 +0000

My SeniorNet colleague and personal computing pioneer Sol Libes is an avid watcher of TV and video on his PC. He even watches over-the-air HDTV programs on his PC. He has prepared a Web page Videos, Movies, and TV on the Web that lists many interesting Web sites. It’ll greatly expand your horizons for TV and video watching.

YouTube false virus alarm

Vic Laurie — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:52:56 +0000

Rumors are spreading about a YouTube virus infection. However, it may be a false alarm. Valleywag reports:

Some people viewing YouTube videos have gotten an alert saying antivirus software has detected a computer virus called Actns/Swif.T. That virus is real enough; it redirects people to a website which then installs a piece of hostile software deceivingly called Antivirus 2009. The software is actually spyware, and notoriously annoying to remove.

But YouTube is not actually infected with a virus, it turns out. Instead, out-of-date antivirus software is mislabeling YouTube clips as a threat.