Google political move stifles web video distribution & complicates our workflow

In case you didn’t hear yet, Google recently announced the elimination of support for H.264 in HTML5 video in its popular Chrome web browser within the next few months, in favor of WebM (VP8) and Theora video códecs. Despite Google’s official justifications for the move in the name of openness, many analysts (including myself) see this as a political move against Apple, and even hypocritical since the Chrome browser has contained (and will continue to contain) an embedded Flash player. Our logical conclusion is that Google’s next step will be to drop support for H.264 in its Android operating system too. This happens after H.264 already has achieved support from Adobe, Apple, and even Microsoft. Up until now, Google’s Chrome browser has directly supported H.264 with HTML5’s video tag. Before this shocking below the belt punch, many content producers were well along the way of offering HTML5 video with H.264, playable as raw or automatic fallback to the same file embedded in Flash if the browser didn’t support it in HTML5, as I have covered in my seminars. However, as we see the writing on the wall, this will likely no longer be sufficient for the ever popular Android devices as they likely become updated to newer versions which would purposefully exclude H.264 playback, especially considering the poor Flash performance on most of the current Android devices that even support it at all. So within a short time, the preferred video códecs for Android devices will likely be WebM (VP8) or Theora, while for Apple iOS devices (AppleTV, iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch), it will remain to be H.264.

TecnoTur English episode 4: interviews with AJA, DVKitchen, and Carla Sánchez

TecnoTur episode 4 (English) is now available. In episode 4, Allan Tépper converses with Carla Sánchez, a USA-based Venezuelan actress, model, and spokesperson. Next comes Josh Mellicker, creator of DVKitchen, the program which is TecnoTur‘s favorite application for calculating, encoding, posting, and embedding video for the web and the most popular mobile devices, including iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch, Blackberry, and Android devices. Listeners of TecnoTur can get a special discount on DVKitchen when purchasing it directly from the manufacturer by entering a promotional code. DVKitchen is compatible with Matrox’s MAX hardware accelerator for H.264 encoding, which is available both as a standalone card, or as a factory-option with any MXO2 interface device. Finally, TecnoTur converses with Bryce Button of AJA, who tells us about AJA’s latest announcements from the entire product line. Here are details about how to hear TecnoTur free, or become a subscriber.

Vimeo finally goes mobile + adds 1080p and HTML5 (ßeta)

Vimeo, a leading video hosting/gallery site offering both paid and free models, has finally added mobile capability for its paying clients. This capability finally allows Vimeo Plus members to make their videos compatible with mobile devices like the iPhone, iPod Touch, Palm Pre, and Google/Android devices like the Nexus One. Vimeo Plus members can also now have the option to have web-based 1080p videos (although the wisdom of that today is debatable). Finally, all videos on Vimeo —whether from Plus members or standard members— will now have the option to be viewed either with the new HTML5 (ßeta) player (browser dependent), or the pre-existing Flash player (device dependent). This article will cover these three new features in more detail, and discuss their ramifications, both for content creators and content viewers.

Skype goes HD for computers + embedded in certain consumer HDTV sets

Earlier this month, Skype announced its support for progressive, full-raster HD 720p (1280x720) on Windows computers, and is to be embedded in certain consumer HDTV sets. For readers unfamiliar with it, Skype is free software for Mac & Windows computers —in addition to certain mobile phones and other handheld mobile devices— which facilitates 1-on-1 or multi-user communication. Skype software offers any combination of text chat, high-quality audio chat, and video chat (device dependent). Regardless of the device used at either end, all Skype-to-Skype communication is free (less the cost of the device itself and the Internet connection. In addition, at extremely low cost, Skype optionally offers the placing Skype calls to POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) numbers, and/or receiving POTS calls via Skype. As has been Skype’s historical fashion, the company has upgraded the Windows versions of the software first, although I expect the HD capability added to the Mac version shortly. Skype is also used for remote invitees in TV talk shows, and the addition of HD 720p will certainly augment its use in that application.

SFTP: An open letter to all software developers with FTP-only support

You know who you are: Adobe, Apple, DVcreators, elGato, Telestream, and others. Even though we would love to have a utopian world —and a utopian Internet—, we are certainly not there yet. There are bad guys out there, and we can’t afford to make it easy for them. That’s why there are secure websites (https) and secure e-mail encryption (SSL). Fortunately, there are many good software programs that already support SFTP, including CoreFTP, Cyberduck, Fetch, Transmit, and Übercaster. And from Apple, even iWeb (starting with the ’09 version) supports SFTP. So why don’t Adobe Media Encoder, Compressor, DVKitchen, Turbo.264HD, and EpisodePro support SFTP too? All of these are professional tools, but for some unknown reason, they alarmingly all lack SFTP support as of the publication date of this article.

After FCP7/FCS3… we still need DVKitchen!

Final Cut Pro 7 fortunately now offers many inboard “sharing” features which were very weak or non-existent before. Now FCP7 allows us to export to multiple formats and destinations in a single job (called “Back-End Batch Capability” in my DVKitchen review of March 2009). FCP7 even allows us to export “in the background”, so we can keep on editing if we’d like. Thanks to FCP7’s improved integration with Apple’s Compressor, some of the encoded formats can be published directly to web destinations, whether they be MobileMe, YouTube, or even your own FTP server (after you’ve previously made a preset destination for it in Compressor). These are all welcome improvements, which are directly accessible from FCP7. However, DVKitchen is still a vital tool (especially if you’re encoding for MobileMe, your own web server… or your client’s web server), because it includes the following unique and must-have features not included in FCP7/FCS3.

Roxio Streamer: a free video streaming client for iPhone/iPod Touch

Roxio (a division of Sonic Solutions) has launched Roxio Streamer, a free application for the Apple iPhone or iPod Touch which allows you to do true video streaming of video files from your Mac to your iPhone or iPod Touch. It doesn’t matter whether you are in the same home or building, or anywhere else on the planet where you have either WiFi or 3G access (3G, only with the iPhone 3G). Unlike downloading, true streaming will not fill up the iPhone’s (or iPod Touch’s) memory with the entire videos you watch. The videos you stream can be your own, those you have recorded with your TiVo, or with your EyeTV.

DVKitchen has become a must-have video encoding & publishing tool

I first bought DVKitchen before it even carried that name. Back in June 2008, DVKitchen had a different name, but wasn’t quite ready yet for me to write an article about it. Times change… and for DVKitchen, the changes have been extremely positive. Like other encoding tools, DVKitchen from DVcreators can prepare your video for the web and other devices… but DVKitchen is unique in helping you to determine your ideal settings for that task very quickly… and unique in saving steps in the process of actually publishing your video on the web, and even writing HTML code for you to get your video embedded in your customized player on your website, blog, or in forums. Even if for some reason you must use another tool to encode your video, DVKitchen is the fastest way to determine the ideal settings in that other tool. Without a doubt, the latest version of DVKitchen represents a quantum leap for video content publishers, whether they are planning to deliver video for the web, AppleTV, PS3, WDTV, or mobile devices like the iPhone, iPod, G1, or Blackberry.

Encoding web video in the age of the iPhone

The last time I looked, Apple had already sold over six million iPhones after just 13 months since its initial launch. I don’t think that there have been six million extra standard computers sold (desktops and laptops) in the past year, compared to prior years’ sales. As a result, I conclude that mobile handheld communication devices [like the iPhone (plus the iPod Touch, Blackberry, Treo, and some others)] represent the fastest-growing segment of Internauts (Internet users).

Increasingly, I find myself having to warn my friends and clients against using Flash for their website and web video, since Flash is simply not playable on the most popular mobile handheld devices. (There are some handheld devices that play Flash as Adobe quickly points out, but I said “most popular”!) The formats that the popular handheld mobile devices play well are HTML, animated GIF, and H.264. Many graphic designers are so into the Flash rage, they attempt to minimize this vital and practical issue, in the hope that someday Flash might play on the most popular mobile handheld devices. I don’t know about you, but my clients and I need to communicate, sell, and eat today, not someday. We can’t afford to prevent over six million Internauts from seeing our content by making the wrong decision.

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