How Many Ways To Share Video Do People Really Need?
from the more-home-movies dept
TiVo's making a lot of news today with the announcement that it's adding more internet video features to its service. Customers can buy some software for $25 that will allow them to convert certain video formats to one their TiVo can handle, then share them from their PC to DVR, and the company says it's adding web video content from several more providers to its TiVoCast service. TiVo's also adding on a $4 per month service that will let users upload their own videos, then share them with friends and family that have internet-connected TiVos in an attempt to jump on the user-generated-content bandwagon, following other recent announcements, like Comcast's launch of its own video-sharing site, Ziddio, or C-SPAN's announcement of a site where it will collect users' uploads. These sites and services riff on YouTube and other similar sites: the supposed benefit of TiVo's service -- that's supposed to justify its price over free web-based services -- is the ability for people to watch the videos on their TV; for Comcast, it's the possibility that uploaders' videos could be screened on the cable company's video-on-demand service. The attractiveness of either proposition is debatable, but a bigger question remains: do all that many people really care about creating and sharing their homemade videos? The success of sites like YouTube is supposed to herald the rise of user-generated content, but how much of that success is built on user uploads of other peoples' content? Despite the popularity of videos showing Mentos making Diet Coke bottles erupt, or a few video podcasters, it seems hard to deny that a significant factor in the rise of the likes of YouTube is all the copyrighted and professional content people have uploaded. It looks like video sharing and other types of user-generated content are hot on the heels of social networking as the latest must-have, and potentially useless trend for content providers. But if these services don't have any of the copyrighted or professional content people have come to expect from other, more popular video-sharing sites, will anybody care? After all, it's not particularly hard for people to share videos with YouTube, Google Video, or any other number of existing services, so it doesn't seem like a lack of options is the barrier to entry -- it's more likely just a lack of interest.
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So, for only $25 and some minor hassels, you can now do exactly the same thing you can already do if your computer has a half-way decent video card and included cable (i.e. watch videos that you've already seen on your computer, on your TV, which no one wants to do anyway). Yus!
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Good Idea
That and the fact that a video card that can output video costs between $100-$600 compared to the 25 for the software. It works if they already have the TiVo and cheap computer.
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TiVo's Offering Details
Also, the hosted video will only be shared with people you(the uploader) choose, and the video will be delivered straight to a TiVo box, no pc required on the recieving end. The receiving party doesn't need anything more than an id code for the content and a TiVo to play it on.
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Ziddio.com looks pretty interesting and as it's just in beta so i'd guess there is more to come and would love to see the finished product. I was looking at some of the videos for a Star Wars contest they have going on right now, some of the submissions are pretty funny. This girl fighting with the light saber is class http://www.ziddio.com/contest.zd?dispatch=landing&contest=2
After the midterm elections I think CSPANs video site makes sense too. Video sharing seems to have become popular for campaigning and I'm sure it will be used even more in 2008. I'm not sure how much content CSPAN really can distribute of their own. That Colbert video at the White House Correspondents Dinner is probably one in a million.
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Video out
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2317732&CatId= 0
I do not work for TigerDirect, and you can try your store of choice if you wish.
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can this be alternative?
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Video sharing and uploading best platform
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