August 19, 2008

• Out of all the many different video streaming sites out there, I have to admit that youtube is still king when it comes to ease of use and the amount of videos you can find on it. Familiar with the phrase "just google it?" You can add "it's probably on youtube" as a phrase you can commonly use now. Ofcourse with copyrighted material, some videos are simply not going to be easily available on youtube, but it's still better than most others. The streaming quality is also top notch, as I noticed a lot of other video sites have huge buffering issues, and who wants to wait for a viral video to load? However lately, because youtube is now encouraging people to upload "hi-quality" videos on it's site, some people's vids tend to have that buffering problem now too. Stop it folks, be happy with the 320x240 resolution that is standard, as you don't really need to watch hi-def viral videos. "Play and watch" is infinitely better than "play and wait then watch."
  my youtube channel = http://www.youtube.com/optimum5x5

  On a somewhat related note, I've been playing with DirecTV's "on demand" service, and it's really a mix bag of sorts. The "on demand" part of the service is a misnomer, and it's really more of a "video download" service not unlike the xbox LIVE service. You have to be connected to a broadband internet service, which allows you to download the video "on demand" that you want to watch. A half hour show could literally take hours for it to download, and it'll be all buffering like crazy if you try and watch it in real time, so it's more like "DirecTV on demand for later" service. Not only that, but since you have to be connected to the internet, it's also going to be eating up bandwidth. I pretty much only use the service when I'm either away from home for several hours or asleep, that way it doesn't get in the way of my internet time.

  • 6:12 pm
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