I want to take you back all the way to 2007, this is when the first sites started to come up which allowed anyone with a computer, webcam and a microphone the ability to have their very own TV show if you like. Back in them days, of course, we had no adverts and there was many people jumping on the bandwagon to start their very own show. If we look towards the tech shows of the time, two people were ahead of the game; this being Chris Pirillo & Leo Laporte. These people were no strangers to TV, they used to be on the USA show TechTV and many people strived to be like them, the same sort of show, the same graphics and even the same format. I wish to chart the rise and the fall of Tech Shows in general and look towards the future. READ MORE »
Posts in category Video
Streaming Movies to Justin.TV via VLC
Recently I tested streaming a movie to Justin.TV via wirecast and this worked very well indeed, the quality was as good as watching it local and it played without breaking up, lagging or anything like that. There is a few issues with using Wirecast though, the first is the fact it can only play certain file types (mostly MP4) and second, you have to babysit the process to swap movies. After some searching, I came across JTVLC - this can stream content from VLC which in turn can use a playlist.
The Mentalist – Truth or Fake?
I have seen my fair share of shows on the streaming side of life but when I came across a show going by the name of the Mentalist, this is when you have to wonder what it is all about. This person is from Ireland and his name is Tom Williams, his blurb claims he is also a psychic medium and one of his party tricks is to give you a ‘reading’ – he does private video sessions (£60 per day) – go figure. Let me tell you about the one night that I happen to catch him live on air.
Justin.TV taking a few wrong turns?
The Streaming site Justin.TV has made a few core changes “for the good of the end users” and this has caused some head scratching in my behalf as to why would they feel that these would be a “good” thing? The first thing they did is introduce a new player which now has a constant bar on the bottom.
This means when you embed the player, instead of been hidden away (the controls) until you need them – they are right in your face. My Guess is too many people had no idea where the volume control was and such on the old player. Next up we have splitting of Chat rooms – when it feels there is too many in one room, it puts you in room 2 and so forth. What this means is the mods will be in room 1 while people are going wild in room 2. I have not come across an IRC Server that has problems with 200+ people in and feels the need to split into more rooms, I have no idea what this achieves. Lastly then – the IOS Justin.TV player / broadcaster which used to be free is now $4.99 – wow is all I can say and I suspect nobody will buy this anytime soon.
I also heard (through the grapevine) that they are extending the channel bans for anyone playing music, a lot of people play music in the background and banning them will drive people away. They have to do this I guess for copyright issues.
iPad as a Streaming Consumption Device
One of my past times is to sit and watch various shows on both Justin.TV and Ustream. A person who goes by the name of Ron Knights (from the USA) went on about how he wanted an iPad as he could sit on his couch with the ipad and watch the streams instead of sitting in front of the computer all the time. I tried to explain that streaming was not up to much on the iPad due to the fact there is no adobe flash installed – so it is with this, I made this quick video.


