Although its hard for people who use Web video on a daily basis to believe, there are many Internet users who are completely in the dark about the power of Internet video and how to utilise it.

Learning The Ropes

While sites such as YouTube continue to grab viewers attention, the revolution that is Web video is still at quite an early stage and many Web users are still learning the ropes.

We’ve reviewed quite a few books intended to give a grounding for those people looking to move in to the world of Web video, and now we have a review of a DVD intended to do exactly the same thing.

From Books To DVD

In the same way that the How To Do Everything With Online Video and Mastering Internet Video: A Guide to Streaming and On-Demand Video books tried to give an entry-level view of Web video, so does this DVD.

The Easy Guide To Web Video DVD offers a step-by-step guide to capturing, preparing, uploading, and sharing video on the Internet. And being a DVD means it has an added advantage in offering visual guides to the processes involved.

This DVD, directed by Bill Myers, offers advice on everything you’ll need to know to get started with Web video. And it’s all presented in simple steps with clear instructions.

Huge Range Of Topics

The range of topics covered on this 68 minute DVD include:-

• Why you’ll want to have video on the web.
• How having video on the web can increase sales on your website.
• How to quickly have your own video channel for free.
• How to almost instantly create web video from photographs.
• How to capture video from your camcorder to your computer.
• How to prepare your video for the web.
• How to add graphics to your videos – and why you’ll want to.
• How to add background music to your videos.
• How to render video to get the best quality on the web.
• How to upload videos to YouTube, Google Video, and MetaCafe.
• How to get paid for the videos you upload to the web.
• How to share your videos with others.
• How to convert your videos into flash.

Conclusions

This DVD caters for anyone new to the world of Web video, and so people with existing knowledge need not buy it.

For everyone else, it’s a must see if you want to become part of the video revolution currently shaping the Internet.

[Buy the 'Easy Guide To Web Video DVD' On Amazon]

Whether you’re an amateur hobbyist, work for a company who want an online video presence, or are a software developer, a thorough understanding of the issues involved can make a hell of a difference to your life.

Mastering Internet Video

Which is where a best-selling book on Amazon entitled Mastering Internet Video: A Guide to Streaming and On-Demand Video, comes in to play. It does exactly what it says on the tin, and provides readers with a basic guide to the intricacies involved in Internet video.

The book takes you through the processes required to get video on to the Web. Starting with preparing and capturing, through to editing and compressing, and finally to uploading and delivering your content on to the Web.

Clear and Concise Advice

Every issue involved in the process is spelt out in a clear and concise manner, with the author, Damien Stolarz, offering both conceptual and practical information for people on every level of experience.

The key issues of compression, formats, standards, servers, software, hardware, networking, multi-casting, digital rights management, and video editing are all covered in a coherent manner, with easy to understand language being used at every turn.

A Range Of Topics

There are also step-by-step solutions for each of today’s most common Internet video usage scenarios, and the range of topics covered in depth in this 504 page book include:

• Comprehensive conceptual coverage of capturing, preparing, and deploying video on the Internet
• A practical guide to video compression—including expert help with performance and quality tradeoffs
• Objective information for evaluating streaming servers, software, and hardware—including solutions from Microsoft, Real, Apple, Macromedia, and others
• How networks and the Internet handle video data—including the challenges of real-time data delivery

If you are looking for an easy way to get to grips with the terminology and technology involved in Internet video, this book, which currently retails for just $31.49, is a great introduction to the business.

[Buy 'Mastering Internet Video' On Amazon]

Luckily there are resources designed to help you get you started on the road to producing high-quality videos to share on sites such as YouTube, DailyMotion and Metacafe.

One of these resources is a book titled How To Do Everything With Online Video, part of the How To Do Everything series of books which take you through the process from beginning to end and give you a nice overview of the skills and equipment needed.

The Ultimate Guide To Online Video

The book is billed as “the ultimate guide to planning, creating, editing, and sharing video content online” and the range of topics covered include shooting and editing videos, preparing clips for posting, and how to share projects through websites, blogs, and podcasts.

The book was written by Andrew Shalat, a writer, author and consultant on many tech subjects. The book has 12 chapters, and 270 pages full of fact-filled advice for both PC and Mac owners.

Nicely Laid Out

If you buy the book, you can expect to read hands-on tutorials, covering much of the best video editing software, as well as an overview of camera techniques, story-telling concepts, and advice on lighting and sound.

The chapters are nicely laid-out and easy to read. The text is purely black and white, and there are a woefully small number of screenshots, but despite that, the guidelines are very easy to follow, even for beginners.

Whether you are just starting out in the world of Web video, or have dabbled but need to know how to optimize you video output, then this book could prove to be an invaluable purchase.

[Buy How To Do Everything With Online Video On Amazon]

Video is becoming a key ingredient on the Internet, whether it’s by way of user created content on sites such as YouTube, TV networks expanding their businesses online, or companies having an online presence.

But with that comes the technical difficulties involved in creating, producing, and distributing videos over the web and beyond.

Obviously we here at WebTVWire do our best to provide you with all the tools, tips, tricks and news you need to be a successful videographer, but making money from it is another realm altogether.

Why Not Ask Mr Video?

That’s where AskMrVideo comes in: a site dedicated to helping videographers, Internet marketers, and people interested in the business of making videos, do so successfully, and hopefully profitably.

The site is not free, instead offering two levels of membership. To be a Director will cost you a one off fee of $25 and then $9.95 per month after that. A Producer level costs $117 per year, but includes a one hour Internet video coaching session.

To be fair, these aren’t bad prices, as the amount of information and helpful advice you gain from joining means you could make your money back quite easily.

Value For Money?

For your money you get a whole range of articles on subjects as diverse as tutorials on how to upload your video to various sites, articles giving insights in to making web video a profitable pastime, and FAQs on other topics related to Internet video.

There is also some free software included as a bonus for signing up, such as an flv player which you can add to your website or blog to provide a talking FAQ.

Free Content

Even those of us not willing to pay do have reasons to visit the site, as there are some very informative free sample articles, as well as an archive of free weekly tips.

The site is nicely laid out, and everything is easy to find and navigate. The only complaint I have is the annoying talking Mr Video which pops up on screen while you’re reading (as seen in the screenshot above).

Overall, AskMrVideo is an excellent resource for video producers everywhere. If you’re willing to pay the site fees, then I’m sure the site will cater for your every need. And if it doesn’t, ask for a refund.

[Note: WebTVWire received a monetary reward for honestly and impartially discussing AskMrVideo]

Lisa Larson and Renee Costantini have written a new book titled ‘Flash Video for Professionals: Expert Techniques for Integrating Video on the Web’.

The book provides a framework and the professional solutions to make custom Flash video more accessible to those with intermediate programming skills. 

A Step By Step Guide

But it’s not just a programming guide. This book provides a step-by-step workflow and guides the reader through:

• understanding client needs and setting expectations

• obtaining source video and optimizing for web-based playback

• creating a site or web application that incorporates video

• creating and skinning a player with Flash

• publishing a site (including a discussion of hosting requirements)

• exploring serving options (streaming vs. progressive download)

• enabling the client to update their site with automated tools.

The book takes the developer through the process of gathering and preparing content, asking the right questions, determining the scope of the project and writing the project proposal. 

Authors Professional Experience

Authors Lisa Larson and Renee Costantini cull from their professional experience of running their own digital media company to explain in detail the special considerations in deploying Flash video applications, with ideas for solutions as well as avoiding the most common pitfalls.

Readers will explore real-world requirements and torture-tested methods needed to deploy the finished application to the web, as well as the intricacies of setting up a work environment, best practices and application design, and ActionScript. Detailed code examples are provided to drive home concepts. 

The book covers the most recent ActionScript language, with special attention given to bridging between versions. Flash Media Server 2 is discussed, along with filter effects, webcams and data sharing. 

This book is a must-have for the professional Flash developer or designer who needs to expand their skill set to include interactive video delivery.

• Click here to get this book from Amazon

[Content in whole or part adapted from IPTVe and is licensed under Creative Commons, no addition derivative works may be copied from this article without prior permission from IPTVe and Web TV Wire]

A new study by Jupiter Research, commissioned by Akamai Technologies, reports that more than half of all viewers of online video will quickly switch to a competing video site when poor quality video performance is encountered.

“Today’s consumers demand immediate start-up times, 100% availability, and an experience that is constant over time. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to meet those expectations when delivering content from a centralized server.” Mark Larkin, Executive Producer, CNET TV.

The report states that online videos which interrupt to buffer or are slow to load account for the greatest sources of audience frustration. 60% of frequent online video viewers who watch videos more than once per week are unlikely to return to a video content site after a poor quality experience. 25% said they would never return.

More than a quarter of those viewers stated that they are interested in bandwidth-intensive video content such as TV programs or full-length feature films.

At the same time, 42% of viewers said that they prefer to watch their television sets which provide a far better viewing experience than their PC screens, and avoid online video in its entirety which represents a huge amount of revenue slipping away.

Jupiter Research conducted the study in February 2007 as a survey to a total of 2,319 online consumers which were selected randomly from the Ipsos US online consumer panel.

[Via Business Wire]

Photo credit: ronen

We all watch videos online at sites such as YouTube, Google Video and Metacafe. But how do you go about downloading those videos to your computer?

Here is a short but useful guide of how to, detailing which sites to use and some great hints and tips.

Video sharing sites are increasingly a resourceful destination for entertainment, documentary, indie clips, music and a lot more.

The only drawback that video sharing sites have is that in most cases there is no feature allowing the easy and immediate downloading of your preferred clips so that you could actually watch them even when not connected to the Internet.

But, unknown to many, there are indeed many easy ways to download your favorite video clips without having to install any particular software and independently of the operating system you are using on your computer.

I am referring to web-based video downloading services that not only let you download all the video clips you want but which also convert the same video clips in any of the many video file formats that you have a specific preference for.

Using Podcatcher, you can set the program to download video podcasts automatically, integrating the podcast title and information straight in to the Beyond TV folders with ease.

Limitations:

• Must Own Beyond TV4 or higher
• Will only Allow playback of BeyondTV supported files such as:

For the more technically inclined, online video editing seems at first like a bad idea. Editing video is one of the most processor intensive applications you can do on a computer, and trying to replicate that experience through a web browser seems like it would be an exercise in futility.

Nonetheless, several online video editor websites already exist, with recent additions coming from the latest video sharing site MySpaceTV, and the video sharing giant YouTube with the YouTube remixer.

This article takes a closer look at what’s out there in this space, and whether you should give these online video editor sites a closer look.

First however some cold hard facts about video editing in general…

1. As you can see in the picture above it says that you can earn $4 CPM rate for video feeds. CPM basically means “cost per 1000 impressions”. But does it mean that 1000 impressions of the video feed box (shown below) will earn you $4 or every 1000 views of an actual video, i.e users have to play a video for it to count towards the 1000 impressions.
2. The News Room does not allow you to track your earnings. So at no point can you actually see how much you have earned. This is very frustrating for anyone expecting to earn money from The News Room.