News today that Google is in the process of buying On2 Technologies for over $100 million comes as no surprise to me as it is clear that video is one of the fastest moving technologies on the web at the moment. Over at Lookandtaste we have a constant battle with bigger file sizes and trying to compress the files down is always a nightmare so Google clearly see this as an ongoing battle and want to bring the best technology in house.
Google will be looking to integrate this technology into YouTube over the next couple of years and this will no doubt see them try and compete with the increasingly popular Hulu. The barriers to entry are now so low for small companies to be able to produce HD videos themselves and embed them to their own sites and spread their message through various social networks that it really is a no brainer to start producing a little bit of simple video content in house. Forget hiring a production team, just go out and by a HD camera for a couple of hundred Euros and start filming yourself and putting a face to your company. The good news about all of this is that it is free and with this deal it looks like the big boys are serious about getting the quality up on your videos. If you want to be blown away and see where video is heading in the future check this stunning clip out…
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wow, that clip is incredible! We began making some videos for our wedding venues and are putting them up on youtube now. It seems to be working well in terms of SEO and user experience on the site, and I would have to agree with Niall that they are not as difficult to make as one would think.
I was nervous about taking the plunge into video and started filming on my handheld 8.0megapixel Canon Camera but am going to go out and buy a Kodak HD now I think. For the money, they are invaluable.
Thanks for the great advice here on this blog
Good on ya Ciara! Told you it wasn’t that hard. All you need is a cheap camera and a bit of imagination which you have in bucketfuls!
This is incredibly exciting. The video online at the moment is barely watchable due to lack of innovation and power. Hopefully we will get to see blu-ray quality streaming without waiting or lag within 10 years
Nice video and agree with the spirit of the article, but isn’t this just a standard Vimeo clip?
You can get great results from Vimeo by just understanding the codecs but you must bear in mind that that video came from A SprintCam HD – beautiful quality but KACHING!
Real World Video Compression by Andy Beach (O’Reilly) is a great book on compression.
And here’s a link from a genius young lady for getting better quality vids on Vimeo:
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2008/01/11/from-minidv-to-vimeo-in-high-quality/
and here’s a vid she did with a Kodak EasyShare Z1012 720p HD (so cheap!) – totally underlines Niall’s point.
http://vimeo.com/2319870
Yeah agreed that this is defo technology that is a bit further off but am sure we will be watching all of our telly like this in the future
Stunning quality for sure, but there again I don’t think the compression is being over-taxed. The compression of high speed slowmos is pretty simple in that there’s not much happening from frame to frame, ergo the compression is a breeze. The use of fit lookin’ cheerleaders and rippling muscles is a bit sad too.
As a more stressful test they should compress a dour Old Firm derby on a wet Sunday in February.