On 1/14/10, Rainer Straschill <
moinsound@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> those video streaming things have been the #1 cool thing for me in 2009,
> and I continue to do a bi-weekly performance series (first official
> session this Saturday) and have done daily ones this past week since
> Sunday. Also, Rick's festival has been transmitted nearly in full (and
> archived online), so there's even a looping relationship here...on to
> some findings and a call for your inputs to these topics.
>
> My own experience:
> I have worked with three services in total:
ustream.tv,
justin.tv and
>
livestream.com. At least livestream also has a "premium" version with a
> hefty price tag, but all of those offer "free" (meaning ad-financed, no
> charges for viewer or presenter) accounts.
>
> What they have in common:
> They're free, allow you to record your shows and make them available for
> posterity, and allow embedded players to be placed e.g. on your website
> and viewing them does not require registration for the viewer. All of
> them allow you to transmit via a browser-based flash plugin or with the
> free Adobe FME software.
>
> The lowdown on all three of them:
> a) ustream:
> This is the one where I started, and where I have the most experience with.
> Nice:
> * the system of announcing your own shows, following other people etc.
> seems laid out fine. There also seems to be a large viewer crowd.
> * there are some basic editing functions for your archived videos
> which are, as I might say, sufficient.
> Not nice:
> * they have a service which allows cueing in other performers (called
> "co-hosting"), drop in clips form youtube etc. Unfortunately, the last
> time I checked (at the VSV festival in October), these functions were
> flawed or didn't work at all.
> * even when using the FME encoder, you still need to run the web
> browser plugin, which can be an issue for older computers (and "older"
> here means anything with a passmark below 900).
>
> b) justin:
> Nice:
> * This is the simplest of the three. Set up your account, download the
> xml file for the FME, fire up the FME.
> Not nice:
> * Well...doesn't offer that many nifty features as the others do.
>
> c) livestream:
> This seems to be the most powerful one of the three in terms of features.
> Nice:
> * A nifty wealth of features, including some configurable banners at
> the start of the video etc. There's the so-called "studio", which allows
> you to also upload videos, create an on-demand playlist, define
> storyboards for a live (or archived show), cue in other performers etc.
> Not Nice:
> * There are some limitations to the free accounts. First one is you
> need to get your channel certified to be allowed to transmit to more
> than 40 viewers. This is not a big issue, as it's just filling out a
> form and waiting for a day or so.
> * More limitations for free accounts: the biggest is that you are
> limited to a 500kbps stream bandwidth and 4:3 aspect ratio.
>
>
> Ok, now it's your turn. More observations to add? Other services which
> do something like that? Comments? Questions?
>
>
> Yours,
>
> Rainer
>
> --
>
http://moinlabs.de
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http://twitter.com/moinlabs
>
>