YouTube, the most popular video sharing site on the web, is making a roar with news that they will be expanding support for all cell phones enabled with 3G technology. According to YouTube's announcement, this expansion will amount to upwards of 100 million devices that will support the playing, rating, and commenting of videos.

Those who have 3G enabled devices will be able to invest even more time on YouTube soon. The announcement that YouTube will expand support for all 3G compatible devices is another victory for the company.  No date was mentioned of when this expansion will be completed.

Members of the YouTube site will be able to not only play videos on their 3G enabled devices, but comment and rate them as well. Most functionality that users have on the desktop is available with YouTube's mobile version of the site. There is also a downloadable application available for a select few Nokia and SonyEricsson devices.

Now, if Google gets aggressive in the 700 MHz auction, people in the U.S. who do not currently have the ability to view YouTube content on their mobile devices could be provided with more affordable options, and Google would become even more rich through mobile advertising; however, it might not work out that way.

[Source: PC World]

Hulu, the company that was, at first, publicly ridiculed because of its name is now making big strides with video on-demand.  Not only has Hulu given internet TV the justice that it has deserved for so long, but it has forever changed the future of the television broadcast industry.  Big networks are taking notice.  This is Tech In Demand's review of Hulu.

The Great Stuff

The greatest thing about Hulu is that users can now access some of their favorite shows that are being watched on the tube, now via internet on-demand.  It was such an obvious direction for broadcast networks to take, yet their hesitancy probably cost them huge bucks; Hulu is making up for it though.

The one thing that impresses me most is the video quality that Hulu provides.  If any user's computer has enough processing power, some shows offer a beautiful 16:9 picture that is suitable for full-screen use.  Unfortunately, like Family Guy, not all shows offer this quality, but it is more than acceptable.  YouTube users will certainly be impressed.

Making these shows is not cheap, and that is why they have advertisers, of course.  Hulu places 5 to 15 second advertisements throughout the videos in logical locations (where the shows would normally take commercial breaks on cable/satellite).  Most videos contain anywhere from 3 to 5 advertisements per video.  However, I must say that I honestly do not mind the advertisements in Hulu, and they are done really well--I can't believe I just said that.

The Not So Great Stuff

As we all know, there is no such thing as a perfect world, and there are a few strikes against Hulu; however, these issues could easily be fixed without much effort from the developers.  With future updates, I expect that these will be fixed in time.

My first complaint is that the site design--while good in general--is not so good in the way it organizes its content, and in some ways the site lacks critical organization.  For example, only by navigating to the recent video RSS feed (for the entire site) or the individual show's RSS feeds or the show's homepage can users see the latest shows available on the site.  Something relatively close to YouTube's subscription system, which shows recent videos on the homepage, would be sufficient for me.

I have yet to try embedding any video, so I will begin by posting one here on Tech In Demand.  What I hear from other users is that videos will stop functioning after they are restricted/removed on Hulu's website--which is unfortunate if true.

My Thoughts

My only concern with Hulu is that NBC and News Corp. will likely prevent other networks from using their service.  While most competition will not rely on Hulu itself, which will ultimately result in competing services like it, smaller competing networks may be interested in the advertising revenue that Hulu could offer.

I use several services for receiving video content that get the job done: Netflix, YouTube, Miro, BitTorrent, basic cable, and now Hulu.  While I could say which one is my favorite, I must admit that all of them work well in providing me with a plethora of entertainment.  I will say that Hulu is a serious contender, and it offers quality content.

Hulu is currently in private beta.  No word yet on when it will be releasing to the public, but I doubt it will be too much longer with the success it appears to be having.

Netflix, the highly rated video rental service, is throwing a curve ball.  It is now going to allow subscribers to view its library of 6,000 "watch instantly" videos without time restrictions.  Previously, each subscription level provided a certain amount of time for which you could watch these videos, but that is no longer the case.  The only question is will anybody use it?

In an email that was sent to me just a few moments ago, Netflix stated that the instant viewing feature is now unlimited for my current Netflix subscription:
Dear James,

As part of your current Netflix subscription, you have the option to watch some movies and TV episodes from the Netflix library instantly on your PC at no additional charge. Now, we've made it unlimited!

So watch instantly on your PC when you want, and as often as you want. Select from our separate, smaller library of over 6,000 familiar movies and TV episodes available to watch instantly.

- Your friends at Netflix
Shockingly (maybe not shocking to Netflix subscribers), I never used this feature before--with the only exception being that one time I was testing to see if it worked--and even then I was not that impressed.  There are various issues I have with the service: It only works on Internet Explorer, the library of content is nothing special, and you have to be online to view videos.

This is an improvement, generally speaking, but the video library is just too small to make this a big impact.  Netflix's "Watch Instantly" section does have some titles that I would not mind viewing: Ghostbusters, The Evil Dead, and Short Circuit to name just a few.  Regardless, Netflix is still a better deal than Blockbuster for online video rental.

Editor's Note: After writing this article, I discovered that there is a hack for accessing and viewing "Watch Instantly" videos in Firefox.  It simply uses IE Tab.  I have not tested this method, but it seems that people have had success with it.  Still raises the question of why Netflix does not officially support Firefox.

Canon has been extremely lazy about keeping up with its competition in the line of SD-based camcorders. Third-generation models have been announced by both Sony and Panasonic. Canon had never released an SD camcorder, but the company has finally turned an impressive showing for 2008. The HF10 and HF100 will be sure to offer a challenge to the competition.

What It Is

Canon Vixia HF10 (Image Credit: Canon USA)
The Vixia HF10 is the most expensive and impressive of the bunch. The camcorder has 16GB of built-in flash memory, a 1/3.2-inch 3.3-megapixel sensor, the ability to record AVCHD at 17Mbps, a storage capacity of nearly 6 hours, a 12x optical zoom, and support for 1920x1080 recording.

What It Does

The Vixia line of products that Canon is releasing adds more competition to the SD camcorder market.  The SD camcorder market will likely thrive in the future. Sony and Panasonic have some things to worry about with this model, but the consumers win with the prices of currently available SD-based camcorders dropping as a result of these announcements.

What It's Worth

The HF10 model (pictured above) will cost $1,099, and the HF100 will cost $899. They are expected to ship near the end of April. The HF100 is definitely more expensive than the offerings of the competitors, but the cost is justified with the inclusion of 16GB built-in storage.  The less expensive model lacks internal memory.

My Thoughts

SD-based camcorders are the future of video electronics. It is a market that is going to heat up this year, and Canon proves this by finally entering with an SD camcorder. I suggest you hold out on purchasing any SD-based camcorders until later this year.

Typical of web 2.0 applications, the developers are determined to provide a beautiful interface for their users. This is a familiar concept that is applied in gaming, software applications, and other forms of media. There is nothing wrong with this, but it is very wrong when it takes precedence over functionality and reliability. Stickam never received that memo, but I am here to deliver it.

Stickam is a rapidly evolving social community. The development team has been constantly making changes to the site. Stickam's official blog shows the plentiful amount of activity and change that occurs. It is all for a good reason--Stickam is the premiere social site offering live multi user video socialization.

All of the above sounds great, but anyone would be sorely mistaken to believe just that. Even with all the changes, there are glaring fundamental problems with Stickam. One issue is that the site is very unreliable. Another is that the site is very difficult to use at times. Unfortunately, there is much more that is wrong with Stickam:

• Frequent random disconnects
• Frequent site errors
• Overly CPU and memory intensive (poor programming most likely)
• Being logged out at random (while actively using the site)
• Inability to change your account's email address (if you lose your email, you might lose your account)
• Security risks (Stickam has been compromised by hackers in the past)
• Useless additions (profile completeness rating, Stickam debate rooms, and more)
• Rare enforcement of site policy by Stickam staff

The aformentioned issues are far from being recent discoveries, and most have been apparent since the beginning. Why the development team does not tackle these issues is beyond me, but I will call them out on it. It is beyond pathetic that the development team repeatedly fails to address these issues. It all leaves me fairly displeased.

It is not hard to question if Stickam is destined for a path similar to MySpace; the development team appears very complacent with where they are at, but one day they will be served a realization that they are no longer the only game in town. When that day happens, it will be interesting to see some progress made.

It seems like every month I am asked the question of why a certain video file will not play. My first thought to solving the problem is questioning if the proper codec is installed. In nearly every case so far I have been wise in my questioning. I think it is about time that we forget about decoders, file formats, errors, and other problems that may arise while attempting playback. The solution is simple really. Use the VLC media player by VideoLAN.

The problem with today's digital video is that there are many different file formats, and many ways to compress those files. Codecs have been developed to maintain video performance and quality, while decreasing file size. Complications arise for people because operating systems do not have the decoders to playback those files correctly.

VLC solves this problem by having most of the required decoders installed with the application. This means that even if you do not have a decoder installed on your system you can still play it in the VLC media player.

This application also works well for dropping in a DVD and having it play correctly. I have had a few messages sent to me through YouTube asking why their newly purchased DVD will not play on their computer, but will play on their DVD player. It is because that the proper decoder to play that file is not installed. In the future we can only hope that there will be easier ways of dealing with problems like these. For right now, VLC is the best way to address most of these issues.

VLC media player is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and a few other operating systems. The quality of this program is unrivaled from what I have seen. There has not been a media file which I have attempted to play in VLC that has failed.

VLC might not sport the prettiest default interface, and this is of course why developers implement the ability to skin applications. There are currently over 20 skins available for download on the VideoLAN site. Enjoy the look of Windows Media Player 11? Skin it to VLC! Check out the screen capture on the right; that is VLC in action.

You can download the VLC media player on the VideoLAN site for absolutely free. It is open source, and that my friends is always a good thing to support.

If you want to read any future content first, be sure to subscribe to the Tech In Demand RSS Feed so you never miss out! If you use VLC, share you thoughts about it below.