MTV.com has launched a large, and higher-quality show player.
The video player will automatic detect and dynamically optimize the streaming content to the highest level bit rate the Internet connection can support. MTV’s Flash videos stream from 1.7 Mbps for higher connection speeds to 350 Kbps for modest connection speeds.
Also, the player automatically displays 4:3 (full-screen) or 16:9 (widescreen) video in their native aspect ratio. MTV gives the ability to change display sizes and optimize bandwidth settings.
However, people’s response to this improvement cannot be worse. Too many bugs, errors, and updating problems are detected.
CBS tests HD video streaming
CBS Labs has begun streaming select HD video clips on their site. They are using H.264/AVC format at 480p, and it doesn’t require installing a plugin, as it happens with ABC’s video player.
The player itself reminds a lot of Hulu.com. Hulu currently provides three levels of quality: 360p, 480p, and 720p. The first two levels are streamed whereas the third is progressively downloaded.
The median broadband download rate in the U.S. is 1.9 Mbps, and HD video (ordinarily considered 720p or higher on the web, so CBS’s 480p does not constitute High Definition) consumes 2.5 Mbps.
Nobody plans so far to deploy 1080p because it takes up too much bandwidth and processing power.
YouTube ad feature shows when and where a clip is being watched
YouTube has launched a free feature called Insight that shows video creators when and where viewers are watching their videos. It provides a detailed view of a video’s popularity, both over time and geographically, giving video publishers some powerful new performance data. The tool has a number of practical applications, including market-testing TV ads to determine locations with high receptivity.
This information, than can help better promote publishers work, will be presented as a color-coded map and a graph of a video’s popularity, and it will be accessible from a video creator’s account page on YouTube. The company will update the data once a day.
YouTube executives suggest that marketers can use the tool in several ways. A movie studio might run several versions of a trailer to see what is catching on where, and then start running that trailer a TV ad. A political campaign could test spots to check candidates’ popularity.
Huffington Post beats Drudge Report
The Huffington Post, a 46 full-time employees, 3.7 million unique visitors per month, and $11 million a year revenue web page, has become the must read blog, even before Drudge Report. Behind only the technology site TechCruch, The Huffington Post is the second-most-linked-to blog.
The Huffington Post, launched just three years ago (in Many 2005), is made up of various news sources and columnist, and is Arianna Huffington’s political and new blog, or an “Internet newspaper”, as she like to name it.
Arianna Huffington, 57-year-old native of Greece author and former conservative pundit, was featured this week in the New York Times as “Citizen Huff”.
