Tag Archives: reviewed

YouTube’s New Content

The New York Times “Critics Notebook” came down hard on YouTube’s attempts to create TV-like content. See the full article here, and now some highlights…

Do you agree, or have a different thought?

  • With regular weekly shows and viewer-friendly playlists, they are indeed slightly more televisionlike than the millions of mostly homemade videos that surround them.
  • But the harder they try to resemble television, the less interesting they are.
  • All of these shows could, with minor modifications, look at home on television, and the production values on many of the new channels are comparable to those on the lower and middle regions of cable.
  • On the other hand, entire categories of these new YouTube channels — on pop culture and gossip, music, sports, women’s topics — mostly feel like imitations of what cable outlets like MTV, Spike and Bravo already do… There is also a sameness to them
  • Watching these channels, in their bland uniformity, underlines a continuing reality… there are unbridgeable differences between YouTube and television.
  • The shortness and vast abundance of videos, along with the easy but largely random nature of navigation among them, make YouTube an oddly static, timeless experience, no matter how quickly you click from one video to the next. Its channels are video archives, not places where one show follows another.

No More Excuses to Dodge Web-TV: Angry Birds on Roku

The Roku turns your Internet into television (and has a cool fiber logo tag)
You cannot resist his face and the clouds and the blue background.

You’ve heard about online video, and you have a few extra large monitors (HDTV) that you aren’t using. Now you’re running out of excuses, because the Roku (which like AppleTV, Boxee, TiVo and other devices) will soon offer Angry Birds… right on your boob tube. To be sure Roku is right for you, check out this comparison (GigaOM) to AppleTV’s fall update and the Boxee.

If you’re already a member of Amazon Prime (free trial here) or Netflix (free trial here), you’ll get better use out of these limited but generous “all you can eat” video collections, although some devices (Wii, Xbox) allow you to search Netflix’s entire collection instead of just your manually populated “Instant Que.” I have just about every web-to-TV box available, and Roku’s my favorite. I use TiVo most often, because it’s my bedroom replacement to Verizon’s crappy Motorla units. And if I’m on a YouTube binge, I do like the simplicity of AppleTV.

Roku wins because it’s incredibly easy to navigate, and the remote is as simple as AppleTV with barely any buttons. I also admit to digging the new fabric tag that pokes out the remote, making it even more unique.

If you’re overwhelmed by the steps required to starting on these devices, here’s the dealeo. In most cases (Hulu as an exception) you don’t even need to pay a monthly fee for additional content, like the library of Revision3 channels.

The idiot’s guide to getting started on web-TV for $99 and about 5 minutes of your precious time.

Get more out of that boob tube and stop pesky burning $4 on "on demand" movies.
  1. Buy the Roku (Amazon affiliate link). That’s the most difficult step, and there’s no service fee required.
  2. Plug the Roku into an electric outlet.
  3. Plug in an ethernet cord from your modem or router (or use one of these wireless internet adapters, which sends internet via electricity).
  4. Connect the Roku to your television via those red, white yellow cords or the fat one called an HDMI cable (audio and video)
  5. Turn on Roku and follow brief instructions
  6. Gorge on free content, and if you have Roku or Amazon, simply generate an approval code then tap that into your account to verify the box is yours and not some nosey neighbor pouching your account.
  7. Write me and tell me how I’ve opened your eyes to the impossible.

 

Sylvania DV-120 Reviewed, Rated vs. FlipCam

I recently wrote about the Sylvania DV-128, which was $40 shipped. I called it the “poor man’s FlipCam.” Well unfortunately, you get what you pay for. See the footage compared to the FlipCam Mino… the Sylvania is grainy and the audio is overdone… I had to turn it down so it didn’t blast you.

I was expecting the Sylvania to be lower quality, but not this lame. It’s almost as grainy as a $20 digital camera I bought that’s hidden in a pen. Go for the Flipcam Mino instead.

I was excited that someone was getting into a really approachable price point, but this was a mistake for the company trying to move from lightbulbs to consumer electronics. Erodes trust.

Popular YouTube Star Quits Denny’s. Goes Full-Time.

Michael Buckley, writer and host of “What the Buck Show,” has left his full-time job as regional assistant director at Denny’s to plunge full-time into online-video entertainment. Read about it in this New York Post article (found courtesy of this relatively new blog, “YouTube Reviewed“). Here are some quotes about his departure from a recent blog.tv show Buckley hosted.

In a phone interview, Buckley told WillVideoForFood that he’ll miss serving Grand Slam breakfasts, and his co-workers and customers. “It made me cry a little bit, and not just because I’ll miss the 30% off employee discount,” said Buckley.

It is exciting to see a person leave a day job to commit to online video, and other YouTubers (CharlesTrippy, Sxephil, MrSafety) are finding their online work brings more income than day jobs.

Note in this interview with MrSafety Tyra Banks announces that Cory (smpfilms) makes $20,000 a month on YouTube. His response: “who told you?” I happened to be in NYC with Cory the day prior, and I hope he doesn’t mind me telling you that the shirt he bought for this interview cost more than my first suit.

Now we just have to figure out how to do this when you have four kids, a mound of debt, and a giant mortgage.