News Archive for 05/12/22

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Free TV video on iTunes

12/22, 8:05pm

Free Battlestar video on iTunes

Apple is offering a free video of Battlestar Galactica , its recently added Sci Fi series described as an "intriguing take on the classic adventure of a ragtag fleet of humans--the sold survivors of a devastating nuclear attack by the robot Cylons." The iTunes Music Store is now offering a free 'Sci Fi Inside – Battlestar Galactica' video that includes interviews of cast members, a review of the crew's past adventures, and a sneak peek at future episodes, following the launch of the series on iTunes earlier this month. It is not known if Apple will continue to offer free videos on via iTunes as a marketing promotion to keep customers coming back to its store--driving both traffic and sales. The new Battlestar season premieres on January 6, 2006 on Fridays at 10 pm ET. [updated]

MegaPEG MPEG-2 encoder

12/22, 5:30pm

Digigami touts MPEG-2 over H.264

Digigami today announced that its new MegaPEG HDTV VBR MPEG-2 encoder is capable of matching, and in some cases exceeding the picture quality of current H.264 encoders while simultaneously offering reduced bitrates. Echoing Sony's recent claims that MPEG-2 can and will achieve quality/bitrates comparable to H.264 for the next generation of optical disc formats, the company said that its MPEG-2 encoder is "actually outperforming H.264 by a wide margin on 720p/1080p film content. Typically, our HD MPEG-2 encoder can produce VBR files two thirds to one half the bitrate produced by current H.264 encoders. On our website we have compressed material which supports this assertion." Apple's video iPod uses the H.264 format to play movies, as does its QuickTime 7 software. The Digigami MegaPEG HDTV VBR MPEG-2 encoder is available for $1,000 (system requirements were unavailable).

Online video a \"test bed\"

12/22, 4:20pm

Mobile videos help test full-length TV

The emerging video download industry which thrives on portable video players, such as Apple's fifth-generation iPod, is being called "the perfect test bed" for full-length television shows. An analyst from ABI Research who conducted an extensive study says we won't be seeing full-length episodes of hit television shows downloaded to portable devices in 2006, but rather more of the "short-form video" that is currently available. "The mainstream broadcast model is an extraordinarily expensive way to trial new concepts and shows," the analyst said. "Over 70 percent of all new shows don't survive the first season. The logic of trying short versions on emerging platforms at relatively low cost before committing to the expense of hour-long TV productions will soon be apparent to content owners."

4Flix.net expands content

12/22, 12:20pm

4Flix.net adds movies, cartoons, more

4Flix.net today announced that it has nearly tripled its stockpile of movies, cartoons, and television shows available for Apple's video iPod. The company's catalog now features directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Francis Ford Coppola, Frank Capra, and Orson Welles. Featured actors include John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Marlon Brando, Vincent Price, Frank Sinatra and Fred Astaire, as well as pioneers of early cinema such as Buster Keaton, Faye Wray, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Nearly a dozen Christmas titles are available at no cost via a free video podcast throughout the month of December. All videos from 4Flix.net are DRM-free, allowing customers to freely copy them amongst all personally owned hardware. Pricing for all titles remains under $2, and gift certificates are available.

iTunes, iPod top Google

12/22, 11:40am

iTunes, iPod among top Google searches

Apple's iPod and iTunes are among the most popular searches on Google, with the iPod topping the search list for the company's Froogle shopping/comparison site. iTunes, Apple's digital jukebox software and front-end to its iTunes Music Store, was No. 6 on Google's Top 10 Gainers list. MySpace, Ares, Baidu, Wikipedia, and Orkut took the top five spots, respectively. The iPod, however, remained most searched term on Froogle, while 'Janet Jackson' was the most searched term on Google. The terms "iPod," "iPod mini," "iPod shuffle," and "iPod nano" were all among Froogle's top 10 searches, ranking No. 1, No. 4, No. 8 and No. 10, respectively. Earlier today, reports noted that Google has begun tailoring results of music-related searches to capitalize on the online digital music trends.

Cinematize 2.05 update

12/22, 10:50am

Cinematize 2.05 delivers iPod export

Miraizon today announed that its DVD movie clip extractor, Cinematize 2 can now directly generate movie files for iPod video and Playstation Portable (PSP) units, as well as for sharing on the web. Offering single-step operation, the newly added output formats include Apple's H.264-based iPod video format for iPod and the MPEG-4 format for iPod, PSP, and web. In addition, Cinematize 2.05 offers improved compression color control, improved handling of DV Stream export, as well as several fixes. Cinematize 2 is a cross-platform application that allows users to extract audio and video clips off of any unencrypted DVD and save them in formats compatible with major applications such as Windows Movie Maker, Adobe Premiere, iMovie, QuickTime, Final Cut, PowerPoint, iTunes, and more. It is available for $60 (electronic) or $70 (boxed).

Theatre on Apple\'s iPod

12/22, 10:40am

UK Theatre offers episodes for iPod

UK Theatre Network today launched a version of its first episode for Apple's video iPod, as well as other devices. Glasgow-based actor Douglas McFarlane set up the online service UKTheatre.TV, and over the past year has built up a team of over 100 actors, directors and film crew in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, London and recently expanded to New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. "The concept is simple, I am passionate about theatre and I know there are millions of people around the world who are as well. I wanted to have the ability to understand more about a musical or play before going to see it. My colleagues and I have been visiting theatre and writing reviews for several years, and now with the advances in internet technology it is possible to watch a short film featuring these reviews and with permission, provide a short trailer of what the performance looks like", McFarlane said. The service filmed both the recent BAFTA Scotland awards and the launch of the National Theatre of Scotland, which have already been edited for download.

MusicMagic Mixer 1.5

12/22, 10:20am

MusicMagic creates music playlists

Predixis today released MusicMagic Mixer Version 1.5, its music search engine that creates instant compilations from any music collection, designed to help listeners discover additional music that fits their mood. Version 1.5 offers an improved user-interface, mix controls on the toolbar, an on-screen search field, and a live music discovery window. The application features a built-in music player, and adds support for universal plug-and-play devices. An acoustic scanning option plays non-random samples from the musical clusters in a users music collection, creating instant mixes of songs with the current musical feel. Integrated discovery opens a "discovery window" that exposes similar music from mainstream and indie sources for any browsed track. The application also features a power search feature that scans tracks using natural language queries based on facts behind the music, such as "rap music by men." It requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later, and will be available in January (with a "totally redesigned interface") for $20. [updated]

Free Tunatic search engine

12/22, 10:05am

Tunatic identifies radio, other songs

Sylvain Demongeot announced today released Tunatic v1.0.1b, a search engine that identifies songs playing from radio or any other music source. Tunatic displays the song's title within seconds, along with the name of the artist and many useful links to download the song, read the lyrics, buy the CD, etc. Tunatic is free and available for both Windows and Mac OS X platforms. "Tunatic is a powerful radio add-on, delivering rich contents such asimages, ringtones, or lyrics in one click, says Mr Demongeot. Radio is still the most common music source, yet it lacks the interactivity everyone expects from modern media. And the success of search engines such as Google make people want more and more information in less steps. That's why Tunatic will change the way we listen to radio." It is available for free for both Windows and Mac OS X.

Reel Bean released

12/22, 9:55am

ReelBean iPod exporter, media player

JS8 Media today released ReelBean, a media export and player application that converts movies to a format suitable for playback on Apple's video iPod. ReelBean can export movies to MPEG-4, H.264, 3GPP/3GPP2, AVI, DV stream, image sequences, QuickTime movies, and more. The application offers the ability to list all media tracks--video, sound, or text--contained within a movie, and can extract any of these into a separate file. ReelBean plays movies at any speed, displays movie info and property panels, and enables users to select or edit parts of movies to be saved as new movie files. ReelBean is available for free until late-January, when the application will be priced at $10. ReelBean requires Mac OS X 10.4.