Saturday, October 08, 2005
Internet Browser and the family room TV will merge
In response to a recent question about media files, I offered the following information that I thought I would share with you. I've been of the opinion for a number of years that the Internet Browser and the family room TV will merge, I actually thought it would be further along than it is by now. I know, with Microsoft WebTV and TiVo, things are shaping up, but it takes bandwidth to really makes things "move and shake" online.
The infrastructure is coming together to offer everyone broadband access just like broadcast T.V. (Keyword "WiMax") I once drew up a business plan (concept really) that included WiMax to handle Cable TV, Broadband Internet, Telephone service as well as wireless utility and security. I was only short the 50 Billion $$ I needed to put together the network. (grin)
Here was the question:
Posted: 06 Oct 2005 at 4:12am
Hi all,
I am in the process of putting downloadable video clips on my website and am wondering the best format to use. When I say best I mean a tradeoff between quality and size.
Options the I know of are .mpeg, .avi, .wmv
Anyone have any advice.
Here was my response:
Posted: Today at 8:28am
I have a large client with an entire TV production staff. We have been publishing in WMV for months with no complaints. We provide instructions for non-windows people most of whom already know how to handle WMV because it's so popular.
In a recent meeting however, we began exploring mpeg for downloadables and Flash for protected content.
(Funny though, these media people wanted to publish in ALL formats. When explained the process (time) and the cost of bandwidth and disk space, they agreed that we either stick with WMV or one other alternative.)
From experience, I would suggest that if you're publishing WMV files for download, zip them to force the download, otherwise people will play the clips in place and you'll chew up more bandwidth than you may have intended.
I'm about to put a dedicated box [server] in place just for media files. It seems the web is making that transition I expected, from text based to media based. More and more of the larger players (especially news) are making the transition. Throw in some pod-casting, Internet radio and interactive Flash and you have the interactive TV of the future.
I wrote an article a few years back that the Internet is the TV of the 50s. I'm confident that within the next 10(?) years it will be difficult to discern the difference between your TV and your Internet browser. I remain convinced... we are on a path to true multimedia.
With all of this said, let me make one more observation. While the Internet may be making the transition to a more media rich format, I think there will always be a market and need for text based content online as well. It's the interactivity that makes the web so popular. People expressing their opinions, sharing their thoughts and images, meeting people and finding information. Companies can publish information that can be indexed, referenced and used in many ways. Media content is good, but the visitor has to sit through the presentation instead of being able to quickly scan it or pass over the parts that are not of interest.
So, while mainstream web may turn more media rich, the text based web is here to stay. I'm thinking there will be a convergence of the two... for example, a chat box on the side of a currently playing program where people can express their thoughts through out the program. Or time indexing that will allow people to insert a comment or send a link to the exact portion of the program. Yes, these will happen I am sure.
