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ww.itv.com TV, Video and Webcams
Jan 09,2007 00:00
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TV, Video and Webcams Section 1: Getting Started Essential Information With broadband you can easily watch TV, video clips and even entire films online. In order to view these you’ll need a good media player that allows you to listen to music and watch videos: Windows Media Player, RealPlayer and QuickTime are free and easy to use. See Chapter Six for more on these as well as instructions on how to download each media player. Section 2: TV and Video on the Web Essential Information There are lots of video clips and films you can view on the web and some broadcasters will allow you to watch full television programmes online. However, you’re more likely to find shorter video clips than full programmes until more TV companies broadcast more of their programmes on the Internet. TV Channels Visit ww.itv.com or webtvlist.com for a directory of live and recorded TV channels from across the world. Here you’ll find everything from Reuters news (tv.reuters.com) to the latest space updates from NASA TV (www.nasa. gov/multimedia). Click on the channel name to watch it on your media player. EXPERT TIP For an easy way to watch TV channels and video clips online, download Free Internet TV from holersoft.net. It integrates the various TV websites into one easy-to-use video player. You can try it for free but you will have to pay a small charge if you want the full version. BBC Broadband An excellent place to start getting news, sport and entertainment TV online is BBC Broadband. Action 1 First visit bbc.co.uk/broadband. Here you’ll find a list of all the latest broadband video clips available. Action 2 Choose a clip. You’ll be taken to the relevant part of the BBC’s website. Click on the link to start watching the video of your choice. Action 3 When you click on a video link on a website you can watch it in one of two ways: the website downloads the clip to your media player which starts the video for you; or the video plays on the website itself (this is known as ‘streaming’). The BBC uses the latter and shows videos online in the BBC Player. They have a number of players including music, sports and news (Fig. 1). Blinkx TV Blinkx TV is a website that aggregates video from major TV companies such as Reuters, Fox and CNN. It’s a great place to find high quality video clips online. Action 1 Log on to blinkx.tv. From the home page, you can search on any subject by entering one or more keywords in the search box. Action 2 Blinkx will then list all the videos you can watch on that topic from a variety of sources (Fig. 2). Action 3 Click on the video you want to watch and it will either play in the video box on the right of the window, or you will be taken directly to the website with the video clip, which will start automatically. Action 4 You can also set up your own video channels with Blinkx. Click on the Personal TV Channels link at the top of the page and search for a topic, such as ‘motorsports’. Press the Submit button to save this as a personal channel. You can then access this channel again next time you visit the website, so it’s easier to find videos on your favourite topics. EXPERT TIP After your initial search, you can refi ne your results further using the bar under the search box. Move the bar towards Date and your search results will show the latest video clips by date. Move the bar towards Relevancy and your search results will more closely target your topic no matter what date they were made. Other Online TV Channels You’ll find lots of other websites which broadcast their own TV ‘channels’ online. Many are an amalgamation of shorter video clips. However, TV broadcasters are now looking to offer full programmes online. UK broadcaster Channel 4, for example, airs some shows online before they reach your TV screens. Look out for the BBC’s Integrated Media Player, which allows you to watch BBC programmes you may have missed from the past seven days. 3BTV www.3btv.com AOL Television television.aol.com Apple iTunes apple.com/itunes/videos BBC Integrated Media Player bbc.co.uk/imp Blueyonder TV blueyonder.co.uk/tv Channel 4 channel4.com GreenGrass greengrass.tv ITV Local itvlocal.tv Mania TV maniatv.com Open Media Network omn.org ROO TV rootv.com RealGuide guide.real.com Smart Streams smartstreams.com Tiscali TV tiscali.co.uk/broadband/tv TV.com tv.com Section 3: Films on the Web There’s a small but growing number of websites from where you can legally buy and download full films. Try one of these websites or you’ll also find plenty of websites with film trailers and short video clips in Chapter Twelve. Bollywood TV bollywood.tv Cinema Now cinemanow.com MovieFlix movieflix.com Movielink (US only) movielink.com Sky By Broadband www.sky.com/skybybroadband Section 4: Searching for Video Clips Essential Information You can also search for any type of video clip on the Internet. You may already be familiar with standard search engines such as Google (google.co.uk) or Yahoo! (yahoo. co.uk). These allow you to find websites by entering keywords on a specific topic. With broadband you can now also use free video search engines that work in exactly the same way. Some video search engines such as Google Video have their own collection of videos you can search. Others such as Singingfish trawl the Internet for videos already online and then link you to the website where you can find them. Action 1 Try searching for video using Singingfish. Log on to singingfish.com. Action 2 At the top of the page enter keywords for a topic that interests you. You can also select the type of file you are looking for such as news or audio and other criteria such as the video length. Then click on the Fish it button. Action 3 You’ll see a list of all the videos Singingfish could find including the title of the video, further details and length. Click on the title to watch the video (Fig. 3). Section 5: Other Video Search Engines You can also try these video search engines for more clips and videos: AltaVista Video altavista.com/video AOL Video aol.com/video Excite Video excite.com Google Video video.google.com Ifi lm ifilm.com MSN Video video.msn.com Truveo truveo.com Yahoo! Video video.search.yahoo.com Section 6: Online Video Recorders Essential Information If you’re using a video search engine (see Section 4 of this chapter) and want to record a video you must save the selected video to your computer when you download it: then you can watch it whenever you want. However, many websites ‘stream’ video, such as news, live events or music concerts. You can’t save these or radio shows in the same way. To save these shows you need an online video and radio recorder. Action 1 For a free online video recorder use Bulent’s Screen Recorder. Go to thesilver.net and click on Download. Follow the on-screen instructions to install it. Action 2 To do a simple recording, open up the website that has the video you want to record. Go to Start and All Programs to find and start the Screen Recorder (see Fig. 4). Action 3 Press Select Source and then choose A Region. This gives you a box that floats above the webpage from which you wish to record. You can move the box around your screen or resize it using the arrows in the bottom right corner of the box. Fit the box around the section of the webpage that will display the video you wish to record, then press the Enter key to confirm. Action 4 Select the Screen Recorder window at the bottom of your desktop screen so it reappears. You’ll see a row of four buttons at the top. Click on the image of a camera to start recording. Click the Stop button to end recording. Action 5 Click on Save to save the video clip to a folder on your computer. You can then open it whenever you want and watch it again. Action 6 Use the Configuration button to change the settings. Here you can tick whether or not you want to record sound with your video clip, display the date or include the mouse cursor in the recording. EXPERT TIP You can use the Screen Recorder for many things. If you use a webcam with instant messaging (see Chapter Four) you can record your video conversations or you can use it to record yourself using software on your computer, for demonstrations or presentations. You’ll need to be sure you’re not breaking copyright laws by recording website video clips. In some countries recording for your own personal use may be allowed as long as you don’t distribute the recording. Section 7: Choosing a Webcam Essential Information A webcam is a mini video camera you connect to your computer that records pictures and transmits them over the Internet. Even if you have one already you’re probably not using it to its full potential. You’re not going to get television quality pictures with a webcam as they are low resolution compared to your TV. But using a good webcam together with broadband will produce higher quality pictures and smoother video clips. What to Look For USB Connection Most webcams connect directly to the USB socket on your computer. If you have an old computer without a USB socket you’ll need a camera that plugs into one of your printer sockets. Resolution Higher resolution produces a better quality picture. You’ll need a webcam with a resolution of at least 320 by 240 pixels and an auto focus lens that adjusts to different lighting. In a dark room webcams don’t work so well, so you may also need to buy a desk lamp to light up your face. Frames Per Second This is how many shots the webcam takes each second. You will need at least 30 frames per second to obtain smoother video. Microphone You’ll need one of these to make phone calls online or when using instant messaging, so choose a webcam with a built-in microphone. If your computer is in a noisy room, a separate microphone will be better or you may find yourself shouting at your webcam. Positioning Choose a webcam that you can attach easily to the top of your screen or to a stand and that can be tilted both horizontally and vertically. EXPERT TIP Logitech’s QuickCam range (logitech.com) is a good option. The more expensive models include smart features such as camera zoom and face tracking which automatically moves the camera when you move. Creative (creative.com) or Trust (trust.com) are also worth trying. On the other hand you could choose a digital camera with a built-in webcam such as the Fujifi lm Finepix (fujifi lm.com). Section 8: Connecting a Webcam Action 1 Connecting your webcam is simple. Your computer will automatically detect the new webcam when you plug it into the USB socket. It will then install the correct software and prompt you through the set up process. Many webcams also come with automatic installation for popular instant messaging programs like MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. Section 9: Video E-mail Next time you want to send an e-mail to somebody, make it more interesting. Send them a video e-mail instead using your webcam. Action 1 The software you receive with your webcam will differ from model to model. The software will allow you to record clips just like a video camera and save the video clip file to your computer. Action 2 You’ll need to keep your recording short �" a few minutes is probably the most you’ll be able to record. This ensures the file size isn’t too big to send by e-mail. You can reduce the file size and give yourself more time to speak by altering your webcam software’s settings. You can select a lower camera lens resolution, or lower frames per second (go for 15 instead of 30). The video won’t be as smooth but it will still be good enough. You can reduce the sound quality, from 16 bit CD quality stereo to simple 8 bit mono. It’s still good enough for chatting to your mates. Action 3 Once you’ve recorded your video clip, all you have to do is to send it as a normal e-mail attachment to your friends. When they receive your e-mail and open the attachment, they will be able to see your video message (provided they have an appropriate media player, of course). Action 4 Instead of using your webcam software to record your video message, you can use the webcam service from Tiscali. Visit webcam.tiscali.co.uk. You don’t need to download software or be a Tiscali customer to use this service. Click on Register Here to get started. Action 5 Once you’ve registered return to the above website and login using your account details. Choose Video E-mail. Action 6 You’ll see a page with the live image of your webcam (Fig. 5). Complete the boxes to tell Tiscali your friends’ e-mail addresses, and if you wish, you can also type in a message. Action 7 Record a video greeting by pressing Rec to start the recording and Stop to finish. Then press Send and your friends will receive an e-mail invitation to view your video greeting. Section 10: Long Video E-mails Essential Information If you want to send a longer video that is too large to send by e-mail you can upload the video to a free video e-mail website and then send your friends the link where they can watch it. Alternatively, try one of the ideas for sending large e-mails in Chapter Nine. Action 1 Record a video as in Section 9 of this chapter. It might be a birthday greeting or a message to your family. Action 2 Log on to clipshack.com and select Sign up for a Free Account. Action 3 Login with your new account details and use the options on the left to select Upload. Browse your computer for the video clip you’ve just recorded with your webcam and ClipShack will upload it to the Internet, into a personal folder. This may take some time. Action 4 Add a description of the video and decide who can see it. Choose All my Friends. You’ll then be taken to the My Clips area where all the videos you’ve uploaded are displayed (Fig. 6). Action 5 Click on the video you want to send, then choose the E-mail option. Enter the e-mail addresses of your friends or family and ClipShack will send them all an e-mail with a website link they can visit, where they can view your video message. Other Video E-mail Websites: DropShots dropshots.com Mefeedia mefeedia.com Mydeo mydeo.com Our Media ourmedia.org Vimeo vimeo.com You Tube youtube.com Section 11: Vlogging Essential Information First there was blogging. This is short for ‘web logging’ and involves creating a personal website (or ‘blog’) on a favourite subject. People use blogs to record their daily lives, for holiday trips or to tell the world about their favourite hobby. It’s a great way to put your life online and to communicate it with friends. Now there’s video blogging or ‘vlogging’. It’s the same as blogging but using video clips. Try setting up a vlog for yourself. Action 1 First of all decide what your theme is going to be �" you could create a family website or one about your favourite sport. Write some text about it and record one or more video clips using your webcam. For ideas check out vlogs that other people have created at vlogmap.org or vlogdir.com. EXPERT TIP For a more professional look you can edit the video clip you’ve recorded as well as add music or effects using video editing software. Windows Movie Maker (download it at microsoft.com/moviemaker) is an easyto- learn free package. Action 2 Register with a free blogging website. This will create the webpage that your friends can visit to see your videos. Try the popular blogger.com and register for a free account. Blogger.com lets you create your own personal webpage but it won’t store your video clips for you. You’ll need to load your videos to a free video storage website (there’s a list of these in Section 10 of this chapter) and create a link from your Blogger personal webpage to your video clips. Creating a vlog does require a little technical know-how. If you get stuck you’ll find help at videoblogging.info, groups. yahoo.com/group/videoblogging, or watch the handy video guide to getting started at freevlog.org. Section 12: World Wide Webcams Webcams are popular all over the world and thousands of people have put their own webcam footage on the Internet for you to see. Some are of people’s homes, others are of famous landmarks. If you like the idea of seeing what’s happening elsewhere in the world right now, visit one of these webcam directories for a list of thousands of webcams you can watch. WebCam Central camcentral.com Camvista camvista.com EarthCam earthcam.com Webcam Search webcamsearch.com |