video

The New York Post reported on Tuesday morning that New York-based video-hosting community site Vimeo plans to announce this week that it will be distributing videos at a high-definition resolution of 1,280x720 pixels, making it apparently the first user-generated video-sharing site to do so.

The Post's Peter Lauria connects the new push for making high-definition technology available on user-generated video sites to the ongoing price drop in consumer-grade HD cameras--an inarguably hot item this holiday season.

But back to Vimeo--it's an interesting site. Originally a side project for CollegeHumor exec Jakob Lodwick, the site's close-knit community, … Read more

To the British, at least, video games are now officially acknowledged as an art form on par with movies and TV.

Well, maybe that's a stretch. But the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced that it has added Sims creator Will Wright as a fellow, a prestigious honor that has previously gone to the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Steven Spielberg and Alfred Hitchcock, according to PC World (via Variety).

This is pretty cool. If you're not familiar with Wright, well, he's generally considered the reigning king of video games. In part that's … Read more

SAN BRUNO, Calif.--Google on Monday unveiled a new system for identifying pirated video on YouTube as it gets uploaded, but the system puts the burden on movie studios and other content owners to provide YouTube copies of the content first.

Content owners provide the video to YouTube and specify whether they want to block anyone else from uploading copies of it. They can also ask YouTube to allow others to post it and put ads next to it or otherwise promote it on their sites, David King, YouTube product manager, told reporters in a briefing at YouTube.

The automated YouTube video ID system looks at all video as it is uploaded and tries to match it with a database of visual abstractions of the copyrighted material that has been provided by content owners. If the system finds a match it will either block it, post it, or--depending upon the policy specified by the content owner--put ads on it, with the revenue being shared with the content owner.

If the copyright owner wants pirated copies to be blocked and the system finds a match, the pirated video may be posted, but only for a few minutes and then the system will remove it. The copies of the copyrighted content that owners provide YouTube for anti-piracy purposes will not end up posted on YouTube unless the company posts the content itself.

… Read more

These are better than any cat video you may have seen.

The German Car Blog noticed this new series of videos on Volkswagen's Swedish site for the Golf that features a menagerie of characters, each introducing a different Golf model.

The "Golf Auditions" include a naked naturalist explaining the Golf's different green fuel options, a female bodybuilder mime who likes the Golf R32, and a cross-dresser showing off the Cross Golf. The site also has a spot for would-be Golf owners to create videos for selling their old car.

Don't worry if your Swedish is … Read more

There's a new social network for gamers called GamerLibrary. The site takes the Delicious Library and Shelfari angle by letting users compile, and show off, their gaming collections, while at the same time adding a request feature to let members trade and borrow games among themselves. The idea is that you'll be able to join with your small collection of games and get others to loan you theirs, assuming they see something they like in your library. Together you build up a larger pool of shared games that can be borrowed or bought on the side.

Of course … Read more

This morning's addition of a YouTube layer to Google Earth added a whole new dimension of utility to the popular mapping application, but if you're looking to take advantage of some of that geo-tagged video goodness without installing anything, there's Mappeo. This Portugual-based site offers up nearly the same thing as Google Earth, with the addition of a search tool that lets you limit the videos to a specific area by keyword. Admittedly the service falls a little flat when you compare it to the catalog of video clips you're getting with Google Earth. There's … Read more

This story has been updated from its original version.

In order to get back on top of the video games market, Electronic Arts is willing to pay a hefty price. Namely, $860 million.

The Redwood City, Calif.-based publisher announced on Thursday afternoon that it had agreed to acquire VG Holdings, the parent company of two game development companies, BioWare and Pandemic Studios, from private equity firm Elevation Partners.

This deal, expected to close in January and originally reported by the Wall Street Journal, is the largest in EA's 25-year history.

For more coverage from CNET News.com's … Read more

If you were waiting for YouTube to roll out a maps feature to browse geotagged videos, the solution has come in the form of a new Google Earth layer released today. With the layer enabled, videos will pop up anywhere you are on the map and play on the video's page on YouTube if you click the thumbnail. PC users get a slightly better experience than Mac or and Linux users, as the videos will play right inside the application.

Like other layers in Google Earth, you need to turn this one on to start seeing videos. You'll … Read more

When I walked into midtown Manhattan's flashy Arena nightclub on Tuesday evening for an event celebrating the introduction of RealNetworks' Rhapsody music service on TiVo, a waiter approached me with a tray full of tumblers containing a clear liquid accompanied by slices of lime.

I was thirsty. "Is this water?" I asked him.

"No, it's an HD Crystal Clear Cosmo," he replied matter-of-factly, "so, no, it's not water."

A little bit of journalistic digging--i.e. finding a sign detailing the evening's signature drinks--yielded that that the HD Crystal Clear Cosmo … Read more