video

Three music video search tools

With this morning's news of Last.fm launching a video service, we thought it would be worth mentioning a few resources that are out there for finding free music videos.

MusicTonic is a very slick search tool that mashes up various pieces of artist information like photos, album art, news stories, and a video playlist. It ties into a few online services like Flickr, YouTube, Last.fm, and MyStrands, among others. It's a lot like Foxytunes Planet, which we looked at in January, although there's no integration with any jukebox players.

Middio is a simplified music-video search … Read more

New Pioneer Blu-ray player: Not so Elite

Pioneer announced its new Elite BDP-94HD Blu-ray player today, following up on its first generation BDP-HD1. Besides the new model name, there doesn't look to be much of a change from last year's model. The biggest addition we can see is onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD, which means it should be able to decode Dolby TrueHD soundtracks and send uncompressed PCM soundtracks to a compatible receiver via HDMI. Pioneer is also claiming to have revamped its Home Media Gallery feature, which allows for some basic network media streaming using the Ethernet port and supposedly the capability to download … Read more

New stars in new media: Is cute the killer app on YouTube?

Forget copyrighted comedy ripped off from some cable channel. Even forget the made-for-YouTube teen fantasy. This is real video of a real-life couple, laid bare before all the world. And the world, as reflected by YouTube, seems to love it.

You may be the last person on earth who hasn't already seen the hand-holding otters. The video is years old, but it wasn't posted until March. In less than two months, nearly 6 million viewings have been recorded.

Canadian TV reports the two otters have become big celebrities thanks to the video. Here you can learn the two … Read more

Coming soon: Natalie Portman as Web portal?

Can Justin.TV compete with Queen Amidala?

ValleyWag is reporting that actress Natalie Portman is shopping a project to broadcast a continuous video feed of her work and personal life. The actress reportedly met with venture capitalists in Silicon Valley to seek funding for the project.

Portman isn't alone in looking for new online outlets. Dave Networks, for instance, is building Web sites for stars--said to include Will Smith and Jessica Alba--that that would let them own, distribute and "monetize" their own content.

Many celebrities have documented their lives on television and in movies; and unofficial … Read more

Mash up audio and video with MXPlay

There are a number of great digital-music players already on CNET Download.com--iTunes rules the roost because of its compatibility with iPods; MediaMonkey is fantastic for free music management and playlist creation; JetAudio Basic is packed with features for burning and broadcasting via JetCast; the classic free player Winamp now provides Internet TV and music videos; and Quintessential Player, my personal favorite player, is the perfect size for those who prefer a light system footprint.

A new digital-music player called MXPlay focuses primarily on one facet that most of the current software doesn't even mention: sound quality. Designed mostly for streaming audio, MXPlay augments even the lowest-quality 96kbps music streams to provide a more full-bodied sound for your favorite tunes. Also, a unique graphical interface lets you position your virtual speakers and audience to tweak the sound of your songs to your heart's content, and a built-in browser lets you both surf the Web and add photos and videos to create your own music mashups.… Read more

ABC to Cox: No ad skipping on video on demand

Walt Disney's ABC and ESPN are expected to announce Tuesday a deal with cable operator Cox Communications to offer shows on demand, but there's a catch. Cox will have to disable its fast-forward feature that lets viewers skip ads, The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site Tuesday.

The deal is expected to be announced Tuesday at the National Cable Television Association's annual convention in Las Vegas. The arrangement will only apply to shows in the video-on-demand library and will not affect viewers using a digital video recorder, the newspaper said.

NBA offering downloads of playoff games

Lately, I've been getting into basketball. I know what you're going to say. That I'm jumping on the bandwagon. (I am.) It all started because of a man, of course.

No, not Steve Nash. It's because of a man who loves Steve Nash. He hooked me with the players' back stories, his impassioned declarations about the grace of the game and, more to the point, the way he distinctly pronounces each player's name.

So I started following the Phoenix Suns and then, naturally, my hometown team: the Golden State Warriors. (The last time I attended … Read more

Night-vision monitor to stop runaway babies

If you're a parent like us, you may have discovered a couple of dirty little secrets: Diaper Genies break and most baby monitors suck. We can't offer much about the first issue, but we're told that the second is making some significant advances.

U.K.-based Digitally Fresh, for example, has combined a video monitor and a wireless Webcam so that you can watch your precious creations as well as listen for them from anywhere in the house, according to Gearlog. But the best part? It has a night-vision camera so you make sure they're not … Read more

Joost and Heavy sign partnership

Online-video network Joost is expected to announce on Monday that it will feature videos from Heavy, a site popular among college-age males.

Joost, a start-up founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, the duo that gave the world Skype and Kazaa, has been out striking a host of content deals with media companies ranging from Viacom to the Turner Broadcasting System to Sony Pictures.

The company aims to turn Internet video into a more TV-like experience for viewers.

One of the big questions analysts had about the company was whether it could land hot content from major TV networks and … Read more