Dean Stringer's List: recording and streaming

"Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said in a conference call to discuss second-quarter earnings that the online-video giant plans to focus on a “streaming only” future after separating its mail-order DVD service into a separate subscription. But that future, Hastings said, will also bring Netflix into many more countries."

"Akamai creates its quarterly State of the internet report. The report provides some interesting facts and figures, such as regions with the slowest and fastest connection speeds, broadband adoption rates and the origins of attack traffic."

Booktrack – an app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, with an Android version to be released later this year – was created by New Zealand brothers Mark and Paul Cameron. It matches music, sound effects and ambient audio to book text on an e-reader, keeping pace with the user word for word.

New Ways to Deliver and Protect High-Quality Video Online and On-device Simplify Streaming Media and Content Protection for Superior Video Experiences Across Desktops and Devices Including iOS, Android and Playbook"

"The bidding war for Hulu is heating up, with Google, Yahoo, Amazon, and DirecTV still in the mix. Google is rumored to have made an aggressive offer for Hulu. It may be hard for anyone to match Google’s ability to pay, but Amazon needs to find a way to come out on top — not just that Amazon wants Hulu, but because Amazon really needs Hulu and is best positioned to make the most of Hulu. Here’s why:"

"With the release of the iPhone OS 3 update came the ability to do live streaming. There are a few types of streaming and each requires a certain encoding and segmentation. I've put together a cheat sheet on how I went about building a static stream using FFMpeg and an example segmenter that someone has posted. I'm not covering windowed streams in this post but if you are thinking about implementing a windowed stream the following will help you make a step in that direction."

Ali C. Begen is with the Video and Content Platforms Research and Advanced Development Group at Cisco. His interests include networked entertainment, Internet multimedia, transport protocols and content distribution. Ali is currently working on architectures for next-generation video transport and distribution over IP networks, and he is an active contributor in the IETF in these areas.

"How to Encode for Adaptive Streaming
Jan Ozer's Streaming Media West presentation on adaptive bitrate can turn casual encoders into instant experts."

"The Flash Media Manifest is a file format that contains information about a Flash media asset. This information includes the location of the media, DRM authentication information, media bootstrap information, multi-bitrate information (MBR), etc. The intended workflow is that a media player loads and "plays" a manifest file as if it were an atomic media file. The load process might involve DRM authentication, HTTP bootstrapping, and selection of the appropriate MBR rendition. "

How do organizations like MTV, Turner, NBC, Deutsche Welle, Harvard, and Indiana University actually deploy adaptive streaming technologies? Read on for all the juicy details

This Technote offers the recommended encoding settings to use when creating HTTP Live Streaming media for iPhone and iPad apps, and for Safari on iOS. It also provides tips for creating variant playlists, highlights some special considerations for deploying your media content to a web server and discusses how to validate your media streams.

The following document details the current Best Practices for Multi-Device Transcoding. Each section will detail the recommended encoding settings and resolutions for the current array of devices along with use cases and background information

Marco Tempest spins a beautiful story of what magic is, how it entertains us and how it highlights our humanity -- all while working extraordinary illusions with his hands and an augmented reality machine.

Taking advantage of similarities between Smooth Streaming and DASH, Windows Azure Media Services will add support for DASH Live Profile later this year so that both Smooth Streaming and DASH devices can access the same live and on-demand video presentations using either manifest format. This will enable a smooth (pun intended) transition to DASH for millions of devices and services currently using Smooth Streaming. In addition to server-side support, Microsoft will also add support for DASH to all its Smooth Streaming client development kits.

"Over the weekend, as part of the 2012 National Association of Broadcasters' show (NAB), Wowza Media Systems introduced an updated version of its Wowza Media Server 3 (WMS). WMS 3.1 and includes the ability to add on a network digital video recorder (nDVR) as part of the plug-in architecture that Wowza debuted at the 2011 NAB show."