YouTube adds closed captioning to videos

The web's biggest video site is now adding captions to its videos. From now on, all videos uploaded will have optional captions transcribed from the audio through Google's speech recognition system. This is a massive expansion of YouTube's closed captioning service, which debuted last year for a small handful of videos across certain partners.

The speech recognition is erratic, but fortunately users can download the text transcripts of the captions and edit them manually. Also, it seems that videos with a lot of background noise or little dialogue don't get automatically transcribed through the service. When it does get transcribed, though, you can count on the captions being either helpful or hilarious.

— Will Greenwald

[Source: Gizmodo]

Get ready to pay for Hulu and Youtube

And so it begins. Youtube is going to start charging to watch some independent films on its service, and Hulu looks like it might be following suit.

USA Today reported that YouTube will charge around $5 for access to five Sundance Film Festival films from 2009 and 2010. This is being done as a test, to see if users are indeed willing to pay for content on YouTube.

Next week: 1080p video on YouTube

Straight from the "getting blood from a stone" files, YouTube has announced that it will begin streaming 1080p video next week. Until now, the highest resolution YouTube could stream was 720p, and that was only a minority of videos. The move to true, modern HD is a significant change for the service.

Don't expect a sudden jump in quality for all YouTube videos, though. Video quality is constrained by the original footage and the display used to view the end result. If the video was shot on an SD camcorder, or an HD camcorder that can only record 720p (like the popular Flip UltraHD), it won't take advantage of 1080p streaming. Even if the footage was recorded in 1080p, if you watch YouTube on your computer, on an ordinary monitor, you probably won't see a difference. If you watch YouTube on an HDTV and the video you select was shot on a decent 1080p video camera, you'll probably see a nice bump in quality.

Samsung Blu-ray players getting Youtube

Samsung has been pretty good with streaming Internet video on his Blu-ray Disc players. Its newer models have been able to stream Netflix video, Blockbuster On-Demand, and other services. Until now, though, the players haven't been able to access keyboard-playing cats, Rick Astley music videos, or kittens riding Roombas.

The company has just announced at IFA 2009 that its Blu-ray Disc players will begin supporting Youtube. The players will also support MKV video files, expanding video compatibility. The new features will be available on all Samsung Blu-ray players to come out in Q4 2009.

— Will Greenwald

[Source: TechRadar via Engadget HD]

YouTube Allows Ads on Network Partners

In what could be viewed as a direct attack on Hulu, YouTube is going to allow advertisements on its major partners YouTube channels. It's already been doing this with some partners, such as CBS. If YouTube's copyright detection determines something is also a CBS or other partner's program, it will insert their ads there too. Quite fascinating.

The revenue from these ads will be split with the partners, regardless of who actually sells the ads.

Will advertisements turn you away from watching a TV show on YouTube? Or, is that a small price to pay for a free service?  -- Leslie Shapiro

Ars Technica

Warner Music Bails on YouTube

Warner Music Group can't catch a break. While most music labels are trying to find any revenue they can, Warner just pulled out of a contract with YouTube.

Considering how many people go to YouTube to find new music, this move is pretty drastic, considering that it's almost impossible to find music videos on MTV or VH1 these days.

Warner was the first big label to sign onto YouTube back in 2006.  Way, way back then, no one could have predicted how huge YouTube would be, or that Google would scoop it up. This deal expired a few months ago, and it probably wasn't a great deal -- not nearly as lucrative as the deals with other labels that signed with Google was already in the mix.

They're fighting over half a penny.

YouTube HD Link

YouTube has had HD videos for a while now, but finding that HD content has been a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. Looks like they've made it much, much easier.

Now, once you go to the Video page, there's a link to all the HD content, right next to the Most Popular and Most Viewed tabs. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of HD content to pick from.

One thing you might want to watch is . . .

YouTube with HD Video - Hulu Beware

The one claim - okay, one of a few claims - that Hulu had over YouTube was the quality of the video. But, crafty YouTube viewers have scrounged around and found a few HD-quality videos mixed into the regular, pixelated, sputtering content we all know and love.

This new content is most likely real HD 720p, H.264-encoded mp4 files, better than the previously viewable "high quality" content.

This new material will require a faster connection and more powerful PC than before, but if you have the ability, it should be impressive, and give YouTube the quality-hike that they need to compete with Hulu in the eyes of Hollywood.

Keep reading for the hack needed so you can watch either the high-quality or 720p videos.

Happy Birthday Big Bird, and Welcome to the 'Net!

Sesame Street just turned 39!  Happy Birthday! To celebrate, Sesame Street is hitting the Internet, in a big way. They're heading to iTunes, YouTube, and Hulu. Talk about covering all your bases. It makes sense — their target audience doesn't really care how they get him, they just wanna their Big Bird.

See how your family can get its fix of Elmo.

Who Needs YouTube, Hulu, Netflix or TiVo?

Sure, we can talk all we want about high-end video. We can compare formats. We can talk until we're Blu about pixels.

Who cares, though?