Articles about Video

A new deal could be struck between ISPs and representatives of the music and film industries in UK in a bid to combat online piracy. But the proposed scheme does not go anywhere near as far as had been hoped by the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) and the MPA (Motion Picture Association). Four of the country's biggest ISPs -- BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media -- have come together to create the Voluntary Copyright Alert Program (Vcap) which has the aim of educating downloaders of pirate material of the error of their ways. As the name suggests, the program is completely voluntary.

There have been years of debate on the topic, and the BBC has seen documentation that shows ISPs will be doing little more than sending out letters to those suspected of downloading pirated material. The letters are described as having an "educational" tone, while the industry bodies had been calling for warning letters to be sent out alerting downloaders to the possibility of legal action. They had also asked for access to a database of web users known to have downloaded pirated material.

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Many people think nothing of grabbing the latest episode of Game of Thrones, Blacklist -- or whatever the current show du jour may be -- via one of a seemingly endless number of sites that provide access to pirated material. If you've ever visited such a site, you'll be aware that there is always something of a payload. You'll find advertisements -- usually of a pornographic nature -- fake chat windows, misleading links and all manner of other nasties. For the web-savvy, this is nothing new, but for every tech-minded torrent aficionado who is able to traverse through the online ghettos with an element of safety, there are countless others who are less well informed. And the world of pirate material is a dangerous one for the novice.

While this may not be news in itself, the figures involved are really quite surprising. A report published by The Industry Trust reveals that virtually every one of the most popular sites used to download or stream pirated films and TV shows are riddled with malware or credit card scams -- a staggering 97 percent. The report goes on to suggest that 75 percent of people who have made use of such a site have then experienced problems with their computers. The study was limited to 30 of the most frequently used pirate sites, and monitored them over a two week period. Just one site was found to be free from malware or credit card scams.

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Microsoft has really been embracing video lately. Whether bashing the Chromebook or promoting its own Surface tablets, the videos it produces are enjoyable and informative to say the least.

Say what you want about the Surface line of tablets, but they are very functional, well-made devices. Microsoft's videos simply show-off the tablet's potential, which is sometimes lost in the tech community. Let's be honest, many people have dismissed Surface, unfairly. Today, the company unleashes another video, highlighting how a wedding planner named Ashlee uses Surface to be succesful.

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Team MediaPortal has released a major update of its open-source media center software for Windows. MediaPortal 1.7.0 FINAL comes with a number of under-the-hood changes that will impact the program going forward, including future plans for a home screen editor within the MediaPortal itself.

The new build also promises enhancements to the TV and video On Screen Displays, a new Wake On LAN feature and support for accessing information about video files automatically.

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Cloud storage service Dropbox has officially announced the public availability of Dropbox for Business, a new product designed to boost the company's penetration in the enterprise cloud storage market. There, it will go against existing offerings from competing services like Box.

Dropbox for Business is designed to appeal to both enterprises and their employees, so it will give enrolled users the option to switch between work and personal content. Administrators will be able to have better control over company data, according to Dropbox, with the help of features like remote wipe, account transfer and audit log sharing, which allow them to keep track of data stored in Dropbox's cloud.

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For many people, streaming video is a top means of entertainment. It is easy to see why -- services like Netflix allow people to consume mass quantities of movies and television shows for a paltry amount of money. There is even a whole market now to sell dongles and boxes for connecting the services to your TV, such as Roku, Chromecast and Amazon's new Fire TV.

Speaking of Amazon, besides its new streaming media box, the company has been on fire lately (pun intended) when it comes to its Instant Video service. Today, the company announces that it has swiftly surpassed both Apple and Hulu.

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"I'll be back". The line has become a classic in popular culture as the muscular movie hero so frequently uttered it, almost as if it was his calling card. Arnold Schwarzenegger has done a lot since those days, some he would be proud of, and also a bit that he likely isn't, but regardless, he made good on his promise. He's back.

A new video from the action star features a tank and lots of objects being crushed. In fact, the video is called "will it crush", perhaps playing off the popular "will it blend" series. Spoiler alert -- most objects in the path of a tank will, in fact, crush.

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So I received Qplay last week, but only set up the thing today. Definitely I won't ever spend cash on preview programs again. Mother of God. Sweet Jesus. Someone save me from the choppy performance controlling the streaming box from iPad Air.

Did these guys grow up before multitasking? If I'm watching a video and want to scan the thumbnail strip for something else, Holy Moly, the vid stops and waits for me to tap the next thing.

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The Google Chromecast, which was announced in conjunction with the Nexus 7 last June, has been receiving a lot of attention as of late. This is mostly due to new functionality rolling out, along with the promise of more to come. But set-top box maker Roku wants a bit of that action and is now releasing it's own competitor to the Google product.

The Roku Stream Stick was unveiled today, bringing much of the same functionality. "This new tiny player plugs discreetly into an HDMI port – perfect for those beautiful wall-mounted TVs – and packs the complete Roku streaming experience", states Roku's SVP of product management, Jim Funk.

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I have to admit, it's been a long time since I watched professional wrestling -- let me just drop names like Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior and we'll leave it be at that. But the, ah ... sport, remains popular today and the largest federation has launched an innovative idea to bring it more viewers.

The wrestling league has announced a new 24-7 streaming service and Roku users will be getting it as well, as the set-top box maker today announces it is picking up the network for viewers.

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Like Google+, YouTube had a love affair with white space. This quirkiness was only noticeable to those who have large displays. On my 23-inch screen this meant the video-sharing site had only taken roughly half of it to show me relevant content. To get around this behavior, I had to resort to Google Chrome extensions which could center the page.

I said "had" because, thankfully, YouTube is now smart enough to figure out that when we are using large screens it should adapt its look accordingly. It now centers, yes. And, to my eyes, YouTube now looks more like Google+. That is not a bad thing, really, as, from my point of view, there is nothing wrong with the latter's layout.

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Smart TVs have become all the rage, bringing the world of apps into the living room. But other devices, like Blu-ray players and set-top boxes, can do the same thing. Now TiVo, a pioneer in the DVR field, is partnering with Opera to bring its app store to customers.

This isn’t for all TiVo users, only for those on US cable service RCN. Opera, largely known as a Norwegian browser maker, is one of the biggest forces in the smart TV business, maintaining an app store it licenses to device makers.

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The Seattle Seahawks overwhelming victory in this year's Super Bowl may now be a memory, but the ads certainly live on. Those that debuted during the big game continue to run during our daily TV shows, and Google's video service has been polling viewers to get a feel for what really came out on top that Sunday.

While everyone likely had a personal favorite, there was a consensus amongst the masses, and the company has unveiled its top five from the NFL championship.

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Years ago, when people thought of the future, videophones were prominent in their imaginations. Television shows such as Star Trek and The Jetsons made use of video communication. Today, we have many different choices when video chatting -- Apple's Facetime, Google's Hangouts and Microsoft's Skype are a few popular ones.

However, when it comes to multi-platform video communication, for many people, Skype is the best choice. No other popular video chatting service will work on iOS, Windows Phone, Android, OS X, Windows, etc. With that said, Microsoft is looking to give prizes to some people that utilize Skype often on multiple devices.

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GoPro, if you aren't familiar, is a little video camera that can be mounted on a dashboard, handlebars or helmet. It is designed to bring the viewer into the action, letting you experience what it feels like to plunge down that steep hill on a mountain bike, or ski jump off that ramp.

Now the durable little cameras are set to get their own channels on the Xbox platform. These will arrive for customers of both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, though it won't be coming until this summer.

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