Articles about Video

Whether for business or personal use, a projector can be an invaluable tool. A portable battery-powered model in particular can create a great presentation experience no matter where you are working, such as a coffee shop. Hell, you can even use a portable projector for watching movies -- set up a little viewing party in a tent while camping, for instance.

Today, a company called AAXA launches a new portable projector, and it looks quite stylish. The "P7 Mini Projector," as it is called, features a removable 10,000mAh lithium-ion battery, which promises 90 minutes of use at 450 Lumens. When plugged into a power source, the projector can do 650 Lumens.

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Facebook's plan for Facebook Watch to be a viable competitor to YouTube seemed a little unlikely -- to say the least -- and it would seem that the pessimists were right. Facebook Watch has proved to be a dud.

A little over a year after launch, the on-demand video service has gained an audience of just 50 million people. This might initially sound like a large number, but YouTube has -- admittedly over a number of years -- amassed over 1.8 billion users. The problem appears to be that younger audiences are simply not interested in Facebook Watch, so Facebook is now switching the focus of the service to an older market.

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Walmart has partnered with movie studio Metro Goldwyn Mayer to help boost content for its video-on-demand platform Vudu.

Vudu -- which Walmart bought eight years ago -- has failed to attract a userbase anything close to that of rival Netflix, but by teaming up with MGM, there is clearly a push to change this. MGM will create original content based on its library of film and TV franchises. Walmart is also planning to introduce a new "shoppable" video ad format.

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Continuing to increase its appeal to cord-cutters, Plex has announced a new on-demand streaming feature. Plex Web Shows is launching in beta and includes curated content from independent creators like Epic Meal Time, ASAPscience, Household Hacker, People are Awesome, and The Pet Collective, as well as brands including GQ, Saveur, Epicurious, and Pitchfork.

Plex Web Shows works across a range of devices -- web, iOS, Android, Apple TV, Windows, macOS and more --  and does not require either a Plex server or a paid Plex subscription. Like Plex News and Plex Podcasts, content is not only curated, but includes smart, custom recommendations based on preferences and watching history.

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Live streaming is increasingly popular, not just for entertainment but for business use too. However, poor quality streaming with pauses and drop outs can rapidly lose you an audience.

Live streaming specialist Mux is aiming to address these problems with the launch of its new Real-Time Streaming Dashboard, designed to help video engineers and product managers detect live stream issues in real-time.

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If as a business or an individual you want to put a video on your website you would usually use a public service like YouTube and embed a link.

If you wanted to host your own video you would need a service to encode video into a streamable format, another to act as the content delivery network, and yet another to provide the player code that runs on the client device.

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While all desktops (and most laptops) have video outputs, having a video input is much more rare. The reason why is simple -- most people don't need such a thing. Quite frankly, outside of some business use, home users never really had much of a need. With the invent of video gameplay streaming on platforms like Twitch, however, this changed. Now, more and more home users want video capture devices to connect a game console to their PC.

Today, StarTech releases its latest such product for both business and personal users alike. Called "UVCHDCAP," it is an HDMI to USB-C Video Capture Device for Mac, Windows, and Linux -- no drivers needed. It uses USB 3.0 Type-B for connectivity, and there is a Type-B to Type-C cable in the box. Your computer doesn't have a USB-C port? No worries, a Type-B to Type-A cable is included as well.

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YouTube is a great video platform -- I have no complaints, really. With that said, I also enjoy watching content on Twitch. Ultimately, competition is a good thing, as it forces companies to innovate rather than stagnate.

Today, yet another video service debuts, and it is backed by a major player in the social network space -- Instagram. Just how major is it? Today, Instagram announces it has achieved 1 billion users! To celebrate, the Facebook-owned photo site is launching a true video platform that goes beyond the short throwaway videos the service currently offers. Called "IGTV," it is aiming to be a true YouTube competitor, allowing users to upload videos up to one hour in length. There is one big twist though -- the videos are vertical only...

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As someone who was born in the 1980s, I experienced the golden age of video games. While the graphics were archaic by today's standards, the games were much more fun than the ones of today. People tend to forget that fun is the most important aspect of video games -- sound and graphics be damned. You bought a completed game and there were no updates, DLC or loot crates to be had. It was an amazing time.

Luckily, enjoying these classic games of yesteryear is very easy thanks to emulators. While the legality is a bit sketchy, you can download thousands of retro games (ROMs) and play them on your PC with near-flawless results. To make things even more convenient, the Kodi media center can now be used to play these ROMs. If you want to try this for yourself, I am happy to say you can do so immediately. The folks over at TVAddons have created a very useful guide.

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While other markets have long moved beyond 1080p, the dash cam space continues to churn out devices that top out at this resolution. So, drivers looking to try 1440p or 4K do not have a whole lot of options to choose from.

The Azdome DAB211 is among the more interesting exceptions, as it comes with 1440p video recording and a solid design at a very affordable price. But just how well does it perform? I've tested it to find out.

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Some people think we are living in the golden age of television. Whether or not that is true is debatable. What is certain, however, is that there are a lot of great TV shows both on traditional channels and steaming services. Quite frankly, there is so much exceptional content, it is simply impossible to consume it all while working a full time job. Hell, even if you watched television 20 hours per day, you'd still miss out.

But what exactly are the most popular shows? This is hard to say for sure, as people consume television in so many different ways nowadays -- including piracy. IMDb has come up with a rather clever way to rank the top 10 TV shows, however -- page views. Yes, the company has compiled the top 10 television shows based on its own website traffic. Number one is Game of Thrones -- that should come as no surprise. After all, it was number one the last five years in a row based on this metric. What did shock me though, is number two!

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This holiday season, many consumers are buying 4K televisions -- and rightly so. Look, UHD offers significant improvements over 1080p, while prices for these displays are at all-time lows. If you need a television, it would be foolish not to get a 4K variant at this time.

What if I told you that 4K was old news? It’s true. While UHD is hardly obsolete -- it will be around for a very long time -- the future is starting to emerge.  You see, today, the HDMI Forum releases the next standard -- HDMI 2.1. This will not only allow 10K video content, but 8K @ 60Hz and 4K @ 120Hz. This won’t just benefit movie playback either -- gamers will be big winners once hardware catches up.

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The new DS218+ is the most impressive NAS in Synology's two-bay range for home users. It's got powerful hardware and lots of features that you expect in the high-end segment, like a versatile operating system, a solid selection of ports, and support for 4K video streaming.

Those specs make it a very attractive option for power users and consumers who want a future-proofed NAS. Question is, does it have what it takes to also impress in real-life? I've tested the DS218+ to find out.

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Synology has expanded the DS418 line with the introduction of the new DS418play. The NAS, which joins the DS418 and DS418j in the consumer-oriented four-bay range, is optimized for multimedia content.

The claim to fame of the DS418play is that it can transcode up to two channels of H.265 or H.264 4K content at the same time, which basically means that you will be able to stream two 4K videos at the same time on a smartphone and tablet using the NAS' processing power.

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When I bought my MacBook Pro last year, I knew I would end up buying some dongles. Since the laptop only has USB-C ports, I would need adapters to complete some tasks. If I want to use a traditional USB-A flash drive, for instance, I need a dongle. What if I need to plug into Ethernet? Yep, another dongle.

Truth be told, I very rarely connect to Ethernet or access flash drives these days, so those dongles are almost never needed. With that said, there is one big limitation of my MacBook Pro that impacts me regularly -- lack of video out. For this, I need to use a USB-C adapter (or a docking station). I've learned that not all of these dongles are created equally, however. While many can do 4K, they often max out at 30Hz. Thankfully, I found a really great USB-C to HDMI 2.0 adapter from a company called ACCELL that can do 4K @ 60Hz.

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