Articles about Video

Netflix last week revealed that it has throttled the video streams of customers who have been accessing its service from AT&T's and Verizon's networks, after the two carriers were believed to be at fault. The company says that this has been done to keep those users from exceeding their monthly data plans, but some believe the video streaming service has taken things too far, right into the net neutrality danger zone.

Despite offering what looks to be a good reason for the throttling, Netflix is still in the wrong. Customers were not informed of the company's decision before it went into effect more than five years ago. There is no way of turning the "feature" off, at least not until a data saver option is introduced in May. And the focus of the throttling has been rather limited, with this move not extending to other carriers in US, like Sprint and T-Mobile. So, obviously, affected customers have very good reasons to complain.

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Despite accusation to the contrary, AT&T and Verizon have not been throttling the connections of Netflix customers -- but Netflix has. The streaming video service has admitted that it has limited the video quality that can be accessed by AT&T and Verizon customers for over five years.

In an astonishing revelation to the Wall Street Journal, Netflix -- a long-standing and vocal supporter of net neutrality -- fessed up to limiting mobile streams for some users to just 600 kbps. The reason provided for this is that the throttling prevents users from exceeding their monthly data limits... but the same throttling is not applied to Sprint and T-Mobile.

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OfficeGenie.co.uk has conducted a research to see how much time people are wasting being distracted at the office, and it’s not good news. Those silly cat videos you watch on Facebook every day at work are costing the country billions of pounds. Yes, you read that correctly.

On average, British workers spend more than three quarters of an hour (more than 45 minutes every day) being distracted online. When you combine how much that costs, and how many workers there are in the UK, you come to a figure of £88 billion each year.

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The demise of Flash has been long, lingering, and painful -- and highly over due in many people's books. There has been a spate of high profile ditchings of Flash recently: Speedtest.net, Twitch, Chrome and Netflix to name but a few. Now Facebook has thrown its hat in the ring switching to HTML5 video.

This is a move that is browser-agnostic, and means that every single video you see on the social network will default to HTML5. While many will see this as a cause for celebration, the change does not completely spell the death of Flash -- it will continue to be used on Facebook for many games.

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While GoPro appears to be focused solely on action cameras, the company wants to expand its horizons by entering the drone market. At this year's Code Conference, CEO Nick Woodman announced that a quadcopter is in the works. It is expected to be released in the first half of 2016.

GoPro has not revealed much else about the upcoming drone, only suggesting that it will be priced to appeal to consumers -- but, considering how expensive some of GoPro's action cameras are, that does not mean much. Now we also know what it will be called -- Karma.

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Just when you thought Amazon Prime couldn't offer much more, the retail giant goes and tries to do just that. The company is unveiling new streaming partners that will bring even more content and it comes from major players in the market.

The service is announcing a streaming partners program that will bring this additional content. This is a Prime only option, so you'll need to sign up for an account.

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The ability to broadcast live video on Facebook is something that has previously only been available to celebrities. It's not being made available to everyone -- yet -- but a handful of lucky users are being given the chance to try it out ahead of a wider rollout.

Starting today, some US iPhone users will be able to live broadcast to their friends and family. This is Facebook's bid to take on Twitter's Periscope, but the social network has more to announce. On top of Live Video, photo collages are also being unveiled as a new way to show off your snaps.

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Freddy Krueger. Jason Voorhees. Michael Myers. Ad Blocking Technology. If you’ve watched a horror movie in the past 20 years, you’ve no doubt heard of those first three gruesome monsters. The last term may not be as familiar to you, but it is becoming a boogeyman of sorts for streaming video -- both for those who create and provide it as well as those who consume it.

Ad-blocking software and technology has become a very serious concern for programers, video creators, and publishers in 2015. Before the year is over, an estimated $3 billion dollars in video ad payload will be lost by publishers because of ad-blocking technology. Some premium video authors estimate that as much as one third of their video content isn’t reaching their streaming audiences at all. It may not be an epidemic yet, but there clearly is a trend, as ad-supported video businesses are being challenged as consumers install ad blockers at an increasing rate, especially on their mobile devices where they engage with video the most.

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For those who didn't know, the BBC has launched a 24 hour news channel to compete with such entities as CNN and Al Jazeera. Now the issue is making the network available for as many viewers as possible in this crowded market that is today's news cycle.

One of the largest markets is India and the channel is now there, announcing it has signed on to provide its network to YuppTV, the world's largest provider of OTT TV, at least for Indian content. The service provides more than 200 channels and 5,000 movies to viewers.

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No matter which flagship smartphone you get, you are very likely to be happy with its camera quality. According to DxOMark, this year's crop of premium handsets from Apple, Google, LG, Motorola, Samsung and Sony is extremely close in terms of photo and video quality.

But, while other makers have shown major improvements in this area over their previous efforts, Apple seems to have stagnated with its new iPhone 6s, which is no more better than last year's iPhone 6 despite having a new rear-facing camera. (DxOMark has not yet tested the iPhone 6s Plus phablet, but it is unlikely to be significantly better than its predecessor either.)

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Sony may not have the most popular devices around, but it is not for a lack of quality. Its latest flagship, Xperia Z5, has the best smartphone camera according to DxOMark, outclassing rivals like Samsung's Galaxy S6 edge and LG G4.

Even the lesser Xperia Z3+ is well positioned in DxOMark's mobile chart, coming ahead of the hugely popular iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Xperia Z5 has also outclassed the newly-announced Google Nexus 6P, which has to settle for third place. Not too shabby for a Nexus device.

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Samsung’s unloved video streaming service is shutting down on November 20th, after a lukewarm start and plummet in usage in the months after.

In a market dominated by YouTube, it was always going to be an uphill battle for Samsung Milk Video. The service worked with BuzzFeed and College Humor, but could not attract the viewers Google, Vimeo, and Twitch have won over the years.

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Facebook has joined YouTube and implemented a feature which allows users to view 360-degree videos.

As of Wednesday, September 23, users on PCs and smartphones can view 360-degree videos, and to mark the new feature, Facebook has released a couple of cool videos.

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When you are bored, or when you want to find clear instructions on how to do something or to get to know the latest news, the best way to do it is to watch corresponding videos. Indeed, all the information is consumed much better if it’s a video.

The best resource of videos is of course the Internet, but which websites are the best resources to enjoy various video materials? Today we have listed and reviewed the best video sharing websites for various purposes.

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The technology may exist that allows for ultra-fast transfer of very large files, but the efficient storage of data remains important in many circumstances. Streaming video is one area in which efficiency is particularly important, and the codec used to encode footage has a large bearing on performance.

With the launch of Windows 10, Microsoft took the opportunity to unleash a new web browser on the world -- Microsoft Edge. Today the company reveals that it is working to bring WebM/VP9 to the browser. Initially destined for Windows Insiders in Windows 10 Preview builds, VP9 support will improve Edge's ability to stream HD videos at lower bitrates.

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