Monday, October 15, 2007
Online Video
I guess it's my oldfashionedist feelings again, but I am far from convinced over how cool online video is supposed to be. I use the Internet mostly for news and I do read pretty quick, so am probably outside the comfort zone of those pushing video.
I find that by the time I get a video player (assuming it's the among the ones I have) to launch, then wait for the video to stream into the buffer, then watch the 15-30 second commercial, then finally get to see the little teeny compressed video, I could have read an in depth written story containing five times the info.
I've also noticed that most of the videos that play - even youtube, with which I will admit to wasting time once a month or so, are so compressed that they begin to take on the blocky picture resolution of the original Atari TV video games. Some of the stuff on BBC News is so compressed and so small, I'm guessing it would transmit over dial with no problem.
And all this isn't because I'm on some weeny Internet connection. I consistently clock out at around 4.5 - 5.5 MBPS via speakeasy.net which is advertised at 6 MBPS (which no one should really expect to get). I'm usually running on an iMac or fairly new PC with XP. So it's not like I'm running a CP/M based TRS Model 4P over a dialup modem (which I once did). And with all that speed and technology, most online videos still suck.
Labels: computers, gripes, oldies
