Author Archives: Marco Barnig

Video formats on YouTube

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YouTube has three main formats as well as a “mobile” format.

The original format, now labeled “standard quality”, displays videos at a resolution of 320×240 pixels using the Sorenson Spark codec with mono MP3 audio.

“High quality” videos, introduced in March 2008, are shown at up to 864×480 pixels with stereo AAC sound.

In November 2008, HD support was added with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, encoded with the H.264 video codec and the audio AAC stereo codec. At the same time, the YouTube player was changed from a 4:3 aspect ratio to a widescreen 16:9.

In July 2009, YouTube announced that YouTube users can now upload 3D videos. The videos can be watched in the normal way, and glasses are worn by the viewer to achieve the 3D effect.

YouTube accepts videos uploaded in most formats, including .WMV, .AVI, .MKV, .MOV, MPEG, .MP4, DivX, .FLV, and .OGG. It also supports 3GP, allowing videos to be uploaded directly from a mobile phone.

More informations are available on Wikipedia and on YouTube.

Recording and processing Flash (flv) videos

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Last update : January 30, 2013

Today this contribution has only a historical value.

After YouTube and Google, new players like Metacafe, Blip.tv, Revver, Yahoo Videos and so on have entered the online video sharing space. Today millions of video clips, technology shows, music albums, movie trailers and private films are available on these video sites for online viewing or they can also be downloaded to your hard drive for offline viewing.

The downloaded video files are generally in FLV format (Flash Video) which is an Adobe standard for video compression. It has fast becoming the web standard for delivering online video (replacing Apple QuickTime, AVI, Windows Media and Real rm formats) because Flash Video can be viewed inside Macromedia Flash Players which are shipped by default with most web browsers.

To download Flash Videos, the following approaches are possible:

To record Flash Videos, the following tools are available :

To play Flash Videos on the desktop, use the following players :

To split Flash Videos, use this tool :

To convert and edit Flash Videos, different file conversion programs are available :

  • SUPER from eRightSoft
  • An free online conversion tool (beta) to PC, iPod and PSP is offered by vixy.net.

To encode and publish :

To captionate Flash Videos, the tools available are :

To extract image frames from FLV Videos :

To embed Flash videos in a webpage :

To play Youtube Videos in a webpage :

  • use the Youtube code (an embedded YouTube watermark logo is displayed in the right bottom corner of the player)
  • Mediaplayer by Jeroen Wijering (LongTail Video) ; an embedded YouTube watermark logo is displayed if the standard URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxxxx is used to respect the terms of service (TOS) of YouTube.  The watermark logo is not shown if  the mp4 url  format http://www.youtubemp4.com/video/xxxxxxx.mp4 is used to play the YouTube videos.

To extract audio data from Flash videos :

Links to tutorials about Flash video processing are given below :

YouTube APIs and Tools

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Last update : January 30, 2013
The YouTube APIs and Tools let you bring the YouTube experience to your webpage, application, or device. The Data API lets you perform most of the operations a normal YouTube user can on the YouTube website. The Player APIs let you control the YouTube player using JavaScript or ActionScript. There is not only the wellknown standard basic embedded player, but also a chromeless player that lets you create your own player controls. Widgets and a custom player help you to embed YouTube videos on your webpage, even if you are not a web programmer.

Go to the following link at Leslie’s Artgallery to see an example of the customized embedded YouTube Player.

VLC Media Player

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Last update : June 12, 2013

VLC  Media is the favorite media player for most people because it plays everything they throw at it without problems with the included codecs. VLC can do the following things (see contribution on Instant Fundas) :

  • Rip DVDs with the integrated basic DVD ripper
  • Record videos during playback (View>Advanced Control)
  • Download YouTube and other online videos by grabbing the URL of the YouTube video page (Media>Open Network stream). In the latest version (1.0.2 Goldeneye) you must replace “swfArgs” with “SWF_ARGS” in the youtube.lua file with a text editor to make the youtube videos running.
  • Play RAR files with zipped videos even if the RAR file is split into several files
  • Play in ASCII mode (Tools>Preferences>Video>Output>Color ASCII art video output)
  • Listen to online radio (Media>Services Discovery>Shoutcast radio listings)
  • Convert Audio and Video formats (Media>Convert/Save)
  • Enhance your player with new skins
  • Stream your Linux/Windows/Mac Desktop as video

VLC Media Player can not cut videos from the GUI, only with the command lines.

VLC Remote Control for iPhone

After 485 million downloads of VLC 1.1.x versions, VideoLAN and the VLC development team presented VLC 2.0.0 “Twoflower”, a major new release, on February 18, 2012. VideoLAN, a French non-profit organization, is a group of people, that produces and distributes free and open source software for video and multimedia purpose, released under Open Source licenses. It started as a student project at the French École Centrale Paris but is now a worldwide project with developers from everywhere and dozens of millions of people using VideoLAN’s software.

VLC is the official name of VideoLAN’s main product, often named VLC. VideoLAN Client is an ancient name of this product. VideoLAN Server (VLS) is an outdated streaming solution developed by a separate group of people.

The current version of VLC is 2.0.5. It supports now DLNA and works fine with the Serviio DLNA server (see contribution on the Serviio Forum). A remote control for the VLC player to run on iOS devices is available from Hobbyist Software. The log files are displayed in the Tools > Messages window if verbosity is set to the value 2 (debug).

With VLC, cuttingt videos is very easy. Launch VLC media player and activate advanced controls located under the view menu. You will see four extra buttons above the normal play/pause button. You will not cut the video, but rather record the segment using the built-in VLC recorder. First seek the position you want to start your recording with the frame by frame button, then press the record button and the play button. The background color of the record button will change to blue. Press the record button when you want to stop the recording. The clip will be automatically saved as an MP4 media file in your Videos folder in Windows. A prefix “vlc-record-date-time” is added to the name of the original videoclip.

Simple DB : Amazon database

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Today I installed a simple database on the Amazon Webservices. Amazon SimpleDB is a web service providing the core database functions of data indexing and querying in the cloud. This service is available in Europe since a few weeks. This allows to achieve lower latency, operate closer to other resources like Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, and Amazon SQS in the EU Region, and help meet EU data storage requirements when applicable.

Simple DB is simple to use, low touch, scalable, highly available, fast, flexible, inexpensive and designed for use with other Amazon Web Services.

The prices are:

  • First 25 Amazon SimpleDB Machine Hours consumed per month are free
  • $0.154 per Amazon SimpleDB Machine Hour consumed thereafter
  • First 1 GB of data transferred in per month is free
  • $0.100 per GB – all data transfer in thereafter
  • First 1 GB of data transferred out per month is free; thereafter:
  • $0.170 per GB – first 10 TB / month data transfer out
  • $0.130 per GB – next 40 TB / month data transfer out
  • $0.110 per GB – next 100 TB / month data transfer out
  • $0.100 per GB – data transfer out / month over 150 TB

When using Amazon SimpleDB, you organize your structured data in domains within which you can put data, get data, or run queries. Domains consist of items which are described by attributename-value pairs. The spreadsheet model shown in the following image explains the structure:

Amazon Simple DB Data Model

Amazon Simple DB Data Model

Update your Twitter picture with Snapatar

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Snapatar lets you update your Twitter profile picture using your webcam. Simply snap a picture, fill out your Twitter details and send the new image to Twitter. You can do this as often as you like. Your creativity is the limit.

Snapatar was designed by Roy Tanck, a free lance webdesigner, geek, entrepreneur and WordPress enthusiast from the Netherlands. He is the co-author of  the book  Byte-size Flash MX which deals with optimizing Flash files. He is also the developer of the FlickR and Photo widgets.

What will the Internet look like In 10 years ?

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The Internet Society engaged in a scenario planning exercise to reveal plausible evolutions of the Internet in the future. Based upon the two questions :

  • Will the world embrace or resist the open Internet model ?
  • Will the Command and Control or the Distributed and Decentralized model be more succesful ?

These two questions defined four quadrants, which led to four very different stories about how the world might develop over the next eight to ten years :

Internet evolution scenarios

All of these stories contain some elements of the Internet of today. The challenge for everyone is to contribute to help the Internet to evolve in a direction like the scenario called The Common Pool.

ROVIO : mobile webcam by Wowwee

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Last update : May 21, 2013

Rovio Dashboard

Rovio is a WiFi-enabled mobile web cam developed by Wowwee that lets you see, speak and hear from anywhere in the world, as if you were right there in the room. Rovio is equipped with a TrueTrack™ Navigation System that allows you to use the Rovio interface to store waypoints – with one click Rovio will automatically navigate itself to the chosen point. Rovio’s built-in LED headlight will help you guide it even in dimly lit locations, so you’ll always know what is going on at home or at the office. No need to worry about Rovio running low on power while you’re away – the self-docking function allows you to send Rovio back to the charging dock to recharge, with the click of a button on your browser. Rovio has 3 omni-directional wheels to move in all directions. With additional TrueTrack Room Beacons, Rovio can navigate or self-dock across multiple rooms.

Rovio prototypes and final version

Rovio prototypes and final version

In September 2010, I upgraded the Rovio to firmware version 5.0 and tried to install it on a new WiFi network in an artgallery. The setup with a Vista (Service Pack 1) computer didn’t work, the USB connection always failed.

One year later, the setup was succesful. Two years later, In May 2013, I upgraded the Rovio to firmware v5.03 (stable). The current installed software versions on my Rovio are Base 5.3503, TrueTrack 5.13.201.

The Rovio user interface is entirely browser-based, which means you can access Rovio via the Internet using web-enabled devices. The following documents, tutorials and programs are available to control the Rovio robot :

Documentation

PC

Robodance 5 (Robonote), by Android Technologies, Inc.
version 5.2.0.7b, updated September 23, 2012
uses Skype’s video call service

Robodance 5

Robodance 5

RovioCommander II, by Jesse Mcculley
version 1.909b, updated May 20, 2013

Rovio Commander II

Rovio Commander II

RovioDirect, by E.W.E Software
version 1.2, updated February 9, 2010

Rovio Direct

Rovio Direct

RovioWrap (Rovio Controller), by Scott Settembre
alpha version 1.0.0.1, updated February 16, 2009
with Microsoft speech recognition

Wowwee Rovio DirectShow Filter
licensed to Wowwee by WebcamXP
version 4.2.5.0, 2008

Rovio Direct Show Filter

Rovio Direct Show Filter

RoboRealm, by RoboRealm
version 2.50.22, updated May 18, 2013
application for use in computer vision, image analysis, and robotic vision systems

Rovio Control for RoboRealm

Rovio Control for RoboRealm

Rovio Web Plugin for AbelCam WebCam Server, by Stefan Seiz
Release October 17, 2011

Rovio Plugin for AbelCam WebCam Server

Rovio Plugin for AbelCam WebCam Server

Jrovio (Java Rovio), by Marco Andreacchio
version 2.2, updated June 21, 2010

iPhone / iPad

Rovio Control, by Tommy Kammerer
version 1.4, updated January 25, 2013

Rovio Control for iPhone

Rovio Control for iPhone

Rovio Control HD for iPad (Retina), by Tommy Kammerer
version 1.5, updated January 31, 2013

Rovio Control HD for iPad

Rovio Control HD for iPad

ES Pad for Rovio, by (es) Corporation
version 1.0.3, updated July 8, 2011

ES

ES PAD for Rovio

Rovio Driver, by Bertrand Leroy
version 1.5, updated December 11, 2009

Rovio Driver

Rovio Driver

Rovio Chat, by Chi Kong Simon Chan
version 1.1, updated May 11, 2013
supports Rovio’s 2-way audio
needs Rovio Custom Firmware v5.03s Build 3711

Rovio Chat

Rovio Chat

Blackberry

Rovio Blackberry Client, by bbrovio
version 0.11, updated February 17, 2009

Rovio controller for Blackberry

Rovio controller for Blackberry

Android

AndRovio, by Poignont Projects
version 1.2.1
updated March 1, 2011
does not support audio

AndRovio

AndRovio

Windows Mobile

Pocket Rovio, by Carmelo Millian
version 2.1.1, updated January 14, 2010

Pocket Rovio for Windows Mobile

Pocket Rovio for Windows Mobile

Using Rovio

The Rovio has a LED power indicator, the color signals the following states :

  • Blinking : low battery
  • Green : network connection is functioning properly
  • Red : Rovio is being accessed
  • Orange : Rovio is booting and/or trying to connect to a network

The battery pack is charged when Rovio is docked. The blue LED indicators will pulse quickly to indicate that it has begun charging. During charging, the LED indicators will pulse slowly; a single charge takes approximately 4.5 hours for about 1.5 hours of use. When Rovio has finished charging the LED indicators will remain lit. It is safe to leave Rovio on its charging dock after the charge has completed.

To access Rovio from the Internet, port forwarding to Rovio ports 80 and 554 must be set up in the gateway router.

Additional informations about Rovio are available at the following links :