This Associated Press story has been picked up on a number of different sites. Basically it discusses how local TV stations in the USA are worried that the networks they are affiliated with (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX), will bypass them completely in the move to provide video content online.

Local stations face a challenge, and for sure they should be putting pressure on the big networks to 'share the love' in terms of money earned from online video sales. But the model they should be preparing for is 'affiliate' relationships as they exist on the web, rather than charity from the networks based on geography.

In other words, local stations get to sell 'Desperate Housewives', say, on their own sites, or can link to a 'Desparate Housewives' page on the network sites, and get a decent cut for those referrals.

The other thing local TV stations must do, if they're not doing so already, is developing their own local digital content libraries, news etc., making those available to viewers online, and meta tagging them like crazy. This way, local TV sites can build their userbases, (in preparation for the above), and so they are ready when the networks want direct digital access to their content. They can pay for all this by selling high quality streams to interested viewers, particularly those who might be a long way from home.

It should be remembered that viewers in local markets are far more likely to know which local station 'Desperate Housewives' appears on, that whether it is made by ABC. These stations should press that advantage. The networks should also remember the example of the record industry, where record labels tried to sell music online from their own sites, and failed - EMI, Sony, Universal, etc. Nobody knows what record label a particular artist is on, outside of the industry.

Food for thought going into NAB...

Posted by Alx Klive at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's a very funny clip from Google Video.

A professional cyclist thinks he's won a race, raises his hands to celebrate, and promptly crashes his bike.

Cruel, but priceless.

Posted by Alx Klive at 7:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In 1976, French film director Claude Lelouch strapped a 35mm film camera to the front of a car, and 'someone', drove the car at speeds of up to 200kph through the early morning streets of Paris, without any permission from authorities.

During the 8 min film, at least two pedestrians come within feet of being hit, cars are narrowly missed, and 18 red lights are run. The whole thing was completely illegal.

To dispel a couple of myths, the car used is not a Ferrari as widely believed, but a Mercedes. The likely reason for the confusion is that the sound of a Ferrari was dubbed on later by the Director.

According to the Director's official website, and from my working knowledge of French, it seems that Lelouche is saying these days that he was the driver of the car. This would make sense, a Director with an interest in fast cars is unlikely to make another person take such a risk for his film. The 'race car driver' story likely comes from the Director's own excuse to Police after he was arrested. He claimed he took adequate precautions, hiring a racing car driver for the stunt, but would not reveal this mystery driver's name to police.

Other interesting tidbits are a friend of Lelouche, with a walkie talkie, kept an eye on one particularly dangerous junction on the route, but this was the only precaution taken. Also. It appears there were three of them in the car during the ride.

The film, entitled 'C'etait un Rendezvous', has achieved cult status over the years and is now available on DVD for ordering (worldwide)
from Amazon UK, and I'd recommend it for any movie buff's collection. For a quick, low res fix, here's the same on Google Video.

If you speak French, or are handy with Babel Fish, you might also be interested in the Director's own discussion forum for the film.

Posted by Alx Klive at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

If you need a simple, free, onscreen video application for the PC, that will allow you to display full screen video, or video in a resizable window, from any video input source on your computer, look no further than Sadhu System's Video Thumb.

I came across this program while trying to find a simple freeware video application, that would allow me to watch TV in a window on my computer, while I worked on other things. I also wanted to be able to watch video full screen if necessary, so I could play video games patched through from my Sony Playstation, or have my computer monitor double as a second TV, by connecting it to my set-top box.

You will need a video input card if you want to use it to watch TV, I use a Canopus ADVC-55 (an excellent analog-to-digital video encoder), to provide the needed video input to the computer. You could also use it with a video tuner card, or USB web cam for example. The program uses DirectX 9, which comes included with recent versions of Windows, and the program allows you to switch between different video sources, simply by right-clicking on the video itself.

The company behind the program seems to have gone out of business, so I am hosting the file here if the original site doesn't work.

The program runs as a lightweight single file application, and you can choose among popular sizes to display your video such as 320x240, 640x480, full screen, etc. A 'desktop' feature allows you to have any video source appear as your computer's desktop, appearing underneath all your desktop icons. (N.B. I had a small problem with the desktop mode, in that I was unable to find out how to easily turn it off. I had to CTRL-ALT-DELETE and shut down the program's process that way.)

Other than that small glitch, it's a great free little program that does what it says on the tin, and which I use all the time.

(Multi-Monitor Note - The program will run with multiple monitor setups, but you can only have video run on your primary monitor).

Posted by Alx Klive at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Two websites, Movielink and CinemaNow, have begun selling major Hollywood DVD releases online as Windows Media Player downloads. In the past, both companies only had a limited selection of mainly independent films, b-movies, and documentaries.

The problem for users outside the US is that both services are restricted to US residents only. Until that situation changes, and Hollywood finally wakes up to the idea that they should release movies simultaneously worldwide, the rest of the world is out of luck.

Or are they?

Both sites use basic 'geolocation' technology for determining if you are trying to access from outside the USA. They also rely on you using a US credit card for payment.

While I was not able to work around the credit card problem with Movielink, I was able to with CinemaNow, and in both cases I was able to work around the geolocation problem.

Here's how I did it...

Step 1 - Changing your location using a proxy server

When you access a website, your computer transmits a number called an IP address. This IP address is unique to your computer or home network, and is given to you by your Internet Service Provider. You can think of it as a kind of 'serial number' for your computer.

All Internet Service Providers have themselves been given a list of IP addresses to give out to their customers. So whether you are with BT in England, or Tiscali in Italy, or Telstra in Australia, all these companies have long lists of IP addresses which are assigned to them, which they then give to you.

Information about which Internet Service Provider owns which IP addresses is public knowledge. So if you access a website using a Telstra IP address, it's easy for that website to figure out you are accessing from Australia.

While it is not possible to change your IP address (easily), it is possible to pretend you are using a different IP address. You do this using something called a proxy server.

A proxy server is basically a relay through which you can pass information. The basic idea is that you find a proxy server located in the country where you want to 'appear' to be coming from (in this case the US), and access the website. The website will then think you are accessing from the USA.

Using a proxy server is not in itself illegal, and both free and commercial (paid) proxy services are available.

Free proxy lists can be found very easily online, but your mileage with these may vary. Often, free proxy servers can be unreliable, slow, or both. In my case I used a commercial service called The Proxy Connection which costs $24.99 per month. Other services exist.

There are two key bits of information you will need to note down from whichever service you use - the IP address of the proxy server itself (N.B. not your own IP address), and the port number. If you are using a commercial service, you may also need a username and password, which will be provided to you.

Armed with this information you then enter these proxy settings into your computer. A decent illustrated guide for doing this can be found on this University website.

If everything is working correctly, you should be able to access Movielink or CinemaNow through the proxy server, and see the version of the website that they have for US users. (I suggest trying Movielink first, since they provide a very clear notice if they think you are accessing from outside the USA).

I would recommend as well if you are having problems, that you try deleting any cookies for Movielink or CinemaNow, between each attempt. Here is a guide for deleting cookies.

All being well, you should now be able to see the US version of the site, and can move on to step 2.

Step 2 - Billing issues
The second major roadblock is that these sites require you to have a credit card with a US billing address. Unless you know someone in the US willing to let you use theirs, you've got a problem.

I can confirm however that I was able to purchase two movies on CinemaNow using a Canadian credit card and a UK credit card, respectively. I simply entered my normal address details, but used an American State and Zip code for those portions of the address. (California 90210 if you're wondering).

It appears this is because CinemaNow does not do extended checks when authorizing a credit card. Simply put, they do not check the Zip code and State information against the bank's database. (This is actually not that unusual, many websites do the same).

Conclusions & Tips
With a bit of creativity, it is possible to purchase the latest Hollywood DVD releases online, no matter where in the world you are. CinemaNow is the easier of the two sites to achieve this, and is in fact a better service generally. The prices are cheaper, and they provide user ratings and reviews of movies which Movielink does not.

The same principles in this article can be used for other sites that restrict access based on geography. Just remember to remove or disable your proxy settings after you get what you need. If not, you will find your Internet connection slower than normal, and you may get repeated pop up messages as different applications on your computer attempt to access the Internet.

If you have any tips or thoughts on this which you feel I've left out, please use the comments feature below. In this way everyone can share the knowledge.

Happy viewing!

Posted by Alx Klive at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)