I love YouTube, I really do. It's legitimized stuff I've been harking on about for years and made it possible for me to raise money for my own web video venture. For that I'm truly grateful.

But the party is reaching that slightly sketchy stage where the police are sniffing around the venue, and everyone is asking where the after-party is.

I refer of course to the virtual certainty that YouTube will implement some form of fingerprinting technology this year to identify copyright infringing works within seconds of being posted.

When you think about it, the movie studios and TV networks are right to be annoyed that this isn't happening already. The technology exists, it works, and if Google of all people can't implement a search and identify technology, well who can?

YouTube fans might say... Why would they do this? Why would they bow to the media companies' demands? Didnt' they refuse to hand over details to the Chinese authorities?

Well business is all about leverage, aka negotiating power. Google needs deals such as the recent one they made with Sky television in the UK, to extend its highly profitable ad business into TV land. Remember 99% of their revenue comes from advertising, and YouTube isn't making any of it.

And personalized TV advertising delivered via set-top boxes is a very viable route for the company that isn't getting much coverage. So if Google wants to be invited to that particular party, they've got to police their own. No police, no public performance license, no party.

The problem for YouTube, and they know it deep down in their water, is that the real, true reason for its success, is that people go there to see copyrighted material. When that goes, so will a big part of their audience.

I've written about the problems YouTube faces here and video fingerprinting technology here. The clouds are darkening on the horizon, and it will take some deft maneouvering to save the lighting and speaker rig from getting soaked.

Perhaps Google buying YouTube was all just a clever move to get face time with the media companies. Where I'm currently writing from, people readily pay $$$ to get a meeting with someone important or a government official. $4 billion is a big price to pay to get a few meetings, but it could just be chump change if the Google / Sky deal delivers on its promise...

The after party is where?

Posted by Alx Klive at 3:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If like me you have spent hours trying to find a simple and free FLV file converter, then you've probably pulled out most of your hair already.

The Internet is littered with products that claim to convert FLV files for free, but invariably come with nasty surprises attached, or insist you pay up for something that you probably feel you shouldn't. Why can't there be a simple free FLV converter?

Well there is, and I'm going to show you how to use it. You'll also learn some neat stuff along the way...

FLV Conversion using FFmpeg

FFmpeg is the Swiss army knife of video and audio conversion tools. It is a rock solid open source product (albeit of dubious legality - more on this in a moment) that programmers all over the world turn to religiously in droves, and which is included in many other software programs as the 'tool that does the conversion bit'. It comes with a big gotcha however... it is a command line tool that on first glance seems like something only propeller heads can use.

Well fear not FLV fans, I'm going to show you how to make using FFmpeg ridiculously easy. First I'm going to explain quickly why FFmpeg is really the only option available.

Why aren't there free GUI based FLV Converters?

The reason there are no free graphical based FLV converters out there (and for that matter video converters in general), is because of patent and licensing issues. For someone to offer a converter means they have to buy the rights to do so (which is never cheap), and that means nobody apart from a very generous philanthropist could offer such a product for free.

As a result, you have a situation where many dodgy (non paying) developers put out sketchy GUI converters and try to stay 'below the radar', putting their converters up on shareware / freeware sites and offering versions with watermarks and other gotchas that entice you to pay.

So what's the deal with FFmpeg?

FFmpeg also tries to stay below the radar by being open source and basically NOT OFFERING AN EASY INSTALLER OR INTERFACE. If they did, they would raise the ire of many big companies. FFmpeg converts dozens of patented file formats and codecs and by keeping its use to propeller heads, they steer clear of reaching a size that could make them a target.

So where does this leave me?

FFmpeg, while intimidating at first glance, is far and away the best option if you are looking for a guaranteed reliable, high quality and 100% free solution to converting not just FLV files, but any video or audio file format you might want. With this guide, even a command line virgin (as I was) will be converting FLV files in no time. And you won't have to deal with sketchy shareware software that won't be there the next time you look for it. This guide should stand the test of time.

So stay with me and follow my easy guide!

Finding FFmpeg for Windows

First things first, you need to get yourself a copy of FFmpeg for Windows that does not require compiling or other complex nonsense. This isn't exactly easy but I've made it easier...

Option 1 - Easy option

Option 2 - More complex but may be a newer version

Installing and Using FFmpeg on Windows

Whichever route you take, you should end up with a file called ffmpeg.exe. Yours may not show the .exe extension if your computer is set to 'hide extensions for known file types' (a default setting in Windows XP).

If you are running ahead of me, you will probably already have discovered that nothing happens if you try to double click ffmpeg.exe. Perhaps more worrying is that something does appear to happen but then... nothing. Fear not, all is how it is supposed to be.

Stay with me...

FFmpeg is a command-line tool meaning it should only be 'invoked' (that's 'started') from the command line.

Ridiculously Easy Guide to the Command Line

From the 'Start' menu, choose 'All Programs' and then 'Accessories' and then 'Command Prompt'. You should now have a screen that looks like this...

The way to think about this screen is that it is 'sitting' in a specific location on your computer. Any commands you type into it will apply only to that location. This will become clear in a second.

You can tell which location it is in by looking at the text which says (in my case) C:\Documents and Settings\Alx. Yours will have your name at the end or the owner of the computer.

So the command prompt is 'sitting' in the C drive of your computer, within the Documents and Settings folder, and within (in my case) the Alx folder. Another word to describe this is your 'home' folder (or home directory).

Now go to this folder yourself using 'the GUI way'. Double click My Computer, double click the C drive, double click Documents and Settings, and then double click your name.

Looking within this folder you will see a folder for your Desktop and the 'real' location of your My Documents folder. Peek inside your My Documents folder to see all your files.

Now you are going to type your very first command line instruction, and officially become a true geek of propeller head proportions. If you do not wish to become a geek, do not do this step, and go off looking again for more shareware nightmares.

Using the command line, enter the word 'dir' without the single quotes where the cursor is flashing patiently. Then hit enter.

A bunch of text will now appear which should look something like this...

What you have just done is generated a text based list of everything in your home directory. You will see this is the same set of items as when you view the folder the 'other way'. In other words, your Desktop folder, My Documents folder are all there. There's also some additional info such as how much disk space you have remaining which in my case is a rather measly 301 megabytes. I really need to clear some files...

Now this is where things get fun...

You should now be looking at two very different views of your home directory - the command line way and the GUI way. Using the normal GUI way of doing things, move the ffmpeg.exe file which you downloaded, into your home folder. Your home directory should now look something like this...

If you're the adventurous type you may already have tried typing 'dir' into the command prompt to see if the ffmpeg.exe file has appeared there too. If not, do so now...

Now you might be thinking at this point that this is a lot of work. It is, but you'll only have to do this once.

Getting jiggy with FFmpeg at last

So a quick recap. By now you should have a copy of ffmpeg.exe sitting in your home folder. We've put it there because it makes using its command line interface much easier.

Now we are going to convert an FLV file to a WMV file.

Grab an FLV file from somewhere and put it in your home directory. Let's say the FLV file is called football.flv. Your home directory should look something like this...

To convert to WMV all you need to do is the following...

Using the command prompt type...

ffmpeg -i football.flv football.wmv

Note those are spaces between the ffmpeg and the -i, the -i and football.flv, and the football.flv and football.wmv.

The command line will kick into action, showing the progress of the conversion, and at the end you should have a WMV file in your home directory

That wasn't too hard was it?!

Translating into english, what you have just done is to say...

"Using a program called ffmpeg in the current location, take the input file football.flv (in the current location), and turn it into football.wmv (in the current location)."

Note that if we had not put everything into the home folder (the current location), the instruction would have been much more complicated. Note also that your filenames (input or output) should not have spaces in them - footballplayer.flv is fine, football player.flv is not.

If you wanted to convert an FLV file to AVI format you would simply type...

ffmpeg -i football.flv football.avi

To convert a MPG file to FLV you would type...

ffmpeg -i football.mpg football.flv

You may run into audio problems converting into FLV files if the source file is not one of three set audio sample rates. If you experience this problem include an extra command which specifies the output sample rate as follows...

ffmpeg -i football.mpg -ar 22050 football.flv

As far as command line programs go, ffmpeg couldn't be simpler. Just remember to always put your 'input' files into the home directory before trying to convert. The output files will also end up in your home directory.

One final note. You may find (as I did) that avi output failed to produce a file that Windows Media Player had the right codec for. In this case, the easiest thing is to stick with WMV. Pretty much anything that can open AVI can open WMV. FFmpeg can deal with codec conversion without drawing breath, but you will need to learn much more about the program and its commands. Pretty much anything is possible - you can change codecs, bitrates, size of video and all kinds of other stuff. Full FFmpeg documentation can be found here.

**UPDATED MAY 2008** - If you've liked this tutorial, you will probably be very interested in WorldTV.com, a service I've been working on for a (very) long time which has just recently launched. You can create your own full screen, high-definition capable, online TV channel using videos pulled from YouTube, Metacafe etc and even FLV files hosted on your own server. It's a playlisting service for FLV files basically that is designed to be super easy to use. You can search for clips to add to your channel and once added you can download the FLV files to your desktop by right-clicking on them. You can embed your channel in your own website and add your own FLV files to your channel - this is how you can get HD quality. For more on HD flash video see this other article of mine. The service is 100% free, as in beer, and I encourage you to check it out at the WorldTV homepage.

**UPDATED DEC 2008** - Following a couple of comments where people were having problems converting the latest codecs, I've updated my easy FFmpeg pack with the most current version of FFmpeg. I've not had the opportunity to test this so please let me know by way of comments if it works for you. Download the new 2009 version here.

**UPDATED June 2009** - Due to the many thankful comments for this and my other popular posts - with people offering me their first born, a dozen cookies, among others (!), I've now added a donation page. If this article has helped you, help me!

Mac Users

I'm a Mac user myself but I did not readily find pre-compiled Mac versions of FFmpeg. For the truly fearless you can compile your own using this tutorial here. If you know of a reliable source please let me know through the comment section and I will add it to the tutorial. Other helpful tips and comments are also welcome since they will assist others trying to find their way. TIA.

Posted by Alx Klive at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (188)

I've always loved driving shots, both when I used to be a TV cameraman shooting video (and occasionally Super 8) and now whenever I travel. Somehow they're just cool.

Here's some from my current daily journey into the office...

And some of my favourites from the past...

Dahab to Cairo, Egypt

Kiev, Ukraine

Rabat to Marrakech, Morocco

Posted by Alx Klive at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

According to reports, YouTube and the BBC are working on a deal.

If true, I tend to agree with the writer's analysis that older shows and clips packages would be made available in an effort to spur DVD sales and raise awareness of programmes. Anything that will get them away from their very dubious dealings with Microsoft has to be a good thing.

A YouTube / BBC deal would make a lot of sense with the BBC's current push into commercial areas that sidestep the restrictions they have on doing overtly commercial ventures in the UK.

Be interesting to see how this one pans out. Original report here.

Posted by Alx Klive at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apple's Steve Jobs turned the cellphone industry rule book on its head while negotiating a deal with wireless carrier Cingular.

For one, only three executives at Cingular got to see the phone, and then only after a deal had been struck. Secondly, the phone will carry no Cingular branding on the inside or outside and will only be available direct from Apple and Cingular (no 3rd party phone stores etc).

The iPhone was also developed under unprecedented secrecy, with network technicians having to test a dummy phone, that by the sounds of it only had the phone's electronics in it and no case.

While all this is perhaps unsurprising, it still makes for fascinating reading, and you can get the whole skinny from the Wall Street Journal here.

Way to go his Steveness!

Posted by Alx Klive at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If your bag is tech, you could do a lot worse than head on over to MikeTV.

Hosted exclusively here on WorldTV, MikeTV is a daily dose of robot videos, gadget videos, technology videos and other geek friendly clips.

Mike scours the Internet for these videos so that you don't have to, and the first videos on the site include some really fascinating stuff.

There's the video of the four legged quadraped robot which survives being kicked in its side, a holographic television with the image hanging in mid-air, a multi-touch input screen with some mind altering demos (the same technology that's going to be in the iPhone), slow motion videos of a speeding bullet smashing through fruit, playing cards and drinks cans, a couple of fighting robot videos from Japan, a video of a water powered acetylene torch, and a video of the Da Vinci surgical robot that is revolutionising surgery procedures in hospitals.

Mike says his focus will be stuff that is 'real' but has not yet hit the mainstream or public conciousness, with the occasional irreverant or funny clip thrown in.

We love it!

Posted by Alx Klive at 6:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Don't you love 6am flights and the 3am wakeup call that goes with them? Because what you really want when you are travelling through multiple airports and timezones, through places where they really don't speak your language, and through endless post 911 security lineups, is to be absolutely, mind-bogglingly exhausted.

To cut a long story short I have arrived in a city 'a few hundred miles outside of Moscow', and am settling in to the only hotel in town with a broadband connection. That of course was the primary requisite luxury, and after spending the last two hours trying to get it to work, I finally feel connected with the world again.

My arrival here was not without some difficulty. The airport in question is definitely of the Post-Chernobyl style that is so popular here, mixed in with something out of World War One and a deserted outpost long since left to ruin. The character in the picture above was the receiving party and as you can probably tell from the lady next to him, it's freakin' freezing here.

I had been warned that this town is not the safest or most law abiding, and that everybody who works for the government is on the take - Translation: bribery is rampant. I smelled a rat when I was told there was a problem with my passport at immigration (I use the term loosely), and was told I would have to wait a while why they made some 'enquiries'. In the end it wasn't a trick to try to extract valued US dollars from me, rather they didn't like the look of my admittedly very pale passport photo. Even in the former USSR, where the sun rarely shines, and people look like milk bottles, my pasty white skin is apparently too transparent for their liking. Having finally convinced them the 'invisible man' in the passport photo was in fact me, they let me into the country.

Posted by Alx Klive at 5:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just over 11 years ago I registered the domain WorldTV.com. It was the last month of 1995, and YouTube and the citizen journalism phenomenom was just a twinkle in its video sharing mother's eye.

I remember the evening well - I had just downloaded and installed version 1.0 of Real Audio (later to become Real Player) and using my dial-up modem, had tuned into a radio station from the other side of the Atlantic. It was the first time I ever experienced live streaming audio over the Internet and it caused me to have a bit of a eureka moment...

I figured the only thing preventing live video streaming was bandwidth and computer processing power, two things guaranteed to be solved by the biggest players in the industry.

A year and a half later in May 1997 I wrote...

For the first time in the history of broadcasting, a medium is developing that allows anyone to become a global broadcaster. This medium is the Internet. It is now possible to send real time video over the Internet. The Internet provides the means for distribution and a home computer provides the means for transmission. In many ways what we are seeing is the early days of television all over again. By the year 2000 anyone with a camcorder and home computer will be able to readily publish video on their own website. As time goes by the quality of this video will continually improve and talented videographers will begin to emerge from all corners of the earth.

WorldTV is an (incredibly) long time coming and no one more so than me will be happy for it to finally see the light of day. The business plan has changed a thousand times, its ideas, its proposition, its offering - but its core tenets and beliefs have always stayed the same. Ever since I ran a (pirate) radio station in London in my youth, I've always wanted to run a (pirate) TV station, and more so, open up professional style broadcasting to everyone. WorldTV will be the embodiment of that long standing desire, and it can't come soon enough!

I'm heading off to a place this morning, to meet up with a group of guys who are going to help make WorldTV happen. I'll be staying there for two weeks, and at the end of it hope to have some form of rough alpha version running. The plans are almost finalized, and I can't wait to put them into action.

I will try to post some pictures and/or video of my trip - it should be an interesting one. With the congestion charge coming to my doorstep in London this morning, I can't think of a better day to get the heck out of Dodge.

Posted by Alx Klive at 3:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Three weeks ago the US District Court issued a subpoena against YouTube demanding the company hand over details of a user going by the name of ECOTotal. The action, brought initially by 20th Century Fox, was in reaction to the user posting videos of 24 on the site, before they had even aired on television.

While some reports suggest (and I think it is likely) that the episodes were already available on BitTorrent, and the user simply cross posted them to YouTube, the fact remains that this user is going to get a nasty surprise.

YouTube and its new owner Google face a big challenge this year. While there is no doubting the size and popularity of YouTube, the proverbial knives are being sharpened all around. There have been rumours of a 'YouTube killer', run by the television networks themselves, young people can very quickly turn against it (although sheer size here is arguably sufficient), and upcoming offerings from the likes of Joost may make this a difficult year for the company.

Posted by Alx Klive at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google has been forced to back down after a group of Belgian newspapers sued the company over its linking to stories on its Google news site. Google says it will appeal but has already removed all links to Belgian newspapers in the face of a $32,000 a day fine for each day it continues doing so.

The issue is one of sour grapes. Newspapers have seen their ad revenues and control of the media dry up as dynamic Internet companies like Google and Yahoo have become the de facto gatekeepers to information in the new world. In old Europe, where countries tend to have a rather insular viewpoint to begin with, this loss of control has rubbed the wrong way. Instead of viewing Google as a necessary (albeit uninvited) partner, able to drive significant traffic and eyeballs to their websites, they'd rather put up big walls around their garden and hope Belgians abandon the Google lawn party next door.

It will remain to be seen whether this approach works for them or not. Google is claiming fair use doctrine and says it will appeal, lawyers predict it will be the start of many more lawsuits against the Mountain View company over the issue.

Posted by Alx Klive at 6:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over at the Free Video Games Project, some news to announce with the release of an awesome free Flash version of Frogger.

If you used to like playing Frogger in the arcades back in the 80's this site's for you. As with all video games from the Project this version is easy to play, no download required, in full screen, and is refreshingly clear from annoying ads and commercial messages. It's also got a cool url - freefrogger.org!

We hope it will prove a popular addition to the current stable of games which includes Tetris, Pacman, Space Invaders and Sonic the Hedgehog.

Over 100,000 people a month can't be wrong!

Posted by Alx Klive at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reports are saying that superstar soccer player David Beckham will give a 30 minute TV interview during the Superbowl this Sunday.

This is a big story because 90 million sports viewers in the US, and particularly the kids and soccer moms among them represent a pretty huge potential new audience for the nascent MLS.

The odd thing is that the story is tough to confirm with the most high profile source seemingly the UK's Sunday Mirror.

Hundreds of secondary news sources have picked up the story but no broadsheets or trade news sources. One reliable TV trade source suggests Beckham will appear in a TV commercial, but no mention of any interview.

What is known is that David Beckham is joining for the LA Galaxy, and you can track news about David Beckham and the Los Angeles Galaxy in general here.

This is all very odd in my view but all will be revealed tomorrow evening.

Posted by Alx Klive at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This weekend Chicago squares off against Indianapolis in the 41st Superbowl. As everyone knows, it's the largest TV advertising event on earth.

Close to 100 million viewers will watch with families and friends, and because it's live, marketers know that there is going to be very little ad-skipping through Tivo-esque devices. There's not much chance of that happening anyway... marketers have long convinced us that advertising during the Superbowl is the Oscars or Sundance film festival of advertising. We're hooked!

This year, the Year of You, marketers sat around marketing tables, thought YouTube, thought clever marketing thoughts, and came up with FOUR, no less, takes on incorporating user generated content into the Superbowl Ad Event.

All four are incredibly safe and in fact consist only of amateurs submitting ideas for commercials which are then shot professionally. There'll be no grandad in front of a video camera in his living room, no teenagers miming along to music.

The companies in question have all set up special websites and are Chevrolet, Frito-Lay, the NFL themselves and Alka-Seltzer.

Further coverage on this subject from The NY Times, Times of London, Campaign , Sports Illustrated and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted by Alx Klive at 1:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)