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Tag: hollywood

  • YouTube Offers Widescreen HD Videos


    YouTube has finally moved to a default widescreen player with an HD-friendly 16:9 aspect ratio.

    Perhaps not coincidentally, the announcement follows the video sharing giant’s recent decision to start hosting full-length Hollywood movies.

    Not that anyone will be complaining.

    YouTube has long lagged behind competitors such as Vimeo and Blip.tv.

    They have offered HD and widescreen players for some time now – but they don’t have the audience figures of YouTube.

    So this certainly opens up the options for video fans that steadfastly refused to compromise on quality by submitting to YouTube.

    A YouTube spokesman said that by expanding the page width to 960 pixels the new, wider player would provide viewers with a cleaner, more powerful viewing experience.

    The change does mean that since the majority of videos on the site were uploaded as 4:3, they will now appear with black bars on the sides.

    Quite why YouTube hasn’t either given users the option to select a player depending on aspect ratio or, better still, to auto-detect it, is anyone’s guess.

  • "Hard" media discs in no danger of disappearing despite advances being made in digital downloading


    Blu-ray discs and DVDs are going to survive for another 20 years even though great advances are being made in digital downloading.
    That is the belief of Reed Hastings, head of NetFlix, the online rental service, who also stated that he doesn’t think a rival physical optical disc will emerge to challenge Blu-ray.
    Speaking at an investors meeting, Hastings said on DVD and Blu-ray wouldn’t be replaced by digital downloads and ray Hollywood studios would continue releasing films on disc.
    “Our view is that the studios are going to publish DVD and Blu-ray for another 20 years,” he said. “I don’t think there’s going to be another physical optical disc.”
    Hastings said that the DVD/Blu-ray industry would probably not “peak” for 5-10 years.
    However, despite his long-term confidence in discs, the executive said the online rental service is aggressively developing online video streaming services.
    “We’ve been looking forward to these years for a long time,” said Hastings.
    “Our DVD shipments will probably peak in 5 to 10 years … the streaming can be thought of as defensive, protecting our turf, or offensive,” he added.
    In the US this month, NetFlix began selling a $99 set-top that enables subscribers to download movies over the Net directly to their TVs.
    The company also offers a streaming service at its web site, which is free to subscribers.
    Hastings said that NetFlix ultimately could generate 20 million subscribers to video streaming; the company now projects having 10 million DVD subscribers by the end of 2008.
    He also said NetFlix is still examining ways to charge more for Blu-ray rentals, an idea floated by the company earlier this year.