[Sept 2016 – email me if you want the lastest version] (OPML File Updated 2/9/09) I’m always being asked what sites and blogs I read that cover the online video industry and what’s in my RSS reader. I have about 100 feeds in Google Reader from many sites and blogs, some mainstream, others not. You can download my OPML file by clicking on the link [Mac users hold down the control key] (Download DanRayburn-RSS-Subscriptions) and drop it into your RSS reader.

I think it would be really helpful if other bloggers and new sites made their OPML file available. I am always on the look out for niche sites and blogs I can keep an eye on.

Today, Pure Digital Technologies announced a newer, smaller version of the widely popular Flip Video camera. Called the Flip Video Mino, the unit comes in at 40% smaller than the original Flip and has rechargeable batteries. Retailing for $179.99, the new unit weighs just over three ounces and is being targeted primarily towards teenagers.

Unfortunately, the new Mino only has 2GB of on-board flash memory and captures up to 60
minutes of TV-quality video, which are the same specs as the original Flip. The Mino has new
touch-sensitive buttons to record, fast forward, rewind, pause and
delete and the new internal, rechargeable lithium ion battery recharges whenever the camcorder’s USB arm is connected to a computer
and provides more than four hours of recording time on a single charge.

I’ll have a review unit in a couple of days and will do a follow up post with some videos.

While there continues to be a lot of talk in the industry about HD quality web video, to date, I still have yet to figure out what classifies web video as HD quality? As an industry we are using the word HD to clarify video as being a certain level of quality, but these days it seems many are calling their video HD or their video delivery offering as supporting HD, but then the video is not truly HD by TV standards.

Depending on who you ask, the HD standard for the web video seems to be all over the map. While we know that for broadcast TV HD quality is usually defined by a resolution of 1080i, 1080p or 720p, the codec used for web video seems to play more of a role in the definition of HD web video than in the traditional broadcast industry. Some also say that you have to take into account the bitrate the file is encoded at in order to classify it as HD or not.

We’ve seen delivery networks say they can deliver HD video over regular 6 megabit connections and others who say they can do it over connections at half that. Many delivery networks all say they support "HD quality" but then don’t define what they classify HD quality to be and what their offering supports. The recent Operation MySpace webcast was touted as HD quality but then I saw many in the industry commenting on how it really wasn’t HD quality due to the codec that was used.

So what is HD quality on the web? What are the classifications we need as an industry? While HD web video has very little traction today, with the term being used so often, we better create some sort of standard agreed upon. If we don’t, over time, the word HD may not be associated with such good quality video as we want it to be.

With the Streaming Media West show taking place earlier than usual this year, September 23-25th in San Jose, TODAY is the day to contact me if you want to organize and moderate a session at the show. The ideal candidate is someone who specializes in some facet of the online video business be it advertising, search, content creation, etc… or focuses on some aspect of the many different technologies in the industry.

If you are an expert in a particular topic and want to design the focus of a session, pick your own speakers and pick the format be it presentations, demos, case studies, round table panel etc….. I need to hear from you, today. Seriously, the program is now 75% planned and if you want in, a week from now will be too late.

I am open to all ideas and suggestions and am looking for those who are comfortable working with me on their session and have the experience in organizing a discussion around a topic. If you are interested, send me an e-mail today or better yet, call me immediately at 917-523-4562.

I turn in the advance program tomorrow for layout, design and printing so I really am down to the wire. I have only a few open spots left and need to hear from you if you want a shot at filling them.

Today, Onstream Media announced that it had agreed to acquire IPTV based platform provider Narrowstep in an all stock transaction. Shareholders of Narrowstep will receive 11.1 million shares of Onstream Media common stock plus have the opportunity to earn additional shares based on reaching future sales targets.

For 2007, Narrowstep had about $6 million in sales and total operating expenses were over $16 million, much of which was spent on the buildout of their own content delivery network. At the end of November of 2007, Narrowstep had about $6.5 million in cash and had started to shop the company. At their current burn rate, Narrowstep was close to having to raise another round this quarter in order to stay open.

Onstream Media, which is on a run rate to do between $15-20 million for 2008, and has a current market cap of around $40 million, gets more than 75% of its revenue from webcasting related services. On paper, this acquisition is an odd combination since Onstream Media is really in the services business and Narrowstep is in the software and platform business. Both companies have two very different business models and very different customers, in different regions of the world.

Thanks to ScribeMedia, we now have some of the Streaming Media East sessions edited and archived online. Thirteen sessions are now available for viewing with more being added each day at www.streamingmedia.com/videos

We welcome anyone to use the videos on their site or in their blog in anyway they like as long as it is non-commercial in nature.

Today, at The Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital conference, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos made reference to a new streaming video service Amazon will be launching in the next few weeks. While details were not discussed and very little info was given out, it’s not surprising to see Amazon launch a streaming service based offering to go along side Amazon’s Unbox service.

While I think it is great that companies like Amazon are experimenting with streaming media based offerings, there is no demand in the market for such a service today. I love Amazon and I love my TiVo, but to date, Amazon’s Unbox service has had no real success in the market and consumers are not asking for more video based services to stream what is expected to be movies to their PC. The whole movies to the PC business has been tried for years, in all forms, and with every kind of business model. Lets face it. Consumers decide what gets adopted, not technology and content owners and my fear is that with the name Amazon has in the industry, expectations will be set way too high by many of what they think Amazon’s streaming media based offering should turn into.

I hope Amazon launches it quietly and uses it as a test for how content is consumed, how the technology works and to basically get their feet wet with streaming. If the service is hyped and expectations run wild, it will hurt the entire industry when the service does not get as much adoption as some may think.

But for me, the bigger thing to watch from this service is how the content will be delivered? Is Amazon planning to stream the video from their network? To date, I don’t know of Amazon having any kind of content delivery footprint using Flash Media Servers to be able to stream video. Could be they won’t use Flash or that while Jeff called it "streaming" it might actually be progressive download. But the infrastructure side of this offering is really what we need to watch. As Amazon slowly turns into a CDN for video, it will be interesting if this new service now as acts the catalyst for Amazon to build out their network to support streaming or if they plan to use a third party CDN.