iYuleLog for Your iPod with Video

hrbrmstr writes "Years ago, we used to enjoy the looping Yule Log video on WPIX (a.k.a. WB11) out of New York. Well, they've brought it up to modern times by making it available for download. You can use it on your iPod with Video or with anything that can do MPEG-4 video. The resolution isn't great (hey, it's for the iPod), but you can let it loop while you're sharing time with friends/family this weekend. (They even have four bits of holiday music you can stream while watching the video)."

Comments

they'll show you what Christmas cheer really is.

[Gravis Zero]

a free download AND streaming music?! sounds like the RIAA is about to sue everyone for Christmas. who said they needed to own the rights to music to sue you for downloading music, you pirate! i guess we know who the scrooges are this Christmas.

A fine idea

[Anonymous Coward]

but we need a better version

Right

[SmallFurryCreature]

Oh wtf, it is christmas, it is the season for non-sensical newsstories.

So I downloaded, put it on my video iPod and watched it.

It is the thrilling tale of a log burning with passion or possibly petrol.

It is still as much of a thrill ride as it was in the good old days of vhs but now you can have a big burning log in your pants.

Technically it sucks a bit as their are a lot of artifacts leading me to believe that someone was a bit to conservative with the compression settings. It is actually bad because fire of course contains a lot of movement and color ranges. So the vid just plain looks bad. Give me the high-def version, who cares if it sucks the battery dry in an hour.

So final result?

• + On topic
• - Originality
• + Time waster
• + Allowing me to brag about my video iPod.
• - cheapskate encoding settings.

Not bad for a christmas novelty story.

Re:Right

[mkiwi]

A lot of compression algorithms, (like JPEG) leave lots of artifacts on the screen. This is usually because the alogorithm used to make a JPEG is based on standard algebra. Where the math doesn't work is where the artifacts appear.

GIF (or LZW algorithm) counts 1's and 0's and uses a type of scientific notation for bits and patterns of bits. The downside to GIF is that your palatte is limited to 256 colors, although the colors you can use are very much of your choosing.

Most MPEG 4 codecs look algebra-based it seems, so artifacts appear more frequently with lower compression settings. It would be really good if you could get an H.264 at the appropriate resolution, as that algorithm is very good at providing high quality at low bit rates, i.e. the iPod.

Four bits?

[Wolfkin]

There's only half a dang byte of music? Geez.

already been done.

[slashmicah]

My friend had this on his podcast last week. peeper radio or here (yahoo)
or here(itms link)

Now if I could only download my family...

[Go_Ask_Alex]

...into my iPod, and mute it, that would be a Christmas miracle. ;-)

IX = 11?

[ppolitop]

Last time I checked IX != 11. Looks to me more like 9... :)

Re:IX = 11?

[mr100percent]

WPIX is the call sign, and they have always been on channel 11 in New York and the tri-state area. Now, they are a WB affiliate.