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Azureus' HD Videos Attempt To Trump YouTube
tedgyz writes "Wired has an article describing a high definition video service from Azureus. It looks like many of the highlights of our previous discussion about service commercialization are panning out. The new Zudeo site, made by the masterminds behind the bittorrent service, aims to be a platform for movie-makers and professionals. Will distancing itself from the homespun efforts of YouTube prove successful, or lead to the service being ignored?" From the article: "With high-definition video cameras available for less than $1,000, and with the rapid adoption HDTVs in the home, it's clear that high-definition entertainment has a future. But the visual clarity of internet video tends to be less than stellar, mostly because the bandwidth costs associated with serving large, high-quality video files is prohibitively expensive. However, the BitTorrent protocol enables content distributors like Azureus to share large files using much less bandwidth."
Azeures have their own "Seeding Servers" which are permanently online,
guaranteeing that the file will always be available.
As noted above, flash sends you the first bits of the video, ready to play within seconds if not immediately. Bittorrent files don't work that way, you get whatever bits are sent to you, and not in any particular order either. That also means having to have files on the drive, when I leave YouTube and close the browser, the files are generally gone.
Not only that, just about any digital camera is able to capture video that's better than what YouTube offers, the problem is that YouTube is using a fairly old codec. They can get better video with less bandwidth by switching to OnTo's latest codec.
Ratings can easily be astroturfed and some on youtube currently suffer from that.
If a piece of content is old enough to have real ratings on it then that could be useful but it's still not as fast as clicking play, saying "ewwww!" and going on to the nest one as most internet users do.
The other problem is their "streaming" still does not work. I tried it on 4 of their HD content clips and they do not stream, they download just like a normal torrent with pieces all random every clip would with not play or would only play the first 1-2 seconds before hitting a missing piece until the end of the download.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The download link on Zudeo is http://torrents.aelitis.com:88/files/Azureus_2.5.0 .0_linux.tar.bz2.
I have no idea why they're pushing the site as Azureus 3.0 but that's a legitimate download link, the same one offered on the SourceForge site. Interestingly while Zudeo is handling the press, the sf page has taken a dive.
nyud.net:8080 shows they've got a prominent ad for Zudeo on the mainpage though.
1. It's true that you need to have a client "out there" with the video that you want to watch in order for this to work. In comes what I like to call super clients. Clients with high bandwidth abilities that auto-download torrents from popular sites and seed within their ability. They don't have to be watched and quickly give availability to the masses.
2. Really? you really shouldn't be watching YouTube at work. Not that I don't... =P
3. That's the exact thing we're trying to do! HD videos require large space and bandwidth requirements. Much more than a single service can ever handle. So we need regular people to help out. Uploading is part of the p2p game and you get faster service out of it. It doesn't have to ruin the rest of the internet experience. Just make sure that the you have enough upload bandwidth to do the rest of the stuff you want to do. I'm sure in the near future Azereus(it's been a while since I used it) will be able to intelligently upload depending on how much you are using the internet.
4. uh yeah. If you had Azereus then you had another window open helping with torrents: Again this is p2p's domain. I haven't used Zudeo so I really don't know about its interface. But interfaces need to be refined over time depending on how the users actually use the program. Just ask Apple(never buy an Apple 1.0 product). Magnet links may be generic but if you have multiple p2p clients then you seriously need to understand that it's up to you to determine which program handles what links. I use eMule, uTorrent and Sharaza, and some can use the same links, but I specifically state that I want eMule to handle ed2k links and shareaza to handle magnet links even though they both can handle both types.
No, he didn't. That was point #5, the one that was bold...
The Cannon HV10 is available for $999 from Tiger Direct and other outlets. Described as the world's smallest HD camcorder. 1920x1080 CMOS sensor. 10x optical zoom, image stabilization, etc.
The Sanyo HD1A records 720p MPEG-4 video on SD cards. Sells for around $600-$700. Froogle is your friend.
And, as it says in the article, the videos start a few seconds after it starts streaming.