Firefox users who frequent YouTube, may be interested in the extension: Better YouTube.

[This extension] enhances YouTube with Greasemonkey user scripts, that offer options like the FlowPlayer “doesn’t start till you hit play” viewer, clean “theater” view, and links to download the video automatically.

With this add-on installed, you get features such as:

• Download link on the page.
• Ability to prevent auto-play (start by clicking play).
• Optimized screen which enlarges video and removes other page elements.
• Hide comments and more videos section.

If any of these features sound useful to you, give it a try.

YouTube (finally) put some profanity censoring in their text comment system after years of angry complaints from many, many users of the system.

The moment this went into effect there were people right on top of this:

Note the second comment above. Let it not be said that all YouTube "community members" are dumb. If you still want to see the profanity, you can.

Just uncheck the box for "Hide profanity in comments" by clicking "Options" next to Text Comments and it’s a done deal.

Why you would want to see the profanity crap I have no idea. But rest assured, YouTube is not outright denying you from seeing it, because that would be true censorship.

On YouTube there are more than a few prominent video-makers there that have run into the problem of having videos pulled (or accounts outright banned) due to them not being family friendly.

Personally I think the term family friendly is fairly easy to figure out, however when it comes to YouTube the lines are blurred as it appears to be dependent on whether the producer is a company with deep pockets or an individual.

Want an example? This is what’s considered to be family friendly on YouTube:

The Big Question: Is the above truly family friendly or not? (Feel free to weigh in your opinion with a comment.)

Even though this is no more offensive than, say, watching a female volleyball team compete on television, the video was specifically posted to attract a male audience. It is blatantly obvious that sex is what sells this video more than anything else. And yes, I do mean sell; there are embedded advertisements when watching it on the YouTube site.

While it’s true the video is not necessarily offensive, it does get dangerously close to what’s considered family friendly and what isn’t.

Also, the video was posted by Playboy, a well known adult magazine publication. And we all know they have very deep pockets.

I’m not an advocate of censorship, but I am an advocate of spelling things out in very plain English.

YouTube has two major sections you should read up on concerning user-submitted content, that being Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. However neither gives YouTube’s definition of what they think family friendly means.

In television advertising, the definition of what family friendly means is explained in great detail. And if your content does not conform to that standard, it is not aired, period. YouTube is trying to be a new form of television, so shouldn’t they follow the same rigid standard or at least define what family friendly is?

What do you think?

A lot of people are disliking YouTube these days. If it’s not for their ever-present "scheduled maintenance", it’s for the continually tightening grip on what is considered "acceptable" content and what isn’t. And let’s not forget that the community (and it’s a stretch to call it that) is simply awful.

There are plenty of so-so alternatives to YouTube such as DailyMotion, MetaCafe, Revver, Viddler, Vimeo and several others. But like I said, they’re so-so because the first thing that will turn you off is the interface for any of them, and the slowness will drive you up a wall.

Being that I like to see what’s out there, I found sevenload and decided to give it a shot.

In all honesty, it’s not bad at all. It’s actually fast and in some cases faster than YouTube, has far better privacy options compared to other video sites, and most importantly, it’s easy to use.

I give sevenload a thumbs up, because it’s the first YouTube alternative I’ve seen that I believe people would actually like. Try it, you may like it.

I personally find it comical how many users of the YouTube site believe they have "rights" on a private system that doesn’t grant them any. I also find it comical many believe that they can simply dictate to Google what they should and shouldn’t do with their own video sharing web site that’s free.

A classic example of this is in this video. Of course, you’ve got the standard "YouTube is dead" message (geez, how many times have we heard that?), followed by a seriously lame cinematic-style soundtrack and stuffed with a lot of "GOOGLE, YOU MUST DO THIS AND THIS AND THAT" dictator-style crapola. Way to put on the spin there, guy. You should work for Fox News.

It is very well known that Google has been trying like crazy for the past several years to turn a profit out of the YouTube site because it’s been losing money from day one. Everybody knew more big names were coming. Everybody knew more ads were coming. Everybody knew video  advertisements were coming.

None of the upcoming changes for YouTube should be a surprise to anybody. And yet some are just "shocked" by it.

Be shocked  all you want. YouTube is a business, and Google is trying to make some money with the site. In its first few years online, YouTube was a free-for-all. Rules be damned. Law be damned. And Google literally paid the price for it by being sued left and right several times. Lessons were learned and now they follow the rules as they were ordered to.

Now comes the point where they’re making good with all the businesses that were previously enemies. They’re saying, "We follow the rules now. Let’s make a deal." Deals were made. And you’ll be seeing them soon.

To all fervent YouTube "community" users: Please stop whining just because Google is trying to turn a profit from something that’s been losing money hand over fist for years. And yes, you are whining. You don’t have to pay to use the site. And you could use another video sharing site if you wanted to. So shaddup.

Oh, and one final note: The video linked above mentions Firefox 3 because it’s not a Google product and that you should use it because of that. Answer this: Why do you think Google is the default search engine in the Firefox browser? I’ll tell you. It’s because Google is the single largest overall fiscal contributor to the Mozilla Foundation, the makers of Firefox. Looks like you’ll have to start using Opera or IE.

You’ve probably heard of web sites like KeepVid where you can direct-download the FLV file of any YouTube video you watch by entering its video URL. You don’t have to do this. You can use Firefox’s local file cache to do it also. Yes, it takes a little longer, but the plus is you don’t have to rely on another site just to download videos. Afterwards you can watch the video using the FLV player of your choice (I personally use WinAMP).

Note before continuing: Yes, I understand there are applications available that will do the same thing as what is instructed below, however it is better to do this manually rather than rely on an app which at some point will not work any longer.

Step 1. Locate your Firefox browser cache URL.

Type in about:cache in your address bar and press enter.

Three listings will be displayed, that being Memory cache device, Disk cache device and Offline cache device.

You want to pay attention to Disk cache device. The cache directory will be listed there. It will be something like this and be very long:

C:\Documents and Settings\[your windows  account]\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[your firefox profile].default\Cache

Step 2. Open up a Windows Explorer and load the cache directory

Note: Windows Explorer is not the same as Internet Explorer.

While still in Firefox, highlight the entire cache directory and copy.

Click Start then Run, type explorer and click OK.

A Windows Explorer appears, usually landing in My Documents first.

In the Explorer address bar, paste in the cache directory.

When loaded it will look similar to this:

When you see this, click View then Details.

Then click View, then Arrange Icons By, then Modified so the most recent file is listed at the bottom of the file list first. (If you want it listed at the top, just click View/Arrange Icons By/Modified again.)

Looks like this:

Before continuing, if you’re asking, “Why not just click List Cache Entries from about:cache?”, the reason is because there’s no way to sort cache files in Firefox, but with Explorer you can.

Leave this Explorer window open as-is and go back to Firefox.

Step 3. Go to YouTube and load up a video.

I will use this video as an example.

When you load the video there is a red bar at the bottom of the YouTube player as seen above. Wait until this bar is completely filled from left to right. When it is, this indicates the video is completely downloaded locally.

Step 4. Get the FLV and store it wherever you want.

Go back to your Windows Explorer and press F5 to refresh.

Assuming your file list has newest files listed at the bottom first, the newest file there will in fact be the video. It will be a somewhat large file compared to other cache entries. The video linked above should have a size of 4,606 KB and look similar to this:

Important note: The name of your file will most likely be different from what’s shown here.

Right-click the file and select Rename. Rename the file whatever you want and add the extension .FLV at the end. (If this does not work, click Tools then Folder Options, click the View tab and uncheck “Hide extensions for known file types”.)

Right-click the file again after renaming, Cut, minimize everything until you see your desktop, then paste the file direct on the desktop.

If all goes well, you’ve got your FLV downloaded locally to the Desktop.

For any other YouTube video you load in your browser, follow suit. Load the video, go to the cache directory in Explorer, F5 to refresh, look for the newest larger file, rename, cut and paste on the Desktop or anywhere else you want the file to go.

Does this work for other video sites as well?

Yes. Any site that uses the FLV format (which the vast majority of them do) will have the video file itself downloaded locally to your cache to view it in your browser. When that happens you just go to the directory as outlined above and grab your FLV there.

Whenever you are watching YouTube videos you probably come across some that you would like to save to your hard drive. While there are software titles and browser plugins which will do this for you, the abosolute easiest way I have found is by using KickYouTube.

KickYouTube requires no software installation or registration of any kind and the usage could not be easier. There is a walkthrough on their main page, but basically all you do is this:

1. Go to the video you want to download on YouTube’s site.
2. Change the URL at the top by adding “kick” in front of youtube.com. For example http://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=12345 becomes http://www.kickyoutube.com/watch/?v=12345
3. You will be taken to KickYouTube’s site.
4. Select your download format from the top bar and click download.
5. That’s it.

Again, there is no software required or account to create so enjoy!

Many people who publish videos on the internet (such as PCMech) does put an "intro" on the front to inform people who made it in the first place.

Over the course of my video-making I discovered that by and large, people hate intros if they:

1. Are too long.
2. Are too "spammy".
3. Have the word "productions" in it.
4. All of the above.

Too long

On some older PCMech videos, yes the intros are way too long. So I shortened it, then shortened it again. At present, it’s just barely 6 seconds long and that’s just about right. (I could go even shorter and might for future vids.)

If your intro is longer than 6 seconds, shorten it. Anything longer will annoy people.

Think of it this way: When you’re driving on the highway and see a speed limit sign, you have seen and processed the information in just a few seconds. Intros work the same way – all you need is a few seconds and nothing more.

Too "spammy"

This is where your intro is "pushing" something too much and looks like an ad. Intros are supposed to be informatory first and always and not spam.

Has the word "productions" in it

Instead of coming up with something original, people will use "First name, Last name Productions". Nobody cares. Get rid of it and use something else (preferably something a lot shorter).

Skip the intro altogether?

There’s a school of thought that states you should have no intro whatsoever, and instead put informatory stuff at the tail after the main video is over.

Does this work? For some it does. It depends on your content. If you have relative assurance that people are watching all the way thru, then yes you can ditch the intro altogether. If not, stick with the intro.

Do intros bother you?

Let us know in the comments.

While it’s true that other video-sharing sites (like Vimeo’s HD channel) have had large HD-quality video for a while now, YouTube has finally jumped into the fray with its own HD.

And to be honest it looks really good.

The only drawback is that it’s absolutely required that you have a reasonably fast PC with a decent video card, else you get dropped frames here and there.

An example of YouTube HD is here. Click the "watch in HD" link under the video.

One thing’s for certain – you absolutely cannot use a webcam to get this kind of quality; it more or less has to come from a camcorder or handheld USB video device that can do 16:9 aspect (which most do). The drawback with that is that while cool, the video takes much longer to upload and brings us back to a point where video is difficult to use once again. A webcam is easy, a camcorder is difficult. You have to transfer the video off the camcorder first, edit it, render it (which takes at least twice as long), upload a huge file, etc.

HD is cool but definitely not for everyone.

You can file this under the "Yeah, I knew that would happen" department. A consumer advocacy group is really ticked off because there are pharmaceutical advertisements are appearing on YouTube without any disclaimers or warnings (as they must have on television).

Corporations, typically speaking, hate it when they have to put any disclaimers or warnings on their products. Why? It’s because it decreases sales. Someone who is smarter than the average bear may (gasp) read one of those and say "Um.. I don’t think this is for me, it may be bad for my health."

Am I saying that pharma ads on YouTube need to have the same disclaimers as they do on television?

You’re damned right they do.

[Source: blog.bioethics.net]

When you hear people say that internet video is really big right now, they’re right. Now that so many people have broadband Internet access, the common use of internet video has reached mainstream and more and more people are starting to do it.

And rightly so.

You ever watched television for hours on end? Even if it isn’t particularly exciting, your eyes are kind of glued to it until something else distracts you. Or have you ever experienced seeing something that really moves you and really tugs on the heart strings. You have the imagery, probably coupled with some appropriate music, and you really FEEL it. Now, you would have to be on incredible writer to get that kind of reaction from the written word.

There is something about seeing and hearing something that just draws in the human mind. People stick to it like glue.

As a person working online, you really do need to take this into consideration. Even if your videos aren’t really emotional, videos often will communicate to your audience better than the written word. Not always, of course.

If you look at your website, sit down and brainstorm potential uses for videos on the Internet. Also gather some equipment to help you create some videos. You can hire people to create videos for you. You can also make them yourself any number of ways.

Always include your website URL in your video.

When using sites like Youtube, you might want to try to make a viral video. A video that goes viral means that it spreads similar to a virus. One person “catches” it and passes it onto another. To get this effect, your video has to be truly interesting enough for a person to want to pass it onto their friends. It doesn’t take rocket science to determine what kinds of videos are most likely to go viral. Throw some humor into it, perhaps even with a hot woman in it, and it’ll go viral. Youtube viewers aren’t exactly a high-brow audience.

TIP: Youtube, by default, will pick the exact half-way mark in your video to use as the thumbnail for that video. Many video publishers take advantage of that to put something visually interesting at the half way point. Then, when casual viewers are looking for something interesting to watch, the thumbnail may get their attention and draw them in.

Have you ever seen a video on YouTube or any other video sharing website that you wanted to download, but didn’t have the option to? Luckily, there are many ways to do this. In this article, we’ll explore several of your options, both web-based and software based. Continued

Periodically I get asked how to get videos uploaded to YouTube to look better. The easiest possible way to do this is to simply capture/import and export your video file as 640×480 resolution for great video quality.

Here’s a quick tutorial for those who use Windows Movie Maker:

Import at 640×480

If you are importing from a camcorder, you can skip this step as you are already importing at 640×480 or more.

If you are capturing from a webcam, check your capture settings. It’s most likely set to 320×240. See if you have the option to bump that up to 640×480. (Note: Some webcams don’t have this option but yours might.)

If you are using screen capture software such as CamStudio, make sure you are capturing an area that is at least 640×480 in size.

Export at 640×480

When exporting your movie to WMV format, you will first see this screen:

(click for full size)

Click the link for Show more choices…

(click for full size)

Select Other settings and choose Video for LAN (768 Kbps). This will render a 640×480 video at 30 frames per second. The resulting WMV file will look better when uploaded to YouTube.

Google owns YouTube. YouTube is an extremely popular video web site. Yet Google isn’t exactly sure about how to make money from it. Or at least they’ve put on the appearance as such. In reality they know exactly how to make money from YouTube.

Commercials.

Affiliate and cable television make money by selling advertising time. For every 30 minutes of television time there is 8 minutes of commercials. The 22-minute “half-hour” show has been a staple of television programming for decades.

Using commercials is the only proven method that makes money with broadcasted video.

You have seen commercials on the web already from other video sites that place a 5 to 15 second advert before the video presentation actually starts. This is called a “pre-roll”.

This is the only way to make money with video. Banners don’t work. Text doesn’t work. Overlays don’t work. Nothing, repeat, nothing works as well as true-blue commercials. Anything else is a waste of time.

And that’s why YouTube is most likely going to go this route.

When you see these pre/post-rolls on your favorite YouTube videos, it will make you upset. It will make you wish for a time when there weren’t any commercials. You will be saddened by this.

The good times will soon be over.

Will this kill YouTube? Nope. It will make YouTube what its proponents have been saying all along – a replacement for television. Well, now it will be. But not in the way you thought.

One of the “in” things to do online these days is lifestreaming. Lifestreaming is where you have an online record of your daily activities. You might use Twitter to share random thoughts throughout the day. You might snap photos or take videos and put them online. You’ll write blog posts. You’ll update your statuses in social networks like Facebook.

In a way, I do this. I blog regularly both here at PCMech and on DavidRisley.com. I am a regular user of Twitter and have been known to send in “tweets” even while using my cell phone when I am not in the office. I use FriendFeed and love the site because it aggregates all of these various activities into a single feed. Continued