Facebook Video now HD and Embed

One of the best social networking websites out there Facebook.com now allows for HD 720p video content to be uploaded and streamed to users. Facebook Video also now allows for videos to be embedded on other sites. The embedded videos will not be played back in HD format. In order to see those videos you have to be on the website.

From what it looks like, Facebook Video continues to be for the public and isn’t directly competing against YouTube.com. Facebook Video is for sharing favorite video moments with real friends while YouTube is for releasing videos to the world-wide web.

It is pretty amazing amoungst my friends how many more comment on my videos uploaded onto Facebook as opposed to my videos uploaded onto YouTube. It would be great if Facebook introduced a program like YouTube Partners where it allowed more serious content producers to generate revenue off of their videos, but for now that doesn’t seem like it’s the direction Facebook plans on taking its video service.

Here’s my first ever Facebook HD video!

Check out the picture below and see how the HD video looks on Facebook. There’s an option to view the video in regular quality. The video itself has the ‘HD’ written on the thumbnail and even ‘HD’ by its title.

This is how HD videos on Facebook look along with their listed features.

Overall I’m happy with Facebook going HD. It’s just as simple to upload videos and tag friends. If anything that is still what sets it apart from other online video services.

Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh: Quirky Tween Entertainment

Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh: A Nickelodeon Original Movie
Nickelodeon Studios/ Schneider’s Bakery
Starring Drake Bell, Josh Peck, Miranda Cosgrove, Kimbo Slice, and Henry Winkler

Premieres Friday, December 5th, 2008 at 8pm on Nickelodeon

Drake Bell (Santa), Josh Peck (Santa's sack), and some kid
Drake Bell (Santa), Josh Peck (Santa's sack), and some kid

Those wacky brothers, Drake and Josh, are at it again. And this time they’re bringing Christmas cheer and a lot of lunacy in a new movie exclusively on Nickelodeon. Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh catches up with the brothers as the Yuletide holiday nears. Continue reading “Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh: Quirky Tween Entertainment”

YouTube High Definition

It’s an even more joyous day with what appears to HD enabled content on YouTube! Late last night YouTube revamped its website and enabled widescreen video embeds. Now it looks like they’ve gone a step further.

Look at the picture below. Click on it. What do you see? Hint: it’s in the bottom right corner of every video. Look at the watch in normal quality, high quality, HD??? Is that HIGH DEFINITION?

YouTube Widescreen Embeds

[Update 12/4/08: YouTube has now enabled HD streaming]

YouTube has revamped their website. One of its major new features is widescreen embedding. When you find a video that you want to embed simply click on the customize button and choose a size that you want the player to be in. It really couldn’t be simpler.

As you may notice YouTube has enabled its search bar to display on top of the video before it has been activated. It’s pretty darn ugly.

Now all we need is allowing these embeds to play in YouTube HD stream quality. Oh the joy.

Ghostbusters The Video Game – Please God Don’t Let This Game Suck

Every now and then there is a video game trailer that brings a glimmer of hope. Usually soon after, this hope gets crushed. For instance, when the Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts teaser trailer was released fanboys went wild. A couple months later, Rare shot them in the foot announcing it was a vehicular title rather than a simple platform.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game definitely falls into this category. On paper it seems fantastic. In final form, it usually is a stinker. When Vivendi merged with Activision and Activision dropped the title from its publishing lineup, a red flag warning went up. This title might not be so good.

I am grateful that Atari is planning on publishing this game. It would have been a shame to see all this time and effort by the original actors go to waste. From the new trailer [see below] it appears that at least the cutscenes will live up to the film’s comedic and fun adventure qualities.

Please Atari, take all the time and money that you need to make this title AAA.

PS – Please find a new announcer. The voice actor in this trailer kind of sucks.

DVD REVIEW: Roman Holiday – The Centennial Collection

Roman Holiday is Audrey Hepburn film debut, she co-starred with Gregory Peck in a romantic comedy about a modern-day Princess and an American newspaperman who fall in love. It’s absolutely amazing that Hepburn won an Oscar for this role.

There are several extra featurettes about Audrey’s biography. All in all these extras will last a couple hours at most. One of the videos is carried over straight from the 2002 DVD release.

This collection includes:
Audrey Hepburn: The Paramount Years
Remembering Audrey
Rome with a Princess
Dalton Trumbo: From A-List to Blacklist
Restoring Roman Holiday
Behind the Gates: Costumes
Paramount in the ‘50s- Retrospective Featurette

This film is very enjoyable to watch. Some of the shots of Rome and its landmarks look fantastic. Audrey Hepburn was delightful, and this was one of Gregory Peck’s better films.