One of the things that’s important to me for Ubuntu Screencasts is that they are accessible to people on non-Ubuntu platforms. That basically translates to Windows and OSX, but could also mean set top boxes, media players etc.
One reason I like blip.tv is that they will take the Ogg Theora/Vorbis video I create in RecordMyDesktop and edit in Pitivi, and transcode it to FLV and MP4 (H264/AAC). The FLV is for streaming to a flash based player. The MP4 version is used in the iTunes feed. They also feed directly to our YouTube channel for maximum reach.
I also use the flash stream and mp4 video to supplement the Ogg video on the site. So visitors with browsers that support the video tag such as Firefox 3.5 will see the Ogg video embedded, users of ‘lesser’ browsers will either get the MP4 stream or the Flash one. I have tested this in Safari for example which shows the fallback MP4 video using the Quicktime plugin. On Windows in IE I get the Flash based player. Here’s the code I use:-
<div id="UbuntuPartitioning">
<video id="UbuntuPartitioning" controls="controls" width="640" height="480">
<source src="http://static.screencasts.ubuntu.com/2009/09/03/Ubuntu_Partitioning.ogv" type="video/ogg" />
<source src="http://blip.tv/file/get/Ubuntuscreencasts-UbuntuPartitioning718.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
<embed src="http://blip.tv/play/ge9BgZzwZgA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="968" height="544" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed>
</video></div>
You can see this in action here at http://screencasts.ubuntu.com/2009/09/03/Ubuntu_Partitioning.
One problem I have though is that sometimes the blip.tv automagic video conversion fails. I have a ‘pro’ account with blip.tv so that lets me retry the processing, but it almost always fails on a retry so that’s a kind of pointless feature for me. The conversion that fails is the MP4 one, so that means the iTunes feed doesn’t get populated, and I can’t embed an MP4 video into the site for (for example) Safari users.
It dawned on me this morning whilst looking at the YouTube page that they also convert to MP4 (H264/AAC). So I downloaded the MP4 from YouTube and uploaded it to blip.tv as an ‘alternate’ format to an existing movie. It worked.
I tested the MP4 in Safari on the Mac, and sure enough the quicktime plugin loaded. I also checked that it would download and play in iTunes however it won’t even sync to my iPod. I guess iTunes decides it’s in a format my iPod won’t play. The videos that previously did convert okay at blip.tv do work on the iPod, so I assume there’s some resolution/codec issue in the YouTube converted ones.
Now, dear blip.tv, please fix your own transcoder, or allow me as a user to ‘pull’ MP4 video out of my YouTube account, back into my blip account. This ‘download from YouTube, upload to blip’ process works for me, but it’s time consuming and unnecessary.
10 Comments
Ahem, Ubuntu != GNU/Linux, please don’t spread such misunderstandings. Thank you!
I didn’t say Ubuntu == GNU/Linux. My point is that the Ubuntu screencasts target Ubuntu users and potential Ubuntu users. I’m don’t really see the target including users of other Linux distros, although I’m happy for them to watch them of course
You might want to have a look at this to reformulate your fist sentence :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions
You might want to consider that as I make all my videos available in Ogg / Theora / Vorbis format, the chances are high that all Linux distros can play them out of the box, so I don’t explicitly _need_ to target other distros.
“people on non-Ubuntu platforms. That basically translates to Windows and OSX”
You are a bit reductive here
Beside this, I surely appreciate the fact that you are using those formats.
Yes, deliberately so. I don’t see most existing non-Ubuntu Linux users to be target market. They’re already “converted”.
Dear Alan The Popey,
Please stop spreading your awful FUD about the Umbuntu. I am a keen user of Yggdrasil GNU/Linux and the Hurd kernel and I feel that I should be represented by your screencasts. If you do not agree with me then you hate freedom.
Yours,
Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells.
Hey Alan,
Keep up the super work dude, and ignore those haters.
Man you’d think life was too short to hop on a blog and bitch about GNU/Linux Vs Ubuntu, but then again proof is in the pudding
Alan, you have hit upon one of the wonderful problems with blip.tv. Conversions on Blip have this nasty tendency of breaking. I finally subscribed to the screencasts feed you produced and iTunes is barfing on two of the four shows in it. It keeps complaining that they are not compatible with my iPod.
My only thought on these problems is that a bash script using either ffmpeg or vlc to transcode might be needed. I imagine this would look something like the script used for producing the multifarious versions of the Ubuntu UK Podcast, actually. While something like this seems to be needed, I have yet to encounter it in the wild.
The only way to get surefire results from blip is to just do the rendering yourself. In the end, it is less of a hassle. It does kill the upload bandwidth usage quota, though.
And in case you are wondering what my uploads to blip.tv look like, see http://listen-from-lisnews.blip.tv for more.
I started using Slackware in 1994. I used to have a license plate reading “GNU LNUX.” I have no patience for Ubuntu, which I’ve learned since recently buying a netbook with Ubuntu installed. That said, these people are nuts. You’re right, they’re wrong, ignore them.
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