3gp
Latest
Quicktime 7.2 patches bugs, adds "Export to iPhone" option
In addition to patching various security holes, it looks like Apple added "Export to iPhone" and "Export to iPhone (Cellular)" presets to Quicktime 7.2 -- making it easy to spit out .m4v or .3gp files optimized for the iPhone's screen and data delivery options. This isn't a huge surprise, since Quicktime gained Apple TV and video iPod presets shortly after those products were released, but at least now compressing your videos to the postage stamp sizes required for them to stream over EDGE is just a click away.
Small Carrot for the small screen
A member of Small Carrot asked me to check out the site, and I was incredibly impressed by what I saw. The site offers tons of high-quality ad-free animation, in formats compatible with the PSP, iPod and cell phone. While the programming is excellent, Small Carrot goes a step further than other sites by offering a PSP-compatible version of the site and video RSS feeds. Downloading is quick, simple and intuitive.The site will only work on PSPs with firmware 2.80 or greater due to the naming conventions the site uses. But, for those of you running an older firmware, there's luck: the site will offer 1.0-compatible movies for those browsing on a computer. Not bad at all. Check out the site on your PC, or on your PSP at www.scpsp.com.
Portable Film Festival coming this Wednesday
If you're like me, you consider yourself something of a film connoisseur, attending film festivals every chance you have. But not all of us are fortunate enough to live nearby the Tribeca Film Festival. No worries. The Portable Film Festival is launching this Wednesday, and it will let you download 67 pre-selected films from all over the world to your PSP. The films were created specifically for the small screen, and they include animations, documentaries, experimental works, and more. Not only will you be able to download the films to your PSP, you'll also be able to vote for your favorite film. The winner of the competition will earn $1500 and software from Autodesk (that doesn't come cheap, trust me). So, get your Memory Sticks ready! Check out a mini-interview after the cut.
Stream MythTV content to any 3G phone
When a person is on a mission, he/she can accomplish anything, no matter how Rube Goldberg-esque the solution turns out to be, so you can forgive Gary Lerhaupt's rather complicated how-to on streaming recorded programs to any 3G-enabled cellphone. Far too detailed to go into the specifics here, Lerhaupt's method basically programs your MythTV box to send recorded TV shows to a computer running Apple's open source Darwin Streaming Server software, which sets up dedicated URLs for each file and allows you to stream from your handset's browser at will. Those without pretty decent tech skillz should probably not attempt this one, as even the how-to assumes some knowledge of 3gp video conversion, script running, and something called an rtsp streaming protocol; instead, you're probably better off spending a few extra bucks on that Windows Mobile phone and employing the no-brainer solutions that the good folks at Orb and Sling Media have already come up with.
