YouTube Made EZ

There's no doubt that the video site YouTube is extremely popular. They have more content than anyone can ever watch, and the key is that it can be viewed quickly thanks to its flash video format. However, despite the millions of videos that get viewed daily, only less than one percent of users to the site upload content.

It's not that there aren't plenty of affordable video cameras on the market, cheap webcams plugged into computers, or digital cameras with a video mode. The reason for this is that it's too difficult for the average user to shoot a video, edit it, and upload it, not to mention that they may have to convert it to a preferred format. However, I'm noticing a trend of new products that can simplify the process considerably.

The first is called the Flip Video Camcorder. Forget about complicated and expensive HD camcorders with DVD drives and Firewire connections. This product goes totally in the other direction and is akin to a high quality webcam with built in memory and power. There are two versions: 512 megs for $119, or 1 gig for $149. That amount of storage lets us save 30 minutes, and one hour of mpeg-4 video respectively. This all gets transferred via a flip out USB port. The video is 30 fps at a resolution of 480 x 640 which is better than much of the stuff I see on YouTube. While I'll reserve judgment until I see one of these in the wild, and the video it produces, it looks like this purpose built hardware may be what the YouTube masses want. I found some more info about this product here, including that it runs on AA batteries which should keep the cost down.

Now that digital cameras are all starting to feature the same specs, they're also looking to stand out from the crowd. This week I encountered a press release about a pair of new Casio cameras. The two new cameras, the EXILIM Card EX-S880 and EXILIM Zoom EX-Z77. They are basically a new 7 and 8 megapixel point and shoot camera for under $300. The intriguing feature is that they can both shoot mpeg-4 video, also in the 30 fps, 480 x 640 resolution. They also include software specifically to be able to upload the content to YouTube.

As we in tech are always looking for the next "big thing," I think what I'm dubbing "YouTube EZ" may be it. Or at least it's a little "big thing." The ability to create video content, and share it is incredibly powerful. I would expect more products to feature YouTube friendly mpeg-4 video capture at affordable price points as we prepare for this year's holiday sales. After the trouble I've encountered trying to edit and transcode the Quicktime video my current digital camera captures video in, I'd say it's about time that it got much easier.


--Jonas