Last week I wrote a little bit about the the new radio that is podcasting. This week I’m going to take a quick overview of why I’ve barely turned on my TV for the last couple of months: videocasting (I just can’t bring myself to use the word “vlog”).
I’m going to look more at shows available through iTunes, RSS feeds or your BitTorrent client of choice for download. There’s nothing wrong, per se, with sites like YouTube or Google Video, but they tend to be more “America’s Funniest Home Videos” than actual shows. (Which brings me to a bit of an aside rant: I wish these sites would drop the streaming Flash based video!! It doesn’t work great in the best of conditions and as a Mac user, the Flash player is notoriously slow to begin with and it’s even worse here. How hard is it to export a Quicktime video anyway?? Plus it won’t compress the hell out of it either.)
Like podcasts, these independently produced video shows have spread like wildfire over the last year or so and while the variety of subject matter isn’t quite as far reaching as it’s audio predecessor, I’ve found the quality much more consistent.
Again my interests lead me to the tech shows, which is great since this is a niche not really served at all by major networks. Revison3 has a whole slew of shows available but I mostly recommend Diggnation, which is also available as a podcast but it’s much more entertaining to watch these guys goof around and crack each other up than it is to listen. For strait tech news without the beer swilling I really enjoy the Canadian produced CommandN. Both are updated weekly.
Probably my favorite videocast (and unfortunately least updated) is Tiki Bar TV. Each episode consists of a bunch of silly characters falling into a situation where the only solution is a prescription, read: recipe, for a drink from Dr. Tiki. Fun AND educational!
If you’re looking for a great, quick daily dose of what’s happening on the interweb, Rocketboom and MoBuzzTv are a great place to start. Another good place for a quick fix is 88SLIDE, a 1 minute quiz show with daily prizes for randomly selected correct answers.
This, I’m quite sure, comes nowhere near touching what’s available out there but it’s what’s caught my fancy recently. Suggestions of things to check out? Let me know please!
Now I’m not ready to chuck out my television quite yet, how else will I indulge in a Saturday Buffy DVD marathon or get my weekly reality show fix. But it does get a much longer cool-down period than it did just a few months ago.
