LAB EXERCiSE SEVEN

So since I LOVEE to view videos on the internet (like old greg and charlie the unicorn - and of course other pointless videos that make me giggle), i thought this lab exercise would be fun! Turns out, I was slightly wrong .. there were so many different aspects to this lab about which site was best and which one had the most satisfactory viewing pleasure... I always thought YouTube was the only internet site worth going to to watch videos. Apparently, there is a whole other geek universe waiting to be explored! I found out that my favorite site to view is still YouTube _ i don't know if that is because I'm biased and have always viewed that specific site or because it truly is the BEST site. I found out that, yes YouTube does take some time to load but Hulu is just ridiculous! The buffering time to watch "silly" videos on Hulu is insane and is more intended for television shows. YouTube on the other hand is more geared towards funny videos than JUST television shows and Veoh I decided to view Star Trek. I tried to view this show on Veoh twice and both times the advertisements on the side of the page took a while to load as well as the video itself. However, the first time I viewed the actual show on Veoh, it did not stop and start. It was a continuos stream that provided no trouble. The second time i had a little more trouble and the show seemed to "stutter" every now and then.

On each site, you have the option to share (facebook, myspace, twitter, email ..), embed, enlarge the screen, play/pause, fast forward or comment underneath the video. On all the sites you are provided with these options, however on Hulu some of the videos do not offer the option to embed or share to Twitter, as well as YouTube. Furthermore, after doing this exercise I came to realize that everything about it is dependent. The speed, the connection, the buffering time, the advertisements .. it all depends on certain circumstances. For instance, I have been working on this blog for a few days and not in the same place. Sometimes, I will work at my apartment upstairs or downstairs and other times I will be in the study room. My point is, there are different internet connections in these different areas which overall affects the speed and accuracy of the internet. Plus, sometimes i would have more then 3 or 5 sites open while other times i just had the specific viewing site up by itself. Another thing that is dependable is the advertisements. Depending on which video you decide to watch, there are no commercials throughout and the side ones can be hidden if you choose to enlarge the screen. Moreover, the quality also depends on the video. There is a difference between a television show via YouTube, Hulu or Veoh and i homemade film that some random teenagers decided to throw together. I know this seems rather disappointing that I did not provide you with the answer to the BEST viewing experience, but honestly it's subjective anyways. It is going to be your opinion and all the other variables that go into it. The first part of tis lab really is all about dependency and I do not know another way to explain all the aspects. And, to answer your final question, I prefer YouTube, simply for the fact that I have always used it. It is a simple reason .. I am purely bias.

For the second part of the exercise, other than explaining all the quality measures of each site, we were suppose to embed three videos from the three different sites. For the two that follow, one is from Hulu and the other is from YouTube explaining what net neutrality is. I chose these two videos because quite honestly, I was a little confused on what the exact definition was to begin with. Anyways, as far as the ease of embedding the videos go, I found it quite easy. Plus, finding the videos themselves was extremely convenient. All anyone had to do was type in "net neutrality" and about 12 different video options came up. After finding the video on Hulu, there is an option at the bottom of each video that says "share". Once I scrolled over this tab, one of the options was embed this video. It told you to copy the link and paste the code in your HTML box. And as easy as pie .. there it was on my blog! YouTube's option was just as easy, if not easier for the fact that instead of the button saying "share", the first and only button I had to click on was "embed". However, there was no directions on how to embed the video, therefore if one didn't know what they were doing then this process would have proven to be a challenging one.To finish up this section, I will share with you a difficulty I did have. The irst video i chose on Hulu wouldn't let me copy the embedded link. THe code itself was not hard to find (it was located right below the video like all the others), however, once I pulled up the code it REFUSED to be copied! Therefore, i went to the next video and was at ease when that clip was so simple to use. The link for the video that could not be embedded is: http://academicearth.org/lectures/net-neutrality-. Other options that one could utilize for sharing the video was to paste the link directly to whomever's page or there was a "share" tab that provided different codes for different websites like Facebook, MySpace, email, Google Bookmark .. etc.

WAIT ONE SECOND !!!! I have a new aspect on the "ease" of embedding videos from Hulu. Before I officially published this post i wrote the excerpt above due to the fact that i previewed this post and BOTH videos worked. After writing the whole paragraph above, I clicked on "publish post" and I received the error that my embedded code was not closed (on the Hulu video). I thought "hmm...? That's odd. I wonder what that means..." I assumed it was just that one video, so i tried another and the same error came up. THe section that was not closed was highlighted within the code, so i took it upon myself to try and figure out the problem. After 20 frustrating minutes, i decided that it was not worth the valiant effort and i would just report the link that simple refused to work ... Might I add, I am quite sad considering it was a humorous video with some great insight about what net neutrality actually is.

HULU ViDEO ON NET NEUTRALITY: LOW FiLM QUALiTY

http://cnettv.cnet.com/net-neutrality/9742-1_53-50079118.html

YOUTUBE ViDEO ON NET NEUTRALiTY



SOMEONE DiFFERENT FROM ME ON VEOH

http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/entertainment/watch/v15618173wxPsyKKm

I also was not able to embed this video. I had trouble finding how to embed or share it other than the website just providing me with a link to put on my page. Furthermore, options its provide me were to "add to my interests", "bookmark to delicious" and "diggs it". Like I said before, I still had trouble finding out how to embed the video. This specific video is from Phineas and Ferb, the Disney Channel cartoon. I found a clip of Candice because other than not looking alike, our personalities are COMPLETELY different. She always tries and find a way to tattle on her younger brother. I am not only annoyed by tattle tails, I simply am not one - especially when it comes to my brother. He is older than me, but he means the WORLD to me and i would never want to do anything that would get him in trouble or to just be "that sister". Anyways, I don't believe we have to go in to detail about why we chose the video we did, however I know you cannot see it so I decided to at least allow you to know that I did think of someone who was not like me and provided you with the link above.