When video services aren’t the answer to your problems

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Some time ago, I told you about my Transition to Video and the reasons behind this transition. Well, I’m here to tell you first hand, that sometimes what seems like the right answer at the time, isn’t always the right answer.

Over the past few weeks, I have tested several online video streaming services for my Friday Night Podcaster Training Show. For some time, I had been simulcasting my audio show with video on uStream.tv and when I cut over to a video only format, I chose to go to uStream. It didn’t take long to realize that uStream had some issues and this made it nearly impossible to produce a weekly show.

I researched the most popular (and many not so popular) streaming services and went to Justin.tv to give them a try. Just 4 shows in, Justin.tv stopped allowing me to save my recorded shows. I even tried with a test run and I couldn’t even save that show either. Justin.tv has the ability to monitor your bandwidth and set it accordingly for you. Most of the time, I couldn’t get enough bandwidth to keep from pixelating the video and I looked like a slideshow in most of the recordings.

Next, I went to Stickam, I figure if Leo LaPorte can use them, I could too! The video picture was superb and the audio quality was great. 30 minutes or so into the show, Stickam dropped my connection. In fact, 3 times within an hour, they dropped my connection and reset the chat room, etc.

I tried Operator11 and aside from the fact that I could only record a 40 minute show total (until I received more level points) the video quality was almost non-existent. A still photo had more animation in it than this video did.

Mogulus is an online social tv service that anyone can use to create his own professional web tv show. With no technical knowledge, you can create your own channel with multiple live cameras and videos from major sharing websites (like YouTube), that you can easily mix with a click of a button. Players can be embedded on any site, and can stream live or recorded media. Free.

I have used this service since it was in private beta. The service has added many great features over the past few months, however, it seems to be CPU intensive and even though stable, requires a high end computer with enough CPU and RAM to support this service as a live videocast. As a 24 hour playlist station, it is very stable and usable by most anyone.

Yaika is a free video platform that anyone with a laptop and a camera can use to instantly stream a breaking story or share an experience, live on the Internet. After you register, you can put yourself live on the Internet with a click of a button, and stream live video instantly to the world. Shows get automatically registered and stored on the site. Free.

I have tested this service only broadcasting, not recording. Upon checking out the other shows, I noticed that there is an Erotic channel that can be gotten into as long as you tell the service that you are over the age of 18. This channel, although only has a few shows on it, does contain nudity. I may not use this service because of wanting to keep my show rated for all audiences and not wanting to expose my younger crowd to these types of channels.

I still have more services to test, but for now, I think I will hold off until the video streaming services can become more stable to allow for the type of shows like Podcaster Training, before I go back to a straight video format.

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