Posts Tagged: microsoft

Recording The Olympics Online

Posted | Category: Media Business, Replay Video Capture.

This year NBC has teamed up with Microsoft (MSFT) to provide a wealth of Olympics footage at NBCOlympics.com. If you’re really into specific events that aren’t shown over your broadcast TV station, then you can likely watch them online. Very cool.

The Microsoft contribution is via the Silverlight video player, which you must install in order to watch video. Few video providers use Silverlight, which is why there are no programs (yet) that can record those feeds via stream capture.
If you’re looking to record some of these events and save them forever, the best program to use is WM Capture. This on-screen recorder makes great quality videos from the Olympic feeds.

To burn these recordings to DVD, try the new Replay Converter 3.0, which is currently in beta. You can also make iPod format videos, or AVI files to import them into your favorite video editor.

Oh yeah – Go Team USA!

UPDATE: I noticed that you need to enter a zip code and your Cable provider to watch some online feeds. Try 94118 and ComCast Digital if you’re disallowed access.

Avoid Windows Vista at all costs?

Posted | Category: Media Business.

This article in Techworld paints a picture of a business disaster waiting to happen, all because of overzealous DRM (copy protection) in Microsoft’s new Vista Operating System.
Clearly Microsoft has gone out of their way to disable recording of premium content in Vista. It will be interesting to see what customers think.

To the Zune, Alice!

Posted | Category: Media Business.

This article from the EFF highlights a curious feature of the new Microsoft Zune – namely that it won’t play songs purchased using Microsoft’s own Plays For Sure system. And it apears they may be abandoning the technology altogether.
If you were unlucky enough to purchase songs using Plays For Sure, you can at least re-record them for your own personal use.
I guess now that Microsoft is competing against its former partners with their own Media Players it’s time to throw them all under the bus. While Microsoft does use their hardware/software business model effectively in the PC business, burning your hardware partners can’t bode well for future projects. Microsoft PC anyone?
Personally – I’m a big fan of the iPod, and I also welcome a serious challenger to the media player space. I hope the Zune does well, but if this flops, nobody’s going to break Apple’s stranglehold for a long while.

Recording Online Media Since 1997
Located in Marco Island, FL

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