video

One of the biggest shortcomings of the otherwise excellent Roku 3 is its lack of an official YouTube channel, although savvy users can get around that limitation with a variety of workarounds, including the "private" VideoBuzz channel. Or at least used to be able to.

VideoBuzz reported on its Facebook page yesterday that it "received a notice from Roku management asking us to close down the channel as we don't own the content which is being streamed by VideoBuzz channel." The channel is set to go offline April 17; VideoBuzz says it's looking into … Read more

Anyone who misses the fuzzy quality of old VHS tapes can take a nostalgic tour courtesy of YouTube.

Celebrating the birth of the first commercial videotape recorder 57 years ago, YouTube has added an option to certain videos to let you view them in old VHS mode. Instead of sporting today's cleaner digital look, the videos appear in a scratchy, static-filled screen.

One such video to get the VHS treatment is a clip from the Pixar film "Ratatouille." Just click on the Enable Tape Mode icon to travel back in time and watch the video in all … Read more

Psy's follow-up vid to the hyper-uber-gigantic "Gangnam Style" landed on YouTube today, and as of this writing it's garnered only a paltry 7 million viewings or so, with about 350,000 thumbs up and 38,000 thumbs down.

It's tough being an international sensation.

Of course, it's impossible to know if "Gentleman M/V" will top its predecessor's more than 1.5 billion views -- the most ever on YouTube -- but something tells us the preadolescent crowd will find one or two things to love here (things we're too … Read more

In theory, a video messenger that lets you easily share your videos with friends seems to be a pretty useful application. While Ravid Video Messenger follows this model, there are other available applications already offering this option that perform much better.

The application loads quickly and the user interface offers a clean and modern design. Ravid Video Messenger is brightly colored and has sharp, high contrast text. It is easy to read and very intuitive in its use. A short registration is all that is required to begin sharing videos. Ravid Video Messenger allows the user to take videos with … Read more

Netflix had an exceedingly strong first quarter, according to CEO Reed Hastings.

On his Facebook page yesterday, Hastings said that Netflix served up over 4 billion hours of streaming video during the first three months of the year, reaching a high-water mark for the company. Hastings didn't say which videos contributed most to the strong quarter, but his mention of Netflix's first original series "House of Cards" might lead some to believe that the critically acclaimed and wildly popular show starring Kevin Spacey helped out.

Hastings' announcement comes just months after he announced on his Facebook page … Read more

Many things can make a birthday special -- a nice dinner, a night out on the town, a long-lost friend decked in glitter popping out of a giant cake. Sometimes, however, a heartfelt geeky homemade gift can outshine them all.

Reddit user XsimonbelmontX went above and beyond for his wife's recent birthday by creating a highly customized version of Monopoly based on Fallout -- her favorite video game series.

The incredible attention to detail put into the game might astound you, as the creator, who identifies himself as Brandon, spared no mental expense at adding a Fallout touch to everything from the currency to the pieces.… Read more

LookAway Player mimics the Smart Pause feature that will (as of this writing) soon be coming to the Galaxy S4, automatically pausing a video when you look away from your iPhone.

The app functions on YouTube only, so you will only be able to use LookAway Player's features on YouTube videos. In my testing it worked pretty much as advertised. Simply play a YouTube video, and when you turn your head to look away, facial-recognition software automatically pauses the video. When you turn back toward your iPhone, the video starts up again. It also worked when I looked down, … Read more

The number of video conversion programs available makes choosing a good one difficult. Though it's basically functional, the lack of features and problematic setup make VidConvert for Mac a less desirable option.

VidConvert is available as a free trial version with a three-minute conversion time limit; the full, unrestricted program requires payment of $7.99. The program installs quickly. Unfortunately, after initiating the program, the user must complete an additional download from a separate site before conversion can take place. This second download requires Terminal operations, which is a lot to ask of all but the most experienced Mac … Read more

The field of Internet video converters is not short on contenders, some good at what they do and others, not so much. Mega Video Converter (MVC) from Clip Extractor is a new challenger in a very competitive market. Thankfully, it is one of the good guys.

We like Mega Video Converter for being fast, simple, and intuitive. Installation is quick and compact, only taking up about 20MB on your hard disk. However, you do need MS .NET Framework 4 before you can proceed and MVC will alert you if you don't already have it.

Upon launching Mega Video Converter … Read more