After much anticipation, I got my invite to Joost today. All I gotta say is “Wow” – this thing might actually work.

As soon as you launch the client, you get a list of channels that you can flip through. What makes this different is that you can not only pick your channel, but you can pick your show within the channel. Each of the channels has between 5 and 20 (or so) shows available to choose from. As soon as you select one, it starts playing, almost immediately.

It seems like the video stream is approximately 650kbits (~80K/s). At this point, it’s using about 20K/s of outbound traffic, presumably seeding to other viewers. Sometimes outbound usage will spike up quite a bit. I’m not sure if there’s a cap on how much outbound traffic it will generate.

In addition to flipping through channels, Joost has a widget system, that lets you chat with other users about what you’re watching, or get basic widgety-type updates (news ticker, clock, etc).

It’s still a little bit beta – audio sync isn’t perfect, and interface operations aren’t totally smooth yet. But wow, I could definitely see this, combined with iTunes, making a big dent in normal broadcast tv.

Camcorderinfo has a nice (as usual) review up of the HDR-HC7. The verdict? Sounds like maybe the Canon HV20 is the right choice in the “small-non-professional-HDV-not-AVCHD-camcorder” market …

I’m still a fan of the XDCamHD camera line, particularly the F350. If you are too, you might be interested in two articles that were recently posted about the F350, one from DV.com giving a general overview, and one from Digital Content Producer which provides some real life use stories. One day, it will be mine.

The footage I posted yesterday came from our new Indie-Dolly. We’ve been in the market for a portable, affordable dolly for quite a while, and finally settled on the Indie-Dolly.

There are a number of choices in this part of the market, including the Indie-Dolly, the Microdolly and the Losmany Spider Dolly. There are pros and cons to each. The Microdolly is definitely hte most portable, with its tent-pole style track. However, I wasn’t convinced it would hold up to student use. The Losmany dolly uses flexible track, which is very cool in concept, but which I haven’t been happy with in reality. It seems like there’s always just enough movement in the track so as to be noticeable. The Indie-Dolly uses a collapsable track system which is significantly more robust than the Microdolly, but which is still reasonably portable.

The pricing for the Indie-Dolly system is pretty straightforward. You purchase the dolly itself, for around $1000, and then buy sections of track as desired. So far, we’ve got one straight track kit ($500, 12 feet) and have ordered a curved track kit ($600, 13 feet).

Everything comes in very nicely constructed bags. The bag for the dolly has wheels and a handle, similar to many luggage bags. It’s a good thing the wheels are there, as the bag weighs nearly 50lbs. The track bag is slightly lighter, though much larger.

Assembling the dolly is relatively straightforward, but it’s not an instant task by any means. It took me about half an hour the first time, though I imagine future setups will go much quicker.

Though the kit includes a seat, I think most operators will chose to just walk with the dolly. There is also a push bar included.

Unfolding the track is rather analogous to collapsing a flexfill. Even after watching the demo video a few times, it was still a bit confusing. I suppose it just takes practice.

Once you’ve got it all assembled, the movement of the dolly is very smooth. There’s no jitter when moving between pieces of track, and the individual trucks don’t seem to be shifting on the track at all. I’m looking forward to getting the curved track to do some longer moves.

In the end, I think the Indie-Dolly is a great option for those seeking an affordable, portable dolly. I believe other folks have come to this conclusion as well, as it took nearly a month for our order to arrive.

Camcorderinfo has yet another good review, this time of the Canon XH-A1 camcorder. The battle between the XH-A1 and the Sony HVR-V1U is likely to be intense over the next few months. It’ll be interesting to see whether one ends up a distinct winner.

I had a chance to play with a Zune last week. Frankly, I’m a bit of a biased reviewer in this case, being an Apple fanboy and all. That said, here’s my rundown of the player itself. I haven’t used the software, but check out Engadget’s Zune review for the whole scoop. This is mostly just ranting.

Zune next to a 30gig video iPod

First off, I’m not sure I could get past how gigantic the things is. It just doesn’t feel pocketable. Beyond that, it feels a bit cheap. The choice of a non-spinning “wheel” control is also a bit questionable. Everyone who picked the unit up started trying to spin the wheel and said “why isn’t it working?” – a clear indication that it’s not very user friendly. Having to use separate back and play buttons outside of the wheel is also a bit cumbersome.

Once you’ve gotten the controls down, the interface is for the most part quite nice. It’s certainly got more visual flair than the iPod, but you can still navigate it at a pretty good pace.

The choice of a larger screen rotated 90degrees makes for some awkward situations though. As you switch between videos and the menu for example, you need to rotate the player back and forth. It will be interesting to see how Apple deals with this issue when they go with a larger format screen on the “real” video iPod.

As a music player, the Zune is fine. It’s not great, it’s not terrible. The FM tuner is nice, and I’m sure the WiFi will be useful to some folks. I’ll stick with my iPod though.

The Sanyo Xacti HD1A is a pocket-sized direct-to-memory camcorder. The Xacti line has grown to encompass a number of cameras, ranging from around $350 to the HD1A, which retails for around $600. All of the cameras boast direct-to-memory recording in an MPEG-4 format, using SD memory cards.

The HD1A distinguishes itself, as the name might suggest, by being capable of recording HD video. I’m resisting the urge to put HD in sarcastic quotes (“HD”) as the HD this camera records is a bit of a joke. But more on that later.

Read on for the rest of the review…

Continue reading →

This is a review of the Zoom H4 “Handy Recorder,” a portable audio recording device. Sometimes branded a Samson device, the H4 retails for around $300.

These devices have been growing in popularity over the last few years, due to the growth of podcasting and also the growth in independent film production. Because the H4 records in either wave or MP3, it is appropriate for both uses. MP3 bitrates can be adjusted between 320kbps and 48kbps. Wave files can be sampled at 44khz, 48khz or 96khz with either 16bit or 24bit precision. So, whether you’re a podcast producer looking to create quick MP3 files on the go, or an indie filmmaker looking for better audio than your camera can produce, this device tries to meet your needs.

Read on for the rest of the review… apologies for the terrible picture quality, my normal camera was unavailable.

Continue reading →

Camcorderinfo has a review of the Canon HV10. It’s a handycam HDV camera which isn’t particularly exciting in the context of this site, but which does feature the ability to play back tapes shot in Canon’s 24F and 30F modes, which is pretty cool. Otherwise, it isn’t anything too special…

Man, I’m so cool with the titles.

Anyways, we’ve procured a few Sony HVR-A1U cameras, to replace our dying PDX-10s. We’ve got three out of four at this point, after a protracted battle with Sony. Sony apparently forgot to keep making them or something, so everywhere on the planet ran out of them. Bummer.

In any case, three of the cameras are here. And what do I think? Follow the jump!

Continue reading →