Thursday, April 28, 2011

Press One Key to Transfer Videos from Google Video to YouTube

As I blogged last Sunday, Google Video announced its upcoming ending on April 29 via Email. Users can download their videos from the platform before they would be removed. Based on the users' feedback, Google Video now offers the option for uploading its video to YouTube to simplify the migration. Current links to the videos on Google Video are still be accessible. Google's Engineering Manager Mark Dochtermann said this on YouTube blog two days ago.

Users can find the 'Upload Videos to YouTube' option on Google Video status page. You need a YouTube account associated with Google account, and read YouTube's Terms of Use and Copyright Policies. By checking this option, existing Google Video links continue to function, as Mark said.
Upload Google Video to YouTube
If you prefer to download your videos to make some changes to them, you can choose the 'Download Video' option. Besides that, you could use Leawo Download YouTube software to download the videos to your computer.

Full-Length Pirated High-Definition Movies Found on YouTube

pirated moviesYou know, it's very difficult to see full-length movies on YouTube. Uploading unauthorized movies to YouTube is not permitted by YouTube and is illegal. YouTube has a Digital Copyright Identification System, which can identify the content you uploaded to the site is consistent with those movies and music, if yes, your uploaded content will be terminated.

It seems that someone has found the way to break through YouTube's copyright protection system, as over the past few days 20 full-length high-definition movies has been found on the video site. These movies including Tron Legacy, A Bug's Life, Aladdin, Alice In Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Finding Nemo, Hercules, Monsters, Inc and more are all pirated. You can find them in this 912px Tumblr blog.

Some of these movies were found by Reddit users. 14 hours later, these movies got removed. On YouTube, the first comment to these movies were posted two days ago, which indicates that these pirated movies have been on YouTube at least for for two days.

All of these movies have gone as of this writing. If you click one of those links to these movies, you will get the message "This video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube's Copyright Policy."

It's not permitted to upload pirated movies to the Internet, but you can download YouTube video for your personal use only. When you are trying to do this, check Leawo, which is legal to use.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

All Videos on YouTube Now Serves in WebM Format

WebMLast November, I have put down that 80% YouTube Videos were available in WebM Format. This Tuesday, YouTube announced that all videos on the site have been transcoded to WebM format, which is natively supported by the HTML5 web browsers, including the latest versions of Firefox, Chrome and Opera. So we could watch WebM web videos in browsers without any plugin. Users who used Adobe Flash Player to watch YouTube videos could contiune to watch the H.264 videos.

"Given the massive size of our catalog - nearly 6 years of video is uploaded to YouTube every day - this is quite the undertaking", said James Zern, a Google Software Engineer. So far 30% videos that make up 90% of total views have been transcoded to WebM format. All the transcoding works are being made quietly in the background.

The transcoding is also out of conderation for mobile devices. At present Android and iOS devices have provided full support for HTML5. But H.264 coded Flash videos are not popular on those devices.

Off topic:
To legally download YouTube Flash videos to your computer, you can use Leawo Free YouTube Downloader. It is a free video downloader that can download and convert Flash videos from YouTube and other websites.

Download Captain America: The First Avenger Movie Trailer from YouTube

Besides Thor, another film by Marvel Studios will be released this year - Captain America: The First Avenger, which is an American superhero film adapted from Marvel Comics character Captain America. The film is scheduled to be released this summer on July 22 in 3D. Now let's have a look at the official trailer for the film and tell me how do you like it . For off-line viewing, you could download Captain America: The First Avenger Movie Trailer from YouTube with Leawo Free YouTube Video Downloader.


Storyline of Captain America: The First Avenger

In 1942, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is deemed physically unfit to enlist in the U.S. Army and fight the Nazis in World War II. Volunteering instead for Project: Rebirth, a secret military operation, he is physically transformed into a super-soldier dubbed Captain America. With sidekick Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), he fights the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), Hitler's treacherous head of advanced weaponry, whose own plan for world domination involves a seemingly magical object known as the Tesseract.

Cast

Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America
Tommy Lee Jones as Col. Chester Phillips
Hugo Weaving as Johann Schmidt / Red Skull
Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark
Neal McDonough as Dum Dum Dugan
Derek Luke as Gabe Jones
Stanley Tucci as Dr. Abraham Erskine
Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter
Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes
Toby Jones as Arnim Zola
Richard Armitage as Heinz Kruger

More information

  • Directed by Joe Johnston
  • Produced by Kevin Feige
  • Music by Alan Silvestri
  • Cinematography Shelly Johnson
  • Editing by Michael McCusker, Robert Dalva, Jeffrey Ford
  • Studio Marvel Studios
  • Distributed by Paramount Pictures
  • Release date(s) July 22, 2011
  • Country United States
  • Language English
  • Budget $140 million
Some pictures

Captain America: The First Avenger poster
Captain America: The First Avenger screengrab 1
Captain America: The First Avenger screengrab 2
Captain America: The First Avenger screengrab 3
Captain America: The First Avenger screengrab 4
Captain America: The First Avenger screengrab 5

Music Streaming More than Downloads, YouTube Tops Online Music Service

YouTube musicAccording to a new study about online music consumption, more people stream music than download music with payment or for free. The study called 'The Hyper-Fragmented World of Music' was taken by Nielsen from 25,000 people across 53 markets during the end of last year. As a result of this, YouTube beats iTunes and becomes the largest online music service provider.

This is really good news for YouTube and 'cloud' service such as Amazon cloud music player. The picture below shows the percentage of different music activities that people take part in.
Nielsen's study figure
From the above illustration, we could find that nearly 60% of people polled watched music videos on computer, and less than 50% participants admitted to downloaded a song from the Internet without paying for it. Only 17% of respondents have paid to download a music track to their computers in the past three months. Most Internet users' just watch online music video for their main music consumption. So music video portal YouTube and VEVO.com are the biggest winners. iTunes Store fails to attract most consumers' attention but remains labels' biggest single recorded-music payout partner.

Google Video Is Shutting Down by the End of This Month

YouTube Video logoYesterday, Google has sent its Google Video users an email which saying that Google Video is shutting down by the end of this month and videos uploaded by users will disappear later this month.

This action is assumed to be taken about five years ago. Google Video was launched in 2005, when users uploaded their videos via client-side application, not via web page. Google Acquired video-sharing website YouTube in October 2006; since then YouTube has developed fast and quickly become the world largest online video portal, which rendering Google Video site pretty much useless. Since May 2009 Google Video wouldn't accept new video upload any more and offered a download button which enables users could download their own videos.

Before April 29 videos on Google Video are still could be downloaded. However after May 13, 2011, the download feature will be disabled.

Here's the email Google sent its Google Video users:


Dear Google Video User,


Later this month, hosted video content on Google Video will no longer be available for playback. Google Video stopped taking uploads in May 2009 and now we're removing the remaining hosted content. We've always maintained that the strength of Google Video is its ability to let people search videos from across the web, regardless of where those videos are hosted. And this move will enable us to focus on developing these technologies further to the benefit of searchers worldwide.


On April 29, 2011, videos that have been uploaded to Google Video will no longer be available for playback. We've added a Download button to the video status page, so you can download any video content you want to save. If you don't want to download your content, you don't need to do anything. (The Download feature will be disabled after May 13, 2011.)


We encourage you to move to your content to YouTube if you haven't done so already. YouTube offers many video hosting options including the ability to share your videos privately or in an unlisted manner. To learn more go here.
Here's how to download your videos:


1. Go to the Video Status page.
2. To download a video to your computer, click the Download Video link located on the right side of each of your videos in the Actions column.


Once a video has been downloaded, “Already Downloaded” will appear next to the Download Video link.


If you have many videos on Google Video, you may need to use the paging controls located on the bottom right of the page to access them all.
Please note: This download option will be available through May 13, 2011.
Thank you for being a Google Video user.


Sincerely,
The Google Video Team
Off topic:
Want to download YouTube for free? You can use the free tool Leawo YouTube Downloader. Besides, Leawo Video Accelerator is an excellent online video accelerator for free, you can check it.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

YouTube Finally Launches Live Streaming Portal

Two days back on April 8, 2011, Google-owned video sharing service website YouTube official announced its new live streaming protal. It's not a new thing for YouTube to stream live video. Last year, YouTube has live broadcasted Bon Jovi's concert, some sporting events and interviews. It's just a small step for YouTube, however, it is a big step for mankind.

You could open http://www.youtube.com/live to get a sense of the new live video portal; and if you're a UStream user, you could also compare UStream with YouTube's live stream service and tell the differences between them.

The YouTube Live portal is divided into several sections: Featured Live Events, Live Now, Upcoming, Tomorrow and Next 7 days. Its content include live Sports game, academic conference, music concert, live video streams from trusted YouTube users and more. So you could check out what's being on live and subscribe to the streams to be broadcasted live in the next few days as your liking.

You could also log in to engage with live streamers and the rest of the YouTube community using its live comments feature.

Can live streaming service be as successful as YouTube's recorded video service? Things move quickly on YouTube and we'll just wait and see.

Still don't know how to download YouTube video for free? Better check out this YouTube downloader program.

YouTube Adds New Feature to Video Search

If you're a YouTube fan, today you must have noticed the site's new interface in video search options.

New search options include two main sections: 'Filter' and 'Explore'.

'Filter' section includes multiple filters, which you could select more than one at a time. For example, you can search for long format and HD (High Definition) videos that are available in the WebM format.

The 'Explore' section suggests some other search queries relevant to your original query. If you click the query in this section, your original query will be replaced by the chosen query. A more interesting option is to mouse over a query and click the 'plus' icon: this way, you'll refine your original search.

YouTube new search options: Filter and Explore
The new features are unveiled by YouTube as a prototype called "YouTube Topics on Search" and it asked users to try it out on TestTube.

Off topic: Want to watch online video without buffering or delay? Now you could check Leawo Video Accelerator, which can significantly accelerate the speed for online video loading and downloading.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Download Thor Movie Trailer from YouTube

Thor posterMarvel Studios and Paramount Pictures are going to release the new film 'Thor' on May 6, 2011. Adapted from the same name comic book published by Marvel Comics, the upcoming movie Thor is an American superhero film and will be released in 3-D. Early in 2006 there already have been reports about the film, so it's really a long prepared movie. Thor is directed by Kenneth Branagh who is best know for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays.

Since last December, there have been two official movie trailers released for the promotion of Thor. Below are the two trailers on YouTube. You could download Thor movie trailers from YouTube with Leawo YouTube Download software.

Thor - Trailer (OFFICIAL) posted on Dec 9, 2010



Thor - Trailer 2 (OFFICIAL) posted on Feb 16, 2011


Thor Storyline

The Mighty Thor is a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans as punishment. Once here, Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.
----Marvel.com

Thor Cast

  • Chris Hemsworth as Thor
  • Natalie Portman as Jane Foster
  • Tom Hiddleston as Loki
  • Stellan Skarsgård as Erik Selvig
  • Colm Feore as Laufey
  • Ray Stevenson as Volstagg
  • Idris Elba as Heimdall
  • Kat Dennings as Darcy
  • Rene Russo as Frigga
  • Anthony Hopkins as Odin
  • Jaimie Alexander as Sif
  • Joshua Dallas as Fandral
  • Tadanobu Asano as Hogun
Thor Screengrabs

Thor screengrab1

Thor screengrab2

Thor screengrab3

Thor screengrab4

Thor screengrab5

YouTube Adds New Feature to Video Search

If you're a YouTube fan, today you must have noticed the site's new interface in video search options.

New search options include two main sections: 'Filter' and 'Explore'.

'Filter' section includes multiple filters, which you could select more than one at a time. For example, you can search for long format and HD (High Definition) videos that are available in the WebM format.

The 'Explore' section suggests some other search queries relevant to your original query. If you click the query in this section, your original query will be replaced by the chosen query. A more interesting option is to mouse over a query and click the 'plus' icon: this way, you'll refine your original search.

YouTube new search options: Filter and Explore
The new features are unveiled by YouTube as a prototype called "YouTube Topics on Search" and it asked users to try it out on TestTube.

Off topic: Want to watch online video without buffering or delay? Now you could check Leawo Video Accelerator, which can significantly accelerate the speed for online video loading and downloading.

YouTube, Gmail and LinkedIn 2011 April Fools' Day Pranks

If you're YouTube's regular user, you'll find something weird on YouTube today. The video site announces that it was established 100 years ago in 1911, "when videos were sent to us for uploading via horse-drawn carriage." You would see the message under the YouTube video player. The below picture is the screengrab of the message:
YouTube 2011 April Fools Day prank
Is that true? Isn't it that YouTube was founded in 2005? Don't take it seriously as it's just an April Fools joke.

What's more, YouTube is even offering us today the 'Top 5 Viral Pictures of 1911'. This is crazy! Even my grandfather hasn't been born in 1911. YouTube must be kidding around. Haha, it's also an April Fools prank made by YouTube. The video is here and you could download it with this Leawo YouTube Downloader, which is free.



Other April Fools pranks include 'Gmail motion' and weird people in LinkedIn.
For instance, a YouTube video titled 'Introducing Gmail Motion' shows Google's Product Manger Paul McDonald introducing 'Gmail motion', which claims that "Now you can control Gmail with your body!". The video has drawn 2.5 million views as of this writing. Also, you could download it with Leawo YouTube video downloader.


And if you are an registered user of LinkedIn, log in to your account, under 'People You May Know', today you will find some late celebrities including Albert Einstein, Hemingway, Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, Robin Hood and more. You could even browse their profiles if click their names.

Check out the above 2011 Aprial Fools pranks and Happy April Fools' Day!

Google Goes Gaga - Google Exclusive Interview for Lady Gaga Video Watch and Download

Lady GagaYesterday, 'Born This Way' singer Lady Gaga was at Google's Headquarter in Mountain View, California to have a personal interview with the search giant Google. VP of Google's consumer products Marissa Mayer conducted the interview, in which Gaga talked about her live, her upcoming album 'Born This Way', her opinion of the latest YouTube viral video Friday and Rebecca Black, and answered the questions from her fans. BTW, Gaga was in the Bay Area for her show at Oracle Arena in Oakland.

Video of the hourlong interview has been posted to YouTube in the Google Talks channel. The video has drawn half a million views during the past two days. For a clear view of the interview, you could download Google Goes Gaga video from YouTube with this free YouTube video downloader.



The video begins with an intro with Gaga's songs as backgroud music. Using Google Insights, the intro shows how popular Lady Gaga is on the Internet: 'Lady Gaga' is one of the most searched queries in the world, she has been one of the fastest-rising searches in 2009 and 2010 on Google, and Gaga's video "Bad Romance" alone has had 360 million views on YouTube.

Then Gaga walked into the stage with her super high-heeled boots and sat down with Marissa Mayer, and the interview began. In the interview, mother monsters has answered questions that had been gathered from her little monsters over three days via YouTube. She also talked about how she writes her songs, what she likes and dislikes, her faith, her tattoos, her history and so on. She also talked about the 'Friday' girl Rebecca Black.

Some Gaga revelations from the interview:

She loves yoga very much
She likes the YouTube viral video 'David After the Dentist'
Gaga knows Rebecca Black but doesn't know the song 'Friday'
All of Lady Gaga's tattoos are on the left side of her body
Her entourage taunts her with food; her security peeps kind of hate her
Kids that used to bully her in school contact her for concert tickets now
Gaga does the same vocal exercises she's been doing since age 11
Lady Gaga would like to take her fans "away from the computer."
Despite writing the song "Paparazzi," she doesn't hate them

Friday, April 1, 2011

Download Rio Movie Trailer from YouTube

Bird is a very hot topic in the Internet this year. A good example is the most popular game on iOS 'Angry Birds'. This time the movie I'm going to introduce to you is also relevant to bird – it's Rio. Rio is an upcoming 2011 3D computer-animated film, which is scheduled to be in theatre on April 15, 2011 in United States and April 8, 2011 in United Kingdom. As a partnership with the film, in March 2011 Rovio Mobile released a new edition of Angry Birds - Angry Birds Rio, which is based on the movie Rio. Carlos Saldanha is the film's director, who also directed the popular comedic animated movie series Ice Age.
Rio movie trailer

Here is the official trailer of Rio. To download Rio movie trailer from YouTube, you could use Leawo Video Accelerator, which can play and download videos from YouTube with accelerated speed.


Fame actors including George Lopez, Anne Hathaway and Jamie Foxx do the voices for the movie. Here is Rio's storyline:
Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) is a rare species of Blue Macaw,who is a resident at a bookstore in Moose Lake, Minnesota, and the last male of his kind. When scientists learn that another macaw was spotted in South America and that the macaw, Jewel (Anne Hathaway) is female, they take him out of Minnesota and send him to Rio de Janeiro to meet her. While there, he learns to confront his fear of flying in order to win her heart. Along the way, they get kidnapped by poachers to sell them to get a fortune. After they escape, they try to avoid the thieves and their pet Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Nigel (Jemaine Clement) with help from Rafael, a wise Toco Toucan (George Lopez); Luiz, a bulldog (Tracy Morgan); Linda, Blu's owner (Leslie Mann); Flora, a Roseate Spoonbill (Wanda Sykes); Fernando, a teenage boy (Jake T. Austin); Pedro, a Red-crested Cardinal (will.i.am); and Nico, a small Yellow Canary (Jamie Foxx); with bottle cap as a hat.
More information about Rio
  • Directed by Carlos Saldanha
  • Produced by Chris Jenkins, Bruce Anderson
  • Written by Don Rhymer
  • Screenplay by Don Rhymer
  • Story by Chavo Vaynér
  • Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, George Lopez
  • Music by John Powell
  • Cinematography Renato Falcão
  • Editing by Chris Wedge
  • Studio Blue Sky Studios
  • Distributed by 20th Century Fox
  • Release date(s) April 7, 2011 (Hong Kong), April 8, 2011 (Brazil), April 15, 2011 (United States), April 7, 2011 (Germany), April 8, 2011 (United Kingdom)
  • Running time 96 Minutes
  • Country Brazil / United States
  • Language English / Portuguese
Check out the fake Angry Birds movie trailer here:) Have fun!

Download Fake Angry Birds Movie Trailer from YouTube

A video titled 'Angry Birds: The Movie (Trailer)' are getting viral on YouTube these days. It was produced by gaming website RoosterTooth.com, which is the creator of popular humorous parodies series 'Red vs. Blue'. However, the trailer is just a parody of the popular mobile game Angry Birds. Actually, there is no such a movie as described in the trailer.

However, the alleged Angry Birds movie trailer is really hot and looks incredibly real. It has yielded 2 million views since its debut on March 25 on YouTube. Here is the trailer. If you want to download it, you could check out the Free YouTube Downloader.



Although it's a fake movie trailer, I think that the movie for Angry Birds is just a matter of time. In fact, there has been a film titled 'Rio' which is highly relevant to Angry Birds. Rio is an upcoming 3D computer-animated film and scheduled to hit theatres on April 15 this year. On January 27, 2011, Angry Bird's developer Rovio Mobile announced a partnership with 20th Century Fox to promote the film Rio.
Rio film poster

What is Angry Birds (Source is Wikipedia)
Angry Birds is a puzzle video game developed by Finland-based Rovio Mobile. Inspired primarily by a sketch of stylized wingless birds, the game was first released for Apple's iOS in December 2009. Since that time, over 12 million copies of the game have been purchased from Apple's App Store, which has prompted the company to design versions for other touchscreen-based smartphones, such as those using the Android operating system, among others.

Nick Pitera One Man Disney Movie Medley Music Video Skyrockets on YouTube

Nick Pitera - One Man Disney Movie screengrab
YouTube popular singer and Pixar employee Nick Pitera hits YouTube again with his newly released Disney medley music video 'One Man Disney Movie'. I would say the video is a work of genius. He sings a number of classic Disney song. Each song contains a Heroine, Hero, Villain, Sidekick, and Chorus, and Nick voices all of them. Accordingly, the video is divided into six boxes which allows the different Disney archetypes - all played by Pitera - to react to each other's different songs.

Here is the video and you could download "One Man Disney Movie" Nick Pitera Disney Medley Music Video from YouTube with Leawo Video Accelerator. You could also get the music from the video as shown in this guide.



Early in 2007, Nick Pitera had already been known on YouTube for his cover of Disnay song 'A Whole New World', which has been played 22 million times by the viewers. In that video, he sang both the male and female vocal parts of 'A Whole New World'. This time, he sings all the parts of Disney classic songs, including Belle from Beauty, the Beast, Aladdin, Be Prepared and The Lion King.

This is a new and brilliant form for music mashup. The video is also very well-edited, with excellent interactions between his various "characters" as he sings. It's the most creative video I've seen this year on YouTube. I hope you enjoy it, too.