The AOL UnCut Video Beta

Well, without any prompting, Blogger John did a blog entry about another new AOL service that was launched in Beta this week, UnCut Video.

It's a social video sharing site, which means that you can browse videos that people have uploaded, as well as upload your own.

It would not be unfair to compare it to other video sharing sites out there, such as YouTube or Google Video; the UnCut Video guys are working on some features that should distinguish UnCut Video from these other folks (for example, right now UnCut Video supports device upload, which means you can upload video directly from your camera, as well as direct Webcam support), but in any case, play around with it and see what you think.

Lucky for me, Blogger John uploaded his own video to the site, which is good, because I was stuck trying to come up with something of my own to put up, so he bought me a little time with his Mentos/Diet Soda Geyser Experiment Video:

If you look at the screenshot, you'll see where I circled (in red) the Blog This link; it's similar to the Blog This link in the footer of all Journals entries; when you click it, it will create a new blog entry, complete with a hyperlinked thumbnail to the video. You can then pick which blog you want it to go to, and then publish it like any other blog entry.

Note that this will be a static thumbnail picture. If you look below the Blog This link, you'll see another link that says Snag an embeddable player. Clicking this will give you the HTML code for an embeddable Flash player, which will let you play the video directly in your blog entry; unfortunately, you can't use embeddable players in AOL Journals at this particular moment. (See my earlier entry on allowed HTML in Journals.) [Update, July 2006: The AOL Journals beta now allows embeddable Flash video players from UnCut Video and YouTube.]

The good news, though, is that the Journals guys are working on allowing embeddable players in Journals for the next release, which should happen in June, according to the current schedule. So stay tuned (the Product guys will be talking more about the features of the coming release as we get a little closer).

Now, video is a little harder to do (and do well), but pretty much all home computers these days come with simple movie editing programs (Windows Movie Maker for PCs, and iMovie for Macs); I was playing around with both, myself, and the programs make it pretty easy. In fact, you have to kind of restrain yourself from going crazy with effects, titles and transitions, once you get past the basic manipulation of the video clips.

Anyway, right now, I encourage you to play around with UnCut Video and
see what you think. Remember, these days, most digital cameras allow
you to take video, and lots of folks have Webcams that will also do
fine.

Plus, since UnCut Video is still pretty new and there aren't very many videos uploaded yet, there's a pretty good chance that if you upload a video, it'll be featured. So if you want to show off your inner auteur to the world, here's your chance.

As noted, I will get my own video up as soon as I, um, come up with something to film. I will entertain suggestions, so leave a comment. (Please note that "entertain" means "will listen to" not "will do, unquestioningly.")

Thanks -- Joe

Tag: UnCut Video