MISSILL Live in the virtual world of Second Life® and Rennes France!

I have embedded the video at 960x540 to fit it on the page:

<object width="960" height="540"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vwRQVqnItOI&ap=%2526fmt%3D22></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vwRQVqnItOI&ap=%2526fmt%3D22" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="960" height="540"></embed></object>

To show the code: remove the left and right angle brackets at beginning and end of code, then use the HTML for those brackets: < and >
or look at Felgall's converter.. waaaay cool! http://www.felgall.com/htmlt47.htm

Watch the HD 720p version on YouTube: click the ‘Watch in HD’ link below the youtube player:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwRQVqnItOI&fmt=22

Configuring the newsreel in Blogger

blogger_configure_newsreel, originally uploaded by HVX Silverstar.

for my news for avatars newsreel, I used the following keywords:
Second Life, Linden Labs, machinima,
then gave it a cool heading. I like the idea of motion on a page.. but not much of it. The slideshow of images is set to pull up any images I have on Flickr that are tagged with the word 'machinima'. However, I have noticed that it only seems to pull from the last set that has been tagged with it.

YouTube in HD: Embedding the 720p video into your blog

So, grab the embed code from YouTube and remve all excess code from the base URL for the video, beginning with the ampersand '&'
e.g: You should have something like this remaining: http://www.youtube.com/v/wGugqIb5880
Now, add the following code to the end of the URL: &ap=%2526fmt%3D22
the 22 represent the 720p
18 is for the high quality version (not HD version).
The video below is being displayed at 960x540 in order to fit it into the space. It will however display in full resolution.

Watch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGugqIb5880&fmt=22

Example: Embedding the code created in the earlier post

Here are the results of the edited youtube embed code:
http://machinimalibrarians.blogspot.com/2008/12/testing.html


View on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRoyYJqc_0c&fmt=18
Watch in normal view (slower connections):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRoyYJqc_0c



View on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nJVF9gzqkE&fmt=18
Watch in normal view (slower connections):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nJVF9gzqkE

Embedding the Karuna Machinma in high quality by editing the YouTube embed code...

View on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRoyYJqc_0c&fmt=18



View on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nJVF9gzqkE&fmt=18

Editing the default embed code to force the high quality version:
default URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nJVF9gzqkE
Note the URL in the embed code is different...
http://www.youtube.com/v/8nJVF9gzqkE&hl=en&fs=1
Now, remove the following code from the end of the video: &hl=en&fs=1
You will end up with this: http://www.youtube.com/v/8nJVF9gzqkE
so...

now add the following code to the URL:&ap=%2526fmt%3D18

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8nJVF9gzqkE&ap=%2526fmt%3D18"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8nJVF9gzqkE&ap=%2526fmt%3D18" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Hyperlinking in YouTube with Annotations

Hyperlinking videos in YouTube: upload your video to your YouTube account and when in Edit mode, choose the 'Annotations' feature:
using the 'callout' option you can add a title and link to a related video on YouTube. Shown here are links to the MISSILL concert at the 2006 Trans Musicales Festival in Rennes, France, as well as a more recent video clip, MISSILL Solidays 2008...

Watch the video on YouTube and check out the annotations in the last 8 seconds of the video.

Annotations: Using YouTube's Pause Option ||

YouTube offers us the a similar option using callouts, highlights and capability of adding YouTube URLs to related (or unrelated!) videos. Today I noticed an additional option when in the 'annotations' window... the || Pause option. Super! I have added it to the MISSILL machinima at the very end.. a long 9.00 minutes into the video so that I could stop the video long enough for viewers to observe and hopefully click on the callout with a URL pointing to MISSILL's 2006 Trans Musicales de Rennes concert. That worked... but how about using it as a marker? Though since my pause is only for 5 or 6 seconds.. that won't work. But, you could add a message within the video using a callout pleading with the viewer to hit the pause button on the YouTube viewer and suggesting they return to the video afterwards. This really is begging for participation... I'll try it.


Viewing the 'higher quality' version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsAGc3CZBSc&fmt=18

Annotating Images in Flickr and videos on YouTube: always moving forward without a back button!

Karuna Resource Center in Second Life, originally uploaded by HVX Silverstar.

Okay... so the annotations on Flickr images don't work outside Flickr. Hmmmm The 'Add Note' feature allows you to annotate images so that when viewers roll their cursor over the image they can view your ramblings or perhaps even useful information. It got me thinking that we could annotate real life images of our libraries in the same way... except now that I have embedded the image (here in blogger) the feature doesn't work.
I wonder if you can add URLs or SLurls (Second Life URLs) that would launch the Second Life viewer and teleport viewers to Karuna Resource Center in SL. I doubt it.. but I'll try. We can definitely add the SLurls to the image description below... I'm not sure if that gets sent in the blog post from Flickr to the user-listed blogs. I'll give it a try right after this...
OK.... so the annotations don't show up in the blog.. hmmm so you'll have to click through to Flickr to view the annotations. Testing the SLurls and URLs now... and drinking semi-warm coffee I brought in from home... thinking of walking over to Scrubs cafe here on campus to get a "real" coffee.

Embedding high quality version of YouTube videos...

Unfortunately, if you click through to YouTube on either the embedded 'normal quality' or the embedded 'high quality' of the videos, you end up on the default 'normal quality' view. So you'll need to also include the URL alongside the video that will force the 'high quality' view if the viewer wants to view on YouTube rather than embedded in your page. That includes adding the following code to the end of the default URL as shown below: &fmt=6 or &fmt=18 or &fmt=22 for the 720p HD versions.. again, this only works if the video was originally uploaded to YouTube in HD.
Cnet News has a great article on displaying the 720p HD version:

So, looking at some of the hacks around the web, such as Downloadsquad, for embedding YouTube high quality videos into third party sites... here goes...
Some Notes: Not all videos have been uploaded in higher quality, so this only works if there is already a 'high quality' link below the video.

Default normal (means LOW) quality URL on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiXymVmpvK0
High Quality URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiXymVmpvK0&fmt=6 or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiXymVmpvK0&fmt=18
Machinima title: Infolit iSchool in Second Life®

Using my example, Downloadsquad's instructions state to add the following code to the end of the URLs: &ap=%2526fmt%3D18

Unfortunately, if you click through to YouTube on any of the videos, you end up on the default 'normal quality' view. So you'll need to include the URL that will force the 'high quality' view. That includes adding the following code to the end of the default URL as shown below:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fiXymVmpvK0&ap=%2526fmt%3D18"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fiXymVmpvK0&ap=%2526fmt%3D18" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>


Thanks for the reminding me how to display the HTML code, Felgall


View the 'high quality' version on YouTube:
So, Here goes for embedding the 'high quality' video:


And here is the 'normal quality' default version:



Adding the following code to the end of the 'actual' URL... from the YouTube web page... don't include all the other stuff that gets tagged on when you just copy the embed code from YouTube:
&ap=%2526fmt%3D22

Using the source code from Cnet News for displaying the 720p HD version:

<object width="630" height="380">

<param value="http://www.youtube.com/v/optUdhi_Ujg&hl&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D22" name="movie" /><param value="window" name="wmode" />

<param value="true" name="allowFullScreen" /><embed width="630" height="380" wmode="window" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/optUdhi_Ujg&hl&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D22"></embed></object>

And this is the embed code taken from YouTube with the URLs edited... no more

take the default URL and add the code to it: &ap=%2526fmt%3D22

<object width="630" height="380"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/optUdhi_Ujg&hl&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D22"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/optUdhi_Ujg&hl&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D22" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="630" height="380"></embed></object>

Really using the widescreen feature in YouTube by forcing the 'high quality' or uploaded HD versions with &fmt=22

Using &fmt=22
Watch the high quality by adding the &fmt22 to the end of your URL!!
"Scott, we think they're teleporting in... " Here's Scott at the Second Life Community Conference , SLCC2008, about 16 minutes before the Keynote...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10VmTdSzMnQ&fmt=22
CNET article: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10104182-2.html
So if you upload HD video (this one is 720p - 1280x720 pixels), just add the format information and code number indicating its format size, e.g.: 720p= &fmt=22 .



For videos that have a 'high quality' option shown on the lower right of the YouTube player, you can force the 'high quality' display by adding the following format code to the URL: &fmt=6 .
Of course, anyone can set their YouTube display to ONLY show in the higher quality view by going into the 'Account' link which is at the top right of the screen (if you are logged in). Then, look to the left side of the next window, and under the 'Overview' heading you will see 'Playback Setup'. Under the 'Video Playback Settings', select the following option:
I have a fast connection. Always play higher-quality video when it's available.
So now you can share that URL which will launch the 'high quality' version.
So herein lies the dilemma; when uploading the HD version, you leave the down-converting to the default sized flv to YouTube...
How I wish we could do both.
So, the default down-converted video clip that YouTube shows is embarrassingly pixilated. Yes, we always blame ourselves for not uploading a the HD version and leaving the work to YouTube to do automatically.
So.... it occurs to me that I should create an HD sister-account where I can just upload the HD stuff and upload video for my regular account at the high end of the YouTube spec which may be changing given the new widescreen view.
See the YouTube Handbook: Best formats for uploading.
When I get a chance this week, I'll have to take a truly short clip at 1080p to see what YouTube does with it and find the format code to display...