YouTube, Metacafe, and Google Video are all video on demand websites
websites. These allow you to post videos from home and share them with the
world. The problem is, how do you get them easily and quickly on to the
web in the first place?
Rather than using a camcorder and encoders to ensure your
video goes online, there is a much easier alternative, and that is to
use an online video recording tool.
Today, thanks to several sophisticated web applications, you
can
easily record a video straight from your $20 webcam and publish it on
any web page without having to go through complicated procedures: you
simply have to click the “record”
button and in five seconds you are ready to start.
Online Video Recorders
These web applications are known as online video
recorders and I can summarize their characteristics with
three adjectives:
- easy to use
- cross platform
- always available on the Internet
The advantages of recording videos through these tools are
indeed
impressive: users don’t need to have a particular camcorder,
they don’t
have to struggle with video encoders in order to publish their videos
online and they can embed them anywhere they want.
The only drawback is
perhaps the impossibility to actually download these videos, but this
inconvenience can be solved either by relying on a
video
downloading service or by using a simple
screen
capture tool that lets you record what happens on your
monitor (audio included).
Please remember that this mini-guide does not pretend to be a
fully comprehensive list of all the video recording
tools available online; you are welcome to suggest additional tools and
services by using the comments section that you will find at the bottom
of this article.
Below is a list of some of the best online
video
recording tools I have been able to find and review.
A Selection of the Best Online Video Tools
Twango
With Twango you can record videos straight from your webcam
and
publish them on any web page. Your videos can also be emailed or sent
via instant messengers as a link.
Moreover, people who watch your
videos will be able to leave comments. You don’t need to
register to
the site in order to record a video, but if you sign up for free you
will be also able to upload files up to 100 MB and remove unwanted
comments (plus other features).
Link: http://www.twango.com/webcam
Vlip
Vlip offers a way to create, share, and interact with webcam
captured personal video over the Internet. “
Vlips”
are the single videos and video replies and threads created by
“Vlippers” (Vlip users).
You can record, post, send
via email, embed,
watch and reply to other Vlips. No download or registration is needed
(although registration gives you added power and features).
Link: http://www.vlip.com/
Bubble Guru
Bubble Guru is a web-based recording application that
automatically
connects to your computer’s webcam and captures the video
coming from
it.
Once you have recorded the message, you can set playback
options
(such as placement, auto-start, loading, etc.) and then you are ready
to embed your “video in a bubble” on any web page.
Link: http://www.bubbleguru.com/
Flixn
Flixn lets you record directly from your webcam and embed your
videos into any web site (included MySpace, Friendster, eBay and many
others).
You can also send video messages via email. Flixn interface
is
very neat and makes it one of the easiest web applications that let you
record from your webcam.
Link: http://www.flixn.com/
Openvlog
Openvlog is a free web-based service that allows anyone to
record,
upload, encode, publish and share their video in a simple and
straight forward manner. The nice feature is the ability to record your
own video directly while using your own computer webcam.
Openvlog also
allows the direct upload of existing
video
clips and it supports most existing video file formats.
Link: http://www.openvlog.com
Sightspeed
Easily create and send video messages to anyone – even people
who
are not SightSpeed members!
With the free version of SightSpeed you can
easily create video clips and embed them directly into your web page or
blog. There is also a PRO version that adds much more features to this
tool.
Link: http://www.sightspeed.com
Hellodeo
Hellodeo is a web application that allows you to record videos
straight from your webcam and embed them anywhere. The recording
process is very simple and the commands are very intuitive.
The video
player is very small if compared to the ones provided by similar
services. Hellodeo is completely free to use.
Link: http://www.hellodeo.com/
A/V Publisher
SeeTheFace is a web service provider delivering easy-to-use
web-based applications for audio/video content recording and
publishing.
One of the products of SeeTheFace is A/V Publisher: with
the help of your web camera and microphone, A/V Publisher enables you
to record audio/video messages and easily publish them on your website.
Link: http://www.seetheface.com/publisher
Hictu
Hictu is a microblogging service (such as Twitter and Jaiku)
that
additionally lets you record videos from your webcam and post them
anywhere you want.
Videoposts can be 60 seconds long and they can also
be filtered and be viewed in a dedicated section. Hictu requires
registration and is completely free to use.
Link: http://www.hictu.com/
YouTube QuickCapture
YouTube recently enabled its users to record videos straight
from
their webcam and directly publish them on the popular video sharing
site.
After recording and publication on YouTube, videos can be
embedded and played in any website the same as any other
YouTube
video. You will have to be registered to YouTube in
order to use this tool.
Link: http://www.youtube.com
Online Video Recording Tools: Comparison Chart
Livia Iacolare is a contributing author discussing broadband video tools and software. Her work can be found on MasterNewMedia. Post has Some Rights Reserved.
