Tech Glossary: Online Video

We've all heard of YouTube, and may have even watched a video on it. We're hearing more and more about other sites like Hulu and want to know more about watching videos online, but the lingo may sound a bit intimidating. Here are a handful of words you may come across when looking for videos online:

Streaming: basically, this means that your computer is playing the video directly from the website it's on, and not being stored on your computer. It's not a get-now-watch-later situation. The pro is that it doesn't take up any space on your computer, the con is that you generally need a really good connection to watch video this way without interruption.

Buffering: speaking of interruptions, this is the standard way of dealing with slower, or less reliable connections. A buffer is basically a way to give your computer a head-start. If the video is a high quality, your network connection is slow, or some combination of the two is happening, the time it takes to get the video is longer than the actual video itself. A good analogy for watching a video online is like rolling a matchbox car downhill. It won't make it down on the pavement, so you have to lay track down for it. The speed that you can lay down track is like your network speed, and the speed of the matchbox car is the video's playback speed. If you started laying track at the same time as releasing the car, you would have to stop a lot. Buffering gives you enough time to lay down the track before letting the car go, hopefully enough time to let the car make it all the way down without stopping.

Torrents: some of you may come across this term if you are looking for a particular video online. A Torrent is a way of "packaging" a video to download to your computer. You'll need a program that can handle torrent files(BitTorrent, or the browser Opera, are a couple of the more popular options). There's more to these files than I've explained, but this is enough to let you use them.

Codecs: These are like instructions for your computer to assemble the video. If a video was made using a certain codec, your computer will need that same codec to make sense of the video. There are a number of codecs out there, but if you have Flash, DivX, and QuickTime(iTunes) installed, chances are good that you won't have a problem playing videos because of a codec problem.

Another thing to be aware of is the legality of watching videos online. If the videos you watch have commercials in them, chances are fair that it's a legal way to view them. Torrents are frequently used illegally, but not always, so if you have moral objections to watching videos illegally, you're better off avoiding torrents. If you do choose to watch videos illegally, chances are very good that nothing will happen to you, but your computer faces a greater risk of infection from malicious software should you go that route. I'm not going to advise you how to better protect yourself in those situations, as that's a form of encouragement. If you're not very adventurous, but are still curious about viewing videos online, stick with sites such as YouTube and Hulu. YouTube does a pretty good job of making sure the videos on their site have their owner's permission to be there, and Hulu only has videos that are supported by the studios that own them. There are plenty of other sites out there, but these two are pretty low-risk for the uninitiated.

--

Digital Cameras

Ok folks, it's time for me to attempt to clear up the mud filled waters in the world of camera shopping. If you've ever even looked at a camera on display or online in the last 4 years, you've heard the buzzword "Megapixel" thrown at you at least a dozen times. Don't be fooled, it's not a measurement of quality, but *quantity. *It's not as simple as how many pictures the camera can store, but actually how much info is stored in each picture. *If you have a nice lens* on the camera, having more megapixels will mean a more detailed picture. So how do you know if it's a nice lens? Easy. Manufacturers call this part Optical Zoom, which on digital cameras is measured by how much it can magnify the image coming in. For example, a 2x optical zoom means that it can magnify the image twice as large as normal. I've come up with a simple little gauge to evaluate cameras, it's pretty easy to remember: Add the Optical Zoom to the Megapixels, save that number. Multiply the same two numbers, and take the average of this answer and your first answer.

Now what does this all mean? If you get a result that's less than 16, this camera is good for those of us who are happy with the pictures you get from those one-time-use cameras you see in the check out lines. If the number you end up with is between 16 and 25, this is a camera that's probably good for those of us who like a sharper picture, and might like to hang up a few around the house. Results greater than 25 are not likely to disappoint anyone looking for great quality from a consumer grade camera. If you're looking for a professional grade camera, chances are you've already got better resources guiding you than this little equation.