I Have Found My Long Lost Brother

This blog was inspired by the TV/Movie personality that some people think I resemble, TOM GREEN. This morning, I was checking out HIS blog at http://www.TomGreen.com.

This is ME:

This is TOM Green:

It seems he just got a new digital camera that also records MPEG movies and he wanted to know HOW to go beyond text and photos and post his VIDEOS on the blog.

I was just going to email him with some suggestions, but then I figured YOU might like to know as well.

First, let's compare AUDIO options.

You can sign up for a FREE account at AudioBlogger.com that allows you to call in an AUDIO POST from any telephone, and seconds later it autmatically posts to your blog.

Since recording that, I've figured out that you CAN indeed grab the HTML code for that post off of YOUR blog and embed it anywhere else on the web.

But the audio isn't truly EMBEDED. It's just a link that pops open a media player that resides on the listener's computer.

I find that very distracting, and therefor prefer a service called Audio Generator
which actually EMBEDS and streams the audio right from exactly where you want it on the page.

With that service, I even get a toll-free testimonial line so that my CLIENTS can call in with their thoughts and comments.

Another Satisfied Window Treatment Customer....

Oops! Looks like I posted the WRONG audio clip.

Here's a better one from a cruise vacation client:

I use audio in a number of ways at LittleShopOfCruises.com

There's even a way to send AUDIO POSTCARDS like THIS ONE.

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How To Instantly and Easily Embed VIDEO:

Although there are NUMEROUS services like VitalStream and PlayStream that will let you stream video via links to pop-up Windows Media or Real Media Players...they are VERY expensive ($500 to $800 per month) and you still can't EMBED your video here in a blog.

So I went searching for something that was FLASH based, easy to record and upload from a cheap web cam OR my digital camcorder and that works on 95% of people's computers.

And...DOESN'T COST A FORTUNE!

After scouring the web for hours and hours, the one thing I found that meets these criteria is something called Instant Video Generator. I made this video at 2 AM while my future ex-wife was annoying and aggravating me...



Okay...she's gone now, so I'm in a better mood! Let's try just a talking head with white background...



The videos above were made with my cheap little Logitech webcam and Instant Video Generator.

Now let's see if I can get some of the MP4 videos that I recently shot with my Digital Camera-Corder, the Sanyo Xacti C4 to upload into Instant Video Generator.

By the way, this particular Sanyo model is not sold in the US yet, so I bought it on Ebay and it was shipped from Kong Kong. Under $500 with a 1 GB memory card...GREAT DEAL, and it will record an HOUR of good quality full 30 frames per second video OR about a THOUSAND stills at 4 Megapixels.

It's available in Silver, Blue or Orange. I got the ORANGE one.



...and took it on a group cruise to the Caribbean. Here's my buddy Jim serenading the senoritas with OPERA on the beach:



On the way to see Fiddler On The Roof on Broadway:



At the office at Christmas...



Anyway, you get the idea. It's GREAT when the videos STREAM right out of the page instead of needing to pop-up from some annoying "PLAYER" that takes for ever to open and DOWNLOAD each video.

With Instant Video Generator, all I do is convert my MP4 videos to the format for flash called an .flv file. If your computer doesn't let you SAVE AS an .flv file, there is conversion software that you can download from Swishzone.com for $49 or Wildform.com has Flix Lite for $39.

Then you can EASILY upload and stream just about ANY format of video, whether from your web cam, digital camera or even old fashioned camcorder!

You can try out the Instant Video Generator service for 21 days for only a BUCK.