Democracy Player. Watch internet videos like you watch TV. Cool trick to it, whichever OS you are on (OS X or Windows for now, *nix coming soon) the homepage will load the appropriate download link. Built in channel guide gives you access to tons of interesting content, and lets anyone share their vids.
posted by gren on Feb 22, 2006 - 36 comments

French In Action is now available for free, online. (click on the "VoD" link to the right of each episode; free registration required ) Long a staple of high school French classes and late-night PBS broadcasts, French In Action is notable for teaching French without translating it; meaning is made clear through context and repetition. It's an approach some people find useless and others consider "so excellent it almost justifies the invention of television ". If you'd rather learn Spanish, there's Destinos and for German, there's Fokus Deutsch--but neither one features Valérie Allain, subject of intense fascination (and occasionally creepy obsession.) ( Unfortunately, free streaming of French in Action doesn't seem to be available outside the US and Canada; Destinos and Fokus Deutsch have no such restrictions.)
posted by yankeefog on Apr 25, 2005 - 43 comments

Streaming video documentary films about American traditional music. Great American roots music films for free! Click and watch full length documentaries about the Popovich Brothers Tamburitza band of South Bend Indiana, Louisiana creole fiddler Canray Fontenot, the last Black medicine-show performer, sacred harp singing and much more. An amazing collaboration between folklorists and indie film makers.
posted by zaelic on Mar 8, 2004 - 2 comments

The answer to file sharing? Woodstock Systems is Beta testing an Instant Message type music thinger. Essentially, the MP3's on your hard drive can be streamed by people on your buddy list, and vice versa. It also acts as a media player where you can play cds, streaming audio/video and mp3s in addition to ripping cds directly on to your hard drive. You can't download the MP3's though, so will any of those pesky laws that shut down Audiogalaxy and Napster apply?
posted by remlapm on Jul 1, 2002 - 23 comments

Hey, it's a clever flash game ... umm ... something's off here. Never a sucker for banner ads, I click on an ad from Yahoo for some type of "advertising trivia" game. Cool enough, but it seems all of the questions are about laundry products, P&G laundry products. The capper came when the started streaming a Tide ad as part of the "game." So naturally, the whois is some entity in Cincinnati.

Jeez, do I feel like a simp.
posted by foist on Dec 12, 2001 - 8 comments

Don't tell your employer you're using the T-1 to watch Green Acres. It's streamed video of a fictional weed delivery service in the NYC area. Updated weekly, it features cameos by some 'big name' actors including Rosie Perez in episode 2.
posted by donkeysuck on Jun 14, 2001 - 5 comments

ShadowTV is tomorrow's technology today -- its "TiVo on steroids," according to Joachim Kim, a creator of a new technology that enables users (which may at sometime include the public on a subscription model) to pull up video-quality or better streaming footage of any television show that aired or is currently airing, including (or not including) the commercials, all in a handy web application.

The limitations are endless.

Such a technology could prove deadly for the big TV networks (down the road sometime), although ShadowTV seems optimistic to work with content providers. [Thanks to Professor Michael Rosenblum at NYU for introducing our Televison and the Information Explosion class to tomorrow' technology.]

Now, let me begin planning that 7-season Star Trek: Voyager marathon...
posted by nyukid on Apr 20, 2001 - 45 comments