The new aspect ratio can be used in embedded video as well. By changing the width and height parameters in the embed code in the example below I was able to use the full width available to me in this blog column. This example is 500 x 300 pixels. (I’m also forcing high quality video playback)

[pimp for BCScene]

‘Problem was, you couldn’t easily share the better quality video using YouTube’s handy link or embed code offered up just to the right of the video player window. Those links defaulted to the lower rez offerings so it was impossible to email a link that would go straight to the higher resolution video, or even to embed the higher rez video into a web page or blog.

Turns out you can work around the low rez issue with these straight forward hacks.

To link to high quality videos append &fmt=18 to the end of the URL, like this:

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=RM7WfEudu5E&fmt=18

To embed high quality video, add &ap=%2526fmt%3D18 to the end of the two URLs in the embed code, like in this example

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/J11guhn6qT4&hl=en&fs=1 &ap=%2526fmt%3D18"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/J11guhn6qT4&hl=en&fs=1&ap=%2526fmt%3D18" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

To save a high quality YouTube video use the KeepVid bookmarklet.

[Via High quality YouTube video hack at Kottke.org]

One of the highlights of the hour-long show was a cameo performance by Ron Sexsmith. Here’s a QuickTime stream of Ron’s tune, “Former Glory” recorded live at the NAC’s Fourth Stage.

[Ron Sexsmith clip]

[Full Music Monday webcast]

Pretty cool and it’s dead simple to use.

link: TVShows

Warning: the legality of downloading TV shows is sketchy at best

We’re producing the last in our series of four broadband videoconference jazz masterclasses tomorrow at Noon at the NAC’s Fourth Stage. Famed jazz pianist Kenny Barron will be at Manhattan School of Music in New York City and four talented piano students (from Humber College, the University of Toronto, Carleton University and McGill University) will be here in Ottawa.

The session will explore advanced jazz piano technique with one of the truly great jazz pianists and educators of our time. The connected session should be of interest to seasoned jazz enthusiasts, music students as well music lovers in general.

This final edition of the 2006/2007 Manhattan on the Rideau series will employ the very latest in broadband video conference technology to connect Mr Barron with the students at the NAC. The connection will be made using next-generation Internet: Internet2 in the US and CA*net4 in Canada.

If you’ve got some free time tomorrow over the lunch hour, swing by the NAC’s Fourth Stage to hear this giant of jazz piano mentor up-and-coming talents from across Ontario and Quebec.

Dynamic range, warmth and depth have all but disappeared it seems in today’s music recordings. Music is compressed in recording, in mastering, in broadcast; often at all three stages. The loudness effect is ubiquitous. Broadcast audio is so pumped that it never seems to vary more than a few db. What results is music that is shallow, cold, harsh and without any kind of imaging or space.

Our new formats don’t help things. We have gone from vinyl (with its many short-comings, granted), to cassette tape, to Compact Disc, to MP3. Even though CDs have potentially more bandwidth than vinyl, it’s not used.

For most people MP3 and AAC files compressed at 128k have become the way they listen to music. Add to the mix iTunes EQ settings (which usually counter, or undo, any ‘psycho-acoustic’ EQ inherent in the MP3 and AAC file compression) and the result is unlistenable.

Do our ears not know any better anymore?

Has the convenience of iPods, iTunes Music libraries and huge hard drives won out over sound fidelity?

Has the requirement to sell music on the radio, in movies, in video games and on the web over crappy computer speakers made the dumbing down of recordings necessary?

Has the focus on computer rigs done away with the concept of home audio systems?

Maybe the music that’s being consumed as 128k MP3 files doesn’t need — or deserve — better engineering or more bandwidth.

Is anything likely to reverse this trend, or will high quality audio become even more of a niche interest?

ps. It’s often said that we are now more discerning with video than we are with audio, what with the prevalence of gigantic plasma and LCD displays and “surround sound” in home theatre systems.

I don’t think so. Check out a TV retailer, where the colour on the display models is so saturated and overblown the reds almost make your eyes bleed. Or what about the stretching of a 4:3 aspect ratio image to cover a wide panel display? Every bar’s got’em. And what about the compression artifacts in a digital cable or satellite-to-home? A fast-moving image sequence is horribly chunky. People don’t seem to mind watching the ridiculously distorted images, over-saturated colours, and overly compressed video. I can’t bare it.

As with music, it probably doesn’t help that most of the broadcast “content” is shite.