Video in Interactive Media Article

This article will be exploring the different Video in Interactive media. 

But firstly, we have to outline just what interactive media is. 

So what is Interactive media I hear you cry! 

Basically, interactive media is a type of commutation programme that rely's on you, the User.  

Interactive media is becoming more and more popular, accessible and more applications are becoming available that use video for interactive media. 

Look how sophisticated it is

Cinema and TV are no longer the only places where moving images can be found. Now, due to the world becoming more modern everyday, moving images can be found in everything from mobile devices to cash machines. And the popular demand to be able to watch film and television on the move and online, and as the number of broadband users continues to grow, it means that technology companies and television broadcasters are making them more accessible to the public.

Mobile phones carry increasingly sophisticated technology for shooting, sharing and playing moving images. Portable music players show television content and people can watch movies on their portable games consoles. 

Remember these?? Me neither.

DVD has replaced VHS video as the ubiquitous format for watching movies at home so every popular format is now digital. 

Ohhh Shiny

In short, video in interactive media is everywhere. 

The implication for interactive media producers is that their work is converging with that of traditional film and video producers, but with an added requirement to implement this through current digital media technologies. This presents some new challenges for learners, including the technological requirements of this proliferation of platforms. 

Interactive media normally refers to products and services on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user’s actions by presenting content such as text, graphics, animation, video, audio, etc. 
Interactive advertising uses online or offline interactive media to communicate with consumers and to promote products, brands, services, and public service announcements, corporate or political groups.

YouTube is an example of a website that uses interactive advertisement. They show advertisements before their videos and also in various places on their website. If the user clicks on these advertisements, they automatically take the user to a website giving more information about the film.

YouTube also often shows film trailers, which is another application of video being used in interactive media, before popular YouTube videos. Like with advertisements, if these film trailers are clicked on, they automatically take the user to a website giving more information about the film.

Interactive media is used every day, by almost everyone. It is used in many different platforms. 

It is used on the web through streaming platforms such as YouTube and Spotify and also through e-mail. But interactive media is used in many other ways; 

This woman is oblivious to identity theft clearly.

• Interactive television is an example of these platforms, as are supermarket self checkouts and cash machines. 

• It is also used in things like CDs and DVDs where the viewer has options of what they want to play/listen to/watch. 

• Mobile phones, iPods, games consoles ect are all devices that use interactive media for things such as watching videos. 

I'm not getting paid by apple

• And even things like presentations projected from a computer screen use video for interactive media.

• Another example is games. This is because video games and controlled by you, the user.

Video and interactive media is all made up of images. These images are all compressed. 
Compression means to make a file smaller, but also minimising the quality being lost. 
Image compression can be either lossy or lossless.

When files are compressed with lossy compression, they tend to look blurred. This is because when a file is converted into a different file type so it can be compressed and made smaller, the compression causes it to loose bits information. 

Lossy - Bit rubbish            Lossless - Damn good

Lossless compression means basically the opposite of Lossy. The file reconstructed from the compressed file, so that it doesn't lose bits of information, like it would if it was lossy compressed.

But what are these video file formats I hear you scream unenthusiastically?!

Well I'll tell you. 

Here are different types of file formats, shock horror you have to learn more than one! Some of these include;

AVI

AVI, meaning Audio Video Interleave, is a multimedia file format created by Microsoft in 1992.

Introduced as a part of Microsoft’s Video Windows Technology, AVI files contain both a video and audio file container.

This allows it to synchronise audio and video playback.

There are different types of video file formats. Some of the more frequently used are; 

3GP

3GP is a multimedia file container format is used for mobile phones. It uses lossy compression so that the file can be small enough to be sent. 

SWF

SWF is an Adobe Flash file format.

It is used for Multimedia, currently the domain format for vector graphics in the Internet, and for Action Script.

SWF files contain can contain animation and applet files.  

MPEG-4

MPEG-4 is most commonly used to store digital video streams, especially those defined by MPEG, but can also be used to store other files such as still images.

Like most modern file formats it allows streaming through the internet.

MPEG-4 only has one official file extension name, MP.4. 

But player are these video files viewed on?

Well, there are many different Media Players. Some of the more popular and commonly used ones include; 

• QuickTime 

QuickTime is a Multimedia player created by Apple. It has the capability to play various formats of digital video, and is able to hold different compression methods and file types. QuickTime can also compress and stream video. 

• Windows Media Player 

Windows Media player was created by Microsoft as a multimedia player and also a media library application. 

• VLC 

VLC is a free Media player and video streaming player. 

It a cross platform player, and is able to support audio, video, compression methods and different file formats. 

 

Viral Marketing and YouTube

Viral Marketing basically means something that is spread around. Think of it as a flesh eating virus, that's slowly infecting and killing of humanity one by one. First someone discovered it, then they infected their friends, and they infected their friends. Eventully everyone gets infected, and everyone dies. 

Hence the name Viral Marketing. 

But there are less deaths in Viral Marketing. 

But anyway, I bet you want to know just exactly how viral marketing works? 

Well, Viral Marketing is an idea that spreads, and while it spreads, it helps businesses grow. This means the marketing is the product.

Still confused?

Well, this means that the more people use the product/service, the more people see them.

The Product/Service has to improve more when people use them more.

Oh yes, second picture of the YouTube logo.

Some examples of services that use this kind of Viral Marketing are Hotmail and YouTube.

This kind of marketing relies solely on its users to pass on the company message to other users.

For example, in the case of YouTube, they rely on the users to make and share videos on their site, in order to increase their popularity. 

To conclude, 

Interactive Media is something that rely's on Users. Whether its a Video Game, a Cash Machine or YouTube, they all need users to work and function