Youtube in Talks Offer Streaming Movie Rentals

The Wall Street journal has reported that Youtube is in talks with 4 major movies studios, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., Sony Corp., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros, to offer retail movie rentals. These rentals would be payed, about $4 per movie, or could be ad-supported. The negotiations aren't anywhere near finished but this could help Hollywood survive the dwindling DVD market.

Youtube Adds HD Embeds, 2GB Uploads, and more

The Youtube Blog made a post about new improvements to the popular video site yesterday.
Some of the changes include:

• Changing the upload limit from 1GB to 2GB.
• Adding HD video embedding options.
• Last but not least, link to HD videos by ending the url with "&hd=1" (no quotes).

For more information, see the post on the Youtube Blog.

Apple Adds Integrated Youtube into Snow Leopard: Tries to Bypass Adobe

Apple has already been hesitant to add support for Adobe's widely used Flash plugin on the iPhone but today marks another harsh blow by Apple. Apple will now have integrated Youtube support in its new operating system Mac OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard). This is good because this will lead to more profits for Apple (and most likely a copycat from Microsoft). But, here's the catch, Apple will only do this if Google(which owns Youtube) will transfer all of Youtube's videos from Flash format to H.264 format. This means even more share is lost to Apple, already Adobe is losing ground due to iTunes. I don't think Flash is going to die any time soon though. Many widely popular sites still use Flash, such as Myspace, Facebook, Apple (suprisingly), and many game sites such as Kongregate. You can read more at 14U. Also, thanks to The Eclectic Skeptic for the tip.

Youtube takes on Hulu: Adds "Shows" Section

Youtube added a "Shows" section to its video section today, apparently try to take on the 10 ton behemoth that is Hulu. Youtube has already been offering Movies for months (though you may not notice it). This new features adds shows from MGM, Sony, CBS and other companies. Most of the shows, though, are about a decade too late to attract any viewers. Not exactly very tactical, when you can watch last night's episode of 30 Rock on Hulu. Hopefully Google's weight will get some better shows in the future. (well, there's always reruns of Astro Boy).
One of the nice features is the fact that you can "dim the lights" to get a better view. The size of the video is also set to a large size by default, with the option to make the video smaller. Youtube may be a viable source for television shows online if they can get better content. It would be nice to see Youtube get away from amateur videos. (sure, we all like the Evolution of Dance, but it still would be nice) You can go rot your brain at Youtube Shows.