Peer Review: Wine Library TV

Note that Wine Library distributes its FLV clips via Viddler and MOV clips via blip.tv. I analyzed another Viddler clip, which shared the same encoding parameters as Wine Library, and this appears to be a Viddler issue, not a Wine Library one. Still, you’re only as good as your service providers, and Viddler needs to consider adjusting its encoding options.

blip.tv has more-flexible parameters, and it’s tough to tell whether the service chose to encode in MPEG-4 format or whether that was Wine Library’s decision. I did download one source video that Wine Library uploaded to blip.tv for one of its shows, and it was encoded using MPEG-4, so it looks like the latter made the decision.

The Player: 5/5
I like the Viddler player that Wine Library uses on its site, particularly the hotlinks that let you annotate videos so viewers can jump to the sections most relevant to them (Figure 9). Given that the shows range from 25 to 45 minutes, this is absolutely essential. Otherwise, the player has all the normal buttons and bars, with links to Digg and similar sites, as well as email links. Though the stock Viddler player can be configured to allow embedding into other pages, Wine Library apparently did not elect this option.

Figure 9. I like the Viddler player, particularly the ability to jump to the most-relevant spots in the video.

I’m a big fan of companies using free sites such as Viddler to distribute their videos, primarily because you get a highly evolved, configurable player and they pay all of your distribution costs. Wine Library makes both of these points crystal clear.

Conclusion
From a pure content perspective, the average Wine Library TV show is highly entertaining, and some, such as episode No. 499 with Mad Money’s Jim Cramer, are classics. (I’m surprised there was enough oxygen in the studio for both Vaynerchuk and Cramer to breathe.) From a pure video perspective, I love the minimalist approach. It’s unfortunate that a couple of streaming-specific mistakes unnecessarily mar streaming quality.

Gary Vaynerchuk: "Social Media Is Over-Hyped"

Wine expert Gary Vaynerchuk takes a few minutes at the South by Southwest conference to discuss how online businesses can prosper by growing community.

16 Mar 2011