Oh my god!!! Do you we need another video player? I swear, everyday I get up and find myself on Google Reader I keep reading about some blow hard video player company getting funded again and again. Do we really need 50 different video players that are innovative offering the same type of service that you can build yourself? Don’t get me wrong, there are some amazing video players out and one or two that make me salivate but really, when is enough, enough?

I don’t know how many calls I get every week asking me to integrate some new player into our site and how much better it is than what we have and if we go through them then we will make money because of advertising. You know, that was a concept I never thought about, advertising on my content, through my player. I do already and I don’t have to give them 70% of the revenue and then have them scrub the numbers therefore further diminishing my possibilities of profits.

If you’re going to make a player, make a player, don’t make some sorry excuse to sell more advertising. Are you an advertising company or a video player company? You can’t do everything, god knows Yahoo tries to do that.

Look, if you’re going to make yet another, miserable video player, here’s a few tips you should remember:

1. Make it look like every other one available (just change the color)
2. Tell me it goes full screen (no one’s done that)
3. Tell me you’ve engineered a new codec (no one has seen that before)
4. Tell me it’ll play full HD at 800kbps
5. Integrate a playlist (I don’t like to watch videos in order)
6. Put your logo on it (Nothing like you branding my content and site with your player that I pay you for)
7. Put Google AdSense on it and keep 70% or more of the profits (I don’t like to make money)
8. Tell me video on the net is the next big thing (I forgot what industry I was in)

You know those times when life is pleasant, easy-going, listless, bountiful, absolutely and resoundingly happy? Well, this week has been far from that pipe dream of hopeful cheer. What could be so bad you ask? Why are you a little down this week? Why do you look like you’ve aged to a grim reaping age of 28? (I’m 25)

Well let me list it for you:

1. DS3 died (First time ever it went down)
2. Lost footage
3. Memory went bad in iMac
4. Server hard drive stopped working
5. Video camera broke (Didn’t break the lens but the CCD board is gone, which means we need a new camera)
6. Hard drive recorder broke (May have lost more footage)
7. No good movies came out this week (I guess that one has nothing to do with me)

So with my ever so shining martyr-like personality (not really) itching to tell the world that if you were thinking about asking me to head to Vegas with you to help you play 5-Card Draw in the High Stakes room; I would have to respectfully, ever most eloquently decline with pride in tact as my luck has seem to have ran out and over-drawn my “Good Karma” account.

However, before you buy a plane ticket to come be my saving grace I would recommend you stop and think of those actions. I would not advise coming with any electronics, trinkets, nicknack’s, grandmothers, watches or pace makers. It could be lethal for you, well, maybe not lethal but definitely hazardous to your technological well being, which in my industry is really your life.

So it is now that I sit and reflect upon my actions, my hopes, my dreams, defeats and I ponder. Will I make it through? Of course, I’m stubborn, driven, an over-achiever and just plain committed to overcoming adversity with utter-most dignity.

So I raise my glass (there’s nothing in my hand) and embrace this menial setback with prudence, humility and ambition. The good thing about Karma is that when it swings bad one day, it can and most likely will swing great the next.

(Disclosure: I’m not sure if I believe in Karma but it fit the theme of the post rather well)

Studio Daily has a great, short article about shooting U2 concerts all with HD and in 3D stereo. Pretty interesting article.