iDesktop.TV

iDesktop.tv, originally known as YouTube Desktop is a web-based interface for viewing videos from YouTube in a desktop-like environment provided by a company called 3^rd Eye Solutions in the UK, that’s right not in the USA. To find out more about them go to the parent company website

iDesktop lets you do more than YouTube can and also allows for more flexibility inclusive of multiple media file types. But this is definitely not the only PLUS for the site.

To start off you could use the "import user from YouTube" feature which will ask you for an existing YouTube username and will add this user's playlists and favourite videos to the iDesktop.tv account. If there are two playlists with the same name on YouTube and iDesktop.tv the videos will be added to the same playlist instead of creating new one.

Lets me consider the Pros first and then later below I will list out the cons as well…

Pros…

• You have the liberty of a "pop out player" feature (the blue button in the top right corner of the player). It opens new browser window and loads the videos in a simplified version of the player so you can drag the player onto the second display. You can even have it in full screen or even play on a wide screen format.
• Supports the most common browsers - Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 (version 6 also works but has some bugs), Opera 9 and Safari 3.
• You can load your favourite music videos and play them in background Yes, you can. You can load them in the player and minimize it. If you have set "pause on minimize" to off in the settings, the video playback will continue so you will hear the audio and continue browsing for more videos. You can even add the videos from the results to the minimized player by dragging and dropping them over its thumbnail in the tray.
• Lists the last 50 videos played in your account, so you can always come back and see your complete history in the event you did not mark one in your playlists.
• Play videos in full screen /wide screen format,Yes, and not only that. While playing videos you will notice a few icons for selecting video aspect ratio. You can choose from 4:3, 16:9 (wide screen), video's default (the aspect ratio of the uploaded video) or custom. Custom will resize the video to fit the player so resizing it you will change the video's size.
• Has the widest and most common video format, used for different devices like…
  • AVI - the most common format for watching videos on PC, using Microsoft MPEG4v2 with MP3 quality audio on almost any device.
  • MP4 - Apple video format, supported by iPod, iPhone and other video playing devices and software
  • MOV - Apple Quick Time video format
  • WMV - Microsoft Windows Media Video - old video format supported by all Microsoft Windows operating systems.
  • 3GP - video format, supported by most mobile devices, such as phones, but with low audio and video quality.
  • 3GP2 - version of 3GP with better audio and video quality, supported by most mobile phones and other devices
  • FLV - flash video format - suitable for the web, for example - embedding the downloaded video in your own site
  • EXE - standalone EXE player with the downloaded video built in it. For PC's only. No additional software or player required. Good for presentations.
  • ZIP - this is actually the EXE, but compressed in ZIP archive
• Uses Google API's to access their Google-Videos as well.
• Unlimited FREE viewing
• Unlimited download (for registered users)

Here are a few of the Cons though…

• Supports only the listed browsers above and only in latest versions and users have to upgrade to the current version.
• Cannot watch video channels that are on YouTube
• iDesktop.TV is only for watching, browsing and downloading through YouTube's videos. The site depends on YouTube's API's which do not support functions like uploading or commenting.

To experience the site click here.

Snapshots....(click on individual images to see in full screen)

(The above article, screen-shots and LOGO is published on my blog in acceptance with iDesktop.TV terms and condition and preferred logo usage, unless specified otherwise all the above content belongs to © 2007 3rd Eye Solutions Limited. All rights reserved. All iDesktop.TV logos and marks are the property of 3rd Eye Solutions Limited.)

Technorati Tags: iDesktop,videos,TV,YouTube,download,AVI,MPEG4v2,MP3,MP4 - Apple video format,iPod,iPhone,MOV - Apple Quick Time video format,WMV,3GP,3GP2,FLV,EXE,ZIP

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