Quality testing video microblogging services over slow connections

One of my biggest gripes with Seesmic from very early on was its complete inability to capture video over slower connections. Until February I was stuck on a 2mb cable connection which only pumped through about 250-300k on uploads, which coupled with my then geographically isolated location (country Western Australia) made Seesmic unusable for me, unless I recorded the video locally and uploaded it, which sort of defeated the point of using Seesmic, which is quick, spontaneous video creation.

Things have improved, and today Seesmic can be used over slower connections. Not brilliantly, but it can be done.

Being winter school holidays here I was out with my son at the local “fun centre” and connected to the internet with a 3 network 3G mobile broadband card pumping nearly the same specs as my old broadband connection, 1.5-2mb down 350k up. Despite the noise I decided to initially record a video to Seesmic, and I made the note at the end “I wonder how this will turn out on the slower connection.” Three videos I cut today on Seesmic, Phreadz and Viddyou below.

The findings: Seesmic turned out heavily pixelated, Viddyou was choppy, and none were perfect. However if I had to pick one over a lower connection, based on quality, I’d say Phreadz. Of course, this is only once consideration when picking or regularly using any of these services, but it’s one part I’m happy to have tested.

Seesmic

Phreadz

Viddyou