video

New Taxes On Streaming?

On New Years Day 2019, residents of Quebec will begin paying a tax on streaming services. And unfortunately the Canadian Radio & Telecommunication Commission is considering a “levy” to fund Canadian programming and a House of Commons committee is asking for sales taxes to be collected on these services.

This would of course raise the price of these services for the consumer, significantly. And these had been opposed by Canadians according to a Open Media poll conducted in early 2017 by the Innovative Research Group.

According to this poll, 70% of the respondents opposed a new tax on internet and mobile phone bills, 51% strongly. And in regards to the implementation of sales taxes on foreign streaming services, 47% of the respondents supported it provided the funds would be used on Canadian content.

CRTC chairman Ian Scott claimed the “levy” itself “would cost less than 50 cents on an average broadband bill of $47” durring a May 31st, 2018 Financial Times interview so they could easily just divert some of the sales taxes to Canadian Content instead. But there has yet to be a response in regards to these “contributions” from Canadian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who had both claimed there would be no internet taxes.

Please contact your local Member of Parliament on this issue. I will be contacting mine as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Looking For New, Innovative Products ?

Amazon has decided to showcase new, innovative and interesting products on its site.

Amazon Launchpad features tech accessories and gadgets. It also features tools, products for the home & kitchen and products for pets.

The Canadian version of the site has significantly less product compared to its American counterpart but I suspect this lack of product is just temporary.

Canadian Amazon Prime subscribers should also note that Amazon Prime Video may be made available to Canadians shortly.

This service offers free television episodes and films to Amazon Prime subscribers, who can also rent and purchase films they can download or stream. Click here to see what the American service offers.

Bad News For Betamax Fans

It looks like Betamax is officially dead, according to a Sony press release that was released today.

Yes, the video format was not killed off during the format Betamax/VHS war and actually lived on in the video production and broadcasting industries until digital video. But Sony has now decided to stop making their blank beta format videocassettes.

Unfortunately that means that some of you hardcore beta fans will no longer have easy access to blank videocassettes for your classic videotape cameras, including those micro MV video cassettes that you’ve used in the 90’s and early 2000’s. And although I don’t have an official Sony betamax videocamera it appears that i’ve used the format several times to film some of my older Youtube videos and have a few of the discontinued Sony micro MV videocassettes in storage.

My format of choice is now of course those digital SDHD cards but hard drive and solid state hard drive camcorders are getting more and more affordable as time goes by.

Gift Card Offer @ Target

Participating Target stores in Canada are offering 15% off iTunes cards until April 3rd, 2014. Please consult your local flyer for details.

Cisco Predicts Online Video Explosion

Cisco has released their Visual Networking Index Mobile Forecast for 2011-2016 and it predicts that mobile data traffic will explode because of online video.

The report predicts that in Canada “mobile data traffic will reach 219,897 Terabytes (0.22 Exabytes) per month in 2016” because more Canadians are using their mobile devices to watch movies, television programs, music videos and other content from sites like Youtube.

In 2011, Canada’s mobile data traffic was clocked by Cisco at 10,773 Terabytes (11 Petabytes) per month, “the equivalent of 3 million DVDs each month or 30 million text messages each second.” And their 2016 prediction would equal “55 million DVDs each month or 606 million text messages each second”.

Cisco reported that in 2011 only 57% of that year’s mobile data traffic was video. But predicts that 75% of this traffic will be video by 2016, at 162,179 Terabytes per month.

No DVD Playback In Windows 8 ?

Windows 8 will no longer include DVD playback capabilities by default and this function will only be included in Windows 8 Pro and in upgrades to computers that are equipped with DVD drives.

Microsoft believes that most of their customers do not use their computers to view DVDs and that DVD playback will not be necessary because most individuals who view films on their computers now download or steam this content from online sources.

Computers that are equipped with DVD or Blu-ray drives will likely include third party software so most consumers will be unaffected by this issue.