Video Pandora, Play-Forever-Lists: Other Things VHX is Doing You Don't Know About Yet (But Should)

By this point, you probably know about what VHX has been doing for direct-release cases and various self-promoted media start-ups. It's clear the project will continue to bring us a lot of great films directly -- and a lot of success stories along the way. You may not, however, be totally in tune to the things the project is trying to do for video on the internet in general. There's something to be said for socializing a video-based browsing experience -- in a lot of cases, you may never easily find videos that captivate or interest you on YouTube or Vimeo, because unless they're being shared on Facebook or Twitter by people whose tastes you trust, how would you come across them? This is just one example of why you may find yourself living in a very VHX future.

Community.VHX.tv

Upon launch, VHX was not the self-distribution service it is now primarily considered (at least, by this crowd of readers). Originally, it was a social-based video dashboard system, and it still is -- an ongoing stream of videos shared by 'curators' who you follow simply plays upon startup -- think of it as Twitter for video, wherein your feed is determined by what the users you subscribe to bring to the chatter table.

I joined VHX when I covered the project in general previously, and mentioned a bit about its social service (still growing -- join now). It's worth noting that as of now, VHX supports sharing of YouTube and Vimeo videos only -- though I'm betting those places are where you're getting the vast majority of video content anyway -- shared to your VHX feed by way of a simple applet. Instant 're-blogging' (with comments) to Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr is native. Support for other upload services is coming in the future. Here's the launch video that illustrates what community.VHX.tv is all about.

To go 'full disclosure,' VHX has joined the ranks of the various tabs which open automatically for me upon launching Chrome -- becoming a resource for both discovering notable (and of course, share-worthy) material and the type of stuff you stumble upon on the web at your luckiest and happiest moments -- I think of it like working with the TV on in the background across the room. Some things rightfully catch your attention, and you're glad they did. Again, like Twitter, your feed's livelihood hinges on how many curators you're watching, and how active they are. So, until you yourselves are using VHX, my own experience depends on what/which users share now -- and don't make my own shares fall on blind eyes, if you travel widely in web video, join up now and bring it to the community!

Show Me Nonstop This, That, or Some Other Things

I don't even remember how I came across the VHX API page, but no matter -- the apps this team are developing are so wonderful for web video you'll be wondering how it's possible they weren't a feature of the internet-at-large to begin with. Get this -- you input what type of thing you want to watch, and that's exactly what you get, non-stop. Given the fact that witchcraft is supposedly not a real thing, I have no idea whatsoever how Nonstop (alternatively SHOWME x NONSTOP, whatever you like) works, but it sure does -- give it a try now.

Lack of understanding about algorithms be darned -- prepare, as it says in the launch video above, for your productivity to drop through the floor, suddenly and for an unexpectedly long amount of time.

Music Video Genome -- 'Pandora for Music Videos'

Music Video Genome is a similarly-minded application -- in this case specifically building on YouTube, Last.fm, and VHX itself -- in that you search for a musician or band, and what you get is a stream of fitting music videos that keeps playing long after you die (unless you halt it manually).

There's also a feedback system going on here, in that you can 'like' videos (and just skip dislikes), plus tell MVGenome that what it's providing you isn't actually a music video, at which point it reaches out to you for one that is -- it assumedly learns and uses this for future reference. I've found album-cover-only versions of songs to be a common 'offender' in this -- not that I minded all that much. Again, beyond magic, I'm not sure how personalized, built-for-you playlisting is so easy -- but I'm glad it is, and I'm glad VHX has delivered it to us.

The apps still seem to be works in progress, so don't expect a 100% success rate on everything you try just yet -- but I would be a bit slow to complain, given that these services are incredibly nifty, and offer direct-happiness-delivery in a simple and smooth way. Expect more from VHX that changes the way you do web video in the future.

So, are you guys convinced VHX is changing the world yet?

Links:

• Community.VHX.tv
• SHOWME x NONSTOP
• Music Video Genome