Best YouTube Hacks

YouTube is one of those tools that no one really knows how to work. Many Google owned services are this way, as they will contain a large list of features that the average user never finds out about. Most of the people who frequent YouTube every single day don't know about half of the cool things they can do with the site. How could they, as no one has ever told them?

These are only a few YouTube hacks, but they are arguably the best ones.

Feather

What is the worse part about YouTube? The comments, hands down. Of course, they are starting to filter things differently in order to eliminate spam, trolling and general stupidty. But if you would rather lose them full stop, you can try Feather. The Feather service is currently in beta, and you can opt in. It will give you nothing but the bare bones of any video, without the frills like comments filling the page. This makes them faster to load and much less infuriating. No more do you have to read 12-year-olds calling each other names, or put up with political debates in completely unrelated video comment sections.

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Handbrake: Open Source Video Transcoder

HandBrake is a cross-platform (Linux, OS X, Windows), multi-threaded video transcoding application. It's a free (GPL-licensed), open source tool that enables you to easily convert from nearly any format to the most often used codecs of today, thus making them useful on devices beyond your desktop computer. This article will give an overview of its features and then guide you through a typical use case. We will be using the Linux version of the program, but the differences across platforms are mostly cosmetic. Having said that, Mac users can take a look at the GUI in this brief article.

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My Secret to FCPX Color Grading - Magic Bullets Mojo

On a regular basis, viewers tend to ask me how I edit my videos to be so colorful. Well, it's no secret that I use Final Cut Pro X as my main video editor. My secret weapon, however, is a plugin called Magic Bullets Mojo. Watch for examples of color correction and how I use this color correction software to my advantage!



Magic Bullets can be downloaded here: http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/mojo/

Red Giant is most well known for their full version of Magic Bullets that often plugins into major applications like Adobe Premiere or Adobe After Effects. Magic Bullets Mojo is a dialed down version of the application, giving you addition Final Cut Pro X Effects to add more in depth color grading to your video. While there isn't much wiggle room beyond the effects, you can adjust each color correction to your liking using a variety of sliders. At the price point of $49.99, I think this plugin is a must for any amateur/intermediate YouTuber, videographer or filmmaker using the latest version of Apple's Final Cut software!

Any questions are welcomed in the comments below. Thank you for watching/commenting/rating/subscribing! You guys rock!

Update on Aug 26, 2012 at 1:36 PM by Sean Boughner

Red Giant Software also make Trapcode Soundkeys; which is a great plug-in for working with audio and adjusting levels in your compositions. There is a great lesson on CreativeCow.net on how to work with Trapcode Soundkeys by Aharon Rabinowitz.

http://library.creativecow.net/articles/rabinowitz_aharon/waveform_1.php

Apple iPad 3 Announcement Date Revealed

Finally, after 1 Year of waiting, we now know the iPad 3 announcement date, which is March 7th. In this video, I go over some details and what I would like to see on the iPad 3. I am so freaking excited! 

Social me:

Twitter: @kiekiesmith YouTube: kieransmithtech

What's in My Dock? February 2012 Edition

In this video, I let you see what I have in my dock and the applications that I use day-to-day. This includes Photoshop, iMovie, iTunes and Pages, plus and a whole lot more. Enjoy!