As per my last post, our video and audio RSS feeds have been migrated to our [formerly known as] alternate servers.

The alternate servers were originally built to allow viewers in Mainland China to view Category5 Technology TV.  They were the “alternate” servers because Blip.TV and YouTube are blocked in Mainland China.

However, through my tests, I discovered that these servers were in fact substantially faster than pulling video from Blip.TV, so I wrote a migration script to automatically merge all files to the alternate servers upon their release, and deploy them via our RSS feeds.

This means you’ll now receive our files faster (even fast enough to stream to your browser directly).  It also means our files are now available everywhere, including Mainland China, directly from our main feeds.

But it means we generate $0 ad revenue from our feeds.  GASP!

The next step is to allow China viewers an opportunity to disable YouTube on our main web site, and embed a streaming player which utilizes our new servers’ files.  Again, the catch 22 in doing this is simple: YouTube helps pay the bills.

The changes mean we’re incurring more cost, but adding the possibility to generate less ad revenue.  It’s completely backwards to anyone trying to make money.  Fortunately for you, my goal is to make our service as good as possible, and I believe with all my heart that viewers and advertisers will choose to support us.  Watch for an announcement soon–you could be part of our ad sales team and even make yourself some extra cash monies while supporting the show you love!

Enjoy the new feeds!  If you have means to do so, please considering donating, or subscribing to a monthly donation amount.  You can do so at cat5.tv/c.

Thanks!

– Robbie