One True Media

"MLMUGers subject their Macs to mysterious code"

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Online Service Review
by Maria O. Arguello

Product: Online Slideshows or Video Montages
Company: One True Media

UPDATE March 2021: One True Media is no longer in operation as of May 21, 2014. See the story, linked below, at VideoProc via Slateberry.

Story: https://tinyurl.com/263z2895

Price: Free Membership or
Premium membership for $39.99/year

System Requirements: Broadband Internet connection

Rating: 4 out of 5 Apples

As Macintosh users we have iLife which comes free with every new Mac. It allows us to share our photos and movies in many ways. If you have a .Mac account for $99/year, you can easily publish them online for viewing by Macs and PCs alike. But if you don't have a .Mac account, you can use One True Media (OTM).

One True Media provides a very easy way to share your photos and movies with friends and relatives. It does it all without the need to install any special software. And it easily integrates with YouTube, MySpace, blogs, Yahoo Groups, and GoogleVideo (Beta). You can also create photo books and email messages, or downloads for iPods iTunes, or DVDs.

What I was most curious about was sharing photos and movies over TiVo series 2 or 3 PVRs. I began by using my Mac to organize a series of photos taken during this year's MLMUG picnic. I then followed the steps at the website to create a slideshow. Uploading the photos to OTM's site was fast. I looked at their many template choices and decided to just use the default one. It's unique and pretty. The next step was to select how I wanted to share my montage. I chose TiVo.

First I contacted a friend who had a TiVo to help me with this part. Once I built my slideshow, I sent its URL to another friend to test using a Mac browser. He had no trouble viewing my slideshow.

Sharing via TiVo was not as simple as I would have liked. For starters, One True Media is incompatible with the OmniWeb browser. It does state in RED, above a very busy window, that it may not be compatible with all browsers, which I missed. Creating a channel was simple and quick, and sending an email to my friend was also easy, but I didn't receive my copy of that email, so I had no idea what the full message said. Then I kept checking my TiVo to see if it worked, but there was no slideshow to view.

So I sent myself an email invitation to share my slideshow on my TiVo. The canned email said that it might take up to 24 hours to send the complete files to the TiVo. I waited the 24 hours and checked. Nothing.

Back to One True Media's website, to view my account. My slideshow was still there but there was no evidence of activity. I began to retrace all my steps and this time did see the RED notice. I then switched to the Firefox browser and followed all the steps again especially the sharing via TiVo part. This time I saw the upload menu and watched the upload activity.

When I checked my TiVo, I saw that my slideshow was coming soon. The notice indicated how long it was and when it would be available on my Now Playing List. Within an hour of starting my second attempt, my 51 second slideshow was ready to view on my TiVo. Now that's more like it.

My slideshow played beautifully on my Mintek 23" HDTV with music selected from the One True Media site. I was very pleased with the experience. Once I overcame the problem with the browser it was easy, fast, and fun.

My friend's experience was also enjoyable and she was able to view my slideshow on her TiVo without any hassle.

For the free membership you get 200 photos and/or 10-15 minutes of video (up to 200 MB of storage space.) There is a limit of 3 songs per Video Montage for Free Membership accounts.

Premium Membership has virtually unlimited photo and video storage. It also has unlimited songs, premium special effects and transitions, premium music, personal TiVo Channel/Two Anytime TiVo shares, and no ads. TiVo shares are limited to five/month. It also includes custom embeddable online players and the ability to download to your PC, Mac, or video iPod.

The $39.99 subscription for a full year includes credit for one DVD, up to $24.99 value! Or you can pay $3.99 a month—the DVD offer does not apply, but you can still buy them at the starting price of $24.99.

One True Media has found a simple, yet elegant way to share photos and movies with friends and family at a reasonable cost.

Maria O. Arguello

Reviewer:
Maria O. Arguello

Maria Arguello is the vendor liaison of the Main Line Macintosh Users Group (MLMUG).

Maria is also a member of NCMUG, PMUG, CCPMUG, MUGSNJ, PPUG, and SJAUG.

She is the Apple User Group Regional Liaison for the Northeast United States (CT, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT).

This site has many more reviews, all written by MLMUG members.
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