Pro Tip: Playback Speed

Videos are a great way to consume information but they can sometimes drag their feet when it comes to getting to the important subject matter. When reading a blog or a book you can just skim read over the things you already know but this is difficult with video. I generally watch most programming podcasts/tutorials or conference talks at 2x and then just slow down when I need to take more time to digest the content.

##Native video

I use iTunes to subscribe to a few great podcasts like RubyTapas, NSScreencasts etc. The content is often great but the podcasts are aimed at a broad audience and so some things I can happily skim over. I don’t know if there is a better podcast player I should be looking at but I generally just open the podcast in QuickTime which allows my 2x playback.

##Youtube

There is too much great content to call out but Confreaks is one of my favorite channels for interesting talks. To get 2x playback speed on Youtube you need to ensure that you are using the HTML player.

The other obvious benefit to watching things at 2x speed is that they take half the time to watch. This is awesome especially if you are following series like Handmade Hero where the videos can easily be between 1-2 hours. It may not be possible to watch a whole video at 2x when it is dense with information but at least you can budget your time more wisely by skimming the less important details.