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The Lonely Planet, maker of the famed travel guides, has launched [LonelyPlanet.tv][1], an online video community built around Lonely Planet TV programming and user-created travel videos.
LP TV has most of the features you'd expect from someone trying to compete with the likes of YouTube, including related clips, favorites, ratings, and user based-subscriptions. While you can subscribe to another user's video feed through the site, I couldn't find any actually RSS feeds for individual users. All user's have a public URL to share their clips with the world (not just logged in LP TV users), but regrettably the site doesn't offer any embed code for sharing and displaying movies offsite.
Lonely Planet's professional video content is drawn from content aired on the Discovery Channel, SBS, Eurosport and Current TV. Navigation is divided into Channels ranging from Tripcast, a place for user video diaries, to Oh F#@*! Oh Wow! which purports to show the "remarkable" things you encounter while traveling, but unfortunately comes up a bit wanting.
Because the site just launched, user generated content is a bit slim at the moment though that will of course improve with time.
As for the uploading tools, Lonely Planet claims that the site makes uploading videos while traveling considerably easier. The provided upload tools are indeed simple to user -- registered users just need to fill out the simple form and point to a video file.
However, no amount of web 2.0 wizardry is going to help you when you're logging in through a dial up in the boondocks of Laos.
Still, in spite of the technical limitations involved in uploading video from developing nations, Lonely Planet TV is a well thought out site. And, because it comes from one of the biggest names in travel, I have no doubt Lonely Planet TV will find an audience.
[1]: http://lonelyplanet.tv/ "Lonely Planet TV"
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