Videos for the office TV?

December 12, 2013 9:51 AM

My office has had a giant TV sitting unused for ages. Today, we got a Chromecast to plug into it to get some use out of it. What would be some things we could play that would be nice background video?

Criteria:
- on Youtube or Netflix
- long (~10+ minutes)
- office appropriate (though we're fairly casual)
- silent (or still works well on mute)

Preferable:
- not too distracting
- HD

So far I've been playing long POV train videos and POV theme park videos, but I'm sure I'll run out of those soon. Next I was planning on finding some nature documentaries on Netflix.

posted by gregoryg to Media & Arts (16 answers total)

Surely you could get some fireplace video on youtube? Over Christmas one of the channels on cable here shows a fireplace, and it's a rather nice background thing to leave on. You could even loop it and keep it running indefinitely.
posted by routergirl at 9:54 AM on December 12, 2013 [2 favorites]

My dentist shows these excellent nature videos - they are just silent films of flora and fauna only (no humans or cities or anything). I like it. Very soothing and visually interesting.
posted by schroedingersgirl at 9:59 AM on December 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

This, obviously.

Now that the big "READY TO CAST" is gone (with the update that is rolling out now), the default pictures get shown off in their glory, which some of those are awesome, and bonus there's a clock. Other than that, maybe a video of the beach. This user has a lot of 3 hour videos that would be calm and relaxing. This one does too.
posted by deezil at 10:12 AM on December 12, 2013

my initial thought was stuff out of the demosence.

"Best Of" 2013 playlist with 122 videos
posted by namewithoutwords at 10:22 AM on December 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

Explore.org has live puppy and kitten cams that are pretty awesome as background watching. There is a certain amount of poop-falling-into and occasional poop-eating, however. There are also various tropical fish cams.
posted by elizardbits at 10:24 AM on December 12, 2013

Surely you could get some fireplace video on youtube?

Right now, Netflix Instant Watch should have Fireplace for your Home, which is just a burning log on a fire.
posted by griphus at 10:24 AM on December 12, 2013

Attenborough's Planet Earth
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 10:28 AM on December 12, 2013

I'm a big fan of the sky time lapses either in the day or night.
posted by jessamyn at 10:35 AM on December 12, 2013

Look no further than videos from the Norwegian broadcast TV network, NRK. They filmed extremely long videos about trains, ferries, stacking wood ( for fireplaces ) and now... swimming salmon.
posted by seawallrunner at 10:37 AM on December 12, 2013 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Lots of great suggestions so far, but just to clarify, Chromecast only works with Youtube or Netflix so anything not on those services won't qualify.
posted by gregoryg at 11:40 AM on December 12, 2013

ustream.tv is a website repository of live feeds. They have an eagle cam and my favorite, Deliverance Ohio's 24/7 kitten live feed.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:46 AM on December 12, 2013

10-hour videos on YouTube
posted by mattbucher at 11:55 AM on December 12, 2013

Rube Goldberg Menorah Lighting
Gangnam Christmas lights
3-hour Fireplace
posted by misha at 6:45 AM on December 13, 2013

And, for anytime rather than the holidays: National Geographic's Most Amazing Moments.
posted by misha at 6:48 AM on December 13, 2013

David Attenborough documentaries! Lots are on Netflix--The Blue Planet, The Life of Birds, Planet Earth, etc.--and they're really visually stunning.
posted by Empidonax at 8:44 AM on December 13, 2013

Android Police covered this sorta today as well
posted by deezil at 12:24 PM on December 13, 2013