I wasn’t surprised at the negative comments that appeared in the story write-up about the Waterloo Region Public school board planning to open its firewall to Facebook this September. Any time anything “new” is explored in education, wide-spread skepticism and reservation become rampant. I do find it hard to believe that not one student The Record spoke with felt that Facebook should be openly welcome in the schools. Or, maybe students weren’t asked about the potential benefits at all. Certainly, the experts in social media were not consulted.
I just returned this week from Scotland where I interviewed Dr. Tracey Alloway of Stirling University about using Facebook as a learning tool. Alloway has completed extensive research in the area and is currently meeting with her research team to write up and publish the results of her findings. What she told me was that social media, particularly Facebook, builds and exercises working memory –an important part of processing and managing incoming information. She likens working memory to a series of post-it notes that are sorted and pieced together to develop comprehension of a greater concept. Her studies also showed that using Facebook can actually increase the IQs of teens, improve multi-tasking skills, and raise Oxytocin levels –a chemical in the brain that helps us feel pleasure and fight depression.
While it is likely that students will continue to use Facebook to socialize, the novelty will wear off and with some guidance, they will find academically productive uses for the social media tool as well. Cyberbullying will become much less of a concern as teachers and parents become a guiding presence. Study groups, peer tutoring, and career networks will continue to develop as learning continues during and after school hours. With some lessons in digital literacy and digital citizenship, students will have a safe and empowering forum in which to communicate in the anytime, anyplace world they have created for themselves.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
The Lone Shooter
I miss having my friend Mike with me on shoots. We were a great team. Mike took the stills and looked after the audio while I operated the camera. This year I have been filming on my own a lot. I feel like one of those one-man bands with a drum attached to my front and a drumstick rigged to my arm, harmonica at my lips, tambourines in between my knees and a horn on my belt. I often wonder if that's kind of how I look to people when I go out on shoots.
I find it tough to have to think about and monitor all the equipment myself. I've been interviewing people while having an ear bud placed in my ear to monitor for interfering background sounds. I am constantly scanning the camera viewer for proper headroom, noseroom, leadroom, light balance, tonal mergers and the audio v/u levels. My mic stand holds the boom now and I'm constantly checking it so that it's not in my shot, so that it's pointed in the right direction, so that it's not placed where someone will trip over it.
Over the next two months I will be flying solo to Boston, Vancouver and the U.K. to shoot my documentary. I'm having nightmares already of forgetting to white balance, charge my batteries, put a battery in the boom, plug my XLR in all the way, forgetting to check for stereo sound and failing to format my SDHC card properly. There's a lot that can go wrong on a shoot, especially when there's no one else looking out for you. Just as the airplane pilots will be doing before taking me away to shoot my doc, I'm going to follow a standard checklist. I'll post it once it's finished, though it's specific to my equipment set-up. Maybe I'll even have a story later on about how the checklist saved a shoot.
I find it tough to have to think about and monitor all the equipment myself. I've been interviewing people while having an ear bud placed in my ear to monitor for interfering background sounds. I am constantly scanning the camera viewer for proper headroom, noseroom, leadroom, light balance, tonal mergers and the audio v/u levels. My mic stand holds the boom now and I'm constantly checking it so that it's not in my shot, so that it's pointed in the right direction, so that it's not placed where someone will trip over it.
Over the next two months I will be flying solo to Boston, Vancouver and the U.K. to shoot my documentary. I'm having nightmares already of forgetting to white balance, charge my batteries, put a battery in the boom, plug my XLR in all the way, forgetting to check for stereo sound and failing to format my SDHC card properly. There's a lot that can go wrong on a shoot, especially when there's no one else looking out for you. Just as the airplane pilots will be doing before taking me away to shoot my doc, I'm going to follow a standard checklist. I'll post it once it's finished, though it's specific to my equipment set-up. Maybe I'll even have a story later on about how the checklist saved a shoot.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Music for Documentary Production
So I asked around to find a couple of good places for musical scoring of documentaries to save my time in compiling some huge list. DeWolfe out of the U.K. has some great tracks. I've been told Andy Quin is a favourite artist. The cost is 500 dollars for corporate videos and 50 dollars for student productions. Westar Music charges 59 dollars for corporate use of music tracks.
The Stock Footage Issue
If you've never looked at the price of stock footage before, you would be surprised by the varying prices and quality out there. Recently I was asked to do a corporate video that would feature some shots from news broadcasters mixed in with some transportation shots and archived shots. Here's what I found.
1. News footage is extremely expensive. A colleague told me that CTV is the least expensive. When I checked on-line I found that it costs a minimum of 100 dollars an hour in search fees and a minimum of 200 dollars an hour in transfer fees. For Educational non-broadcast (Internet-purposed) videos the footage is cheapest at 10 dollars a second with a 20 second minimum. It's 15 dollars a second for Educational broadcast TV. Home video is actually higher at 20 dollars a second. Corporate one-country fees are 25 dollars a second. Just for fun, I'll add in the cost for commercial promo spots. Viewed world-wide, the cost is 100 dollars a second. Here's the CTV rate card and again, I've been told this is the cheapest place to go for footage.
2. Although rights run out on older archived footage entering the public domain, it can be difficult to get a hold of the footage. You can go-online at the Internet Archive to find footage that has entered the public domain and can be used for free but it's difficult to search through their database for archived footage. I would suggest monitoring Miro for works that are constantly entering the public domain. As for obtaining archived footage for a fee I found a great shot of a Ford T model car at Getty Images for 700 dollars for use by corporate videos. Clearly, I will have to do more research in this area.
3. Royalty free footage comes in all kinds of qualities and prices. For the most part, you get what you pay for. Revostock has great SD footage for around 20 dollars and HD for 30 dollars. Corbis Motion has high quality shots that can get pricey. I found an F-16 fighter jet for 349 dollars. Productiontrax has some shots in the 10 dollar range (they also have audio tracks). Pond5 has over 325 000 shots starting at 5 dollars a shot and also carries sound effects and music tracks starting at 2 dollars. A Luna Blue has HD shots that start at 40 dollars and SD NTSC shots at 30. Artbeats has beautiful nature scenes and time lapses. The company charges a 30 dollar service fee on every order. My favourite site for anyone getting started in collecting royalty free shots is Footage Firm. They don't have a huge variety and seem to specialize in computer generated backgrounds but they often have free footage on their site. You can also get bulk shots on DVDs for reasonable prices. Another fairly reasonably priced site for footage is Apex Stock. Shutterstock does some interesting work with wide angle and fish eye lenses.
For even more links to stock footage suppliers, a fantastic site with lots of links is Stock Footage Online.
1. News footage is extremely expensive. A colleague told me that CTV is the least expensive. When I checked on-line I found that it costs a minimum of 100 dollars an hour in search fees and a minimum of 200 dollars an hour in transfer fees. For Educational non-broadcast (Internet-purposed) videos the footage is cheapest at 10 dollars a second with a 20 second minimum. It's 15 dollars a second for Educational broadcast TV. Home video is actually higher at 20 dollars a second. Corporate one-country fees are 25 dollars a second. Just for fun, I'll add in the cost for commercial promo spots. Viewed world-wide, the cost is 100 dollars a second. Here's the CTV rate card and again, I've been told this is the cheapest place to go for footage.
2. Although rights run out on older archived footage entering the public domain, it can be difficult to get a hold of the footage. You can go-online at the Internet Archive to find footage that has entered the public domain and can be used for free but it's difficult to search through their database for archived footage. I would suggest monitoring Miro for works that are constantly entering the public domain. As for obtaining archived footage for a fee I found a great shot of a Ford T model car at Getty Images for 700 dollars for use by corporate videos. Clearly, I will have to do more research in this area.
3. Royalty free footage comes in all kinds of qualities and prices. For the most part, you get what you pay for. Revostock has great SD footage for around 20 dollars and HD for 30 dollars. Corbis Motion has high quality shots that can get pricey. I found an F-16 fighter jet for 349 dollars. Productiontrax has some shots in the 10 dollar range (they also have audio tracks). Pond5 has over 325 000 shots starting at 5 dollars a shot and also carries sound effects and music tracks starting at 2 dollars. A Luna Blue has HD shots that start at 40 dollars and SD NTSC shots at 30. Artbeats has beautiful nature scenes and time lapses. The company charges a 30 dollar service fee on every order. My favourite site for anyone getting started in collecting royalty free shots is Footage Firm. They don't have a huge variety and seem to specialize in computer generated backgrounds but they often have free footage on their site. You can also get bulk shots on DVDs for reasonable prices. Another fairly reasonably priced site for footage is Apex Stock. Shutterstock does some interesting work with wide angle and fish eye lenses.
For even more links to stock footage suppliers, a fantastic site with lots of links is Stock Footage Online.
Affordable HD camera with audio input!
Could it be true? Is Canon releasing a true HD camera with a mic input? I can hear Comm Tech teachers across the province cheering already. I've rounded up some of the details I found on the release of the new Canon Vixia HF R100. The camera is due to arrive this month, though I've noticed several web stores are still taking advance orders for the camera. The cam sells for about 500 dollars U.S.
PC World did an article on the camera a short while ago.
The Vixia HF R100 records to an SDHC/SDXC slot and records in MPEG4-AVC/H.264. Like its higher-end cousins, the dual-storage-format R series camcorder offers the Relay Recording feature. It also employs manual controls and a mini input for mic and an output for headphones.
Here are some more specs for the HF R100.
Because of its one-chip CCD, the camera also works great in low-lighting conditions.
PC World did an article on the camera a short while ago.
The Vixia HF R100 records to an SDHC/SDXC slot and records in MPEG4-AVC/H.264. Like its higher-end cousins, the dual-storage-format R series camcorder offers the Relay Recording feature. It also employs manual controls and a mini input for mic and an output for headphones.
Here are some more specs for the HF R100.
Because of its one-chip CCD, the camera also works great in low-lighting conditions.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
SDHC cards and speed class
Thought I got a great deal on SDHC cards the other day, and I did; it's just that I can't use them for what I had hoped to use them for. I bought 2 16 gig SDHC cards for use in the Panasonic HMC-150. They are class 4, the minimum requirement for use in the camera as outlined in the manual. I have since read posts and heard from others in the field that Panasonic recommends class 6. I'd like to know what the use is of writing in a manual that the camera will work with class 4 but neglect to write in that class 6 is recommended in order to avoid drop-outs in video recording.
I also ran some tests to compare class 6 and class 10 on the Panasonic yesterday. I didn't notice any difference. No dropouts in either class and the file transfer rate between card and computer was exactly the same. (1 minute for a gig total of 16 files) Not sure there's any use to going up to class 10 with this card.
I also ran some tests to compare class 6 and class 10 on the Panasonic yesterday. I didn't notice any difference. No dropouts in either class and the file transfer rate between card and computer was exactly the same. (1 minute for a gig total of 16 files) Not sure there's any use to going up to class 10 with this card.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Using DimDim for Webinars
What I really like about DimDim is that you don't have to download any software on your computer, except for the occasional plug-in if your computer is missing a feature (I had to download a plug-in to enable the whiteboard technology). You can create an account and sign in from anywhere.
DimDim has great collaborative tools as well. Users can switch to a shared whiteboard and flip to Internet web pages, as well as share PowerPoint presentations and other files.
The screen capture that it comes with is not as convenient to use, so I would suggest using a separate program if you are after video quality and you need the file right away. The company emails you a link after your recorded session so that you can download it. However, it is difficult to say how long you may have to wait. I waited for over an hour and decided to go to bed. The email had come to me the next day. The other difficulty I had was while using my MacBook Pro. It really had a hard time recognizing the webcam and then keeping it hooked up was also a problem. My Toshiba Satellite had no problems. One caution is that when you go to full screen on the web cam feeds, the program has to go through the process of re-recognizing the device again, which can cause a bit of an interruption in the connection.
When sending e-vites out for people to join you in a web room, it can take up to half an hour to receive, so it is best to use your own email or tell your guests in advance what your room name is so they can find you that way instead. I experienced that as a test between two computers in the same home. I'm wondering if it's because I was using a free account. Dr. Tracey Alloway sent me an e-vite form Stirling University in Scotland and it was immediately in my mailbox.
DimDim has great collaborative tools as well. Users can switch to a shared whiteboard and flip to Internet web pages, as well as share PowerPoint presentations and other files.
The screen capture that it comes with is not as convenient to use, so I would suggest using a separate program if you are after video quality and you need the file right away. The company emails you a link after your recorded session so that you can download it. However, it is difficult to say how long you may have to wait. I waited for over an hour and decided to go to bed. The email had come to me the next day. The other difficulty I had was while using my MacBook Pro. It really had a hard time recognizing the webcam and then keeping it hooked up was also a problem. My Toshiba Satellite had no problems. One caution is that when you go to full screen on the web cam feeds, the program has to go through the process of re-recognizing the device again, which can cause a bit of an interruption in the connection.
When sending e-vites out for people to join you in a web room, it can take up to half an hour to receive, so it is best to use your own email or tell your guests in advance what your room name is so they can find you that way instead. I experienced that as a test between two computers in the same home. I'm wondering if it's because I was using a free account. Dr. Tracey Alloway sent me an e-vite form Stirling University in Scotland and it was immediately in my mailbox.
Applian review
I used Applian Screen Capture yesterday for an interview with Dr. Tracey Alloway on new media technologies and the effects on students' working memory (she says multi-tasking with new media is actually good exercise for the working memory, by the way, but that's another post and hopefully a podcast to follow). Anyway, back to Applian.
The visual quality of Applian's Replay Video Capture is excellent. You do have to remember to set the window you want to record in advance and you can't change it mid-recording. This can make it a little tough if you haven't gone to full video screen on your interview subject. (DimDim has some of its own issues with this, but again, that's another story). Applian is so user-friendly. The settings are easy to use and the user controls are pretty self-explanatory. I'm not sure if they have a tutorial on their site on how to use it. They probably do, but honestly, you won't need it.
The visual quality of Applian's Replay Video Capture is excellent. You do have to remember to set the window you want to record in advance and you can't change it mid-recording. This can make it a little tough if you haven't gone to full video screen on your interview subject. (DimDim has some of its own issues with this, but again, that's another story). Applian is so user-friendly. The settings are easy to use and the user controls are pretty self-explanatory. I'm not sure if they have a tutorial on their site on how to use it. They probably do, but honestly, you won't need it.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Screen Capture Using Applian
Got a tip from Dana on what screen capture works best on PCs so that I can record a webinar with Dr. Tracey Alloway of Stirling University in the U.K. He suggested Applian. The program will allow you to conduct two minute tests with its free version so I tried it out. I downloaded it to my Toshiba Satellite which uses a Mobile Intel 945GM graphics card Express chipset and an IBM laptop which uses a Mobile Intel 965GM graphics card Express chipset. I was going to run some tests and compare .movs by recording a minute of video and creating a side by side test edited in Premiere Pro but I decided to check the forums instead. After finding the first site that compares the two two graphics card, my computer screen froze with a warning of multiple viruses affecting my computer and prompted me to press "a button" to fix it. I tried to exit out of Internet Explorer but the viral web page froze all actions. I ended up turning off my computer and checking my programs file on restart to make sure nothing had gotten on my computer. My Rogers virus scan turned up nothing which was a great relief but took my time up for getting my tests on the computer done. So, I found another reference that suggested the newer IBM's graphics card was an improvement over the others when it came to gaming. That was enough to sell me on using the IBM tomorrow when I record the webinar. I tested out the record and the video looks good. The audio will not map through the computer and the advanced audio settings on the computer do not allow me to "record what I hear", possibly due to the fact that I don't have full administrative rights on the computer. There are no options for adding different audio settings that I can see but I will play with a little more. In the meantime, I have my Marantz USB recorder as a back up and record the audio.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Testing MTS with Premiere Pro CS4 and Encore
I did some test runs this morning on importing raw .MTS 1080p 30 frames, 48 K audio (from a Panasonic HMC-150-AVCHD, progressive) and set up my Premiere Pro sequence to Edit in AVCHD 720 30 frames as it matched the correct frame size. I decided to run the raw file through Premiere out to Encore and tried three different types of burns all to standard DVDs. Here are the results:
In Blu-ray authoring mode:
I tried 30 frames and 1280 which would match the native file… with both h.264 and mpeg II automatically defaulted to 720
You can go down to 720 or up to 1920 so I decided to go up all in an effort to keep the project at 30 frames per second as the motion blurs with 24 frames as I found out in previous tests
NTSC 1920 x 1080 30 frames mpeg II…took 8 minutes through Encore to burn with no edits, no pre-renders from Premiere Pro needed. Took up 52.3 MB of DVD space (half of native file).
NTSC 1920 x 1080 30 frames H.264… took 8 minutes through Encore to burn with no edits, no pre-renders from Premiere Pro needed. Took up 52.3 MB of DVD space (half of native file).
Regular DVD authoring mode:
720 x 480 NTSC DV 30 frames using mpeg-II codec… took 8 minutes through Encore to burn with no edits, no pre-renders from Premiere Pro needed. Took up 51.28 MB of DVD space (half of native file).
Conclusions:
Quality of all 3 looks exactly the same and took the same amount of time to burn. Difference between 1920 and 720 is nil in quality and 1.02 MB less in 720 for the 50 seconds of footage. No difference in quality or file size when using mpeg II or H.264 codec for burn.
Applying New Knowledge:
I have learned that native .MTS files for the Panasonic HMC-150 in the setting 1280 x 720 29.97 frames, 48 K creates a file size of about 145.8 MB/minute, or 8.54 gigs for an hour of video recording. Burning non-rendered and uncut files takes up half the raw file space but to burn a fully edited video will really be determined by how advanced the editing is. I bought 2 16 gig SDHC cards online from a Canadian store for $38.99 each, which should last me for each shoot. Dave bought me a Western Digital My Studio RAID 4TB, Quad connectors (eSata, firewire 800 x 2, USB 2.0) for me for my birthday. What a great husband!!! The RAID will speed up editing with native files and will back up my files safely. I also have the option of daisy chaining another firewire 800 external HD if I need to (maybe for the extra back-up?) I'll have to research this one.
In Blu-ray authoring mode:
I tried 30 frames and 1280 which would match the native file… with both h.264 and mpeg II automatically defaulted to 720
You can go down to 720 or up to 1920 so I decided to go up all in an effort to keep the project at 30 frames per second as the motion blurs with 24 frames as I found out in previous tests
NTSC 1920 x 1080 30 frames mpeg II…took 8 minutes through Encore to burn with no edits, no pre-renders from Premiere Pro needed. Took up 52.3 MB of DVD space (half of native file).
NTSC 1920 x 1080 30 frames H.264… took 8 minutes through Encore to burn with no edits, no pre-renders from Premiere Pro needed. Took up 52.3 MB of DVD space (half of native file).
Regular DVD authoring mode:
720 x 480 NTSC DV 30 frames using mpeg-II codec… took 8 minutes through Encore to burn with no edits, no pre-renders from Premiere Pro needed. Took up 51.28 MB of DVD space (half of native file).
Conclusions:
Quality of all 3 looks exactly the same and took the same amount of time to burn. Difference between 1920 and 720 is nil in quality and 1.02 MB less in 720 for the 50 seconds of footage. No difference in quality or file size when using mpeg II or H.264 codec for burn.
Applying New Knowledge:
I have learned that native .MTS files for the Panasonic HMC-150 in the setting 1280 x 720 29.97 frames, 48 K creates a file size of about 145.8 MB/minute, or 8.54 gigs for an hour of video recording. Burning non-rendered and uncut files takes up half the raw file space but to burn a fully edited video will really be determined by how advanced the editing is. I bought 2 16 gig SDHC cards online from a Canadian store for $38.99 each, which should last me for each shoot. Dave bought me a Western Digital My Studio RAID 4TB, Quad connectors (eSata, firewire 800 x 2, USB 2.0) for me for my birthday. What a great husband!!! The RAID will speed up editing with native files and will back up my files safely. I also have the option of daisy chaining another firewire 800 external HD if I need to (maybe for the extra back-up?) I'll have to research this one.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Audio Issues and Boom Mics
Searching for a professional-sounding boom mic at a price that doesn't make my husband's left eye twitch was a bit of a chore. I bought an Audio Technica ATR-55 for 100 bucks, which took 3 and a half months to arrive and was replaced by a ATR-6550 model (which always seems to be on sale for 60 bucks) I've since learned that it is best to do online ordering from B and H Photo...they saved my bacon by delivering within 4 days.
ATR-6550
The hyper-cardioid setting (for distance) makes recording sound like it's going on in a bathroom. The regular cardioid pick-up pattern also has a slight mechanical sound (even when pulled far away from the camera mechanism...I was 4 feet away and still heard noise). The connector is mini which plugged right into the camera without a problem but the coiled cord was kind of strange and I made me keep wondering if the connection would stay-put. It was still better than using the camera's built-in mic which always picks up camera and shuffle noise and I would recommend it to secondary schools introducing students to the world of live shooting and recording. It is powered as is usual with boom mics, by a double A battery.
AT-897
Because the company I bought the ATR-6550 from was so late in delivering, I decided to buy an Audio Technica AT-897. It performed much better and cost about 250 bucks. There is no mechanical noise when held on a boom and it has a nice warm and clear sound in the regular pick-up pattern. The hyper-cardioid pattern does introduce more room noise and sounds a bit hollow. The connector is XLR. It is powered as is usual with boom mics, by a double A battery. On the standard pick-up pattern setting, this mic sounds professional and is at the right price.
ATR-6550
The hyper-cardioid setting (for distance) makes recording sound like it's going on in a bathroom. The regular cardioid pick-up pattern also has a slight mechanical sound (even when pulled far away from the camera mechanism...I was 4 feet away and still heard noise). The connector is mini which plugged right into the camera without a problem but the coiled cord was kind of strange and I made me keep wondering if the connection would stay-put. It was still better than using the camera's built-in mic which always picks up camera and shuffle noise and I would recommend it to secondary schools introducing students to the world of live shooting and recording. It is powered as is usual with boom mics, by a double A battery.
AT-897
Because the company I bought the ATR-6550 from was so late in delivering, I decided to buy an Audio Technica AT-897. It performed much better and cost about 250 bucks. There is no mechanical noise when held on a boom and it has a nice warm and clear sound in the regular pick-up pattern. The hyper-cardioid pattern does introduce more room noise and sounds a bit hollow. The connector is XLR. It is powered as is usual with boom mics, by a double A battery. On the standard pick-up pattern setting, this mic sounds professional and is at the right price.
HDV downconvert versus DV on Canon Vixia HV40
I shot using my Canon Vixia HV40 in DV, HDV and HDVp 30 on mini-HDV tape. The camera downconverted the HD footage using the firewire 800 to SD. I processed the footage in Adobe Premiere Pro (Sequence Settings: DV NTSC wide 48k, used in all tests) and upconverted on output to DVD disk to the setting for blu-ray 1920 rez. I played the footage on my big screen TV on a regular DVD and there was no visible difference between the standard DV and the HDV capture formats. The picture colour was slightly better with the HDV 30p.
Using Premiere Pro, I played with the 2 capture settings and tried the following:
Attempted HDV but it would not show up in the capture viewer. I read the manual and determined that the camera needs to be on Automatic HDV/DV or DV Locked in order to capture through firewire 800. Further reading on the internet suggested I would have to get a Black Magic HDMI card and go out through the HDMI port in order to get HDV so I let the camera donwconvert to standard def and selected Quicktime .mov for capture.
Quicktime
1. capture compression settings DV/DVCPRO-NTSC 60p, best, wide 45 second clip 1300 frames dropped
2. capture compression settings DVCPRO50 NTSC 60 p wide 45 second clip 1300 frames dropped
3. H.264 60 frames, best (no set frames or bitrate, no option for wide) 45 seconds 900 frames dropped…looks stretched upwards and 4:3.
4. MPEG-4, 60 frames, best (no frames or bitrate set, no option for wide) 45 seconds 1250 frames dropped…looks stretched upwards and 4:3.
5. No compressor, 60 frames, best 45 seconds 1100 frames dropped…looks stretched upwards and 4:3.
6. DV/DVCPRO-NTSC 29.97p, best, wide 45 second clip 0 frames dropped
Conclusion: Best for capturing footage DV/DVCPRO-NTSC 29.97p, best, wide 45 second clip 0 frames dropped
Overall conclusion: Not much difference between HDV converted to SD and regular SD. HDV P30 downconverted to SD had a nicer colour tone but the look of the pixel quality was the same.
Using Premiere Pro, I played with the 2 capture settings and tried the following:
Attempted HDV but it would not show up in the capture viewer. I read the manual and determined that the camera needs to be on Automatic HDV/DV or DV Locked in order to capture through firewire 800. Further reading on the internet suggested I would have to get a Black Magic HDMI card and go out through the HDMI port in order to get HDV so I let the camera donwconvert to standard def and selected Quicktime .mov for capture.
Quicktime
1. capture compression settings DV/DVCPRO-NTSC 60p, best, wide 45 second clip 1300 frames dropped
2. capture compression settings DVCPRO50 NTSC 60 p wide 45 second clip 1300 frames dropped
3. H.264 60 frames, best (no set frames or bitrate, no option for wide) 45 seconds 900 frames dropped…looks stretched upwards and 4:3.
4. MPEG-4, 60 frames, best (no frames or bitrate set, no option for wide) 45 seconds 1250 frames dropped…looks stretched upwards and 4:3.
5. No compressor, 60 frames, best 45 seconds 1100 frames dropped…looks stretched upwards and 4:3.
6. DV/DVCPRO-NTSC 29.97p, best, wide 45 second clip 0 frames dropped
Conclusion: Best for capturing footage DV/DVCPRO-NTSC 29.97p, best, wide 45 second clip 0 frames dropped
Overall conclusion: Not much difference between HDV converted to SD and regular SD. HDV P30 downconverted to SD had a nicer colour tone but the look of the pixel quality was the same.
Adobe Encore: The Program I Love To Hate
Spent a lot of time playing with Encore over the weekend and I have to say the program is not user-friendly at all! But, once you figure it out (like I said, it took me the weekend), it really is a powerful program and there's talk it's the best for burning to Blu-Ray.
Top peeve:
Automatic button routing (selecting the path you want the arrows to work on your DVD player remote). This feature would work great if the program tried to follow a default algorithm linked into numbering the buttons, unfortunately this program is not intuitive enough to keep dummies like me out of trouble. I even tried adding my buttons to the menu in the same order I wanted them to route through the remote control arrow buttons, thinking the program would pick up on what I was trying to do. Eventually I gave in and scanned through Creative Cow for some answers which still were not thorough enough for me but at least got me pointed in the right direction. I learned to make sure the menu was selected in the project window, then I checked that all my buttons had the correct numbers applied to them in the properties window for each button. Then, I selected the icon on the menu viewer screen that looks like the 4 arrows on a remote (if you look real, real close). The icons pop up on each of the buttons. Next, and here's where I had trouble, you hover over the icon until you see a hand and drag to the next button you want the remote to go to. Sounds easy. Wasn't for me. You actually have to work backwards. This is key. Choose the button you want to go to first, click on the arrow direction and drag back to the button you want it to come from. Don't even try doing this forwards...trust me. Just remember WORK BACKWARDS and you will be okay. Oh, and remember you need to select all the directions one at a time at each button location...forward, back, up, down.
Top peeve:
Automatic button routing (selecting the path you want the arrows to work on your DVD player remote). This feature would work great if the program tried to follow a default algorithm linked into numbering the buttons, unfortunately this program is not intuitive enough to keep dummies like me out of trouble. I even tried adding my buttons to the menu in the same order I wanted them to route through the remote control arrow buttons, thinking the program would pick up on what I was trying to do. Eventually I gave in and scanned through Creative Cow for some answers which still were not thorough enough for me but at least got me pointed in the right direction. I learned to make sure the menu was selected in the project window, then I checked that all my buttons had the correct numbers applied to them in the properties window for each button. Then, I selected the icon on the menu viewer screen that looks like the 4 arrows on a remote (if you look real, real close). The icons pop up on each of the buttons. Next, and here's where I had trouble, you hover over the icon until you see a hand and drag to the next button you want the remote to go to. Sounds easy. Wasn't for me. You actually have to work backwards. This is key. Choose the button you want to go to first, click on the arrow direction and drag back to the button you want it to come from. Don't even try doing this forwards...trust me. Just remember WORK BACKWARDS and you will be okay. Oh, and remember you need to select all the directions one at a time at each button location...forward, back, up, down.
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