I hope this this is an appropriate place to ask this...

I have a tape recorded on a Sony HDV camera. I do not have a way to capture that tape. I am looking to get it captured and the file put onto a DVD so that I can do some editing on the file.

Is there anyone out there who could do this conversion for me? Anyone in North Florida maybe?

Thanks,

-Perrone

Kid in my class is working on this as an art project, pretty interesting.

http://proofpurchase.com/

http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/10/radiohead-snubs.html

This is incredibly unconventional for a major band (I almost wrote major-label, but their deal with EMI expired after the release of their 6th studio album), and I wonder what will happen with other labels.

You pay what you want for download (www.inrainbows.com), or you can buy the double-CD/vinyl record set (with other goodies) for around $81 USD (40 pounds), also directly from them at www.inrainbows.com.

Prince gave away his latest album in England recently, then announced 21 dates in the country. They all sold out. Maybe he and Radiohead are onto something. Also, the fact that they announced this early Monday (October 1, 2007) and the album is coming out on the 10th is remarkable.

Before we get into too much of a tizzy, they're allegedly negotiating with labels (http://www.ateaseweb.com/2007/10/02/radiohead-negotiate-in-rainbows-label-release/) to get it into stores next year.

Color me stunned!

heath

http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/2007/10/02/a_laptop_batter.html

Very interesting! I know I could use something like that, especially right now on my wife's PC laptop. Thing runs about 45 minutes or so until dead. Just basic apps, no music running or DVDs/CDs.

heath

Covered the event over at my blog if anyone interested:

http://bscenefilms.blogspot.com

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7045123.stm

http://www.improveverywhere.com/2007/10/17/no-shirts/

In case you don't know.... this group does a lot of hilarious pranks around NYC. One of the funniest ones was a getting a ton of guys dressed like Best Buy employees going to and hanging out at a Best Buy store.

Check out the videos they shoot.

I have been looking into the LA Film School's 12 month program and wanted to get some feedback from the community. Or other recommendations in the LA area.

I guess just simple ratings or comments on:

- Curriculum/Course Pacing
- Equipment
- Faculty
- Atmosphere
- Career Guidance/Placement Assistance
- Value

Thanks.

I just came across a website that offers a number of different solutions for replacing IDE and SATA II hard drives with CF cards. Some of their solutions allow RAID 0 matricing of up to 4 CF cards. They've tested 266x CF cards at 39 MB/sec, for single CF card configurations on SATA II. Prices are quite reasonable. Using a SATA port multiplier and 16 GB CF cards, one could conceivably build an 16x5=80 Gb solid state, external hard drive. Mounting a CF card in this manner allows formatting it to NTFS.

For my own uses, I like putting an 8Gb CF card in a 2.5 inch SATA HD enclosure and RAIDing two together for 16Gb. WinXP will detect SATA devices as fixed partitions. Without testing the thruput, I would expect a speed of about 60-70 MBps.
www.addonics.com

Fujinon-TVZ 14-70 F2 - H5X14HP-2N Zoom lens for Panasonic TV Camera

Anyone know what kind of a camera the above lens is used with? Below is a picture. I found this lens at a garage sale, and thought it was interesting. However, I have no idea what kind of camera it's used with. Anyone have any clues? Thanks.

http://www.revelationmediastudios.com/ebay/11-5/fuji.jpg

Anybody out there using ProPresenter 3.
Just got back from the National Youth Worker's Convention in Atlanta
and was greatly impressed by their use of ProPresenter.
Just curious if anybody out there is using it at church, school, etc.
Thanks
Jason

Ok, my nephew had his fun without my consent- How do I erase this?

User has not uploaded an avatar

Hi Kids -

Digital Juice is running some amazing deals (50% off) for Red Giant's Trapcode, Boris Graffiti, Sorenson Squeeze and ZaxWorks Pro-Animator.

Link is: http://www.digitaljuice.com/enewsletter/20071205_enews/dj_partnerproduct_deals.asp

Enjoy & Happy Chrismahanayulikah!

I found these videos that were entered into the ZoomFest 48 hour student film contest (http://www.zoomfest.com). This years theme was "Imagination is greater than Knowledge", the prop was a umbrella.

The Dreamer (won best film) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUXg4OnmpTQ)

The Great Umbrella of Yakama (not Yakima, WA; won best technical film) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx5jmSCQ_8Q)

And the best part, these are all students from my School, Burnaby South.

Any critical opinions from people like DSE?

http://biz.yahoo.com/ibd/071211/tech.html?.v=1

Movie rental service MovieBeam, once backed by Walt Disney, Intel and Cisco Systems, will close down Saturday, stranding people who paid $200 for its set-top box with a useless piece of hardware.
The MovieBeam box stored 100 movies that were continually refreshed through a wireless connection. Backers invested some $50 million in the venture before selling it a year ago for $10 million to Movie Gallery, the movie rental store chain, now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

Thought his was kinda funny...


http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n190/sonydre1/trynottodropframescopy.jpg


"Try not to drop frames"

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/071227/walmart_downloads.html?.v=1

Wal-Mart shut down the download site after Hewlett Packard Co discontinued the technology that powered it, Walmart.com spokeswoman Amy Colella said in an e-mail. She added that it will not look for another technology partner.

HP spokesman Hector Marinez said the company decided to discontinue its video download-only merchant store services because the market for paid video downloads did not perform "as expected." He noted that the Internet video business remains uncertain and is changing rapidly.

hi,

I've been looking for this website for ages, (12+ hours, whats wrong with me...)

its a website that sells second hand cine equipment. 35mm, 16mm, super 16mm equipment and lenses.

its UK specific, but may have a .com or co.uk address.

i have no idea whats its called.

the menu bar on the site near the top of the screen was yellow(maybe orange) and when you hover over the different categories a drop down list appears.

any help is appreciated.

thanks.

My college TV station (I'm the ops manager, so I buy/fix/train everything tech) is covering the costs of flying me down for a couple of days so I can eval new equipment and tech, and hopefully learn a few things. I'm checking out the registration right now, and I'm being 'offered' the ability to attend some of these conferences like the broadcast engineer's conference, among other things. Any advice for me?

Anyone seen this? Some really interesting "old school" advice and tips.

http://www.freewebs.com/hlr/

I live in eastern Tennessee, and filmwise, we're pretty much in the boondocks. I run the local filmmakers group, hold an annual 10HR Film Festival, and am active in state initiatives. One key crew role we lack here is that of DIT, Digital Imaging Tech-set up HD camera for DP, run video village, provide color corrected on-site playback, liason with Post Prod to ensure proper parameters etc. Obviously, a high degree of technical knowledge required.

Does anyone offer classes or workshops fpr someone wanting to move into this area, or is the answer, move to LA and fight for it like everyone else?
Where might I send someone to look for info?

There's a club in LA (and now with divisions all over the world) where you get together at the beginning of the month and determine a theme, get a crew and make a finished film in a month.

I forgot the name/website.

Anyone?

The weirdest thing just happened to me. I was doing some stuff on after effects then all of the sudden my pc restarted by it self and my user profile on documents and settings was gone. I looked with DOS and I could no longer see my profile's folder on Docs & Settings. Did this ever happen to anyone? Is there a solution?

I had an interesting day and learned something, as I was tuning-up my rooftop antennas for HDTV signals. I just got a Vista Media Center computer and it is now getting strong and steady pictures from all 4 local stations that transmit HDTV. But, the two different antennas I have, did not work the way I had expected. The long-tined VHF antenna had been pointed at one of the tower locations and the shorter-tined UHF one was aimed 100 degrees off that position to the other group of towers. I speculated that the UHF antenna would work better for the HD channels, since they use the higher frequencies and shorter wavelengths in that segment of the range. Three of the HD transmitters were at the other location, so I rotated the antenna post to aim it there. I was pleased to get full signal strength from all 3, which are about 13 miles away.

What surprised me was that the good reception didn't come from the UHF antenna, but rather from the VHF one. Since the VHF antenna had its center rod just 10 degrees away from being perpendicular to the signal direction, it was not at the angle at which you would expect it to work well. The reception on the UHF antenna was weak and unstable, except for the one tower at the other location, which is just 6 miles away. This shorter distance may have overcome the incorrect angle of the antenna for that one station. There's another transmitter there, but its HD signal seems to be off the air at the present time.

I have separate lead-in wires for the antennas, of the thicker-cored RG-6 type, rather than the standard RG-59 and use an A/B switch at my desk to change them.

After contemplating this mystery for awhile, I came up with a theory about why the VHF antenna worked so much better for the UHF channels: Because its long tines were at a slant of about 25 degrees forward from being perpendicular to the center rod, they were presenting an effective frontal width to the direction of the signals, that was much shorter than their actual length. This effective width may be about the same as the shorter UHF wavelengths. Since the center rod was 10 degrees off being perpendicular to the signals, the tines on one side were about 35 degrees off being parallel to them. The tines on the other side were about 15 degrees off. These two effective widths may have encompassed the wavelength variations between the 3 channels.

Regardless of whether my theory is correct, the thing is working very well and once again, a discovery has been made by accident, rather than by informed calculation. If anyone has a different idea about why the antenna performance is happening this way, please reply.

I'm down here in Woodland Hills California, and I've been looking at CSUN, and have heard alot of good things about that film program. I have a 4.0 gpa and will be in my film program for 4 years, being the first freshman in the program, ever. SO I'm just curious if anyone has any suggestions if i should go to CSUN or shoot for UCLA? I haven't really heard anything good about their film program, someone prove me wrong? =)

Had a week off from my IT support job to direct shooting of some footage for a commercial footware manufacturer.

The brief was to keep it simple and keep it "youtube-ish", and we spent about 2-3 days shooting skaters, bikers, free-runners/parkour, and dancers in an urban setting.

Had two friends acting as DP and Producer as we scouted locations.

Well, all I can say is ive been seriously bitten by the bug. I loved every moment of it, even when we had problems like when the brief was changed 2 days into the shoot :)

Maybe it tapped into a secret desire to point a lot and tell people what to do. who is to say.

I have noticed in the two days that I have been back at my regular job, I have found it to be dull, un-inspiring, pedestrian. People whining about the most insignifant things, and all the time Im thinking, "wow, great shooting weather outside today"

As a result, I cant wait to get to a point where I can do this kind of stuff for a living. The creative flame (oh god, thats so lame!) must go on.

In summary, loved the directing job, as a result hate my full time job.

Annoying as hell!

Ooops, I found the Audio section for this question....Moderator please delete this post. MM

I need to find a good recorder that will compliment our 2 Canon XL H1's....What do you guys like to use, or are using? Timecode is a must, as is versatility. Can anyone out there give me some pointers? Thanks in advance, Marty

I just got around to pulling a short clip from a Canon L-1 video I took of a Blue Angels' airshow in 1993. This shows Fat Albert, their C-130 workhorse, making a spectacular JATO-assisted takeoff. It wasn't digitally recorded, but it is a digital-processing camcorder and the long pathway this clip took from the tape, was all digital. So, I thought some of you would like to see this. Here's a vid-cap still picture and the video is on the first page of my Flickr album. Maximize the Flickr page, click on the picture to enlarge it, then wait about 5 seconds for the loading to get ahead of the running video, before clicking on the arrow. It will run through smoothly the second time, if it stalls a bit on the first viewing.

Has anyone else seen this?
http://michaeljackson.com/mythrillervideo/

The effect is really impressive, as long as you submit good photos following the directions carefully. I'm wondering what technology makes this possible. It seems to be a combination of:

a) Generating a 3d model of your face from a 2d picture, or some very convincing fake perspective mapping (there are some side profile shots in the video but the pictures you submit are only head-on and slightly turned)

b) Face morphing, including facial animations and lip syncing, with automatically set control points

c) Automatic compositing w/masking, rotation, perspective, etc.

I guess they probably had someone go in and set control points for each frame of the background video in order to help with the automatic compositing, but still it is amazing for something generated automatically.

I would love to find a way to do this kind of effect using other, maybe longer videos. Does anyone know more about this effect and maybe what software or techniques were used to make it possible? Any info would be great, thanks!

Xinhua News Press Release:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/25/content_8051866.htm

A experimental channel has existed since 2005, but only now it is a officially designated channel ready to deliver content.

I am a big fan of the 10 minute film school videos robert rodriguez has on his dvds, i have seen the once apon a time in mexico and el mariachi ones on youtube but was wondering if anyone knows anywhere i can download them or even buy them in a collection.

Just another Live Earth or Live 8 polished with independent world issue films? or a new stepping stone in global awareness?

http://www.pangeaday.org/

In fact, anyone here have a film being showcased here?

Sad sign of the times I suppose...

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB121029119956779303.html?mod=2_1567_topbox

In the latest sign that Hollywood studios are gun shy about the art-house movie market they once coveted, Warner Bros. said it is shutting down its two specialty film labels as part of a broader effort to streamline costs.

Warner Bros.' move to close the two boutique labels, Picturehouse and Warner Independent Pictures, comes just a few weeks after the company absorbed a third specialty label, New Line Cinema, into the main Warner studio operation.

U.S. Internet users viewed 11.5 billion online videos during March, up 13% from February and 64% from a year ago, according to comScore Inc. The numbers they released yesterday showed that Google's video sites together accounted for 38% of all videos viewed. Even more absolutely stunningly and totally surprising: YouTube accounted for 98% of those 4.3 billion videos.

So YouTube accounted for something like 37% of all online videos in March, who accounted for the rest?

Service-----%-------Views
YouTube---37%---4,214 million
Fox--------4.2%----477 million
Yahoo------2.9%----328 million
Viacom-----2.2%----249 million

139 million people watched video online in March, which is about 74% of all Internet users. That means that the average person watched 83 videos in March, or 2-3 videos a day. The average duration of the videos was 2:48, which means each of those 139 million people spent about four hours actually watching online content.

References:
* http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2223
______________
“They say that ninety percent of TV is junk,
but ninety percent of everything is junk."
-- Gene Roddenberry
videopia.org (http://videopia.org)

Since cellphones do multimedia nowadays, this might as well be a media related question, right?

After a few Nokia cellphones, two years ago the "slick and trendy" bug bit me and bought two MotoRazors for me and my wife. She works as a RN in labor and delivery, mostly night shifts, while I'm home with the kids, so we need to talk a lot just by whispering... worked wonderfully with the old, bulky Nokias, it was (still is) a nightmare with the Razors - the audio is just unacceptably distorted, forget whispering.

Contract is up, so I'm shopping for new phones. What is your audiophile experience, are the Nokias still the best? How about Sony/Erickssons? I had an Ericsson before the Nokias and as far as I remember it was also very good.

I'm with Bellsouth/Cingular/AT&T if that counts. Thanks,

I watched the series Discovery Atlas last night on my 1080p Plasma.

The episode was on Mexico.

The footage quality was beautiful. Great color and sharp as a tack.

I would like to know what the different parts were shot on.

Not the gear but rather the poetics.

Now friends, I have no idea if posting this contravenes any USA copyright law, or other USA rule as I don’t live there. If so I apologise. I live in New Zealand where, anyway, the rules are really only suggestions, when you come to get to know everyone. Corruptions is endemic here.

Be that as it may this poem was published in the New Yorker online recently so I’m assuming as it’s out there it’s OK; in other words that’s what Don Paterson, the author, wants. If I’m out of line please delete, Chris, whomever.

I find this text delightful. As I read I hear music, involuntarily reach for a camera, the film look is a given.

The bottom line of this poem is sublime.

How to shoot that!


Rain
by Don Paterson May 26, 2008

I love all films that start with rain:
rain, braiding a windowpane
or darkening a hung-out dress
or streaming down her upturned face;

one long thundering downpour
right through the empty script and score
before the act, before the blame,
before the lens pulls through the frame

to where the woman sits alone
beside a silent telephone
or the dress lies ruined on the grass
or the girl walks off the overpass,

and all things flow out from that source
along their fatal watercourse.
However bad or overlong
such a film can do no wrong,

so when his native twang shows through
or when the boom dips into view
or when her speech starts to betray
its adaptation from the play,

I think to when we opened cold
on a rain-dark gutter, running gold
with the neon of a drugstore sign,
and I’d read into its blazing line:

forget the ink, the milk, the blood—
all was washed clean with the flood
we rose up from the falling waters
the fallen rain’s own sons and daughters

and none of this, none of this matters.

I have some CDs that WMP cannot find data for, so I need to enter the info manually (song name, artist,...). I filled in the fields for Song name, Artist, finished the ripping. Played back all the songs, Artist name remains "Unknown", the other fields are OK withe Artist name, Genre,... What did I do wrong?

Thanks,

I hope this is Kosher, it's really only a Kiwi thing and I don't think there are any Kiwi sponsors noses to put out of joint.

I'm sure someone will let me know if not.

OK, Kiwi's.

One of the suppliers I've used here in NZ has got a sale on, check it out, just might be something on yer wish list.

http://www.protel.co.nz/

Click on "Specials" on the LHS.

Enjoy.


CS

Sadly, a rennaissance man has died. The inimitable George Carlin has passed away. The world just won't be the same, anymore.

Interesting article, seems the AP got fooled by some fake footage of a tornado.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080710/ap_on_en_tv/tornado_video

The topic of this month's Media Tech Tonic meeting (in Boston) @ 6:30pm on Wednesday, July 16th at MassArt is the Sony PMW-EX1 camcorder and XDCAM EX FCP workflow. Two cameras and several users will gather to talk and compare notes on this camera. Read more about the meeting at MediaTechTonic.org (http://MediaTechTonic.org). Follow the link on the site to Upcoming to RSVP.

I've been kicking this idea around for some time, and it is starting to get a bit overwhelming so I will ask for some advice. First, is anyone aware of a community that is doing this? I don't mean You-tube posting of homemade videos, but an actual "TV" channel that is "broadcasting" just on the web.

This opens up a very long explanation of all of the possibilities, but a quick list would be:

A regular schedule of programs (ie: block programming) that would air either live or as playback.

Open slots for organizations to purchase time (either 15 or 30 minute blocks?). These could be either non-profits or local businesses. Non-profits would have to acquire sponsors. Businesses could highlight products/services or produce info-type programs (like HGTV/Food Net, etc) that would compliment same.

Long form program slots (Sunday services from a local church, interactive coverage of a charity auction, etc.)

We would originate programming from a studio set-up, but would also need to be able to air playback and would love to be able to do "live shots" from a remote location for events like the long form stuff.

The production equipment can be had, and I am learning as much as I can about the origination on the web (I am working to partner with someone with much more knowledge in this area), but is it "marketable". Even on a small scale, the costs could easily run around $1000/day.

I think this idea is a bit early in it's application, but look at the "Current" channel. It seems that the "interactivity" side of broadcasting is already starting to take hold. The Web is all about the immediacy of information.

Just wondering what others think. I've already gotten the "your nuts" answer from my shrink, so please try to start with something else. Any ideas will be most appreciated and welcomed.

Best,

Kfox

I am working with a local historic, nonprofit movie theatre that's within driving distance of NYC, DC, Philly, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and much of the mid-Atlantic region to develop a new film and video festival.

Please help us by answering these questions:

1) What would a new film/video festival have to provide or feature for you to drive four hours to attend? Special content? Educational opportunities? Equipment exhibitions? Opportunity to meet famous video/filmmakers?

2) If the festival had to be confined to a specific genre or type of film, which genre or type of film would you be most likely to bring you out?

Don't be afraid to think big. Thanks for any responses.

Netflix suffers biggest outage ever | Markets | Markets News | Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINN1412419520080814?rpc=44)

Online DVD rental service Netflix Inc said on Thursday the most severe system outage in its history was preventing shipments of discs to about a third of its 8.4 million customers.

The Los Gatos, Calif-based company said it shipped no DVDs on Tuesday, some on Wednesday and none so far on Thursday.

Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey said the company would provide credits to affected customers and was working "feverishly" to determine the cause of the outage and fix the problem.

I have been asked by a New York production company for footage I shot... they will be using it for promo material and also for a documentary series. It has been suggested that I ask for PBS standard rates... can anyone tell me where I find out what the rates are (I live in Spain)
Thanks

Having bought an XPS420 Dell 3.0 GHz quadcore a few months ago for close to 3 grand, I am amazed at this latest deal for $999 for the same model.

Although it lacks the BluRay burner, and fastest QX9650 Intel Extreme processor I bought, it is a great platform for AVCHD (or HDV) editing.

Just wanted to let people here know.

I have no connection to Dell or other motives. Just know a great deal on a great computer when I see it.

Hot Deals / Offers: Dell XPS 420 Desktop, Intel Core 2 Quad Core 2.4GHz, 4GB DDR2, 640GB, 16x DL DVD±RW/±R/CD-RW, Vista Home Premium w/Digital Cable Support SP1, 20" LCD w/Webcam, 256MB Video Card, 15-Month McAfee SecurityCenter $999.00 + Free Shippi (http://www.edealinfo.com/show_hot_deal.php?dealdate=2008/09/02&dealseq=177)

Larry

Looks like Google is trying to take on Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari.

It’s called Chrome and it’s already available for download.
Google Chrome - Download a new browser (http://www.google.com/chrome)

Anyone hear from AU? If so what part? I am thinking of visiting my girlfriend either for New Years, or after, for 3 months and would love to find some small video jobs out there.

Hey guys, my short films won`t premiere for a few months still, but I am trying to get everything ready and started as early as possible. I want to make some infomational pamphlets/booklets to hand out at the premiere but am having a hard time tracking down a template. I am looking for the kind where a printed page would be horizontal with 2 pages on it (folded in the middle), and all together (about 15 pages) it would be printed as a booklet. Not sure if that makes sens or not, I believe it requires double sided printing, but I`m not exactly sure. Any guidance would be awesome.