Misc. Open DV from 2006

[Quayon Lewis]

Hi guys i'm very new to this. I just purchased some components to build a cd/dvd duplicator.

I have put the whole think together but i dont know how to power the system up.

i used a ful tower case that can take upto 11 drives. i could not find a decent duplicator case.

my problem is after connecting everything up i cant fire up the unit is there is no power switch.

the tower comes with a switch but i dont know where to connect it. The switch has the normal conections that you would use to power up a motherboard.

configured in a jumper pin style.

i know i used the wrong case but thought i could connect it up without any problems.

where is the switch connected on a normal duplicator? is it just wired straght to the power supply? or is it wired to the controller?

i'm using a copystar 1-11 controller.


please help cheers

Quayon

[Philip Skaist]

I'm trying to figure out the technique used in those shampoo commercials when the models with long flowing hair blowing in slow motion. I tried using the 60p setting with the hvx and a fan blowing on the hair but it still seemed too fast.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Philip

[Thomas Dyer]

I am looking for someone to shoot a 5 minute short this Saturday for entrance into a competition sponsored by FX. I approximate that it will take 4 hours to shoot. I am familiar with Pro Quality DV cameras, but I am directing and don't have the time to train anyone if I rent one.

Your payment will be great if we win the contest. If we don't then I can offer some financial compensation.

If interested you can email me at dilanthomas75@gmail.com. I would be happy to forward the script to anyone interested.

Thank you,
Tom Dyer

[Harry Lender]

I've downloaded and installed windows media encoder 9. I've tried to screen capture video from the internet, open player. I get just the audio but no video. I can capture the desktop no problem. I've checked Microsofts web help but couldn't find any help for this problem. Seems like it's got to be a setting or something. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Harry

[Joe Wilson]

Just got my XL2. Loving it. We're shooting a gang of shorts and a feature on the horizon.

I live in LA and have done reels for actors along with headshots(Rebel).

What are some other ways, you guys make money using your XL2?

[Wayne Morellini]

There is not really a place to put this where the right people with the knowledge can get to see it, as they might be in several groups, and I can't cross post.

I have an idea that could increase, say, HDV footage detail to the level of Sony HDCAM most of the time, even increase the colour accuracy to 4:4:4 some times.

I am interested if there are any programs out there that could take footage and do this, especially open source programs, even upscalers that could also increase the resolution.

Some years ago I had an idea that you could process footage to get a higher quality more detailed version. It has come to my attention recently that film restoration houses are using these sort of techniques to restore old film with better detail etc.

I think this is possible with video, because thew codecs don't record all the detail because of compression and noise (low light particularly) but while it might miss a pixel of detail in this frame, the next, or previous, frame might have accurately recorded it, and as the camera moves more detail is revealed and recorded.

It might even be possible to process the footage from the cheapest HD camera, like the Sanyo, to produce detail as good as DVCPROHD, except in motion because the codec gets swamped with information there.

So, does anybody know of any processing software that could be applied here?

[Michael Salzlechner]

Wanted to see if anyone has some suggestions as to a better workflow

We are doing skating competitions and obviously have to cut lots of small DVD's

Earlier we did this by using the MiniDV tapes and a MiniDV VCR as well as a DVD recorder. the DVD record controlled the MiniDV VCR and it was a direct copy

easy fast workflow.

Now we switched to useing the Firestore

I am not sure if the firestore can be used the same way. Guess i have to go back and find that manual ;-)

But if i go to using the computer i guess there is nothing faster than loading the clips into the NLE (i use vegas) and then make a movie and create a DVD

even without any fancy work in the NLE it still takes a lot longer than simply copying directly or maybe i am missing something

thanks for any tips

[Jaime Espiritu]

Someone created an entire movie using a cell phone. Here's a story from AP.
I guess this ends the debate of what camera to buy and just rely on old fashioned creativity....

06-14) 12:44 PDT ROME, Italy (AP) --

The theme may be familiar but the technique is new: A standard cell phone camera to shoot an entire feature-length documentary on love and sex.

Italian filmmakers used a Nokia N90, a higher-end cell phone sold around the world, to produce the 93-minute "New Love Meetings," which they say is the first feature film to be entirely shot with such a tool.

The technique underscores what has become a fixture in today's world: The use of amateur video and cell phone cameras to immortalize moments in people's lives.

"With the widespread availability of cell phones equipped with cameras, anybody could do this," documentary co-director Marcello Mencarini said in a telephone interview from Milan. "If you want to say something nowadays, thanks to the new media, you can."

In news gathering, early footage is often shot with a cell phone, and, in the case of major events, authorities and news outlets have been known to call on amateurs to come through with video.

When it comes to movies, though, cell phone cameras present limits, such as the difficulty to film in darkness or the lack of high-quality microphones.

As a result, the movie mostly features close-ups, and the image, while overall clear when seen on a computer, is slightly shaky. Mencarini said the movie could be viewed on big screens, though "it wouldn't be high-definition." The movie's directors said no post-production manipulation was made on the image.

Low costs and greater flexibility were among the reasons why Mencarini and co-director Barbara Seghezzi decided to use a cell phone.

The filmmakers say the project cost only a few thousand dollars, including their travel and accommodation expenses and the production of several DVDs.

Although no professional lighting was needed, a pocket flashlight was used at times, said Seghezzi.

The approach offers the advantage of being intimate, leading people to open up a little more easily, directors say. In a documentary about love and eroticism, that doesn't hurt.

For two months last year, the directors interviewed some 700 people across Italy — at bars, open markets and on the beach. About 100 of them ended up in the movie.

"To use a small instrument that belongs to people's daily routine allows you to establish an intimate dialogue, instead of using a regular camera," she said. "The interview becomes more like a chat."

Mencarini said some people were intrigued that such a familiar item was being used to shoot a movie.

The phone had enough memory for about an hour of footage, and scenes were transferred to a computer approximately every two days, Mencarini said.

Now, producers are looking at ways to distribute the film.

The directors' idea was to do a modern version of the 1965 documentary "Love Meetings" by Pier Paolo Pasolini, the famed film director and writer found beaten to death 30 years ago.

In his documentary, Pasolini interviewed Italians to find out their views about sex in postwar Italy. Attitudes across the country showed people had taboos and self-censorship was widespread.

"New Love Meetings" explores subjects ranging from first sexual experiences to homosexuality and jealousy, in interviews that include transsexuals and a priest. And it found that not much has changed.

"When it comes to sexuality a certain malaise is still there, taboos and problems persist," Seghezzi said.

[Alex Butterfield]

Hi, my output is jerky and I have no idea what to do.

I've made perhaps one of the least professional wedding videos ever, considering I've never seen one before and it was just a favour for someone who would otherwise not have bothered, then that's okay. It's reasonably well shot and edited and I am I pleased with the results.

So why is it unprofessional? Because I shot it before knowing what I was going to do. I shot on a Sony Handycam MiniDV, captured to AVI using MovieMaker 2, the only editing software I have now I've finished uni.

I also edited on MovieMaker 2 and rendered using a custom profile that was recommended at the Windows Movie Maker Forum, (all previous efforts to render resulted in faulty audio or frozen frames), this custom profile rendered perfectly, but...

When I watch the dvd on my projector it is so jerky. Its not that noticeable on the computer monitor, easily acceptable, but when the size increases it becomes increasingly less acceptable.

It is something I've found with DV before (is there a name for it?) that any camera movement (or significant movement withing the frame) results in this problem.

Can it be solved, or do I just tell the happy couple to watch it on a computer?

Thanks for any advice,

Alex

[Hugh DiMauro]

Hiya comrades! I just spent a fabulous, decompressing two days in the Big Apple with Bravo and two other friends of his and had a freaking blast! During my travels hobnobbing it back around Bravo's old neighborhood (from whence they grew up) with the Man himself and Political Cousin Mario, I noticed two movies being shot. One was Spiderman 3 which was shooting on Times Square (couldn't get a peek at the actors because they were hiding in a small make-up tent) but I did manage to get some good, close cell phone shots of the camera operator prepping one of two Panaflex cameras. Also, during a hair raising, stop sign spinning, warp speed taxi ride back from an ass-kicking barbeque in Queens at one o'clock in the morning, I noticed another movie being made on 41st Street around Second Avenue. Couldn't make heads or tails of what that production could be. Anybody know what other movies are in production now in the City?

[Devon Girard]

Greetings,

I'm a multimedia developer working on a video-heavy exhibit for an architecture museum... and feel a bit out of my element. I've searched the forums for an answer to my (simple?) issue, yet haven't found anything that spells it out (perhaps I'm searching for the wrong thing)...

I'm hoping someone has done this before or knows how and can take a few minutes to educate me.

Basically, I want to capture a high-definition video stream from a computer; whatever's going on on the screen, I want to record to tape... full resolution, no dropped frames.

In my mind this should be simple; there has to be some way to capture the digital signal that goes to the monitor... (shy of filming the monitor itself )... in my mind, there should be video out-> magic converter box->DV recorder...

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

[Ben Freedman]

Howdy...

Here's a link to a fun review of Bodelin's $50 GO! Prompter. It's a video podcast that reviews different products every week...

http://www.neo-fight.tv

For the money, it's a useful little gadget...

Best,

Benjamin

----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.neo-fight.tv [The "Techno-Debate" Video Podcast]

[Christopher Glaeser]

Is it possible to access the dvinfo forums using a news reader (e.g. Outlook Express News)?

Best,
Christopher

[Cal Johnson]

I know this has been much discussed before, but I'm wanting to start shooting some stories for our local public broadcaster, and I'm concerned about releases from anyone who may appear on tape.
What gets me is, the station says that anyone who is identifiable on camera has to sign a release. Well, I'm wanting to do stories like an up coming kite festival, or people windsurfing in the Gorge. If I'm going to get wide establishing shots, there's going to be tons of people that I'm supposedly going to have to track down and get releases from.
When I watch Discovery Channel, or series like "The Amazing Race" where they did a season mainly in the US, there are shots where people are watching what's going on and could be indentified. I can't believe that there is really some PA running around trying to get releases from all the people that were possibly in the shot. I mean, it could be adding up to hundreds of releases just to get a minute or two of footage. Take "The Apprentice" for example. The had shots of people waiting for a ferry, hundreds and hundreds, or people that the teams would talk to on the street, and would just ignore them and keep walking in a hurry. Does someone really go chasing after all those people, each and every one of them, and get a release form? You'd have to have a virtual army of PA's and thousands of releases on hand.
I wondering if someone out there knows what the real deal is. Not just speculation, but actually knows what the laws are for shooting in public. There is no monetary gain on my end, the work is voluntary.

[Chris Rasmussen]

Hi all!

I'm shooting from a Cobracrane II+ (which I've owned and loved for two years) and am in need of a pan head that can be affixed to a jib. Never needed it before, due to the extremely flexible nature of the CCII, but now I'm working in close quarters and want to perform pans while the camera is hoisted high.

Does anyone here use, or know of such a product? Simple is ideal, and only panning is desired, since the camera platform already tilts beautifully.

Any help here is greatly appreciated!

Chris ~