Video on WELLINGTON ROAD Pictures

Forget about WebM

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:59:17 +0000

For the past 6 or 7 months, I’ve attempted to provide video to all types of platforms by encoding videos in both H.264 and WebM. WebM is the encoder of choice for Firefox, Chrome etc in other words “not-Apple” (though Microsoft has thrown in with Apple on H.264). I haven’t had much success. Most of the time, I was not able to play WebM encoded video in Firefox nor Chrome and it was an additional step in my workstream.

Hype - a new approach

Sun, 22 May 2011 17:58:30 +0000

Thanks to Jon Gruber, I learned about Hype.

Hype is a OS X application that makes it easy to create dynamic websites using HTML5 or more accurately, HTML5, Javascript and CSS3. Hype works. It is also version 1.0 so it is basic but it works, doesn’t crash and holds great promise.

I’ve been attempting to change my WELLINGTON ROAD Pictures site from a database-driven, somewhat static site to a bit more dynamic, HTML5-based site for sometime. See here, here, here, here and here. Sigh, note the last time I attempted to make changes was almost 9 months ago.

Step 4: Updated to be dynamic

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 17:04:46 +0000

No significant changes here. Added the required code for the site to be served by a database instead of hand-coding. A couple of small formatting changes but I’m ready to go from my old but lovely way of serving videos, Shadowbox to spanking, new HTML5.

Step 4

One update and one non-update:

Update; looks like H.264 is getting to be the standard for video. Â Based on the MPEG LAÂ announcement, H.264 will be forever free if the video being served is free. Due to this announcement, I’m going to focus on serving H.264 only and forget about…

FCP 7 and ProRes

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:59:28 +0000

FCP 7 introduces a 3 new HD codecs for production work, ProRes 4444, ProRes 422 (LT) and ProRes 422 (Proxy). With these additions, this brings to five versions of HD codecs Â available for production work. I did a simple comparison of Flip H.264 transcoding to all 5 versions, knowing full well that I wasn’t starting with the best source material.

The only version where I could see a difference was with ProRes 422 (Proxy). There were artifacts and a loss of detail. LT looked great, with no perceptible differences on up to 4444. Which means given the source, the best I could use is LT. That said, I did have striking differences in gamma between the new codecs looking identical to the source material and the “older” codecs, 422 and 422 (HQ) being much darker and losing details in the shadows.

Thanks, Norman!

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:34:53 +0000

I was thinking this, and was going to write about it but I didn’t have the depth of experience to make the point as clear as Norman does.

In his blog, Hollyn-wood (Norman, that is), Norman makes the point that the price cuts and the focus on ease of use sets this upgrade to Final Cut Pro/Studio as a significant push by Apple towards the low-end side of video editing. He doesn’t mean that Apple took features away or that Final Cut Pro isn’t capable of editing high-end feature films, what Apple did do was to introduce ways of helping the not-so-good be a lot better or sometimes, good-enough. AND, they dropped the price.

Cameras, FlipShare and iMovie

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:50:40 +0000

I’ve been using the Flip Ultra HD for a few weeks and I really like the camera. What I don’t like or more accurately need is the FlipShare software. If you don’t have iMovie 09, FlipShare is probably worthwhile. Â I do have iMovie and FlipShare is worse than superfluous, it auto-launches when I attach the camera to my Mac even though I want iMovie to import the clips. [ iMovie importing isn’t cast in-stone… I might start converting the H.264 video to ProRes format, if iMovie can easily handle it. More to come on this.]

Car, Flip and Fun

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:39:19 +0000

So thanks to Nathan Henderson, I tried filming my drive home. I didn’t have a Gorillapod, so I used the next best thing, a glue clamp ($3.99) and a pair of rubber bands. It worked great! I attached the clamp to the rear view mirror then used rubber bands to hold the Flip to the clamp. Â Then I drove home… (click on image for Going Home)

I can hardly wait until we drive up Hwy 1!

iMovie 09 and Flip Ultra HD

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:17:33 +0000

There seem to be a few questions as to the compatibility of the Flip Ultra HD and iMovie 09. Â The Flip Ultra HD and iMovie work great together! The latest version of iMovie 8.0.3 added the ability to optimize video. I started with 8.0.3, so I’m unsure on what I couldn’t do before .0.3 was released. A couple of quick points:

The Flip Ultra HD comes bundled withÂ FlipShare. It seems to work well enough for trimming and emailing videos but when you have iMovie at your fingertips, FlipShare is a bit lacking. FlipShare requires the 3ivx MPEG decoder. This decoder is included in the FlipShare software. If it isn’t installed, FlipShare will ask to install it.

FlipShare can trim video and “create a movie” by linking videos together, adding a title and credits, and a music clip. No great shakes but its free and is easy to use AND it comes on the camera so you can use it anywhere.

iMovie 09 - Source clip is missing

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 17:00:59 +0000

OK, so Apple messed this one up. In Final Cut, when a clip is missing FCS has a sufficiently sophisticated method of finding the files. iMovie? Not so much. In fact, it doesn’t even ask for help!

Background: I don’t like using iPhoto Library for my video files so I moved them out of iPhoto (using Finder, not iMovie) and into a separate iMovie Events folder. iMovie found these files no problem and can even help me maintain them (moves, adds, changes). BUT, it wouldn’t scan this folder for missing clips!

Another new thing...

Tue, 26 May 2009 15:28:02 +0000

This is something I gotta do!

Creating a scalable video webpage

(First, sorry about the delay in posts… been on the road.)

I saw this on one of my favorites… A list apart.

It is a method for scaling videos that is based on the size of the viewing window. Given my site is ALL video and I try to make it friendly, I gotta give this a shot.

Give me a couple of weeks.

OK, now its time to work on the Tools

Tue, 12 May 2009 03:07:28 +0000

The last time that I worked on my page about Tools was when I was using Final Cut Express… ok, I can’t remember when that was.

The Notes are about the films, once they are made and the notes are written, its over. But the Tools, they are ever changing!

To help me focus on what I need to work on, I’ll add some comments here to either set me up or give me guidance. This blog is my conscience.

Video Redesign on WRP

Tue, 05 May 2009 16:25:23 +0000

Recently, I spent a fair amount of time re-organizing my films on WRP. I had a few goals:

Bring my site into the 21st Century, so quit using a js script to open a new window to display the movie.

So, how are all the cool kids doing it? YouTube and Vimeo. No thanks, color me old school and not into “insert your video site of choice that displays your video in horrendous quality along with bizillion ads.”

Compressor (and multiple cores) is your friend

Tue, 05 May 2009 03:23:43 +0000

This is a big deal.

In addition to what this note says note says, you can use other computers to render your files. It has taken me a little while to figure this out. This tutorial describes just using one computer but you can do the same for multiple computers. I did try this on a Dual 1GHz G4 and it slowed things down, so make sure that the additional computers have sufficient power.

FCP's DV Compatibility issues

Mon, 04 May 2009 01:56:45 +0000

While creating the previous post on iMovie 09, I ran across a very interesting post by David Pogue, related to his desire to combine Flip footage with footage from a high end Canon HD camera.

He was attempting to combine two vastly different video file types; Flip’s H.264 and Canon’s AIC. Final Cut Pro was re-rendering every time he did an edit, causing his workflow to slow dramatically.

His solution was to ensure that both files were rendered to the same format before continuing to edit.

iMovie 09 and Ken Stone

Mon, 04 May 2009 00:53:39 +0000

iMovie 08 was a bit controversial on introduction last year. It was substantially different than the previous versions of iMovie, so much so it angered most heavy users. It was clearly a version 1.0 release and Apple was atleast kind enough to keep the old version iMovie HD around so we could still use it.

This January, iMovie 09 was released and this new version has made all the difference in the world. Many of the missing or incomplete features were fixed and some significant additions were made, most notably “precision editing”.

CrumplePop

Sat, 02 May 2009 18:52:32 +0000

CrumplePop: Hand-drawn Master Templates for Final Cut Pro.

Saw the demos, had to have’em.

Can’t wait to use this in a project. High quality labels to put into your FCP video. They also have a Polaroid film template that is free but I’m waiting to get the link….hurumph.