Coldstreams Online Video

This afternoon I downloaded and tried out the Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9.0b trial version. Vegas is unique in that it is able to edit AVCHD directly, without conversion.

But as I learned, you’ll probably need a dual core processor.

The process was slow on my 3.2 ghz single CPU PC with 1.5 GB of RAM and running Windows XP.  Vegas quickly imported the clips from the camera, and arranging them on the time line was quick and easy. BUT – all videos stuttered when I tried to play them without using the “render to preview” step.

By the time I started doing rendering so I could watch in real time, the whole process had bogged down. Converting to other formats was not real fast on the 3.2 Ghz machine, either.

Seems to me that if your system really can not handle true AVCHD editing, then you are best off doing a conversion to another editable format.

On the Mac, I’m likely to stick with Voltaic HD 2.x for both transcoding and elimating the 24p pulldown frames. Voltaic HD is also available for Windows. I have not tried the Windows version yet, but the idea is the same – it should transcode from AVCHD in to (probably) an .AVI file that you can use in your favorite HD capable video editor. (Note – not all video editors can handle 24p – you’ve been warned.

Now that Voltaic HD 2.02 properly converts AVCHD to AIC and removes 24p pulldown frames – I will probably just use that. Sure, there is a transcoding step from AVCHD to the AIC format. But it is darned hard to see any meaningful loss except for a very slight softening of the colors. Since my destination is eventually to MPEG4 files that I play on my HDTV any image losses in the AIC transcoding are irrelevant.

More info on AVCHD and also 24p is available in other posts on this web site. In other posts, I describe how you can use iMovie and the free program JES Deinterlacer to process hv20/hv30 24p, or AVCHD with 24p video frames.

For now, I’m likely to use Voltaic. It is not real fast but it does produce the best results for when you want to be picky about images.

Panasonic Corporation will release the world’s first* professional, fully-integrated Full HD 3D camcorder in Fall 2010. The company will begin taking orders in April.

via Videomaker.

I wrote in the past about dealing with AVCHD and 24p editing on the Mac OS X.

I just installed the latest version of HandBrake, the free video converter for Mac and it easily converted AVCHD directly to mpeg4 video files. Unfortunately, it does not know what to do with the 2:3 pulldown removal required for the 24p on my HG10. Still, if you’ve got 30p or 60i video in AVCHD and want to go direct to MPEG4, this would be a good solution.

Unfortunately, Quicktime doesn’t know what to do with the resulting mpeg4 file, but other programs, like VLC and MPEG Streamclip, played the mpeg4 file just fine. Go figure.

Update: I have been experimenting with Voltaic HD 2.0.2, which now correctly processes the 24p AVCHD files from my Canon HG10. I have successfully transcoded from AVCHD with 24p pulldown removal to AIC, Photo JPEG and uncompressed 4:2:2 and more.

• Uncompressed 4:2:2, not surprisingly, gives the best result. But an 82 Mb 40 second input file becomes a 3.7 GB uncompressed file! The most noticeable change is enhanced saturated color in the 4:2:2 color scheme versus AIC and Photo JPEG – and some improvements in subtle color graduations that leave compression artificacts in AIC and Photo JPEG. But the huge file size makes this unusable.
• It is very hard to tell much difference between AIC and Photo JPEG. They can pretty much be considered equivalent. The Photo JPEG codec definitely softened the colors while the AIC codec seemed to have a slight softening.  The quality, otherwise, is basically identical – however, the Photo JPEG version is about 1/3d smaller than the AIC file.
• I  downloaded and used the free Avid DVxHD code. Transcoding to this codec produced results similar to uncompressed but with an 800 MB output file instead of 3.7 GB. Still, that is a ten times file expansion. I also used the AVID DV100 codec which produced a 446 MB file with better color than AIC but the compression issues seemed no better. The Avid Meridien codec produced slightly larger – but all AVID codecs had better color.
• Conversion to HDV did not work, even though the original AVCHD is in 1440×1080. This appears to be a bug in Voltaic HD and this is supposedly a feature of Voltaic.
• I also have an XDCAM 35 Mbps variable bit rate codec (1440×1080/24p) that I believe came with FCP version 5.x. Unfortunately, like HDV, this did not produce a proper output file. If it had, the file size would have been smaller than AIC and provided better compression and color than AIC.
• The

At this point, for working with AVCHD/24p files that require pulldown removal, the highest quality will come from using Voltaic HD to transcode and do pulldown removal in one step (versus 2-transcode steps required in the iMovie–>AIC –> JES Deinterlace to inverse telecine –> AIC). As to which codec to use? I’ll probably stick to AIC.

Download YouTube Videos as MP4 Files.

The above is the new official way from Google/YouTube. Its in test mode now but accessible by following those instructions.

If you use Firefox, there are also many plug-ins available that can enable you to download .FLV and .MP4 video files from YouTube.

Recently, YouTube’s HD videos are downloadable as MP4 video files but only in non-HD modes suitable for use on an iPod. If you want the HD versions, you need to download the .FLV file and then probably convert to MP4.

To download the FLV files, use Download Helper. A type YouTube video will show several alternative downloads for the currently playing video.

One blogger, Rishabh Singla, attempted to determine what the different types mean and came up with the following table:

1. Basic / Normal: FLV; 718 KB; 1x; Low
2. HQ18: MP4; 1.4 MB; 2x; Medium
3. HQ22: MP4; 4.5 MB; 6.4x; Very high
4. HQ35: FLV; 2.7 MB; 3.9x; High
5. HQ37: Container?; Size?; Factor?; Super

However, since the new Download feature has been added to YouTube, I do not believe that HQ44 is consistently an HD “very high” quality video, as shown. Some times it is, but sometimes, the FLV file option is much better.

When the FLV file is better, I download the FLV and either play it with VLC – or, I convert it to MP4. If you are using Windows, look for the free FLV to Zune file converter. If you play with the various options, you can do a very nice conversion to 1280×720 MP4 format. (I need to update this post later – I can not seem to find which FLV to Zune converter I have and where I got it from. Meanwhile, here is a different free converter – I have not tested.)

Back in July of 2008, students at Hochschule Furtwangen University created a video they called “University LipDub #1“. Go watch it – its fun! Created as a single long moving camera shot, the video features numerous students collectively lip synching to a piece of music.

They created a web site, universitylipdub.com to encourage other campuses to create similar videos – they even included some tips on how to make your own. And they encouraged other universities to create their own. (They were not the first with this idea – for example, a group of Microsoft employees made their own lip dub back in December 2007. The founder of Vimeo first suggested the idea and coined the term “lip dub”.)

The idea for these may have originated, in part, from the incredible Russian Ark – the only feature film produced with a single take. Over 2,000 actors and 3 live orchestras – 300 years of Russian history come to life in this spectacular motion pictured filmed in a single day in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia. (I was mesmerized by the spectacle of this amazing movie. This is a six star movie.)

It took until the 2nd half of 2009 for the lip dub phenomena to begin to take off. We are in only the earliest stage of this – these videos are likely to sweep the online world within the next few months.

• Le lipdub HEC – Montreal, Dec 2, 2008
• HEC Montreal Promotional Video – Apr 29, 2009
• Triple ZUT Tourné sur le campus de l’Essec à Cergy, Jun 9, 2009
• PixMania (commercial), Jun 26, 2009
  
• EMLYON International School of Business – France – July 9, 2009
• l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) – Sep 11, 2009
• Cirque du Soleil Artists Singing Mamy Blue – Oct 6, 2009
• l’Université de Montréal – Nov 13, 2009
• Boston University, Dec 14, 2009
• Shorewood High School – Dec 17, 2009. This amazing lip dub was filmed entirely in reverse with the students lip synching the song played backwards. The final video is then reversed for an amazing effect. Shorewood’s video was in response to a challenge from their rival high school Shorecrest, whose lip dub video is here.

More specifically, where do you get a professional level video camera repaired?

There is only one photo/video shop in town that sells some high end cameras. However, they ship them off for repair and add a mark up.

So where do you send a video camera for repair?

This fall I had a bad encounter with rain. Even though my high end video camera was enclosed in a cover, there turned out to be a leak right at the top center. We were hit hard by the rain storm – 1 & 1/4 inches fell in a very short period of time.

Unfortunately, the camera began acting “wacko” and as I surmised, water inflow was the problem.

After drying it out, the camera sort of worked but some features no longer worked – pretty much most of the controls along the top side of the camera.

I ended up selecting VideoOneRepair and shipped my camera via UPS ground to their shop in Southern California. I selected VideoOneRepair, in part, based on online reviews or comments that I found – all were positive, no negatives. The Southern California BBB has no complaints on file. They are very much a reputable repair shop.

They took the camera apart and verified the damage – pretty much all the electronics had to be replaced, plus the zoom control and the firewire connector at the top of the back.

As you can imagine, repairing this was not cheap – I’m not even going to go there … but the price quote for the repair came in right around what I feared so I authorized the repair. They went ahead and ordered the repair parts and about one week later, had it shipped back to me. (If I had not authorized the repair they would have put the camera back together and shipped it back to me at no charge – that’s a nice gesture if you decide repair isn’t going to make sense.)

During this process, you’ll be talking directly with the technician that is working on your camera so you’ll get straight answers to your questions.

The camera now works perfectly again and VideoOneRepair guarantees their work for six months.

While I hope I do not break another camera, I would do business again with them.

And by the way – the ONLY repair Sony and Canon video camera, including some consumer models and professional camera.

Shorecrest High School:

And Shorewood High School responds in this AMAZING video shot entirely backwards!

Video News » Blog Archive » YouTube Adds Automatic Subtitles.

The new feature can automatically generate on-screen captions, which is very useful and valuable to those who are hearing impaired. The system can even translate to other languages.

As the narrator in the linked video notes,  “sometimes the automatic captions are pretty good”

Seriously – this is a fantastic new feature. Good job, YouTube!

Today, many video cameras provide a “24p” mode for recording video at 24 frames per second.

The default or normal mode of most video cameras is “60i” which is 60 half frames per second. Many cameras also now feature a “30p” mode or 30 frames per second.

Why all these choices?

See below – 60i is an old technology that we still use for historical reasons.

If you are making your video for online distribution, you definitely want to choose 30p or 24p mode. These record in “progressive” (like a digital still camera rather than the funky interlaced 60i mode) which is also compatible with computer displays.

Consequently, if you want to output to the web or to a computer, you will want to use 30p or 24p “progressive” modes to avoid the “interlace jagged edges” of 60i. (It is possible to de-interlace video too – but that is for another day.)

So why 24p?

Some people like that it looks like 24 fps film. I like it for a much different reason: better low light performance and better compressibility for the online world.

When you shoot at 60i, you’ll typically use a shutter speed of 1/60th of a second. When you shoot at 30p, you’ll likely use either 1/60th or 1/30th of a second.

At 24p, you’ll likely use either 1/48th or 1/24th of a second.

1/24th of a second lets in 20% more light than 1/30th of a second and more than twice as much light as 1/60th of a second.

Consequently, 24p has some what better low light performance – that is, the camera will add less video amplification, which adds a bit of noise or graininess to the images. Shooting in 24p means cleaner, less grainy images – compared to higher shutter speeds.

Another advantage is editing and compressing for the web.  A video clip recorded at 24p has 20% fewer frames than one recorded at 30p – so it takes less time. And there are situations where I’ve recorded a live event that I turn around and post online as fast as possible.

Another issue is compression. For a given video streaming data rate, say 1 Mbps, 24 fps will will compress a bit better than 30 fps. But do realize it is not a straight forward “definitely better” as MPEG4 compression depends heavily on the nature of the content of the frame.

Editing 24p

Unfortunately, this may require an advanced or professional editing package. I can’t help you there very much, but I did write some info about doing this on a Mac. (I also do some editing on Windows but have not tried this there.) Some additional information is also here.

There are mini-disk products that you can connect directly to your Firewire equipped camcorder to record direct to disk. But then tend to range in price from about $600 to $1800 depending on used vs new, capacity and vendor.

An alternative is to record direct to your notebook computer.

If you have a Macbook or Macbook Pro, a very easy way to record direct to disk is to connect the Firewire output of your camcorder to the notebook computer and then run iMovie and import from the camera.

The camera should be in its “camera” mode but does not need to be recording to tape. Whatever the camera sees will be recorded direct to disk.

This works with my Canon HV30 in HD mode and I’ve done it using both iMovie 8 and the older iMovie HD (version 6) connected to a Macbook.

On Windows, there are several software utilities available that will enable you to do the same thing. While I am typing this on a Windows desktop, I do not have a Windows notebook on which to test this out!

The main advantage to doing this is to overcome the occasional tape dropout problem that tends to plague HDV format.By recording direct to your notebook computer disk, who cares about tape dropouts! (Caution – you may want to use a longer Firewire cable to keep the notebook away from your camera mic, especially if the fan kicks on to keep the CPU cool. Not all cameras have sufficient drive signal to use a longer cable, though. So be sure to test out your configuration first!)

On SD recordings, a video dropout typically lost a single 1/30th of a second frame. If you even noticed, you could always copy an adjacent frame and no one would notice.

With HDV you can lose up to 1/2 second per dropout – and I guarantee, everyone will notice!

Two other steps to avoiding dropouts are to clean your video heads in the camera every 5 to 10 hours of recording – I use a Canon cleaning tape for about 10 seconds but I’m told most any cleaning tape is fine. The other important step is tape quality – I used to use TDK tape all the time on my SD camera with excellent results – but the SD tapes always had dropouts when recording HDV on standard TDK tape.

I switched to Panasonic AMQ (HDVM63AMQ) tapes and have now recorded probably 75 hours with excellent results on that tape. I buy mine from TapeStockOnline.com. They have consistently quick order fulfillment and decent prices. If you are used to buying standard miniDV tapes at the local discount store  you’ll find that high quality tapes for HDV are more expensive – currently $5.25 in a minimum order of 10 units.

There are other brands that cost both more or less than these but I’m sticking with what has worked well for me. Hopefully this note provides some idea for you to try if you are plagued by video dropouts!