Keene on Tech

Mention David Lynch and anything but normal comes to mind. Yes, he is quite the individual. He recently lauched a new project simply called Interview Project which documents pieces of 121 people’s lives across the country. The project recently got underway and there are some interesting interviews now up on the website. Some of the stories are heartbreaking and moving, but all capture a little of each person’s humanity and background. Its worth watching a few and being inspired for your own storytelling efforts. The clips are short, about 5 mins each or so…

The technology powering the online video comes via SesameVault which is an online video hosting company offering a slew of features. These include the ability to automatically encode your video into 11 formats for viewing on multiple devices. Such technology is an example of the ability to author once and deliver everywhere. In addition, Sesame Vault has lots of metrics features, metadata, drag and drop web interfaces for uploading and APIs for integrating into other sites. The service is free for individuals who want to transfer no more than 2 GB per month and then the price goes to $50 and on up depending on which monthly model you choose. Take a look at SesameVault and even if you don’t use it, its a nice example of where video in the cloud is heading.   

Keene

For those who work with video and need to convert between formats, the exceptional VisualHub was the de facto standard for good conversion quality and low cost. However, the developer stopped work on this app late last year and people were wondering what would take its place. The developer released the source code (after pleading from the online community). Now a couple of folks have taken it upon themselves to keep the underpinnings of VisualHub alive, but under different application names. One of these is VideoVangelist. I am not sure if this developer is using the same source code but the app does what VisualHub did. A recent update was just released. I have not had time to fully check it out. It is worth trying if you are looking for a good tool to convert video but can’t drop the cash for the most expensive options out there. Its only $10. The other solution which utilizes the same open source encoder, ffmpeg, that VisualHub used is Handbrake, which is free but won’t give you as many output options. HandBrake now handles individual files (it used to handle only process video ripped from a disk). Another effort at reviving VisualHub is TranscoderRedux but its not as far along and requires some compiling code and experimenting. Its a not quite ready for prime time application. Oh and this is for the Mac BTW

Keene

A few posts back I talked about Pure Digital’s Flip Ultra video camera and its rising popularity. I also mentioned there was evidence of a new Flip camera coming out. Well, that has now happened and the Flip Mino has made its debut. Its $20 more ($179 mrsp) than the Ultra but it is slimmer and lighter (3.3 oz). It also includes these enhancements:

• a rechargeable lithium ion battery for 4 hrs of power (charge via USB to computer or power adapter)
• touch sensitive controls
• a newer version of the Digital Motion Video engine (v2.5)
• an omnidirectional microphone
• Fast Forward/Rewind controls and Pause controls
• Slightly different focus specs (1m to infinity vs 0.8 m to infinity for the Ultra)
• And only two color options, black or white.

It still shoots 640 x 480 video in MPEG-4 AVI format. It has the same 1/4″ VGA CMOS chip and the same fast f/2.4 lens. One surprise to me is the decision to go with a rechargeable battery. The Flip Ultra and the original flip use AA batteries which is very convenient. But rechargeable batteries are more eco-friendly so points for that. The Flip Ultra and original are still available. The Mino now heads the pack as the most feature rich product Pure Digital offers with the Ultra now the midlevel camera and the original the low end offering. All cameras are under $200 and will give you very decent video for “point and shoot” video aimed for web distribution. I think we will see more and more ultra compact video cameras from various manufacturers hitting the street as video becomes commonplace on the web and beyond.

Keene Haywood (University of Texas@Austin – DIIA)

Mention digital video editing and a few applications immediately come to mind: iMovie, Final Cut Pro on the Mac, Premiere and Vegas on the PC and of course the venerable Avid systems. All are powerful in their own way. From simple editing to sophisticated graphics and animations, these apps and associated plug-ins have you covered. But, they have a learning curve that varies from relatively flat (iMovie prior to 08) to fairly steep (advanced editing in Final Cut Pro and Avid). Green screening, text editing/animation and compositing can quickly become large time suckers and require digging into PDF manuals or their printed brethren. And things don’t get any easier if you start diving into After Effects, Shake or Motion for compositing and special effects… Well, there is an option if you are interested in doing some fairly sophisticated editing without a huge investment of time or steep learning curves. The option is Norrkross Movie. Its a slick video editing application that uses nodal filters and special effects techniques, very simple drag and drop, a nice green screen feature and much more. Its not free and is Mac only but at $59 its worth a look if you want to spice up your video editing, try something different or add some depth to your projects. The developer has some nice screencasts and a good help section to walk you through its main features. If you want to wade into some new waters outside of the traditional video editing apps, give Norrkross Movie a whirl. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Note: For those of you who have thrown up your arms in frustration at Apple’s iMovie 08 and the (apparently) new programming crew that decided to throw out the tried and true timeline and do something completely different, you really might breathe a sigh of fresh air at Norkross Movie. Also, you might find the developer’s Norrkross MorphX worth a look for a nice image morphing application.

Keene Haywood (University of Texas@Austin – DIIA)

Technology is sort of like the weather here in Texas. If you don’t like it wait a few minutes and it will change. While the Flip that I just posted about has been around for awhile as tech gear goes (over a year), its still a fairly recent addition. A new model called the Flip Minos will supposedly be debuting in early June. So keep your eyes peeled. If anyone spots one and gets the lowdown on it let me know. It will supposedly retail for about $178 but not sure what the feature set will be.

Keene Haywood (University of Texas@Austin- DIIA)

While its not a brand new item out on the street, Pure Digital’s diminutive Flip is catching on big time in the video world. David Pogue recently reviewed the Flip Ultra and states it now has about 13 percent of the consumer video camcorder market (according to the manufacturer). The reason…its drop dead easy to use, the footage looks decent and its reasonably priced (under $150 for the Ultra and $99 for the original Flip, which has lower resolution and less features). In addition the footage is easy to edit with the included Mac/PC software or with iMovie. For educators, this may be a video camera well worth considering if you want to incorporate video into your work but videography is not the primary focus… It would be a great camera for beginning film students since its so easy to use you can concentrate on composition and story as opposed to learning a complicated,expensive camera. A teacher could buy a dozen and still not break the bank. For field work it would do nicely for visual documentation and research. Keep in mind, this not a camera you would shoot your next theatrical release. But for experimenting, doing small classroom projects or spontaneous capturing of events, its hard to beat in its ease of use and its price. Where it really shines is in low light and indoor situations where its single 1/4″ CMOS chip does an excellent job of rendering an image. Its built-in microphone is decent as well. The video is shot at 30 fps, 640 x 480 resolution. Its not even close to HD but that’s not the point. The point it is its easy to use, inexpensive and gives you more than $150 imagery. The camera creates its clips in the AVI format. The Ultra has a 512 MB 1 GB version that holds 30 mins worth of footage and a 1 GB 2 GB version that holds an hour. Again, don’t expect to shoot Lord of the Rings with this thing. But for those looking for incorporating video into your projects, especially online projects, this device might something you would, well, Flip for.

Addendum: I should also mention that the Flip stores video in internal memory (no removable tape or media) and connects to a computer via a USB connection. A USB port “flips” out and you plug the device directly into the USB port and it mounts on your desktop like a hard drive. Just drag the clips to your desktop or folder and it will copy over. A USB extension cable (not included) can be used if you have tight quarters getting access to your USB port. In addition to the ease of use, this camera is also significant in that it is tapeless. We will see fewer and fewer new cameras coming to market that use tape based storage for video. It will be on internal/removable memory or internal hard drives. This makes everyone’s life a little easier and post-production much better. The only challenge will be safely archiving footage that does not reside on tape.

Keene Haywood (University of Texas @ Austin – DIIA)