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High Definition Video for Independent Filmmakers
A How To Guide for Digital Filmmakers
Welcome all! This is my blog to share my latest research,
thoughts, etc. on utilizing HD for independent filmmaking.

YES, I am available for consulting
Contact me at mike@hdforindies.com

All content copyright 2004-2007 Mike Curtis.

Friday, August 03, 2007

Blogwad! for Friday August 3rd 

More blogwad -yes, some things are going on behind the scenes that you aren't seeing.

Cameras -

720P and 1080P... losers - Reduser.net - Will the RED One lose 720/1080? There's several threads on this actually, and I chimed in with about 1/3 of what I had to say on one of them, if I have time I'll add more.

Canon HG10 is World's Smallest Hard Disk-Based HD Camcorder - Gizmodo - "Canon jumped into the hard disk camcorder market today with its HG10, the company's first high-definition hard drive camcorder and the world's smallest, weighing 19.92 ounces with the battery inside."


Post -

Final Cut Pro 5 export to Compressor annoyance solved - "Apparently, the sequence you are exporting MUST be in the main Browser tab."

Getting your sequence from Premiere Pro into After Effects and back - "Use the awesome Dynamic Link to bring it all back into Premiere Pro for rendering my DVD file."

Editing 101: Video Editing for Beginners - "If you're new to video editing or Premiere Pro, Jeff Schell walks you through the basic building blocks of Premiere Pro CS3."

Mac OS or Windows? The Great After Effects CS3 Smackdown - "Attempting to determine the faster OS on identical hardware"

Advanced Final Cut Pro Techniques: ProRes 422 - "Apple’s ProRes 422 codec is a 10-bit HD/SD compressed format that has been proven to be just as high of quality as the original footage, and in some cases it is better."

Speed up your Mac - "Plus upgrades and maintenance tips,"


Other -

MacBook Pro 17-inch 2.4GHz notebook computer - "Offering ultra-bright LED displays (light emitting diodes), faster processors, a 1920 x 1200 17-inch display option for those working in high definition aspect ratios, and much more."

PS3 to receive tuner, DVR capabilities before March 2008 - Engadget - "We're also hoping next year to release a digital tuner for the PS3, turning it into a programmable TV recorder." -Sony's Warwick Light

Labels:

Comments:
What's a DVD file? I've been playing with em' for years and I've never seen one.

You need a compliant mpeg2 with the vob structure, basically a dummy nav packet every 16 frames, properly set up. You need to author the VIDEO_TS dir properly so the .IFO and .BUP setup is correct. I guess I've been doing it by hand for too long maybe.
 
"Apple’s ProRes 422 codec is a 10-bit HD/SD compressed format that has been proven to be just as high of quality as the original footage, and in some cases it is better."

Some one is gonna have to explain this to me. Maybe I'm just too old to understand how a codec can improve on the original. This magic apple thing is getting out of hand ;).
 
Pengun: There is no "DVD file", I think it's someone's attempt to describe their DVD authoring application file (which contains all the requisite links to video, audio, graphics, etc.).

I don't know anyone - in fact, never even heard of anyone - building DVDs by hand. Creating an experience with the DVD spec is restrictive enough creatively. DVD Studio Pro gets the job done, and I'm looking at Adobe Encore.

You might want to check those out, if you have to author - I can't imagine how you would go about building interactive menus and such. Yikes!
 
But then, I guess used to say the same thing about web devs who coded by hand. Now, that's the only way I do it. =)
 
It's not hard to automate the whole thing but I kinda need to know how things work. The process of creating video clips and menus is not all that big a deal actually.

http://dvdauthor.sourceforge.net/doc/index.html

For a short explanation and examples.

After I figure out what is happening I write scripts to crunch the data. I will inflict a simple vob creator on you.

mkfifo -m 666 stream.yuv #create a fifo buffer as a file
mplayer -noframedrop -vo yuv4mpeg -ao pcm:waveheader $NAME & #rip the stream to an audio wav and dump the raw video stream to the fifo
mpeg2enc -f 8 -F 4 -o $NAME.mpv stream.yuv && #encode the video stream from the fifo avoiding gigabyte temp files
#mp2enc -b 192 -r 48000 -o $NAME.mp2 < audiodump.wav
ffmpeg -i audiodump.wav -vn -acodec ac3 -ac 2 -ab 192 -ar 48000 $NAME.ac3 && #massage the wav file you ripped out to ... ac3 in this case
mplex -f 8 $NAME.mpv $NAME.ac3 -o $NAME.vob # multplex the audio and video back together with the DVD compliant vob struture

There is intro stuff above that but it's confusing. Takes pretty near anything NTSC and makes it a compliant vob. I have others for different frame rates and stream types. I dunno I get a huge kick out of making stuff work like this. I also feel I have some control too. It's why I run Linux. It's all wide open ... party time ;).
 
I don't think the 17" MBP has the LED backlight—only the 15".
 
Stu - yes, you are absolutely correct - the 17" does NOT have the LED backlight, only the 15".

-mike
 
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