Transitional TV Growing Pains By Guy Wright
Anyone in the broadcast industry knows that we are in the middle of a transition. More precisely, we are in the middle of multiple transitions ? from analog broadcasts to digital, from standard definition to high definition, and from standard 4:3 aspect ratios to 16:9 widescreen aspect ratios.
...Read More »
The Gods and Goats of 2005 By Charlie White
We've reached the end of another tumultuous year in the world of technology, and it's time to take stock, assessing which products, companies, services or concepts were the Gods and which were the Goats of 2005. So here they are, the ones worth remembering and those which would be best forgotten from the past year.
...Read More »
Coolness Roundup 2005, Part II By Charlie White
By popular demand, we bring you our annual Coolness Roundup, your guide to summer fun and relaxation, where all types of products and services are fair game, and where the name of the game is quality-of-life improvement. Here you?ll find devices and doodads that will enhance your summer vacation, and add a little fun to your leisure time activities. In part II of this year?s roundup, we venture even farther afield, tipping you off to the summer?s finest gadgets, tools, accessories and entertainments, all listed here with the sole purpose of making your life better.
...Read More »
Coolness Roundup 2005, Part I By Charlie White
It?s that time of year again where you can practically fry an egg on the sidewalk, and that means your Coolness Roundup 2005 is here. This year, we have a special 2-part expanded edition that encompasses not only professional and consumer electronics gear, but any objects that use technology to make your life more enjoyable. Some of these items are prosaic, readily available to everyone, while others are stratospherically priced. Either way, lusting after these techno doodads is a great way to relax and have fun within the steamy confines of the hottest season of the year.
...Read More »
DVD Insider: NAB Buzz ? Mergers, HD, H.264 By Miles Weston
NAB (National Association of Broadcasting) is all about TV, movies and radio technology, applications and profits. But it was profits that hogged the spotlight right from the start this year. DVD Insider sees, hears, tastes, smells and feels all.
...Read More »
This is not a 2D world By Atom Zeidler
This is not a 2D world. Now there is no reason that the world of media has to be either. In recent years, producing a high quality 3D image has become easier and more affordable. Film, commercial and broadcast production houses are using 3D imaging more and more frequently to create more realistic and exciting graphics, both to entertain and to educate.
...Read More »
A Slippery Slide or ... By David Hague
I at least have suddenly decided I don't want to be like the mechanic in the street - you know, he is the one with the crappiest car?
...Read More »
The Digital Transition: A Sports Bar's Worst Nightmare By Gary Kayye, CTS
Everybody?s heard and read something about HDTV and the world?s transition from our current analog standard TV system to the new digital standard, right? Today most countries in the world use either a system known as NTSC or PAL for broadcast television transmission and display. Both systems are very similar in that they are analog-based and display either 525 or 625 lines of resolution on the screen. Regardless of screen size (from 3" to 300") you?re still seeing either 525 lines of video or 625 lines of video.
...Read More »
50 More Things I Learned By Charlie White
Last year on Digital Media Net you might have seen an editorial entitled "50 Things I Learned." Due to popular demand and after much thought and deliberation, here is the second list of 50 concepts, truisms, old sayings, half-truths and simple opinions I've picked up on my way to looking up other things. This list is not confined to just technology issues or digital video editing, or anything else for that matter. Keep in mind, many of these items are just my personal opinion. I could be wrong. But probably not.
...Read More »
Santa's Wish List By Charlie White
Wherever you are, Christmas is coming and the pressure is on. Whether you?re in balmy Tinseltown where the sidewalk Santa Clauses are much, much too thin, or in the Frozen Tundra where only a self-produced deluge of body-temperature fluids can open frozen-shut locks, you?re probably compelled to come up with some gift ideas for that techno-charmed colleague, friend or family member who just can?t seem to get enough of those Things That Plug In. Looking for some Winter coolness? Well, we?re here to help, pointing out the greatest gifts for that gadget guru in your life.
...Read More »
Coolness Roundup 2004: The Well-Appointed Edit Suite By Charlie White
It's turning into another long, hot summer -- time for us to provide chilly relief with our twice-annual Coolness Roundup, your touchstone to all things hip that will make your life easy in and around your edit suite or production facility. Presented in no particular order, here are items that tickled our fancy here at the Midwest Test Facility, including do-dads that you can use as you work, some that you can use around work, and some that will actually keep you from working. And that's OK, too, because after all, it's summer and everybody could use a little coolness.
...Read More »
Don't Frustrate the Viewer By Charlie White
Sometimes digital video editing involves magic. You can flash something here to attract the viewer's eye and then over there, make something happen the viewer doesn't see. That's part of the thrill of producing and editing video -- manipulating where people will look. But then sometimes you can give the viewers so many things to look at that they don't see anything. In that case, you've broken the cardinal rule of video production: Don't Frustrate the Viewer. Let's figure out how to stay in the good graces of that rule.
...Read More »
Change NLEs? Maybe Not. By Charlie White
The most-asked question we get here at the Midwest Test Facility concerns which nonlinear editing system would be best. Sure, many editors have their preferences, but these leanings toward one system or another often have little to do with which one is actually the best. Lots of times as a digital video editor you may want to, as we say down South, Dance with the one what brung ya. (Not that we natives of the Southeastern United States are stupid or use improper English, which is sometimes true, but not always.)
...Read More »
Controlling the Electronic Beast By Charlie White
In the past few days, there have been multiple reminders of the power of the media. Amplifying that power is the new ease with which Web-based video can be internationally distributed. This power, once wielded by the few who owned the expensive printing presses, is now available to anybody with a camera, computer and Internet connection. That means that more and more video editors will be the ones who solely decide which messages get through and which end up on the cutting room floor. The problem is, many seek this enormous power, no matter how deranged they are.
...Read More »
Final Cut Pro for PC? By Charlie White
In the past, your humble narrator was accused of having an anti-Mac bias. Now, some are saying just the opposite -- that perhaps a pro-Mac bias is afoot. There are good reasons why the tide seems to have turned here at the Midwest Test Facility, but we actually have no bias here for or against any operating system or content creation platform. The only bias here is toward getting the job done at a reasonable price. Let's take a look at the tide table of TV tools, and extrapolate what this could mean for the digital video editing world.
...Read More »
Format Wars: May the Best Man Win? By Charlie White
Lately we?ve been looking ahead at new technologies here at the Midwest Test Facility, with two headline-grabbing format wars coming up in the next few years achieving top-of-mind status here at our think tank out on the lonesome, wind-swept prairie. First on the card is the battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD, both worthy competitors in the high definition DVD arena. Second on the marquee is the war between two camps of acquisition, camcorders using solid state memory (known as P2 by its maker, Panasonic) and blue laser optical disc, championed by Sony. Which is better? In both cases, I don?t think that old saying, May the Best Man Win will necessarily hold true.
...Read More »
HDTV Will Cost the Same as Film Production By Ron Johnson
There have been several articles lately about how the cost of HDTV will be a large determining factor in Hollywood production costs ? surely you jest. Admittedly, for the beret and goatee wearing Hollywood crowd that has more money than film stock, there could be some truth to this argument as they look to squander their huge budgets. But I strongly suggest that the cost of HDTV will plummet as it sees growing use in network and local-market broadcast operations.
...Read More »
HDTV for SDTV Production By Ron Johnson
Most everyone knows that material originated in HDTV can look as good or better when transmitted in SDTV. This has to do with better color reproduction, wider dynamic range and above all, resolution. While HDTV is in a ?toddler? stage, there will no doubt be countless creative applications in the years to come that will progress from adolescence to adulthood. Some techniques will undoubtedly be brilliant, others will be mediocre and perhaps soon forgotten. One technique I have been considering is using HDTV to produce SDTV programming.
...Read More »
NAB Diary 2004: Preview Edition By Stephen Schleicher
Now in its fourth year, the NAB Diary will be returning to these pages in just a few weeks giving you an up close look at the action going on at the show. While the show is still a few weeks away, now is the perfect opportunity to give you a sneak peak at the thoughts going through my head of what we might expect at the show.
...Read More »
Digital Video Remakes Itself?Again By Charlie White
With a major portion of the buzz surrounding this year?s NAB centered around HD production on the cheap, the entire digital video editing market is set to be turned upside down, sideways and every which way. As it did in the old days, circa 1997 ? with the introduction and implementation of the DV format ? the video industry is about to remake itself? again. Since you, dear readers, were significantly titillated by my last editorial missive which touched on the HDV juggernaut, I?m compelled to muse further about this new high-rez, yet low-cost format and its implications. Come on inside and let?s hash this out for a minute.
...Read More »
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NO...Doesn't have a thing to do with "that" smartphone...or "that" store...or "that" tablet. It's the next generation. Kids and we mean little kids. That's what today's products are being designed for/targeted at. You happen to buy one...fine. Watch a little, little kid pick up a smartphone. He/she just uses it. They've come pre-wired and we're still trying to figure out how to IM. It's the IGen. They want it instantly. They want to use it instantly. They expect their photos, their video, their music, their stuff immediately when/where/how they want it.
Read More
In this clip, lynda.com host Mark Abdelnour takes a look at proxy bidding. He discusses the strategy and how it works. He also discusses the maximum bid, and when to use Proxy bidding.
Read More
The blood, gore, adrenalin challenges that were unveiled at E3 and enjoyed at ComicCon are fun to look at, easy to hold but are they really the games people want to plunk down their credit cards to own or rent time with? Seems as though the investors, the players who control the controllers have a different idea of a "good" game than the kids who develop them. While mobs of people play educational, informational, stimulating games our kid huddles in his room and mumbles "The Few, The Proud, The Gamers."
Read More
Transitional TV Growing Pains
Anyone in the broadcast industry knows that we are in the middle of a transition. More precisely, we are in the middle of multiple transitions ? from analog broadcasts to digital, from standard definition to high definition, and from standard 4:3 aspect ratios to 16:9 widescreen aspect ratios.
...Read More »
The Gods and Goats of 2005
We've reached the end of another tumultuous year in the world of technology, and it's time to take stock, assessing which products, companies, services or concepts were the Gods and which were the Goats of 2005. So here they are, the ones worth remembering and those which would be best forgotten from the past year.
...Read More »
Coolness Roundup 2005, Part II
By popular demand, we bring you our annual Coolness Roundup, your guide to summer fun and relaxation, where all types of products and services are fair game, and where the name of the game is quality-of-life improvement. Here you?ll find devices and doodads that will enhance your summer vacation, and add a little fun to your leisure time activities. In part II of this year?s roundup, we venture even farther afield, tipping you off to the summer?s finest gadgets, tools, accessories and entertainments, all listed here with the sole purpose of making your life better.
...Read More »
Coolness Roundup 2005, Part I
It?s that time of year again where you can practically fry an egg on the sidewalk, and that means your Coolness Roundup 2005 is here. This year, we have a special 2-part expanded edition that encompasses not only professional and consumer electronics gear, but any objects that use technology to make your life more enjoyable. Some of these items are prosaic, readily available to everyone, while others are stratospherically priced. Either way, lusting after these techno doodads is a great way to relax and have fun within the steamy confines of the hottest season of the year.
...Read More »
DVD Insider: NAB Buzz ? Mergers, HD, H.264
NAB (National Association of Broadcasting) is all about TV, movies and radio technology, applications and profits. But it was profits that hogged the spotlight right from the start this year. DVD Insider sees, hears, tastes, smells and feels all.
...Read More »
This is not a 2D world
This is not a 2D world. Now there is no reason that the world of media has to be either. In recent years, producing a high quality 3D image has become easier and more affordable. Film, commercial and broadcast production houses are using 3D imaging more and more frequently to create more realistic and exciting graphics, both to entertain and to educate.
...Read More »
A Slippery Slide or ...
I at least have suddenly decided I don't want to be like the mechanic in the street - you know, he is the one with the crappiest car?
...Read More »
The Digital Transition: A Sports Bar's Worst Nightmare
Everybody?s heard and read something about HDTV and the world?s transition from our current analog standard TV system to the new digital standard, right? Today most countries in the world use either a system known as NTSC or PAL for broadcast television transmission and display. Both systems are very similar in that they are analog-based and display either 525 or 625 lines of resolution on the screen. Regardless of screen size (from 3" to 300") you?re still seeing either 525 lines of video or 625 lines of video.
...Read More »
50 More Things I Learned
Last year on Digital Media Net you might have seen an editorial entitled "50 Things I Learned." Due to popular demand and after much thought and deliberation, here is the second list of 50 concepts, truisms, old sayings, half-truths and simple opinions I've picked up on my way to looking up other things. This list is not confined to just technology issues or digital video editing, or anything else for that matter. Keep in mind, many of these items are just my personal opinion. I could be wrong. But probably not.
...Read More »
Santa's Wish List
Wherever you are, Christmas is coming and the pressure is on. Whether you?re in balmy Tinseltown where the sidewalk Santa Clauses are much, much too thin, or in the Frozen Tundra where only a self-produced deluge of body-temperature fluids can open frozen-shut locks, you?re probably compelled to come up with some gift ideas for that techno-charmed colleague, friend or family member who just can?t seem to get enough of those Things That Plug In. Looking for some Winter coolness? Well, we?re here to help, pointing out the greatest gifts for that gadget guru in your life.
...Read More »
Coolness Roundup 2004: The Well-Appointed Edit Suite
It's turning into another long, hot summer -- time for us to provide chilly relief with our twice-annual Coolness Roundup, your touchstone to all things hip that will make your life easy in and around your edit suite or production facility. Presented in no particular order, here are items that tickled our fancy here at the Midwest Test Facility, including do-dads that you can use as you work, some that you can use around work, and some that will actually keep you from working. And that's OK, too, because after all, it's summer and everybody could use a little coolness.
...Read More »
Don't Frustrate the Viewer
Sometimes digital video editing involves magic. You can flash something here to attract the viewer's eye and then over there, make something happen the viewer doesn't see. That's part of the thrill of producing and editing video -- manipulating where people will look. But then sometimes you can give the viewers so many things to look at that they don't see anything. In that case, you've broken the cardinal rule of video production: Don't Frustrate the Viewer. Let's figure out how to stay in the good graces of that rule.
...Read More »
Change NLEs? Maybe Not.
The most-asked question we get here at the Midwest Test Facility concerns which nonlinear editing system would be best. Sure, many editors have their preferences, but these leanings toward one system or another often have little to do with which one is actually the best. Lots of times as a digital video editor you may want to, as we say down South, Dance with the one what brung ya. (Not that we natives of the Southeastern United States are stupid or use improper English, which is sometimes true, but not always.)
...Read More »
Controlling the Electronic Beast
In the past few days, there have been multiple reminders of the power of the media. Amplifying that power is the new ease with which Web-based video can be internationally distributed. This power, once wielded by the few who owned the expensive printing presses, is now available to anybody with a camera, computer and Internet connection. That means that more and more video editors will be the ones who solely decide which messages get through and which end up on the cutting room floor. The problem is, many seek this enormous power, no matter how deranged they are.
...Read More »
Final Cut Pro for PC?
In the past, your humble narrator was accused of having an anti-Mac bias. Now, some are saying just the opposite -- that perhaps a pro-Mac bias is afoot. There are good reasons why the tide seems to have turned here at the Midwest Test Facility, but we actually have no bias here for or against any operating system or content creation platform. The only bias here is toward getting the job done at a reasonable price. Let's take a look at the tide table of TV tools, and extrapolate what this could mean for the digital video editing world.
...Read More »
Format Wars: May the Best Man Win?
Lately we?ve been looking ahead at new technologies here at the Midwest Test Facility, with two headline-grabbing format wars coming up in the next few years achieving top-of-mind status here at our think tank out on the lonesome, wind-swept prairie. First on the card is the battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD, both worthy competitors in the high definition DVD arena. Second on the marquee is the war between two camps of acquisition, camcorders using solid state memory (known as P2 by its maker, Panasonic) and blue laser optical disc, championed by Sony. Which is better? In both cases, I don?t think that old saying, May the Best Man Win will necessarily hold true.
...Read More »
HDTV Will Cost the Same as Film Production
There have been several articles lately about how the cost of HDTV will be a large determining factor in Hollywood production costs ? surely you jest. Admittedly, for the beret and goatee wearing Hollywood crowd that has more money than film stock, there could be some truth to this argument as they look to squander their huge budgets. But I strongly suggest that the cost of HDTV will plummet as it sees growing use in network and local-market broadcast operations.
...Read More »
HDTV for SDTV Production
Most everyone knows that material originated in HDTV can look as good or better when transmitted in SDTV. This has to do with better color reproduction, wider dynamic range and above all, resolution. While HDTV is in a ?toddler? stage, there will no doubt be countless creative applications in the years to come that will progress from adolescence to adulthood. Some techniques will undoubtedly be brilliant, others will be mediocre and perhaps soon forgotten. One technique I have been considering is using HDTV to produce SDTV programming.
...Read More »
NAB Diary 2004: Preview Edition
Now in its fourth year, the NAB Diary will be returning to these pages in just a few weeks giving you an up close look at the action going on at the show. While the show is still a few weeks away, now is the perfect opportunity to give you a sneak peak at the thoughts going through my head of what we might expect at the show.
...Read More »
Digital Video Remakes Itself?Again
With a major portion of the buzz surrounding this year?s NAB centered around HD production on the cheap, the entire digital video editing market is set to be turned upside down, sideways and every which way. As it did in the old days, circa 1997 ? with the introduction and implementation of the DV format ? the video industry is about to remake itself? again. Since you, dear readers, were significantly titillated by my last editorial missive which touched on the HDV juggernaut, I?m compelled to muse further about this new high-rez, yet low-cost format and its implications. Come on inside and let?s hash this out for a minute.
...Read More »
Vegas Pro 8 + Free Vegas Seminar Series
AV-HS450 16+ Input HD/SD Switcher w/ dual screen MultiViewer
