Monday, December 14, 2009

Pike Place Market: Addendum

I had wanted to include the following video on my previous post but I was having problems editing the clip. Dave, Travels with a Honda Transalp (<-- click link) was also working on his video but he has censorship problems with YouTube being blocked from view in Turkey. He has resorted to using Vimeo and double posting. It's all about the quality and Dave has purchased copies of all the video editing programs know to mankind and locked himself in his closet until he figures it out. I was previously a Windows Movie Maker user but have now gravited to Adobe Premiere Elements and stuck with it even though the import presets don't always seem to work.
During the past year or two I had been using a Panasonic SDR-SW20 Flash camcorder which produced .MOD files. I recently upgraded to a Canon FS200 and to my surprise it produces files in the same format so my work flow remains unchanged, even though my video quality has greatly improved. We are talking about Standard DVD quality 480p resolution. One thing that I had not considered was my minute Canon SD780is pocket camera which has 720p resolution. During the past weekend I decided to do some test clips in movie mode. The Canon produces .MOV files which I gather is a sort of modified Quicktime H.264 structure. I had some problems with jerkey playback using PREL even though the video played perfectly smooth using VLC media player or WMP. I had spent a few hours trying to sort it out and even converted the .MOD files using an .AVI converter, ALAS, nothing worked. I was stuck with jerky playback. I presumed that it was something to do with frame rate conversion as the video had not yet been rendered.

I did some further investigation today (Google is your friend) and discovered that perhaps I did not have enough resources on my old laptop to be able to render these videos. On the Canon forum others have had similar problems with editing with jerky video but when they had rendered the final product it played smoothly. Tonight I decided to follow their example and ignore the jerkiness and continue onward.

This video was output to mpeg1, layer 2 1280x720p 30F. I have resized the Youtube player to display in 16:9 aspect ratio. While the video is only 1:47 the file was originally 255 Mb and took nearly 45 minutes to upload. I am nearly finished with my testing. I mentioned to Dave that he should just concentrate on ONE editing program and my suggestion was to stick with PREL (Premiere Elements). It has good reviews and my reasoning that I could help him in a pinch.

The Pike Place Market, Seattle, WA. A good place to walk around and absorb the sounds. Source video was produced by a Canon SD780is in full HD 1280x720p



(Raw Corn, Pike Place Market, Seattle, WA) "I want to Hold your Hand"
*** Make sure to click the HD button ***

9 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Time to get a new laptop :) HD video requires lots of CPU cycles. I've heard it recommended to have 3GHz for 1080p, but with the right video card you can get away with a slightly slower CPU.

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  3. Mr Conchscooter:

    Re: deleted comment

    the video plays fine for me at home on my laptop, at work on my old 1.8 Ghz desktop. I can play it directly from YT or from the Blog. I would presume that the technical problem is at your end. Time for a newer Quad Core laptop at your local KW Best Buy

    Chris:

    I don't really want a desktop. My laptop is really stuttering on this short clip but it renders Okay. According to the specs you need a 2.2 Ghz min for 1080p. Mine is only 1.6 Ghz (3 years old 64x2). I think for YT I will stick with STD DEF 480p and do the Hi-Def stuff for myself on DVD as I just purchased another machine which produces AVCHD 720p

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  4. The video came out looking pretty good and the singers weren't bad either. I didn't try the HD version as all I have with me is my iPhone and a netbook. 255 MB for 2 minutes! And here I was complaining about 600 MB/hour for video.

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  5. Towards the end of the video did the shady looking guy in the green coat steal a guitar?

    It's amazing the quality that can be attained from such a small package, the size of 2 candy bars. The video looks great and the sound was good also, especially when you consider the mic in you 780.

    I have had good luck with Roxio Creator 2009 for importing various types of video files that other programs could not. It also has a pretty good editing package. I would prefer to have Final Cut express, but the price of Mac hardware is just to high for the small amount of video I do.

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  6. I have little frame of reference to offer comments on the technology or equipment. However, I appreciate the atmosphere. Many fun hours were spent by me wandering around Pike's. Going to the original Starbucks and walking the hardwood floors was my own journey to Mecca.

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  7. Really like the video. I had the same concern as Art about that guitar being stolen. It would be difficult to play those instruments with gloves on, but they made it look easy.

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  8. Richard:

    I also tried to look at it on my smartphone, but being Hi-Def it got overwhelmed. There is no problem in viewing it with my netbook.

    GAW/Gordon:

    I thought the same thing about the guitar, but before he "took" it he gave a sign to the performer and got his okay. I think they are all friends and take turns giving street performances.

    That Canon SD780is is one of the cheapest Canons on the market and I carry it everywhere as it is so small. I never realized that it had the 720p video mode and didn't bother using it, until now. There are NO manual settings and you cannot zoom once you start recording video but it has the same specs as the SD940is, same Digic IV processor and same processer inside.

    Irondad:

    I know a lot us (bloggers) use video and if I can help them produce and edit movies then I will. I have learned everything from trial & error and mostly with shareware, until now. Flash video is new technology and I had trouble finding anyone who could steer me in the right direction. It's not like photos which are all .jpg , in video there are many formats to conquer.

    I was really looking forward walking the hardwood floors of Pike Market with you in your 'Space Suit' . . .

    cpa3485:

    If you look closely at those gloves, the end finger sections are 'cut-off' , it would be much more difficult if they weren't.

    The market is a vibrant place, lots of people shopping and music was filling the air everywhere you went.

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