Reverting from author to geek

In the last blog entry I described how I had the Digital Video camera communicating with my PC. My first trial of video clip editing started with Microsoft's free Windows Movie Maker software. This was already present on my PC, so I presume it had been supplied free by Microsoft. Using that tool I fairly quickly produced a complete video. I was able to remove video sections I didn't want and also play around with the sound. Unfortunately I could only get output in the form of a .wvm file which is a native Microsoft video file format or too a DVD. I was able to load the file onto Youtube without too much effort, but for longer term plans I need a wider range of output formats. It is a pity really because Movie Maker is really easy to use, but sadly has been discontinued by Microsoft. Its replacement "Windows Live Movie Maker" has far fewer features and was only worth a cursory look.

I decided I'd need something with better video/sound editing capabilities. plus a better range of output formats:

Adobe Premiere - fully featured product, with a steep learning curve and an even steeper price of £810 (equiv. to US$1320). You also need a powerful PC running 64 bit Windows 7; with a small range of recommended powerful "multi-core"graphics cards (£150 +). I've used an earlier edition of the software.

Adobe Premiere Elements 9 - a cut down version of its big brother Adobe Premiere, reasonable editing features but a more limited range of outputs. It can run on a reasonably powerful PC and costs £79 (equivalent to US$129). It runs on Vista, probably XP, Windows 7 (32 bit and 64 bit), but unlike its big brother it does not take advantage of the 64 bit processor's ability to a massive amount of computer memory.

Cyberlink PowerDirector 9 Deluxe - a well featured editor with a reasonable range of outputs. It has a better range of functions and formats when compared with Adobe Premiere Elements 9 and will run on similar PC hardware. The PowerDirector 9 can take advantage of the processors in multi-core gaming graphics cards and shifts a lot of the processing load from the main CPU (central processing unit). The limitation is that it uses 32 bit memory addressing - max of 4 gigabytes. Editing and rendering large video files would take a long time. It is priced at £60 (equivalent to US$98).

Cyberlink PowerDirector 9 Ultra64 is like the Deluxe version but makes use 64 bit architecture so it can use as many gigabytes of processor memory as you can cram onto your motherboard. This coupled with the ability to use multi-core graphics cards give much faster (video render) processing.

I also looked at Corel's VideoStudio Pro X4 and also Xara's Magix Movie Edit Pro 17 but was not attracted to them. Eventually after trying each product on their trial period (not Adobe Premiere - far too expensive) I decided to go for PowerDirector 9 Ultra64. I've ordered a packaged version of the software.

This will mean I have to upgrade the memory and operating system on my PC to Windows 7 64 bit. This is when my trials and tribulations start ... to be continued!

The trip from paper to digital media

As part of my promotional efforts for my series of books (Adam Cranford) I’m beginning to look at the production of video material  to be held on Youtube.com and other locations such as Vzaar.com.  I’d discovered on investigation that my old Sony digital handycam provides a fast “Firewire” connection through it’s DV (Digital Video) link.  My PC was set up using Microsoft Vista and has a powerful processor – 4 core Intel (it was on sale cheap "end of range" at the store honestly). Downloading  DV through the Firewire should be straightforward!

First snag:

I’d lost the Firewire cable for the camcorder. Searching on the internet quickly sourced an alternative for a couple of pounds. It arrived two days later.

Second snag:

The firewire port was labelled on the back of my PC. When I tried to plug in the cable to the socket it felt very loose. A bit difficult to see in the dark under the desk what was happening so I sighed, switched off the PC  and grabbed a screwdriver. After some rapid unplugging of various other cables, the PC  lay on my desktop, its insides exposed to the eye of this author. Lo and behold! Despite the manufacturer specifications for the mother board it was obvious that no firewire socket had been installed on the motherboard or in the PC casing. 

More rapid searching on the internet (after reassembling the PC) located a suitable four port Firewire interface card priced at a few pounds. It arrived a couple of days later. Despite there being no software CD in the package I was pleased to see it worked without problem. Fitting it into the appropriate motherboard PCI slot took a couple of minutes. The card was automatically recognised by  Microsoft Vista and the appropriate software drivers were automagically installed. With no great expectations I plugged the cable into the back of my PC and into the socket of the digital video camera. As soon as I switched on the camera power a message flashed up on the screen announcing the recognition of the Sony DCR-TRV20E and asking if I’d like to download video using a standard Microsoft interface. It worked!

It was now time to start looking at the software needed to produce video clips...

Story continues...

Cuts to the UK police budget are not enough.

News of a recent officialdom intrusion into normal family life convinces me that the police have too much idle time on their hands. Clearly they have a lot of spare capacity if they can waste their time and public money in issuing a mother with a caution for leaving her 3 year old child in the care of their 14 year old son for 30 minutes.
It seems to me the cuts to police budget can be more extreme if they can waste their time on cases such as this. At the very least the mother should receive a full public apology and a complete expunging of records relating to the case.  If 14 year old Laura Dekker can be allowed to sail around the world ...

Here's the BBC report on the case.

Get rid of the Public Library Priesthood

There's a great fuss at the moment about the closure of public libraries as spending cuts are imposed by central government. Much of the ire is misdirected.

People have stopped going to libraries because the book stock is poor. Libraries have instead tried to change their purpose, in effect setting themselves up as cyber-cafes for the general public. All this costs money. That money has come from the book stock funding. Get a grip people! The library is there to house books, not as a social security depot.

The librarians themselves are highly paid for what they do. Much of the process of purchasing, cataloging and labeling  is outsourced (even more expensive) to third-party profit making companies. Meanwhile self-publishing authors are locked out. The salary of one librarian could buy an awful lot of extra book at a branch library. In effect librarians have become a form of priesthood with elaborate rituals, but no great contribution to the process.

Let's get some barefoot librarians who will go out there and do the job of providing interesting books for the public.

Alaric

Excellent investment

I had one of those "excellent investment" calls today. You probably know the routine. An excited young man calls you at home unsolicited and totally out of the blue to offer you the opportunity to make well above average returns for your money. Of course it will involve investing about £10,000 and you have to make a decision soon or you'll lose the opportunity.  This time the marvellous opportunity was in real estate in Natal in Brazil. I won't bore you with the detail, but his arguments soon started to fall apart when I probed a bit.

Sadly for him I wasn't busy at the time. I kept him talking for an hour before he realised he was going to get nowhere. By the time the call ended he realised my scheme for investing in Natural Colour Diamonds would be far more profitable for his money.

ps I wonder why women never make these calls.

Software Price Rip-off - Adobe

The major software companies moan about "pirates" copying/using their software without paying for it. There are  of course other organisations who charge unfairly for software. The current ex-tax software prices for Adobe software products are a case in point.

If I download Adobe's InDesign CS5 while sitting in USA/Canada the price will be $699 US; however if I perform the same download from the UK the price will be $952 US. This 36% uplift on price is totally unacceptable. It is also bad business practice for Adobe. They'd actually get more business from me if they priced their products fairly.

Alaric

Failed politicians

It always amuses me when rejected politicians try to re-write history. For an example:"Shadow education secretary Andy Burnham said: "Schools improved under Labour, and more students now leave with good results. People forget how bad things were: in 1997, half of all schools failed to reach the basic benchmark of 30% of students getting 5 GCSEs graded A*-C, including English and maths - that number is now fewer than one in 12." " from the BBC website.
Andy - all I can say is the British public are no fools. We realise the secondary schools public examinations have been allowed to be dumbed down during the last government. Kids on average nowadays have the same intelligence level of kids twenty or thirty years ago. The exams have got easier. Stop trying to kid us otherwise.