Fast, Cheap, and Under Control

My contact information is available at the UMW New Media Center site.

First, get familiar with Copyright and Fair Use, and read the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video (PDF). Then watch “Everything is a Remix – Part 3” and realize how copying and tinkering with what already exists had lead to innovations throughout history.

A documentary employing elements under fair use – Punchlines For Progress: Freedom of Speech and The Court Jester

Encoding and Digital Video for DS106:

DS106 Video from umwnewmedia on Vimeo.

Fast forward to the 2:18 mark to bypass the final setup tweaks I do and get to the meat of the presentation.

UPDATE: Since this video was produced about a year ago, I wanted to update a few things. Fastest YouTube Downloader has been an up and down program. The latest version, as of 1/28/12, does a good job. It can also convert the YouTube videos to different formats, even MP3s.

We talk a lot about MPEG Streamclip in DTLT. It has built-in YouTube downloading (go to File>Open URL… and paste in the link to the YouTube video). There are times that the program will give you a “File Open Error”, depending on the video. So in this case you’ll need to use an alternate like Fastest YouTube Downloader or the Video Download Helper plugin for Mozilla Firefox.

As far as codecs go Flash (FLV) is on the wane. h.264 is becoming the standard for web video because of it’s high quality.

Videolan (makers of VLC player) are STILL working on a video editor (VideoLan Movie Creator). Not much progress on it of late.

(end update)

Encountering digital video on the web

* Windows Media – wmv files
* QuickTime (mp4 or h.264)
* Flash (flv) – Reached its zenith?
* WebM – the future? Maybe it doesn’t have a future.
* Dirac – open source broadcast quality codec

If you have trouble playing or working with various video on you computer, it’s probably because of a missing codec. If you are using a PC, try downloading the K-Lite Codec Pack. On the Mac, Perian will add several popular codecs to your system.

VLC plays ‘em all

Play a DVD with VLC (Windows) from Home Theater Cookbook on Vimeo.

Play a DVD with VLC (Mac) from Home Theater Cookbook on Vimeo.

Record a clip from a DVD movie using VLC (Mac) from Home Theater Cookbook on Vimeo.

Record a clip from a DVD movie using VLC from Home Theater Cookbook on Vimeo.

Use Clips Recorded with VLC in Movie Maker from umwnewmedia on Vimeo.

Interlacing

* De-interlacing -
* Progressive – complete frame drawn
* Comb – effect of interlace video with fast motion
* Telecine – motion picture to video

Shooting

* Composition, Framing, and Rule ofThirds -
http://vimeo.com/videoschool/lesson/8/framing-and-composition
* Lighting (3-point, flat)
* Audio – mono vs. stereo
* Use Headphones

Encoding

* Compression – What it is
* How Contrast Ratio and Backgrounds affects compression (and no stripes)
* 320×240 is passé – Great Lives needs an update – http://greatlives.umwblogs.org/

Aspect ratio

* Square pixel issue
* Stretching 4:3 to widescreen (fatties)
* Shrinking widescreen to 4:3 (skinnies)
* Text – beware of text when changing aspects ratio
* Calculator

h.264 is the present and future – maybe

* also known as AVC (camcorders labeled as AVCHD)

* used widely as the Blu-ray codec

* h.what? The Conversation podcast about h.264 licensing

* alternative is x264 an open-source implementation of h.264 (Handbrake – see below)
x264 for Mac
x264 for Windows

Video “Hosting”

* YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/
* Blip.tv – http://blip.tv/
* Vimeo (HD) – http://www.vimeo.com/

YouTube Quick Answers

* Help – http://www.google.com/support/youtube/
* How to Upload
* Optimize Your Video

YouTube Troubleshooting

If you are having issues with video that’s been uploaded to YouTube, start with these troubleshooting tips.

Vimeo Info

Vimeo Basics

How to upload to Vimeo

Vimeo Video School

Blip.tv Learning Center – http://blip.tv/learning

* Concept – “The Show” – a regular series of videos with common branding
* Tools – Blip account (basic or pro), iMovie/Movie Maker and QuickTime Pro, a camera, misc equipment (lights, mics, tripods, headphones)
* Produce – Oh Boy! See the Blip.tv site for the resources
* Export – h.264 Baby!
* Distribute – descriptions, tags, copyright/creative commons, cross-posting, promotion (embedding and customizing)
* Consume – iTunes, Front Row, Windows Media???

Other Links

YouTube Video Toolbox – http://www.youtube.com/video_toolbox

YouTube Handbook

Miro Community – http://mirocommunity.org -  http://umw.mirocommunity.org/

UMW New Media Center – http://umwdtlt.org/newmedia/

Digital Media Cookbook – http://digitalmediacookbook.com/

Digital Video Site – http://video.umwblogs.org/

Diary of an x264 Developer - The Future of Internet Video

Lecturecasting

Videos to make you think about video

Tools

Top Tools

Handbrake (PC/Mac)
MPEG Streamclip (PC/Mac)
VLC
Audacity

Screencasting

Jing (PC/Mac) – Free for 5 minute recordings to Flash output. Unfortunately Jing Pro is going away. Jing Pro allowed you to save in MPEG-4 format which was easier to edit or add to video projects. It was $15/year. If you were a Jing Pro user you can get a program called Snagit (for a limited time), that does video capture, for $25 (normally $50).

There is built-in screen recording in the Mac OSX QuickTime Player (as well as video and audio recording). Other low-cost screencasting software for the Mac include iShowU (starting at $20) and Screeny ($15). There is also BB Flashback Express (starts free) on Windows.

More “professional” screen recording software would include Camtasia Studio ($299) for Windows (there is a $99 Mac version), and Screenflow ($99) for the Mac. Be aware that there are education discounts that can save you some money. You will need to provide proof of enrollment. The current pricing is $179 for Camtasia Studio, $30 for Snagit, and $89 for Screenflow. There is currently no educational discount for Camtasia for the Mac.

Video Conversion

Evom (Mac)
Handbrake (PC/Mac)
MPEG Streamclip (PC/Mac)
WinFF (PC/Ubuntu)
Miro Video Converter

YouTube Downloading

Fastest YouTube Downloader (PC/Mac) - Seriously, it’s fast!
Video Download Helper – Download YouTube videos in the browser
1-click YouTube Video Downloader
Download YouTube videos as MP3s – SnipMP3

TubeChop – take a clip from an existing YouTube video and change the start and end time.

Video Editing

Helpful Wikipedia chart comparing video editors

iMovie ’11 - http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/

Windows Movie Maker

Windows Live Movie Maker (Vista & 7 only) – http://explore.live.com/windows-live-movie-maker

VideoSpin (PC) - http://www.videospin.com

YouTube Video Editor – Edit your existing clips in your YouTube account
Jaycut another online video editor

Avidemux – Simple video editing (successfully used by Aaron)

Video Analyzer (codec identification and video information)

MediaInfo (PC/Mac/Linux) – Allows you to analyze multiple files and export as a spreadsheet.

Aspect Ratio Calculators

Aspect Ratio Calculator Online -  Also a downloadable version for Mac/PC (requires Java)
Aspect Ratio Calulator (2) – Another calculator that takes existing settings and converts (for resizing)

Video Players (alternatives to QuickTime and Windows Media Player)

VLC (but it’s more than just a player. See the link below for recording segments of DVDs)

Movist – can sometimes outperform VLC

DVD Ripping Programs

DVD Fab (PC) -
MacTheRipper (Mac) -
Mac DVDRipper Pro ($10)
Record a clip from a DVD using VLC (Mac)
Record a clip from a DVD using VLC (PC)
Ripping a DVD Using HandBrake

Flash/h.264 players for embedded video

JW Player -
JW Player Skins -
JW Player Wizard

Imaging Programs

Paint.Net (PC graphic editing program) -
Seashore (Mac graphic editing program)

QuickTime Extras

QuickTime Pro ($30) -
QuickTime MPEG2 Playback ($20) – Works together with MPEG Streamclip

* HTML5 (h.264 or Ogg – Theora and Vorbis) - Video for Everybody

* My own HTML5 example

* My own HTML5 example using WordPress and a plugin.

* MediaElementJS HTML5 Player - WordPress plugin for doing video, and audio (!), embeds with Flash fallback.

* Java player

Link to PDF of slides

Source: Video: streaming production: improving your video quality