Make Your Own Video

I don’t know much about this one, but it looks like another contest with wide entry requirements and a prize of $150. Submission deadline is midnight March 20th.

Read more at: Film Contest, enter any video you have made. Any content welcome.

I have been looking around for months trying to work out how best to get some of my hundreds of hours of analog video into a usable form for digital editing and posting on my video blog. I’ve seen hardware digitisers which require specific software (I used one that only worked with Pinnacle Studio, for example, but the hardware suddenly stopped working and I have no desire to get another one of those.) I’ve seen general purpose analog to firewire adapters, but those can be expensive and require the player to be connected through the box to a firewire PC and typically record big DV files. I’ve read about several low-cost USB video digitisers, but many of them don’t digitse the sound, and quality seems very variable.

So, I was particularly interested to read about the Neuros MPEG-4 Recorder 2 which seems to win on all fronts. Essentially it’s a tiny portable solid-state VCR which records analog video and audio at a variety of resolutions to Memory Stick or Compact Flash media. I’m seriously tempted to get one and give it a try.

Read more at: Neuros Technology International, LLC.

Update: I’ve just read on the Neuros Blog that this device has recently been mentioned in the “Computer America” radio show/podcast. See here for more information.

Someone on the videoblogging yahoo group pointed out an interesting step-by-step article on compressing Quicktime video.

Worth a look, particularly if you have (or are thinking about getting) Quicktime Pro.

Read more at: Tutorial:High quality at low bit rates – Quicktime Wiki

Last weekend we got a new addition to our family. A young female long-haired Syrian hamster which Elizabeth immediately named “Chloe”. The books mostly seem to recommend leaving a new hamster alone for a few days to get used to the new environment. After that the aim is to handle the little critter frequently, but for short periods, so she can get used to living with us.

Here’s a little snippet of her out and about, and enjoying a play in her big pink ball.

(WMV 1:10 3.4MB)

You may rememember that I wrote a while ago about the MPEG4 export plugin for Ulead VideoStudio 9, and how it is now available for free. At the time, I lamented the lack of MPEG4 quicktime output, and wondered if it made much sense to offer MPEG4 without support for the new video-capable iPod.

Well, it looks like the Ulead folks understood this too. As of 23 December 2005, there is now an upgrade patch for the MPEG export plugin that offers iPod compatible MPEG4 Quicktime export as a built-in option. Sweet.

I guess my next “video blog” might be in Quicktime, after all

Read more about Ulead VideoStudio 9, or All Ulead’s Video Editing Software.