Pixelriffic - A videographer's blog

The Dell Mini 9 Netbook

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:17:29 PDT

I've tried several methods of making my demo video as portable as possible. Ipods and Zunes can work in a pinch, but the screen is pretty small among other issues. Many in our field have used those portable DVD players for this purpose as well. they Never seem to last.This little netbook not only serves this purpose very well, it's actually pretty darn useable as a computer! Not only that,

The correct use of color bars

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 14:46:57 PST

The importance of color bars cannot be overstated. One of the most important steps in making your video look the best it possibly can is knowing how to use them. Some of you out there probably think that the familiar SMPTE color bar image is only useful with scopes. Not true. Here's an excellent article on the subject.

Some of the TV industry doesn't quite get it

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 08:37:39 PST

I've missed the past few weeks of BSG (Battlestar Galactica) and I really wanted to get caught up to the present. I went to hulu.com and there they were! Well, on closer examination, the most recent couple of episodes were there, and the previous new episodes had an icon with a subtext that said "Watch on SciFI.com" No problem really. I do like hulu's interface quite a bit, but I'm not so hard

New stupid thing from Sony

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:43:51 PST

First of all, let me say that this has very strong language, and is definitely NSFW!. I have to admire the production work from the Onion. These folks are so spot on. You may have seen this already, as it's definitely been making the rounds. I've not heard anything from Sony about this. Could it be that they actually have a good sense of humor? Or perhaps do they realize all press is good

On camera LED lighting - Great if you can afford it

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 08:22:23 PST

These are the LED lighting units from Zylight. While I've not seen these first hand, I have read quite a bit, seen video demos, and so on. If I had the money, one (or more) of these babies would be my first choice. The ability to tune the color temerature is amazing.Do I now use LED lighting on camera? Well, no. I use a Luxman dimmable 50 watt halogen mostly. Why you may ask? After all,

Panasonic AG-HMC150

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:10:31 PST

This was to be the new camera that the HDR-FX1000 finally won out in a couple of important areas. Ironically, it was not image quality. The Panny produces a beautiful image at it's highest quality setting. It's also suprisingly good in low light, and probably as good as any HD cam anywhere near this price range in low light situations. So where did it fall short? It wasn't the lens

Sony HDR-FX1000

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 13:52:16 PST

After much research, I finally decided to pull the trigger on Sony's new camera. This is a much more fitting replacement for the venerable HDR-FX1 than the HDR-FX7 was. On the plus side, the latter can be had at much reduced prices now, and is a good camera for the current price. Several advances come with this camera, including new glass, and new CMOS sensors. Amazingly, Sony has finally

Scientific Atlanta and Time Warner

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 08:18:32 PDT

We recently moved, and had to give up our much loved Grande Cable and internet. We had the HD service from Grande, and this required a switch away from using our Tivo as our DVR and tuner. It was a tough adjustment, as nothing compares to a Tivo in terms of functionality. After a time, we became used to the Motorola DVR, and it worked reasoably well for us. It was definitely no Tivo, but

Is Epson green with greed?

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:09:46 PDT

After Epson's recent victory against aftermarket ink suppliers this past year, affordable aftermarket cartridges are nearly impossible to find. The ones that are available are either old stock, or of dubious quality. Let me say that I do feel that Epson produces some of the Best ink jet printers on the market, if not the very best. Print quality is amazing, and you get a great bang for your

Samsung T-10 PMP

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:33:21 PDT

You know, I just seem to keep holding out hope for an iPod killer. In some ways, this player does come closer than most any out there. Nice form factor, beautiful display, and great sound that I feel is superior to most iPods. What did finally cause me to pull the trigger and buy this thing is bluetooth support. Not just for headphones, though it does do that, but you can actually take calls

HD DVD has lost the war

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:55:55 PST

As if one more final nail was needed in this coffin, Onkyo announces their departure from the now vacant HD DVD camp. It's pretty amazing how quickly this format has fallen. I've never seen anything like this, and I've lived through quite a number of formats in my lifetime. I will say one thing. This has nothing to do with which format is better in terms of technology. Ah I was so pleased

1234 and resolution

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:02:32 PDT

I once was taken away many a time by a music video. I witnessed the dawn of MTV. Of course, many of the videos of that time look more than a bit dated now. I've watched few in recent years, but still love music. I'm not so old that I can't appreciate this enjoyable tune by Fiest.These days, not quite as many music videos stand out in my mind. Perhaps it's a curse of inexhaustible budgets,

A new camera from Sony

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:40:47 PDT

It seems that Sony drops a new camera every time I turn around these days. This one has a couple of interesting features that make stand out a bit. For one thing, it's a shoulder mount cam, and the second puzzler is that it's projected to sell for about $1900. It's probably safe to say that this camera won't feel as robust as some of the good old DSR series units. I don't see how they could

User generated video: Money from the memes?

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:37:59 PDT

In a sea of user generated online video, where some are cute, and so many are just awful, once in a while you get a surprise. So much of what's found on YouTube, and many other online video sites these days is the work of amateurs. Some of these videos might only have meaning to friends and family. A clip of the baby's first steps for example. There's certainly nothing at all wrong with this,

Better audio makes for better video

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 08:47:45 PDT

I was recently talking with a videographer friend. A great shooter with years of experience. Discussing a problem with low audio levels in editing, I asked if the audio was normalized and was compression used? The answer was no to both, and it turns out that this person was not really familiar with compressions, and how to use it.In my experience, they're not alone. Good audio is crucial to

UFO camping lights and the mic light

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 11:51:17 PDT

I ran across this thread on DVinfo.net recently about the "Mic Light" and the very similar "UFO Camping Light". It was implied in an earlier posting that the Flolight folks were simply reselling the same camp light for a good bit more money. Turns out they were refitting the units with LEDs of a more useable color temperature, and a higher quality. Having had experience with circuit board

Did the MPAA pirate a film?

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:35:02 PDT

This film was released a year or so ago, and the filmmaker appeared at last years SXSW. Damn sorry I missed the appearance at the downtown Alamo. perhaps you don't know these last two sentences mean? If you lived in Austin as I do, you would. In short, it's a festival of music, film, art, tech, and more. Anyways, I think Kirby Dick is a new hero in my book. OK, so I've not seen this film

Apple to support both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD?

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 06:22:18 PDT

According to an article on Think Secret, Apple is considering supporting both not only Blu-Ray (it's been a member of the consortium for some time) but HD-DVD as well. As a PC user myself, I was ignorant of the fact that Apple did not yet have have support for either high definition disc format. As a chosen media platform by many, the demand is definitely out there.The recent announcements

Toshiba HD-A2

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 06:15:54 PDT

Well I've gone and done it now. A new Toshiba HD-A2 is now part of the ol' audio video system. The prices on these players has been dropping rapidly over these past months, and this particular player was had as a refurb for $200. The original HD-A1 suffered from slow startup among a few other niggles. The A2 improves greatly on this by cutting starup time down to around 30 seconds. HD-DVD

Creative Cow

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 06:12:28 PDT

I've made mention of Creative Cow back in the days of the podcast, but I think it deserves another plug. They now offer a great magazine, in addition to all of the great resources on the site. For those that may not know, Creative Cow is a great resource for information and tutorials on a wide range of video production software, as well as some great hardware info. They feature forums that are

Sanyo VPC-C40 Camcorder

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 05:48:34 PDT

This little flash camcorder is pretty amazing. I just came across this at Radio Shack as a closeout. You might still be able to find one at a local store. I couldn't resist the $200 price tag. Sure, it won't take the place of even a mid line MiniDV camcorder, but it has a couple of definite advantages.Looking to take a trip in the next few months, I was hesitant to drag both a camcorder, and

Vizio L42 Plasma HDTV

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:49:37 PDT

This Vizio L42 is the most recent addition to our home entertainment rig. It will also be used for some client presentations. These sets can be found online for a heck of a deal these days, as was this one. It's a respectable performer, and actually looked better than some bigger name brand units. It's currently being used with a non upscaling DVD player, and the set's own upscaler does a very

LG HD-DVD ROM / Blu-Ray Burner combo

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 07:24:34 PDT

A review on the new LG combo drive. Seems it made a good impression, but there's definitely a catch. You'll need to save up almost $1200 for this little gem.You'd better also save a few dollars for Blu-Ray blanks, as they run about $10 to $20 per disc right now. You can get up to 50GB per dual layer disc, so when you look at this just from the data backup angle alone, it seems a bit more

DIY Camcorder

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 06:57:57 PDT

Pretty darn clever idea here. A home brewed camcorder! It actually looks pretty darn nice in the photos. While it may lack some of the features of factory built rigs, it comes in at a fraction of the price. Interestingly, this sort of modular design is the new trend in higher end cameras. Take the Red One camera for example. The camera itself is just the imaging unit, and it too can live on

A handy monopod

noreply@blogger.com (Pixelriffic) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:15:47 PDT

This is actually my second one of these, a Manfrotto 3245 monopod. My first was purchased a couple of years ago, but sadly was left behind at a shoot, and never seen again. Apparently, someone ended up with a really nice monopod.Of course I did have a second `pod to use, but it just wasn't the same. Personally, I don't see how other event videographers do without one. The real difference with