Samsung announces Internet connectivity on a variety of TV sets as well as several Blu-ray players. The Samsung TVs use Yahoo’s widget to access movie services like Amazon Video On Demand or Blockbuster On Demand as well as videos from Flickr, eBay and YouTube. Other manufacturers will surely follow Samsung’s lead soon.

Streaming movies on your TV set is coming of age. Blu-ray disc players and other devices can tap into online-movie services from companies like Netflix and Blockbuster. This may make obsolete video-on-demand from cable companies.

Lately I’ve been watching “instant download” movies from Netflix on my older laptop. While it’s not as nice as seeing the film on my TV, for $9 a month, I can watch as many films as a I want. And I can purchase a box that put Netflix movies on my TV. It’s a great service from what I’ve seen so far. Laptop audio sucks so I take a dual stereo mini plug to two rca cables into the TV set and turn to video input 3. The rich feature film sound is so much better this way. Now I’ll have to get one of the Netflix TV boxes.

A couple criticisms: 1. The “extras” you get with a DVD are missing. Interviews with director, screenwriter, actors and Director of Photography and the “making of” documentaries are interesting and fun. I often enjoy the extras as much as I do the film itself. For filmmakers these extras are like going to film school.. 2. One other thing that is lacking on these instant downloads is the DVD sleeve. I often refer to the DVD sleeve which includes a summary of the film including cast, date and a few other details. There’s no sleeve of course since there’s no DVD.

Despite these complaints, the Netflix offer of unlimited films instantly downloaded for $9 a month is hard to beat. 62% of Netflix subscribers have streamed movies and this number will grow. Netflix says they expect to keep DVDs for 5 to 10 years.

For more information on TVs and streaming movies, see the NY Times article
“Some TVs Go Directly Online for Streaming Movies”

Why would a video producer put this video on his website’s home page? Mike Cornett, friend and VideoUniversity customer, did just that. See his home page at Visual Media Concepts. He’s not hitting you over the head with hard sell – hire me, hire me. He’s getting your attention and making you want to know more about this producer who thinks outside the box.

In my most recent ezine I urged producers to produce a very short promotional video for
one of the favorite non-profits. This can do more good than you might imagine.

First, it will help the non-profit and these days many need all the helps they can get. They need donations and volunteers. Second, it will be fun to produce a short video you can believe in, and in the process you will meet people. Talk to everyone and exchange business cards. Some of them may think of a video they’d like to produce so naturally they will ask you about your services. Third, it will help you promote your business by getting your name around.

The zoo video above happened accidentally. I was about to start talking to local non-profits to show just what I meant when I recalled I just visited the zoo in Providence just a few days ago. I had taken my cheap palmcorder just for fun and home movies. Later I realized I should put this together and put it on YouTube just like I suggested in the ezine. So voila! Already I’ve had some nice comments about it. Who knows what it might do. As much as I believe in planning ahead, sometimes you’ve also got to be ready to take advantage of opportunities.

I’m going to produce some more short videos for local non-profits just to help them. So why not try this yourself and see what happens. If you do, be sure to let me know so I can give you and the non-profit some free publicity.

Hal

Welcome to the VideoUniversity webcast.

Whether you produce corporate, wedding, or any kind of video, there’s a
lot to be made in duplicating the videos you’ve produced. Shawn Lam just
did a video review for our blog about a tower duplicator he built. Check
it out at the VideoUniversity blog. Now you may not need the kind of
duplication volume that Shawn does. If you want a disk publisher that both
prints and duplicates without your having to touch it, then a disc
publisher may be right for you.

Today I’m going to review the Primera “Bravo Two” Disc Publisher. It can
duplicate and print 50 DVDs or CDs and it uses a robotic arm so you don’t
have to feed disks one-at-a-time. It has one drive and prints at 4800 dpi
on inkjet- printable discs. It does require a computer (Mac or PC) and
connects with a USB 2.0 interface. It includes software for duplication
and printing. Once you set it up, it is very easy to use. I’ve found you
can use your computer for other things while it’s duplicating, but many
people advise you not to do this. So you may want to duplicate when you’re
not using the computer.

You’re not supposed to use it with the cover open, but for this
demonstration I’ve tricked the door sensor so we can see how it works. The
Disc Publisher is pricey, about $1,700. I bought mine used on the
VideoUniversity Trading Post for $500. If you want a used one, you may
find it on the Trading Post, Ebay or elsewhere. Be careful with the model
descriptions. Some are printers only, even though they look nearly
identical to the publishers which do both copying and printing. I found
one on eBay where the guy called it a Disk Publisher, but it was only a
printer. The next step up from the Bravo 2 is the Bravo Pro which has two
drives and can handle 100 discs at a time.

After installing the software, I had trouble getting it working, so I
eventually called Primera Tech Support who determined that the problem was
a conflict with my internal DVD burner. He suggested I use only the Data
Disk option instead of the image job or other options. This has worked
just fine for duplicating DVDs & CDs.

The machine is easy to use. First it burns the disks then prints them. You
do have to use inkjet-printable disks because it prints right on the disk
itself, not on a label. The robotic arm and print head move with enough
force to make a light table wobble which is kind of funny, but the machine
does what it says it will do and that’s a good thing.

The biggest problem is the cost of ink cartridges. You need two
cartridges: a color cartridge and a black and white. These sell for about
$36 each plus shipping. You probably won’t find them locally. Depending on
which combinations of colors you print, it should give you 100 copies on a
cartridge, but if you use mostly magenta in your prints, that can drop to
only 75 copies. Either way that’s expensive printing.

Since the print engine is a Lexmark printer, people have tried using the
Lexmark 26 cartridge, but that doesn’t seem to work. I found a refill kit
from a small company called DVD Ink Refills – good name! Their refill kit
for the Bravo 2 sells for $40 and provides 10 color refills and 3 black
refills. It comes with an instructional DVD.

I’ll be buying this one soon. It will save a lot of money. I’ll let you
know how that works out. This could affect the Primera warranty, so read
your warranty.

So there it is. I can recommend this automatic printer/burner. It is
expensive and so are the ink cartridges, but it looks like there’s a way
to refill them inexpensively. After a difficult time getting it going,
tech support was very helpful. The machine has performed well for me.

Duplication is a profit center so the more video services you sell, the
more DVDs you’ll have to duplicate. Go sell some video services and always
give your customers a duplication option.

Please visit VideoUniversity.com. If you have questions or comments about
The Primera Bravo Publishers, we’d love to hear from you. We don’t check
Youtube very often so to ensure that we see your comments, please make
them on VideoUniversity.com. While you’re there, subscribe to our free
newsletter.

Thank you for joining us.

Happy Trails

These devices will be everywhere in the next few months. The player will make its debut in September, appearing in a CBS Network and PepsiCo joint ad in select editions of the US showbiz magazine Entertainment Weekly. The selected editions will go only to subscribers in Los Angeles and New York City areas.

For the wedding videographer, this device will be a perfect add-on. John Goolsby, a leading event videographer is already using the device. See http://videouniversity.com/forums/gforum.cgi?post=492612;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread

and scores of current and old shows too.

The answer is Hulu. According to Neilsen Online, Hulu is growing faster than Youtube. Granted this is based on only one month’s comparison, but clearly Hulu is doing something right. Oh, by the way Moonlighting was an American television series that first aired on ABC from 1985 to 1989 with a total of 67 episodes. The show starred Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd as private detectives and was a mixture of drama, comedy and romance that is considered a classic spoof of television detective shows. Most filmmakers I know loved the show.

Even the music was special. The show’s theme song was performed by jazz singer Al Jarreau and became a hit. The show is also credited with making Willis a major star while providing Shepherd with a much needed critical success.
You can see 13 of the shows on Hulu

The show was innovative in a number of ways

Breaking the fourth wall

Moonlighting frequently broke the fourth wall, with many episodes including dialogue which made direct references to the scriptwriters, the audience, the network, or the series itself. (For example, when a woman is trying to commit suicide by jumping into a bathtub with a radio, Addison says, “Are you nuts? The network’ll never let you do that, lady!”) This technique had been used previously in shows like such as Burns and Allen and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, but Moonlighting was the first scripted TV series to weave self-referential dialogue directly into the show’s plot.

Fantasy

The series also embraced fantasy. In the second season the show aired “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice”, an episode that featured two lengthy and elaborately produced black and white dream sequences. This was highly unusual in the days of color TV. Why produce a show in black and white while, we have this wonderful color TV? That episode was about a murder that had occurred in the 1940s. David and Maddie are told about by the inheritor of a famous nightclub where the murder had taken place. That’s where the story starts.

It’s a great series you can watch on Hulu. But what’s this got to do with making money as a video producer? Plenty. If you’ve been reading our newsletter, you know how important I think it is to be aiming your video business toward the web. Start a YouTube Channel, duplicate it on Vimeo, work on promoting your web site, etc, etc.

Producers have gone from YouTube to TV. Just see
Fred on YouTube

You could too.

The folks at Crop Cam take aerial photography down on the farm. Some cool photos show 320 acres of farmland from 2100 feet. I’m not sure why they do this. I guess they can watch the crops grow, but it is cool. I want one. Maybe they’ll give us one to review.

You can contact Jon and see some of his work at his web site http://particular.tv/

(VU Webcast #3 Part 1)

Hey guys, I’m Hal Landen from VideoUniversity. Today we will see an overview of After Effects courtesy of Jon Mello. Jon’s originally from Bristol, Rhode Island. He does a lot of After Effects work for TV commercials and corporate video projects. Jon’s going to give us an overview of the After Effects Interface. This is a two part video. You can see both parts at the VideoUniversity blog. Here is Part 1.
——————————
Hi, I’m Jon Mello from VideoUniversity and today we’re going to be doing a rudimentary introductory look into Adobe After Effects. Most folks when they edit their video, tend to use the built in title generators and animation within their editing programs whether it be Premiere, Avis, Final Cut or Vegas. Sometimes After Effects can look daunting and look a little too complicated. Today we are working in After Effects CS3, but what I’m going to show you applies to all the versions of After Effects including CS4 all the way back to After Effects1 or Coso which was developed in Providence Rhode, Island close to where we are recording this.

This is the basic After Effects Interface and what we’ll do in this video is introduce each of the different regions of the Interface. First we’re going to start up here at the toolbar which is also shortcut drive and it probably behooves you to learn the shortcuts over the course of time. But right away we’re going to start at the pointer which is just like the selector tool in any other program. You can select things. The hand tool kind of shifts things around just like if you’re in Photoshop.

Here we have the zoomer which is just what you would expect it to be. And these are camera rotators which we’ll get into later when we get into 3D cameras. The Pan Behind Tool is also another handy thing like a slip edit tool or anchor point adjustment tool. Then you have masks and beziers just like if you were to put a garbage matt in with your editing program.

Here’s your text tool. You can have multiple options of horizontal text or vertical text. Next to it we have the paint brush, the clone tool, the eraser, and the pin which is used for a very powerful aspect of After Effects which is called Puppet Tool which we’ll get into in another episode.

Over here is the project bin which is like the bin in your editor where you have all the project information. This particular project just happens to be 864 by 486 with a square pixel aspect ratio. Over is your effect controls. Right now we do not have any effects applied to our video footage so this is empty. So going back to our project window, we see a preview of our video that is loaded. And in this particular sample, we have video I made for an organization that wanted a simple web site animation to show their web site in action. Now of course I could have just screen captured the web site and used it as a still or done a pan over, but when you have After Effects, it’s easy and fun to dress it up a little bit and throw some interactivity in which increases the production value.

Now we’re going to look to the right and see the viewer which is just like the view in your editor. You can zoom in on it and do all types of things. But this is where you would see the video you’re working on.

Over here we have all the different types of information you may need for your project: the color value information, the alpha value information, the x and y coordinates of the cursor. Then we have the audio which I don’t use too often because After Effects isn’t really an audio editor.

Down here we have the time controls. What we have in the time controls is just like the playback options in your editing program: play, frameback, roll back to the in point. You can select a frame rate for your previews where it loads all the frames into RAM and plays it back at the rate you set.
Here we have the skip frames. This is another way to save resources. If you have complex scene and you just want to see just the mechanics of it and not the fine aspects of it. You can skip up to five frames. It will play every fifth frame.

And here in Resolution we have even more control over handling the resources. The resolution can be set to auto, or any of these choices. “From Current Time” is where the play head is. And full screen will play back the Ram preview in the full screen mode.

Here is our character generator where we can have the list of different fonts available to you. This looks like the same as you’ll find in PhotoShop or Illustrator. The Paragraph information is the same as you’d expect for any of the imaging editing programs.

After Effects is very well known for its effects palette. Here are all of the effects. Now I do have some after market effects in here. After Effects comes well stocked from Adobe with tons of effects plug-ins you can apply to your footage. You can manipulate these effects in an infinite number of ways.

In other videos we’ll look at some of the more popular plug-ins such as Trap Code Plug-ins. These are always a crowd-pleaser. We have Shine, Star Glow and other effects you see on television commercials.
——————-
Thank you, Jon, for that helpful introduction to the After Effects Interface. You can see Part 2 of this After Effects overview in the VideoUniversity blog. Please visit VideoUniversity.com. If you have questions about AfterEffects or comments, we’d love to hear from you. Some people make comments on YouTube, but we don’t check Youtube very often so to ensure that we see your comments please make them on VideoUniversity.com

Thanks for watching.

Happy Trails!

You can contact Jon and see some of his work at his web site http://particular.tv/

(transcript to come)

The new Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera can capture up to 1080p HD resolution. It has an SD card slot and a removable, rechargeable battery. You get composite and HDMI cables, but you don’t need the cables, just swing out the USB arm. It even has stabilization which is very helpful in these pocket cameras. The picture looks very good in low light and it takes 5 megapixel stills.

The bundled software is not Mac compatible. The MSRP price of $179 does not include a optional memory card which holds 32 GB for 10 hours of videos. For more information see
http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=15340&pq-locale=en_US