In all my research for YouTube in the previous post I decided to create a tutorial for Windows movie maker with all my new found knowledge. I figured since this is a video site I should attempt to create a video tutorial. Here is my first one

Like most people I hate the sound of my recorded voice. Perhaps next time I can hire Don LaFontaine.

I used camtasia to capture the screen and then I edited in Vegas Studio. Creating keyframes to zoom in on the screen was a bit of a hassle.

I would really like to hear some feedback so leave a comment to let me know what you think.

YouTube.com is a widly popular video sharing site. I recently wanted to upload some videos and thought I would share some info I have found.
The maximum size of the video can be 100M. YouTube accepts MPEG, MOV and AVI and I think MP4.

Once you upload the video YouTube reencodes the video into a Macromedia Flash Streaming format(LFV) which is displayed at 425X350. However the actual size of the video is 240X180. This makes the quality suffer a bit.

It seems like you can upload 320X240 or 720X480 and the final quality is not affected either way. I also tried some experiments with MPEG versus MOV and again I could not really see any difference in the final product. I think the sound quality was a little better when I did the initial encoding in MPEG.

I was working on a few home video projects and though it would be cool to create a little montage for each DVD. Let’s face it. Sometimes home movies can be a little boring.

Anyhoo there is a program that cam with my HP PC called muvee autoProducer

It could not be simpler to create a video montage set to your favorite songs. You basically choose a video clip, choose a song and then choose a style. That’s it. In minutes you have a very slick looking montage.

The program comes with with different styles which modify the fades cuts and effects to certain moods. For example they have a “music video style” which is great to create montages with quicj cuts and MTV style effects. They also have more laid back style perfect for everything from wedding to sporting events.

In addition to vidoes you can import still pictures to create very cool picture slide shows. Again Muvee will create all kinds of great effects to really bring still images to life.

You can output your finished Muvee in just about any video format.

This program is a huge timesaver. To create something like this in a regular video editor would take hours.

Click here for a FREE trial of muvee autoProducer

I just wanted to pass on my experience with Ulead DVD Moviefactory 5. Although the software has a very “wizard” interface it’s a surprisingly powerful application. For one thing it can encode audio in AC3, which will save space so you can encode your video at a higher bitrate.

Version 5 now allows you to encode with two-pass VBR.

Another feature which I seem to have discovered lately is that it will import DVD’s and allow you to do multi-trims, create menus and author all without re-encoding the video files.

ABout the only bug I have discoverd is that it doesn’t quite save projects correctly. You need to save your menu as template if you ever want to use it again.

As I mentioned a couple posts back I went out to my local Wallyworld and picked up the Polaroid DRM-2001G DVD Recorder. I paid $219.

I haven’t fully tested it but so far I’m pretty impressed especially for the price. It has an 80G hard drive. It does a very nice job of recording and I do find the hard drive to be handy. The remote is a little confusing but once you get the hang of it it’s not too bad.

I’ve transfered some Home Video VHS tapes from a VCR through the composite inputs.

How were the results ?

My family commented that the recordings looked better than the original VHS tapes. As a matter of fact the final DVD’s look better than DVD’s I’ve made when going from a VCR, through a DV camera with pass-through to convert to DV-AVI.

In the HQ (1 hour mode) the recorder encodes at 9Mbs. The YesDVD feature is actually pretty cool. I think some people will find it quite useful.

I have been using the unit a lot in the past few weeks and I will post a complete review soon.

The Pioneer DVR-640H-S DVD Recorder is becoming widely available. It is the only DVD recorder in the current Pioneer lineup.

This is a great machine for someone looking to use the machine as a VCR. It’s too bad there’s no firewire input for digital camcorders, no video component input and no HDMI output with upconversion.

If you’re looking for a machine primarily to transfer tapes there are better choices like the anticipated JVC DR-M101S.

That has been a lot of interest lately on the AV forums regarding the Polaroid DRM-2001G DVD Recorder. It is a hard drive based recorder that has a typical list of features such as a 80G hard drive, front DV jack and front and rear A/V inputs.

In addition this unit has something called YesDVD. YesdDVD promises to automagically create a final DVD that includes:

• Automated Intelligent Chapters
• Music Video Highlights
• Custom DVD Case Coversheet
• LSI chipset

I am hoping the automatic chapter creation can detect scene changes on an analog source.

There are three things that really makes this unit look like a winner.

First of all the recording quality seems to be getting a thumbs up. Secondly it is a piece of cake to upgrade the 80G hard drive to a larger drive.

The best part ? How does a price of $219 sound ?

So far these units are only available at Walmart. I plan to buy one very shortly and I will post a detailed review.

I can’t wait to see how heavily the price will be discounted during the holiday season.

I recently purchased two sets of generic ink cartridges for my Epson R200. I bought them from supermediastore.com and paid about $17. The ink was manufactured by G&G.

I have been quite pleased withthe results. I can see no difference between the generic ink and the genuine epson ink. I printed close to 150 discs so far and there have been no clogs or any other problems.

I don’t use my Epson for printing photos so I can’t comment on the ink for that purpose.

I mentioned a few weeks ago I I bought a Pioneer 111d and a NEC ND-3550A.

I just got done burning about 75 Dual layer discs and 75 single layer discs.
The dual layer discs were Verbatim 20 DVD+R Dual Layer Inkjet Printable. They are rated at 2.4X yet users on forums and Nero report they can be burnt at 8x.

I attempted a few burns at 6X and had two coasters on the Pioneer. I then burned at 4X on the NEC and the Pioneer.

I also burned a bunch of Taiyo Yuden 16X DVD-R White Inkjet Hub Printable at 8X. the TY’s burned perfectly at 8X in both burners. I printed the discs on my Epson R200.

Overall I am quite happy with both burners. I have a little more confidence in the NEC burner than the Pioneer. I have absolutely no justification for that statement. There were no controlled tests and I also did not attempt higher than 4X burns in the NEC. If I had maybe I would have gotten a few coaters as well.
You can’t go wrong with either burner.

Camcorderinfo reports that the first first HD-DVD standalone burner is available for $3600 !. Although that price seems outrageous try to remember back to the old days of computers and remember what the price was for a IBM XT.

I personally will sit on the sidelines for a while and watch developments in the HD-DVD world. Heck, I still have a 36″ CRT television.