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September 28, 2004
1000 GB DVDs
Future DVDs could hold 100 times more information than current discs.
Imperial College London researchers in the UK are developing a new way of storing data that could lead to discs capable of holding 1,000 gigabytes.
It means that every episode of The Simpsons could fit on a disc the size of a normal DVD.
Lecturer Dr Peter Torok revealed the technique called Multiplexed Optical Data Storage (Mods) at the Asia-Pacific Data Storage Conference 2004 in Taiwan.
472 hours of film
DVDs are one of the most successful consumer products in history. Most DVDs have two layers and can hold up to 8.5Gb.
Work is already well advanced on the next generation.
One technology, HD-DVD (High Definition DVD), can hold up to 30Gb, while a rival format called Blu-ray offers 50Gb of storage.
The technique developed by the Imperial College team could offer much more on a disc.
The researchers believe their technique could be used to create a disc with four layers, each with 250GBs - the equivalent of 118 hours of video per layer.
A four-layer DVD could hold one terabyte (1,000Gbs) of data, enough for 472 hours of film, or every episode of The Simpsons ever made.
The Mods technique is laser-based like existing DVD and CD technology. A disc is made up of tiny grooves filled with pits that reflect the laser as a series of ones and zeroes.
Reflected light
Current discs carry one bit of data per pit. But the researchers say that by using angled ridges in the pits, they can alter the way light behaves.
The end result is a way of encoding and detecting up to 10 times more information from one pit.
"We came up with the idea for this disc some years ago," said Dr Torok, "but did not have the means to prove whether it worked.
"To do that we developed a precise method for calculating the properties of reflected light, partly due to the contribution of Peter Munro, a PhD student working with me on this project.
"We are using a mixture of numerical and analytical techniques that allow us to treat the scattering of light from the disc surface rigorously rather than just having to approximate it.
"The future for the mobile device market is likely to require small diameter discs storing much information. This is where a Mods disc could really fill a niche," he said.
It could be some time before the technology makes it way into the living room. The Imperial College team believe it could take five years to perfect their technique, with a commercial version available by 2010, depending on funding.
Posted by robeva at 04:18 PM | Comments (0)
Sony u-turn on MP3 support
Consumer electronics giant Sony Corporation has reversed its policy and now says that it will support the popular MP3 file format for some of its portable music players.
The company says that a new range of flash memory-based portable music players will be able to play both MP3 and Atrac formats. Previously Sony had insisted that its customers use its own proprietary Atrac format, forcing them to convert if they wanted to change to and from MP3.
The situation has become more pressing as MP3 continues to dominate the market as the de facto industry standard despite the efforts of some of the world's biggest IT companies to supercede it.
Sony now says that it is working on ways that customers might be able to convert their existing players to support MP3 as well as Atrac. This will help Sony compete with market leader Apple whose iPods support both MP3 and its proprietary Fairplay format. However, the company has not made any comment on whether it plans to offer any format other than Atrac via its Sony Connect online music store.
It also says that it hopes to be able to launch MP3 compatible players in Europe by the end of the year.
Posted by robeva at 10:10 AM | Comments (0)
Broadband price cuts
Further reductions in the cost of broadband are likely after BT has confirmed a cut in the cost of local loop unbundling (LLU). This is the process whereby third-party telcos get access to local exchanges to deliver broadband directly to customers.
With the latest price change taking effect from 30 September, the connection charge will go down to £37. Note, however, that annual rental will remain at £27.12. As recent as May 2004 - before the last cuts in June - the connection charge was £117 and annual rental £53.
Note that this is a change in wholesale pricing, made by BT Wholesale. It will be up to telcos such as Bulldog, NTL and Wanadoo to pass on any reductions to end-users.
How has BT managed to accommodate itself to the new pricing levels? By 'investing in new automated processes', it claims, although pressure from Ofcom has also forced its hand on this issue - see BT sets stage for broadband price cuts from back in May. The regulator declared that, as the current ATM-based national telecoms networks are replaced by IP-based networks, greater efficiencies should give more scope for infrastructure competition. As a result, BT committed itself to reduce the cost of LLU by up to 70 per cent.
The latest prices are claimed by BT to represent a 60 per cent cut since May, and BT says it is committed to achieving the 70 per cent total before the end of the year. So, expect further 'LLU price cut' stories sometime in November, to the tune of another 10 per cent...
'Our wholesale prices overall are falling steadily,' said Paul Reynolds, chief executive of BT Wholesale, 'and this move is designed to lead to market stimulation, and to develop a market in which those who are willing to innovate and invest can reap appropriate rewards.'
The downward trend in LLU pricing means that cable companies are increasingly seeing the value of this DSL-based technology. In the last week alone, both BT and NTL have invested in this area.
On completion of its LLU programme, for 300 exchanges, NTL will have added around two million potential customers to the eight million homes currently within reach of its cable network. For its part, Cable and Wireless aims to unbundle up to 400 exchanges, which is 30 per cent of the total, by the second half of 2005 at a cost of 40-50mn. The move is part of a strategy to establish the company as a leading competitor to BT in both voice and Internet provision in the coming years.
Details of BT Wholesale pricing can be found at www.btwholesale.com/pricing
As part of the announcement, Tom Maguire has been appointed to a new role of Dirctor of LLU, to oversee BT's operation in this area.
Posted by robeva at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)
September 24, 2004
Panasonic NVGS400B
Sony's DCR-TRV950 was the semi-professional's choice at launch, and resided on our A List for more than 18 months. With impeccable image quality and plenty of high-end features, but a price well under 1,500 GBP, the TRV950 was the ideal camcorder for those who couldn't justify the expense of a VX2000 or Canon XL1S. But three-chip technology has been filtering much further down the price spectrum of late, mostly thanks to Panasonic. Now that the TRV950 has been discontinued, its successor arrives to much fiercer competition. The timing of the DCR-HC1000's release couldn't have been better, as Panasonic has just launched it's new three-chipper, the NVGS400B.
They're similarly priced, and their base specifications are almost identical. Both use a trio of 1/4.7in CCDs, each with a resolution of 1.07 megapixels, and both cameras boast a full complement of manual controls and optical, rather than electronic, image stabilisation. Strangely, however, Sony has chosen to position the TRV950's successor more at the point-and-shoot market rather than the 'prosumer', whereas Panasonic seems to be heading the other way.
The differences are most pronounced with regard to manual control. Both camcorders are replete with options, including manual audio levels - essential for the semi-professional. The Panasonic has four white-balance modes - automatic, outdoor, indoor, and manual - as does the Sony. The Panasonic supports shutter speeds from 1/50 to 1/8,000 in camcorder mode, whereas the Sony ranges from 1/3 to 1/10,000. The Panasonic has iris levels from 0-18dB, equivalent to F16 to F1.7, whereas the Sony has a slider with no specific F-stop values.
However, Sony has taken the dubious step of making all of its manual controls accessible only via the LCD panel touchscreen. There's a lens ring, but this is just for focus or zoom, which the user can toggle between using a switch. The Panasonic, on the other hand, uses its lens ring for a plethora of functions. One button toggles between zoom or focus like the Sony, but another switches the ring over to shutter or iris adjustment. Sony's touchscreen does offer some unique features, in particular spot exposure and focus. But most semi-professionals will find the lack of discrete function buttons disappointing.
Now that widescreen is more popular, Panasonic has both a menu-accessible Cinema mode, which places black bars at the top and bottom of the picture, and two types of 16:9 aspect ratio DV recording. One records at 50 interlaced fields per second, and the other at 25fps. The Sony, on the other hand, just has 16:9 DV widescreen mode, with no frame option.
With both camcorders set on automatic, video quality is near-identical, which isn't surprising considering the similar CCD setup. In bright sunlight, both exhibit great colour fidelity, good contrast and accurate exposure. Sony's optical image stabiliser is a little more effective than Panasonic's, but both are in a different league when compared to cheaper camcorders. Under artificial lighting, again, there was little to separate the two, with faithful colours even in poor illumination.
Audio is one area of differentiation. While both camcorders have decent built-in microphones plus accessory shoes for attaching external upgrades, the Sony goes one better. It has a pair of stereo mini-jacks for recording surround sound using the optional ECM-CQP1. However, we tried attaching two mics to the inputs and found that worked as well. The DV format supports either two channels of 16-bit or four of 12-bit audio, and Sony's surround system uses the latter - although you'll require software bundled with VAIO computers to capture all four audio tracks. However, some DV capture software lets you choose which pair to acquire with the video, so you could strip off the audio in two passes and compile it that way.
The cameras are a sea apart for still images. While the Sony appears to use the resolution of just one CCD to achieve a maximum image size of 1,152 x 864, the Panasonic gangs its megapixel sensors together, adds interpolation, and ends up with a maximum resolution of 2,288 x 1,728. However, a high 8:1 compression is used, compared to the Sony's 4:1. With colour fidelity equivalent, the Panasonic's much higher resolution gives it a considerable edge overall. Whereas the Sony's photos aren't good enough for printing, the Panasonic's definitely are.
Both camcorders are capable of awesome video image quality in a broad range of lighting conditions. However, we can't help feeling Sony has taken a step in the wrong direction with the HC1000. While the touchscreen is a great feature, it isn't going to win it more professional users. In contrast, Panasonic's NVGS400B makes the most important adjustments a single button-press away. The HC1000 is impressive enough to garner a Recommended award, but the Panasonic takes the mantle from Sony's TRV950 as the best affordable semi-professional camcorder.
Posted by robeva at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2004
xD Picture Card FAQ
The xD-Picture Card is a newly-developed ultra-compact storage media that is set to be a standard in the future of digital imaging. Despite its tiny dimensions, it boasts incredible storage capacities.
Development of the xD-Picture Card™ Ultra-Compact Digital Camera Memory Media
Q: What does 'xD' actually mean?
A: It was inspired by 'eXtreme digital', suggesting the excellence of this new memory media for recording, storing and transporting audiovisual information.
Q: What is the rationale for this new format?
A: There is a consumer demand for greater memory capacity, as well as the development of smaller and more innovative digital camera designs. Also, speed of storage is increasingly an issue as large image files and movie files become more and more common.
Q: Which companies were involved in the development of the xD-Picture Card™?
A: The card format was jointly developed by Fujifilm and Olympus.
Q: Will Fujifilm cameras accept the Olympus xD-Picture Card™, and vice versa?
A: Yes, but the use of the original equipment manufacturer's cards are recommended to ensure total support.
Q: Who will manufacture the xD-Picture Card™?
A: Initially, the production of the media will be by Toshiba Corporation.
Q: What will be the availability of the media?
A: xD-Picture Card™s will be available in all regions where Fujifilm and Olympus digital cameras are sold.
Q: What sizes of xD-Picture Card™ will be available?
A: There are plans to offer cards up to 8Gb in capacity. 512MB cards will be expected late summer 2003 with larger capacities (1GB, 2GB) appearing progressively from 2003.
Q: How big is an xD-Picture Card™?
A: Cards are an ultra-compact 20 x 25 x 1.7mm in size. With a volume of 0.85cc and a weight of 2g, the xD-Picture Card™ boasts the smallest form factor of any digital memory card, making it exceptionally portable and convenient. The miniature size of the new card will enable development of even smaller digital cameras.
Q: What accessories are available for the xD-Picture Card™?A: DPC-R1, DPC-AD, DPC-CF.
Q: Are there any plans to produce a floppy disk adaptor for the xD-Picture Card™?
A: No. The floppy disk drive is becoming less popular, therefore it was not considered appropriate to provide an adaptor to support this format.
Q: Can the xD-Picture Card™ be used in cameras designed to accept SmartMedia™ cards?
A: No. Form factors mean that compatibility between the xD-Picture Card™ and SmartMedia™ - compatible cameras is not possible.
Q: Can the xD-Picture Card™ be used in other digital devices?
A: Though notionally designed and optimised for image storage, there are plans to adapt the new media for PDAs, audio players and other IT appliances.
Q: Does the xD-Picture Card™ feature ID copy protection in the same way as SmartMedia™ cards?
A: Yes.
Q: Can the xD-Picture Card™ be used to store music and movie data?
A: Cards are fully usable for both movies and music, and as they include an ID, they can be encoded for copy protection.
Q: Can the new cards be used with mobile telephones?
A: There are no indications of such use at present.
Q: Why is there no write-protect feature?
A: Research into other media has shown that write-protect is very rarely used. Also a greater degree of PC compatibility can be achieved by removing it.
Q: What is the expected life of the cards?
A: Lifecycles will vary according to how the cards are used, but under normal circumstances, there is no reason for concern about the lifecycle.
Q: Will the cards be offered under the Toshiba brand?
A: This is to be confirmed.
Q: Does the consignment manufacturer, Toshiba, plan to release an xD-Picture Card™ compatible digital camera?
A: This is to be confirmed.
Q: Who holds the trademark for the new xD-Picture Card™?A: The xD-Picture Card™ trademark is held by Fujifilm, Olympus and Toshiba.
Q: Will only Fujifilm and Olympus market the xD-Picture Card™?A: Fujifilm and Olympus will be the first two companies to market the media, but a wide range of other digital camera manufacturers have been invited to join them.
Q: Will sales of SmartMedia™ cards continue?
A: Yes. Fujifilm will continue to sell SmartMedia™ cards. Indeed, several new cameras in Fujifilm's Christmas and 2003 range (including the FinePix F601, and the new FinePix F401) will be SmartMedia™ compatible.
Q: What is the current market share of SmartMedia™ cards?
A: SmartMedia™ cards account for around 40% of the current worldwide market, the largest share of any format.
Q: What is the likely compatibility of the xD-Picture Card™ with Fujifilm Digital Imaging (FDi) printing equipment and services?
A: It is expected that Fujifilm FDi printing systems will be made compatible. Requests will be made that other manufacturers' equipment is also made compatible. Existing Fujifilm products, such as, the SmartPix, and SmartPix Mini, will be compatible using one of the announced adapters.
Q: How will the price of the new cards compare with those of SmartMedia™ cards?
A: Prices are expected to be similar to SmartMedia™.
Posted by robeva at 03:59 PM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2004
Alice wins Loebner Prize
A computer chat program called Alice has won a prestigious prize for human-like conversation for the third time. It was judged to be chattiest bot out of the four finalists in the Loebner Prize for artificial intelligence held in New York on Sunday.
British hopeful, Jabberwacky, came second in the annual competition.
The event is based on the Turing Test, which suggests computers could be seen as intelligent if their chat was indistinguishable from those of humans.
Rules and responses
Alice won the international competition for the most convincing entry in 2000 and 2001. Its creator, American Richard Wallace, started work on the software in 1995.
Since then, he has been refining the conversational skills of the software through the Alice Foundation.
Alice works by following a complex set of rules that govern its responses to a question.
It managed to see off three other contenders to take the bronze award in the Loebner Prize for a third time, convincing judges with its life-like responses.
The British contender, Jabberwacky by Rollo Carpenter, had to settle for second place.
"I'm disappointed as I did believe I would win," Mr Carpenter told BBC News Online.
However, he remained hopeful that his program would be more successful in the years to come.
"Alice is based around a set of big and complex 'if statements' that analyses the text and respond to the one thing that you have immediately said.
"My program is more open and free," he said. "I believe the day of the learning AI will come soon. It is inevitable because a hand-coded system cannot keep up with an exponentially growing system which learns dynamically."
Virtual human
The Loebner Prize was started in 1990. It hands medals and cash prizes to the inventors of computer programs that can maintain the most life-like dialogue.
The competition is a variant of a stricter test first thought up by pioneering mathematician Alan Turing.
He suggested that computers could be said to be intelligent if their responses to conversational cues were indistinguishable from those of humans.
The contest in New York was hosted by American philanthropist Dr Hugh Loebner, who started the prize in 1990.
The Gold Medal, and a cash prize of $100,000 (£69,000), is awarded to the program that convinces half the judges that they are talking to a believable virtual person on screen.
The Silver Medal, plus a cash prize of $25,000 (£17,000), goes to the text-based program that convinces half the judges.
No Gold or Silver medals have ever been awarded. But every year, a bronze medal, and $2,000 (£1,400) cash, goes to the most convincing entry.
Posted by robeva at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)
September 19, 2004
An internet in space
The internet, or at least the protocols behind it, are being extended into space. The man credited by many with having created the net, Vint Cerf, explains his vision of an interplanetary net.
While I was a graduate student at UCLA I wound up working on a programme sponsored by something called the defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, otherwise known as Arpa.
My job was to write software for the computers that we ultimately started putting on the Arpanet in late 1969.
In the spring of 1973 one of my colleagues, Robert Kahn, described to me the different packet-switched networks that he was working on: the Arpanet that he and I both participated in, a mobile radio system, and a satellite-based data system.
His problem was 'how do I get all three of these networks to inter-work with each other?'.
We called that the "inter-net" problem because we were trying to get different "nets" to talk to each other.
Within about six months of that meeting, we had come up with a basic design of what we now know today as the internet.
We made a detailed description and by May 1974, almost exactly 30 years ago, we had published a paper that described how this could work and what the various pieces were.
That thing we described 30 years ago is in large measure what you have today.
We did not have all the applications written out but we had the underlying infrastructure for the communication.
Unfinished work
I then asked myself a question: What might we do to take advantage of what we have learned in building networks?
The internet in particular, this global system - what might we do to take those lessons and apply them to the support of the exploration of the solar system?
What you should appreciate is that whenever we launch a spacecraft it has on board a collection of instruments to sense various things.
It could be high quality photography, or things to sense infrared, or types of minerals and things like that that are on the surface of the planet.
We are trying to find out what is out there but in order to get that information back to Earth we have to communicate.
What we are looking at now is the possibility of using the internet kinds of protocols to support the communications for spacecrafts that are moving around in the solar system.
Gaining mileage
When you get it out in space everything is different. For one thing everything is a lot further apart.
For example, Earth and Mars are 35 million miles apart from each other, when closest together in their respective orbits around the Sun.
They are 235 million miles apart when farthest apart in their orbits.
At the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second, it takes five minutes for the light signal or radio signal to go from Earth to Mars when they are closest together, and 20 minutes when they are farthest apart.
The notion of trying to control a device remotely when it is very, very far away is an amusing image.
You can imagine seeing an image which is 20 minutes old coming from Mars, so you are seeing where your rover was 20 minutes ago.
If you want to move it somewhere, you move the joystick to say "go right' - but the rover will not hear that for another 20 minutes, so we have this 40 minutes' round-trip time.
If you have steered it in some direction which is going to get it in trouble, like going over a cliff, by the time you find out 20 minutes later it is long gone.
So there is no such notion as "now" in an environment where things are so far apart.
Layer by layer
We have made a considerable amount of progress in the last five years.
The project started around the spring time of 1998 and here it is about six years later.
We have gone through several iterations of the communication protocol design - the details of how you communicate in this strange environment.
What we have managed to do is to get several layers of protocols specified.
All of these kinds of network protocols come in like layers of a layer cake.
We defined the lower two levels: they are already on board the two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, that are on the surface of Mars today.
The other layers of protocol that we are testing here on planet Earth, we hope to send to outer space in around 2009 with a specialised telecommunications orbiter.
We are not too many years away from having a kind of two-planet internet in operation.
Posted by robeva at 07:26 PM | Comments (0)
September 15, 2004
Final Cut Express 2
By Stephen Schleicher
I've been using Final Cut Pro for over five years now. If you have read my previous reviews of this software or have used my Final Cut Pro Quick Tips, you know I love this application. So when Apple released Final Cut Express 2, you can probably guess I was pretty hyped up about it. After all, not everyone can afford (or needs) a $1000 Pro system - right? After using it for a couple of projects am I still sold on Final Cut Express 2 as a viable option for DV editors? You're just going to have to read on...
When I first fired up Final Cut Express 2, the first thought that crossed my mind was, "Wow, this looks a lot like Final Cut Pro 3, but with Final Cut Pro 4’s interface enhancements."
What makes Final Cut Express 2 such a valuable product for the DV editor, is that the interface, keyboard shortcuts, and workflow is very much like it’s big brother, Final Cut Pro 4. Apple made a great decision to duplicate the interface and workflow, because they realized that eventually, you the indie editor will want to upgrade. And because you already know the system, migrating will be the easiest thing you’ve ever done.
Not that I condone “fooling” a client, but because of the look of the Final Cut Express interface, a quick glance will make anyone think you are using the higher- end system.
Final Cut Express 2 is targeted directly to the DV- only editor. It does not have the support for uncompressed cards, Cinema Tools, and the like. So all the editor has to do is plug her DV camera or deck into the Mac’s FireWire port and she’s off and running. Final Cut Express 2 supports most of the DV25 formats, MiniDV and DVCAM, no matter if the footage was shot in NTSC or PAL (Final Cut Express 2 does not support DVCPRO 50). Because of this, Final Cut Express 2 is a perfect editing application to use on your laptop without worrying about a lot of extra overhead brought on by the Pro system.
Since the only way to edit video is to digitize it, your first stop will be the Log and Capture window. Here’s where you’ll find the first major difference between the Pro and Express systems.
To start, you will notice you don’t have a Log button. What this means is the editor only has two options when he is digitizing footage. Capture Now, which allows you to digitize directly from the current position of the tape, and Clip, which allows you to set In and Out points. There is a Capture Project button, which allows you to do a batch capture, but since I’ve already established that you can’t log and then batch capture your clips, the only time I can see you using this feature is if the editor has deleted all of his media files and needs to re-digitize an archived project. While batch capture is not imperative, it is one of the many features that have been stripped from the Pro application to make Final Cut Express 2. Someone new to editing video on the Mac (or migrating from that horrible iMovie*) will really like the Log and Capture features in Final Cut Express 2, but those who have worked on Pro and have to move to another system that only has Final Cut Express, may find themselves pouting at the loss of this feature.
During the edit session, Final Cut Express 2 really shines. Editing, trimming, and simple graphics are done exactly like Final Cut Pro. Again, see my comments above as to why this was a great move on Apple’s part. In addition to being able to perform all of the edits like the Pro system, all of the Pro Editing Tools are there as well – Ripple editing, Razor Blade Tool, Pen Tool, Slip and Slide editing, etc. If any of these were missing, I would be scolding Apple, but instead, I have nothing but praise. The Final Cut (Express and Pro) editing tools are, in my opinion, some of the easiest and most powerful tools found in any NLE system.
Final Cut Express 2 can include up to 99 audio and 99 video tracks. It also supports Nesting, sequences can be used in other sequences, reused, etc. Final Cut Express only allows you to undo 32 times as opposed to Pro’s 99. But really, when was the last time you needed to undo your edit more than 20 times? I usually divert to an auto-saved project if I have to go more than that.
So far so good, right? With the exception of the Batch Capture feature, it sounds very much like the Pro system. Well, not quite.
One of the other major differences between Express and Pro is the missing filters. For the most part Final Cut Express 2 has a limited number of effects and transitions that can be applied to clips. While most that who use this system will never need some of the more powerful effects, things like dip to color, dissolves, page peels, etc. are there. And because Final Cut Express 2 supports RT Extreme, most of these will be viewable in real- time. Real- time in this case means viewing on your desktop and not on your video monitor via FireWire. Again, it’s not that big of a deal, but something that should be noted.
Final Cut Express 2 does have Color Correction capabilities. The two-way color corrector is by no means the three-way color corrector powerhouse found in the Pro application, but it does give you the ability to adjust the angle of hue and overall balance of an image. It does an exceptional job, and if you need to do color correction on your DV footage, you will be pleased with it.
One feature not found in Final Cut Express is the ability to preview those areas of your video that are exceeding chroma or video levels. Final Cut Express also does not include any vectorscope tools. The only way to ensure your video is broadcast safe is to apply the Broadcast Safe filter to the clips in the Timeline.
n addition to not being able to see excess levels, you also don’t have the ability to superimpose your clip/Timeline information over the video in the Canvas window.
One bonus is that Final Cut Express does support importing of iMovie projects (something Final Cut Pro does not do), so if you are following the migration path (see Sidebar), Final Cut Express 2 fits perfectly.
If you need to add titles to your project, Final Cut Express does include the awful Final Cut titling tools found in the Pro version (which I don’t recommend anyone using), and it also includes the excellent Boris Calligraphy titling plug-in.
Most Pro users are probably using LiveType for most of the title and motion graphic needs, and are probably not using Boris Calligraphy that much any more. LiveType is currently not available as a stand- alone package, so Final Cut Express users will have to settle for the great titles that are created with Calligraphy. Final Cut Express 2 users should not feel left out here as those Pro users who are still on version 3 are in the same boat.
The other major difference between the Express 2 and Pro 4 system is in the Motion tab for individual clips. In the Pro version you can set keyframes within the Motion tab. In express you set keyframes in the Canvas window. Not that big of a deal, and actually a bit of a bonus over the Pro system.
You can also create Bezier handles on your keyframes for smoother motion and to create dynamic motion paths. I haven’t mentioned too much on the audio side, but I should point out that Final Cut Express 2 does have the Voice Over Tool and does include many of the audio filters and effects you will need for most enhancements/fixes you will need to do to your clips.
For music tracks, you can purchase SoundTrack or GarageBand as a separate application and use the two systems together.
When it comes time to output the final edit, Final Cut Express 2 allows you to print your sequence or individual clip in the Project window directly to DV tape, and if you need to loop the sequence multiple times, you can do that as well. You can also import your Final Cut Express project to iDVD or DVD Studio Pro complete with chapter markers (with comments and durations), or exported to any QuickTime format for streaming distribution.
Final Thoughts
So what is my final conclusion? Is Final Cut Express really for everyone? In a way, yes. If you are doing serious DV work and don’t need the flash wiz bang features found in the Pro system, then this is the product you need. It gives you all the power you will find in Final Cut Pro, but without the overhead. If you are a user who doesn’t need the motion graphics capability of LiveType, are not working on uncompressed video projects, and don’t need the 24fps capabilities of CinemaTools, then a great deal of money can be saved by using Final Cut Express 2. At $299, Final Cut Express 2 is a steal and a great step in the right direction for DV producers and editors.
Posted by robeva at 04:05 PM | Comments (0)
iTunes under fire
Apple's iTunes music download service has been accused by the Consumers' Association of overcharging UK users.
The group accused the service of charging UK-based customers nearly 20% more than those with addresses and payment details in France or Germany.
The group has written to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) asking it to investigate iTunes for possible breaches of EU competition rules.
Apple said its prices should be compared with other UK music downloads.
Higher prices
The Consumers' Association said that while iTunes charges UK based customers 79p to download one track, customers in France or Germany only have to pay 99 euro cents - the equivalent of 67p.
The association claimed that the iTunes service is set up in a way that prevents UK consumers from taking advantage of cheaper downloads.
UK consumers need to have a registered address and payment mechanism in France or Germany to access cheaper downloads, or face paying the higher price.
Consumers' Association spokesman Phil Evans said iTunes policy could be seen as anti-competitive and against EU rules.
"There appears to be considerable evidence that the iTunes set up is prejudiced against the UK public and distorts the very basis of the single market," he said.
"If the OFT agrees it will be another example of the rip-off culture that the British public are often victims of. "
But Apple defended their UK pricing policy.
"The underlying economic model in each country has an impact on how we price our track downloads," an Apple spokeswoman told BBC News ONline.
"That's not unusual - look at the price of CDs in the US versus the UK. We believe the real comparison to be made is with the price of other track downloads in the UK."
Posted by robeva at 04:03 PM | Comments (0)
September 09, 2004
Premiere HDV Support
Following the announcement of Sony's HDR-FX1E, Adobe will add support for the HDV format to Premiere Pro 1.5, the company said. No extra hardware is required, as HDV is captured over the same FireWire connection as standard DV, and standard deck control capabilities are available.
The plug-in will be made available as a free download later in the year.
HDV offers a choice of resolutions, include the progressive 1,280-x-720 (aka 720P) and the interlaced 1,440-x-1,080 (aka 1080i) but records using MPEG-2 compression onto standard miniDV tapes. As with DV, the format is aimed at consumers – it can play back on standard HDTV sets – but prosumer and professional models can also be built around it. Currently only two versions of the same HDV camera have been released: JVC’s HD1 and the XLR-audio enabled, pro-level HD10 variant. Both are aimed at the US market, though JVC Professional has been selling HD10s to digital filmmakers in the UK. The Sony HDR-FX1E is expected to ship in the UK in November.
Posted by robeva at 09:06 PM | Comments (0)
September 08, 2004
The Canon XL2 Arrives
Canon recently announced that it would begin shipments in September of the XL2, a variable frame-rate MiniDV upgrade of the XL1S camcorder that comes with a standard 20x zoom lens.
Acknowledging its steady base of XL1S users, Canon says it intentionally over-engineered the new release, evolving features to meet the needs of power users but stopping short of a revolutionary coup in camera technology. In other words, you won’t find an HDV format option, as so many of us have speculated would be included in this release. What you will find, however, is a 3-CCD camera that shoots in 24p, 30p and 60i in very low-light conditions (there’s even 2:3:3:2 pull-down if you’re going out to film); 4:3 and 16:9 switchable aspect ratios (and letterbox display); a convertible LCD display in the viewfinder; seven gain control settings; and a broad range of other cine settings that include noise reduction, film grain and sharpness. Nitty-gritty image control features also let you adjust hue, chroma, area and Y level to soften skin imperfections.
While Canon may be accused of putting the cart before the horse—or in this case, a 20x fluorite zoom lens before a refurbished workhorse of a camera—it’s one heck of a cart. The lens features the usual zoom and focus presets, but the fluorite optics mean your images and colors come in sharp, crisp and clean at capture. The interchangeable lens system that makes it possible to switch out this standard bearer in favor of a fisheye or wide angle also sets the XL2 apart from similar DV cameras. Add to that another unique wrinkle: Canon will make a software developer’s kit available for download later this year, giving users the chance to write their own zoom, focus and record presets.
Posted by robeva at 06:14 PM | Comments (0)
Met Office Supercomputer
The Met Office is celebrating 150 years by unveiling a new supercomputer which they predict will put them at the forefront of weather forecasting.
It will allow meterologists to provide more accurate advice to the government and the public in the face of increasingly extreme weather patterns.
The Met Office made the announcement at the British Association's Festival of Science at the University of Exeter.
The new system is one of the most sophisticated in Europe.
It allows forecasters to track weather patterns across the world - from a massive dust storm to a single cloud.
Such technology makes it easy to forget how far forecasting has come, the Met Office says.
Commercial spin-offs
It was the invention of the telegraph that allowed the rapid collation of weather observations across large areas.
That allowed forecasters first to chart, and then predict weather patterns.
The Met Office, which started using these methods to provide a storm warning service for sailors, now processes 100,000 million pieces of data every day in its computer models - with considerable commerical spin-offs.
In hot weather, demand for wasp killer increases by up to 500% and leg wax sales go up more than 10-fold - information that supermarkets are happy to pay for.
Posted by robeva at 06:05 PM | Comments (0)
September 07, 2004
What is miniDV?
I'm convinced that the good old days were good because of selective memory; we remember the barbecue, but not the burned steaks.
Once moving pictures were recorded, of course, the collective human memory got better. But memories really became sharp over over the past several decades, with the arrival of affordable VHS/VHS-C/S-VHS/Hi-8 camcorders and their offspring, digital video. With video, you don't have to rely on memory; all you have to do is connect the camera to your TV or load the video into your VCR, and any and all disputes as to who hit whom first with the chocolate cream pie can be resolved in an instant.
Camcorders were a boon, and as with manual cameras, adding the digital dimension added super capabilities in keeping, capturing, and even improving on the memories in question (imagine that pie fight set to a bouncy Tchaikovsky theme).
But, as with digital cameras, there's a lingo you have to learn in order to consider what will work best for you: Formats, features, manipulation - and of course, price. Like the move from manual to digital stills, there's a new way of talking and walking in the world of digital video.
Before pursuing digital video, which in our case will focus on the DV/MiniDV format, you have to decide a more fundamental question: is digital video for you, or would you be happier with analog? The pros for digital video are similar to the pros for digital stills: Ability to manipulate images, higher quality, ability to record DVDs, and better preservation possibilities, given the ability to make endless perfect copies.
If you do go the digital route, you need to have a PC powerful enough to handle the processing. Digital video manipulation generally requires a Pentium 4 processor and a good deal of memory (minimum 256 MB, 512 MB being preferred). And of course, a DV camera costs more than an analog camera - significantly more. If you just want to watch a home movie on your VCR, you might be happy with an analog video camera, prices of which have dropped significantly in the past year, like the cost of DV camcorders.
On Amazon.com, a typical analog camcorder nowadays costs between $200 and $250, most with color LCD viewfinders; some fancier models go for closer to $400, but the cheaper ones are quite enough for most people. Digital camcorders start at around $400, with many going for $600 and more. So money is definitely going to be a factor in the decision. But there are some bargains out there, and by the time you decide to buy, it's likely that prices will have come down even further. So even if your budget is limited right now, it's worth learning about the DV phenomenon, because sooner or later, your analog choices are going to be far more limited than they are today, as the world moves toward totally digital recording and delivery.
There are several DV formats to choose from, but it's likely your first digital camcorder will be MiniDV tape-based, which is the format used in most lower-priced models. MinDV is the compact edition of DV, which is routinely used by professionals for videos and even broadcasting. In fact, in terms of specs, DV - and MiniDV - are considered to deliver results as good as high-end broadcast formats like Betacam SP. MiniDV was originally intended to be the field version of DV, to be transferred to the larger format back at the studio, but it has captured the heart of layman and professional alike, and is now the premier DV format. In fact, a number of recent commercial films, including Buena Vista Social Club, were shot almost entirely on inexpensive MiniDV cameras.
How does MiniDV work? First of all, MiniDV uses tape to record and play back video. The difference between analog and digital in this respect is the way the file is written; a digital file consists of the same 0s and 1s found in any other computer file. In this case, that file is written to tape, which takes the place of a hard drive, and the file can then be transferred to the computer, with the PC reading the file from the tape and writing it onto the hard drive.
In order to do this, the camera needs a digitizer to convert the analog footage into a digital file, and a compressor to ensure that the file will fit onto your tape (MiniDV tapes can hold up to 90 minutes in LP format). Previously, if you wanted digital video, you had to assemble a messy collection of wires, tape decks and add-on video cards; MiniDV makes the process much more convenient, because everything you need is already on board.
(Note that you cannot play back MiniDV tapes on a VHS VCR; you can connect the camera to a TV or directly to your VCR and copy the contents of a MiniDV tape onto a VHS cassette, though.)
One reason you wouldn't be able to play back MiniDV digital signals on your VCR, even if tape size were not a factor, is the compression issue. We touched on compression - and its software component, codecs - slightly when we discussed MP3s, but codecs really come into their own in video editing. We will discuss codecs in depth in a few weeks, but you should be aware for now that they are an integral part of digital video. Will your computer's codec be compatible with the compression scheme used by the camera? Yes, if you install and use the software that comes with your camera. The fun begins when you try to convert your video into other codec formats (for greater compression or other processing), or integrate pieces with different codec schemes.
It should be noted that it is possible to take existing analog tape and digitize it using add-on digitizer cards, which cost between $700 and $1,000.
There are also digital cameras that take analog input and let you re-record your tape in digital format, but the pictures will not be as good.
So we've dipped a toe into the great sea of digital video. Next week, we'll be going for an extended swim as we discuss features in specific models and transfer options.
Attention on the set: Action!
Posted by robeva at 05:35 PM | Comments (0)
Creative Zen
Microsoft's Portable Media Center will be available in the UK later this month in the form of the Creative Zen.
The player is the first Portable Media Center device in the UK, followed by products from the likes of Samsung and others.
It features a 20GB hard drive and 3.8in TFT colour screen, plus a rechargeable and replaceable battery that lasts 22 hours playing music, or seven hours of movie playback - according to the company.
It also has TV Out and Stereo Out jacks so that you can listen to music on the go or plug the unit directly into a TV to view movies, photos and other media stored on the device.
The player also uses the latest Windows Media Player 10 software that hooks into Microsoft's online content partners for downloading music and video. Windows Media 10 will be available for download in the UK from Microsoft once it has sorted out its UK lineup of content partners.
The new software also boasts improved syncing utilities, that Microsoft claims will allow a user to transfer a two hour movie in Windows Media Video format from a PC to the Portable Media Center in less than three minutes.
However, Windows Media Player 10 will work with other devices besides the Portable Media Center-based gadgets. Microsoft currently counts more than 70 portable media devices supported by the new software.
Another new feature of the player software is the ability to rip CDs to MP3 format as well as Windows Audio.
The Portable Media Center will only play video files stored using the video codec in Windows Media Player 10, and currently that piece of software is the only one that will encode files like this. But numerous TV card manufacturers: ATI, Hauppage, nVidia and more; are jumping on board with the format, so even PCs without the player software will be able to record TV shows and transfer them to a Portable Media Cente device.
Posted by robeva at 05:26 PM | Comments (0)
Hi-Definition DV cam
Sony showed off its new camcorder for the general public, which takes video at digital high-definition quality. The cam will go on sale before the end of the year.
Sony raised the ante by unveiling its new HDV camcorder for home users. Termed as HDR-FX1, it utilizes the 1080 lines horizontal resolution / 60 interlaced frames per second frame rate for the HDV specification, which records to standard miniDV tapes.
The HDV specification was agreed upon as a standard by Sony, JVC, Canon and Sharp for new high-definition consumer camcorders last year. The HDR-FX1 is based on the compression standard first introduced in the GR-HD1 that was released by JVC last year.
So, what's so different between the JVC camcorder and the Sony camcorder? The main difference between the two is their shooting mode. The Sony shoots 1080 lines of resolution at 60 interlaced frames per second while in comparison, the JVC shoots only 720 lines of resolution at 30 progressive frames per second. Both rates contain almost identical amounts of information but one offers progressive scanning while the other a higher resolution picture. Both can compress data into an MPEG2 format and the HDR-FX1 is also capable of recording a standard DV signal as well as an HDV signal.
The camcorder has a 0.33-inch, 1.07 Megapixel CCD sensor, a Carl Zeiss lens, a 12x optical zoom and a 250,000 pixel, 3.5-inch color LCD. The camcorder weighs 2.0 kilograms without batteries.
The handycam is targeted at both professionals as well as video enthusiasts. Sony will probably begin sales in October in Japan and has plans to begin sales globally by the end of this year. The product will cost approximately Rs. 1,72,000.
Posted by robeva at 05:16 PM | Comments (0)
Blackberry grows
Blackberry developer Research In Motion and mobile OS consortium Symbian have struck a deal which will allow Blackberry Connect to run on Symbian-based mobile devices. The Blackberry Connect service automatically pushes data such as email to any suitably equipped device.
The move is one of a series of partnerships agreed by RIM now that it seems the long running dispute with NTP seems to be coming to a close. Recently both Nokia and Palmsource have licensed the Blackberry technology and Symbian is a logical next step for RIM to get its wireless email adopted as an industry standard. According to mobile market analysts, Symbian had an overwhelming 94 per cent share of the mobile phone OS market leaving Microsoft with an unaccustomed four per cent.
The first Blackberry equipped Symbian devices are likely to appear at the beginning of next year.
Posted by robeva at 05:15 PM | Comments (0)