Blu-ray: Just a Novelty?

High definition; By now, almost everyone knows what it is. Over the years… the number of HD channels greatly increased and the price of HDTV's are much lower than they once were, making high definition content more widely available to the majority of people. And, if you have ever compared an HD quality picture to a standard definition picture… you know just how vastly improved the HD picture is. Personally, I could never go back to a standard def. picture. But, as I was watching TV last night, my brain started to wander and I asked myself: "Why hasn't Blu Ray taken off?" As I thought about that I came up with a few possible answers.

The first thing that came to my mind was the fact that Blu Ray was in a long, drawn out format war with HD-DVD. I think it possible that the average consumer has lost interest in the whole concept of HD movie discs.  But if I had to guess… I'd say it had more to do with the price of the Blu Ray discs and peripherals. 

At this point, Blu Ray discs are $60 and the Blu Ray players average $200. When you pair that with the idea of having to buy or re-buy DVD's to take advantage of the player… I think it is very possible that the investment in Blu Ray is just too high for the mainstream. To be fair, though, Blu Ray itself is a relatively new technology and all new technology has a price premium. It is possible that the price may drop given some time.

I think it is possible that one, or both of these things may be playing a factor in the slow adoption of Blu Ray. But I believe there may be a bigger reason why Blu Ray has not taken off. The reason? Streaming media.

You may be thinking to yourself, "What does streaming media have to do with Blu Ray?" Well, in my opinion, streaming video is quickly becoming a new, acceptable way to consume movies. With devices such as the Apple TV and many other set top boxes, it is easier than ever to get HD quality content on your TV instantly. While the initial investment in one of these boxes may be equal to, and maybe even slightly higher than most Blu Ray players, the cost of the media is often significantly lower. 

All of these factors lead me to the question: Is Blu Ray over before it ever really got started?

What do you think?

The Screen Recording War: Who Is King?

A challenger appears! For as long as I could remember, there has always been a battle between which screen recording application is the best. ScreenFlow, iShowU HD, and now Camtasia. But now we have someone new in the fight, Apple's own Quicktime X. I have used all of them, pit them against each other to see which one is the best out of the 4. The criteria were video quality, ease of use, features, and how easy source video can be integrated into video editing software like Final Cut.

Let's start off with video quality. All 4 have very good video quality, but for this test I used the same compression I use to upload videos to YouTube. These are H.264 compression, 30 FPS, 1280x720 resolution, and a 1800 Kbit/sec bit rate. With Quicktime X, you don't have much choice in compression, your options are medium and high. That's it, no specifics at all. It does encode it in H.264 but at a very low frame rate of 12 FPS. The quality is pretty good, but there is some pixelation near darker colors. ScreenFlow on the other hand does great with this compression, the quality is amazing, it looks as if it were the screen itself. iShowU HD has some nice quality, but there are some issues with choppiness. If you activate Exposé or minimize a window, it does seem to skip a few frames, and sometimes not show the animation at all. Camtasia, in my opinion, did the worst with this compression. At full quality, the video looked great, but at this compression, the video was very fuzzy, and unappealing to the eye. So for this round, ScreenFlow is the winner.

And now to ease of use. Quicktime X is by far the easiest to use. You open up Quicktime X, hit File>New Screen Recording, and thats it. A little window comes up with a big record button in the middle. You have a little arrow on the side to choose your quality and audio source, but thats about it. After you hit record, a stop record button shows up in your menu bar. Can't get any simpler than that. ScreenFlow is basically just as simple, as soon as you open up ScreenFlow, a HUD comes up that gives you the options to record your screen, your iSight, and your computers audio. You choose your options, hit record, and go. A little icon appears in your menu bar too, but with a few more options than just to stop recording. Camtasia is just as simple as ScreenFlow, a window comes up with options for audio and video. Then you hit a record button and boom, you're ready to go. iShowU HD on the other hand, is simple to use, just not as simple as the others. You get a window with a small preview of your screen, then you can choose the area you want to record, the compression options, and some extra effects.

Now it's time for the feature list. Quicktime X doesn't really have any features besides screen recording. The others are full of features though. iShowU HD has one feature that none of the others have that can be quite useful, the ability to capture a certain part of the screen. Quicktime X, ScreenFlow, and Camtasia all default to recording the whole screen. On the other hand, ScreenFlow and Camtasia have many features including video effects, transitions, and callouts. Camtasia has just a little bit more than ScreenFlow does though.

And finally, how easy is it to use the video we captured with video editing software? Well, Quicktime X and iShowU HD are tied. Both of them send the raw recorded video to any folder you choose. From there you can just import those files to any video editing software you have. Now, both ScreenFlow and Camtasia are video editing apps in themselves. So you will have to either edit the whole video in the app or export everything unedited and then take it into another video editing application. I am a huge Final Cut user, so having the raw video saved on it own rather than having it needed to be edited first is very valuable to me. But for others it isn't. But for my needs, I have to give this round to Quicktime X and iShowU HD.

In the end, these applications are all great, but there can only be one winner. Remember, everyone has different needs, so you might have a different opinion on which is best. In my opinion, the winner is.......*drumroll*....ScreenFlow. ScreenFlow is the most balanced out of all the applications. I said I would like to have the source video saved to a specific folder over a built in editor, but it was something I could overlook due to how great the video quality was. Camtasia might have some more effects, but the video quality wasn't anywhere near ScreenFlow's when using my compression. So there you have it, the king has been chosen. Keep in mind I didn't consider price as one of the criteria, so you might want something in your budget. Quicktime X is free with OS X Snow Leopard, iShowU HD is $59.95 for the Pro version, ScreenFlow is $99, and Camtasia is also $99 but will go up to $149 soon. Thanks for reading everyone, I'll see you in the next post.

-David (periahdark)

 YouTube:  http://youtube.com/periahdark

Microsoft Word 2010 Walkthrough

Microsoft is set to launch Office 2010 this year. The evolutionary upgrade to Office 2007 introduces several new features, most notably, online web applications to interface with your desktop application. In essence, Microsoft is launching a service similar to google docs with a corresponding desktop application. For me, word processing has always been my biggest need for a productivity suite and the updates to word 2010 are interesting. My take is Microsoft is trying to streamline the process of creating documents by bringing a more robust image system into the application. By adding artistic effects, the ability to quickly create powerful graphics, and the option to remove the background of an image all inside of word showcases Microsoft's desire to make word your one stop shop for word processing.

Although Office 2010 will solely be a Windows application the features and improvements hint at what mac users can expect in Microsoft's follow-up to Office 2008, whenever that is announced. There are free alternative such as Google Docs and Open Office but I still prefer the power of Microsoft's offering.

This post was brought to you by Michael Sherlock, for more of my content why not subscribe to my youtube channel?

Panasonic to release a HD Recorder

Panasonic, a big brand in the UK for consumer appliances in the UK, have released their own HD DVD recorder. The 'DMR-XS350' is to feature HD recording to the 250GB hard drive (which I don't think is enough for HD files) which then can be copied to disk. One special feature of the DMR-XS350 is that you can watch Youtube videos and view pictures on Google's Picasa via the VIERACAST platform. Twin TV turners allow 2 programme recording, or watch 1 programme and record another. The DMR-XS350 will also feature a high definition chroma processor, which to me sound like one of the best?, is compatible with the UK's freesat service, SD memory card and USB ports, along with a power saving utility!

Want one? It'll set you back around £620 ($999)

Follow me on Twitter for more stuff like this

Watch me on Youtube (sometimes in HD!)

[Note: Panasonic hasn't paid me to do this blog post :-( ]

FCP HD Render Settings For Youtube

HD generation is sweeping the inter-nation, and youtube has followed suit. HD isn't exactly a new feature of youtube, but it has definitely caught on recently. There are a lot of videos/tutorials out there showing you how to render in 720p HD for youtube, so I thought I would add to them and create my own.

This one specifically applies to Final Cut Pro and Express, but it does also apply to any other Quicktime based renderer on mac- essentially all video applications on the mac. This exact method is usually found on the advanced or custom tab on applications like iMovie and Screenflow.

To the point;

1.  Set your 'in/out' points on the timeline
2. Go to 'File > > Export > > Using Quicktime Conversion
3. Give it a meaningful name in the dialog box that opens and hit options
   
4. Use the render settings in the screen grab below

OK it all.

If you didn't catch it, see the attached video below.

Welcome to the HD generation

-Adam