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My Almost-daily Journal |
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| About I love trying out new things, especially when it comes to internet technology. I never really kept a journal, but it's something that I've always wanted to do. Now, everybody will get a chance to look inside my twisted, and somewhat-warped mind.
I've also subscribed to Audio Blog, so a few times a week, I'll leave actual voice blogs. Very cool!XML Newsfeed  |
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Video Editing Fetish Continues I have encoded four of nine video tapes so far from our wedding. Yes, you read correctly, there are a total of nine tapes: four are standard Digital 8 tapes and five are miniDV tapes. Of the four Digital 8 tapes, two of them were actually recorded as Hi8, which isn't actually pure video. Hi8 is analog. Great thing about Sony Digtial 8 camcorders is they can play Hi8/8 tapes, which is great for me, since I can capture those videos via firewire. My next task is to capture the miniDV tapes, so I'm on the lookout for a miniDV camcorder with a firewire output. If anybody has one, I'd like to borrow it for about a week. My most daunting task is going to be to figure out where to store the HUGE avi files. Each hour of DV video encodes into a 13 gig avi file. I'm encoding directly to my RAID-0 dual 74 GB 10K Raptors, since the transfer rate is lightning fast. No worries about lost frames or any HD-related bottlenecks in the capturing and encoding process. But if you do the math... I'm going to need 143 GB of free HD space. The Raptors are not going to be enough, so I'm going to have to free up some space on my external 250 MB HD that I use for backups. And at this point, I don't even know if it's physically possible to have 143 GB of data (two of the avi files are 26 GB, since Hi8 stores two hours of video vs. one hour on Digital8), sitting in one spot in a video encoding application like Pinnacle Studio or Sony Vegas. I have already started to rule out using Pinnacle Studio to make the wedding video. It's a great app if all you're doing is making a DVD of one tape. However, as I stated above, I'm going to have nine different feeds, which means 18 different tracks (video plus audio). I think Sony Vegas is the only app that will let me have multiple channels. I'm not even sure if Adobe Premier is as capable as Sony Vegas. And Sony Vegas is going to stall me slightly since there will be a huge learning curve. I know how to make videos using Pinnacle Studio. And I've made videos on Adobe Premier. So it shouldn't be too bad. I just hate learning apps from scratch. I wish I worked in a video editing place so I could learn from the experts. No... maybe I should have just paid the $1500 and had our wedding done professionally... No... I'm a professional! I'll do it myself and at the same time learn a new app! Long live HUGE hard drives! posted by Dino at 3:37 PM (permanent link) (0) comments Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Video Editing and Wedding Video I recently installed Pinnacle Studio 9 on my PC, upgrading from my previous version of Studio 8. I don't see much difference. Hopefully, the differences are in the engine. I also had the pleasure of installing Hollywood FX 5.1 and a shitload of new, exciting transition effects for video editing. These are exciting times! a.b.c.i is good to me. I'm going to install Sony Vegas and see what that video editor is like. Hopefully, it's a marriage of the ease of Studio and the production quality of Premier. My biggest dilemma is video file size. One hour of pure DV video is 13 Gigs. I have at least six tapes from various sources... perhaps up to eight. This means that after I capture all the videos to my hard drive, I'll be working with over 100 Gigs of avi video. It's going to tax my system severely. That is why I'm looking at production-level video editing tools. Even with Premier, I think they only allow up to three different video feeds. It's going to be tough making the wedding video. But for now, I'm just concentrating on capturing and making the video available on my hard drive. My plan, which may prove difficult, will be to use the audio of one continuous video fee, then add assorted shots and angles from the others. Timing will be the biggest challenge. Professional videographers probably use synchronized time-stamped videos. I don't have that luxury. It will be a challenge, but it will be fun. I have the rest of my life to create this video. Perhaps my calling is to do this for a living? It would be a great job if that is all I had to do... no... wait... I want to be a National Geographic photographer... no... wait... I want to be a professional web designer... no... wait... I want to be a dolphin trainer for the military... no... wait... I don't even know what I want to do when I grow up. But I do know I that I DON'T want to play the political, hide-the-salami, grab-ass game of the good-ol-boys club where I work. That is a certainty. posted by Dino at 11:25 AM (permanent link) (0) comments Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Hana (Scanned @ Decoma)Drive to Hana Dani and I took the "road to Hana" drive today. It was awesome! The ride was quite long, and the destination really wasn't anything to write home about (or your blog), but the trip wasn't about the destination! It was about the ride getting there! We took another short trip earlier in the week on some one-lane roads, but that was just a commercial for today! The views were incredible! There was a waterfall at every turn, and we had to cross about 100 one-lane bridges. I think there were at least 600 turns and switch-backs on this road, including a few, space-time bending hairpins. We stopped wherever and whenever we could to take some breath-taking shots. I can't even detail the awe in the blog! Just wait for the pics and vids! You'll definitely want to come to Hawaii... Or Hawai'i as the locals write it. Tomorrow we may do that mountain drive up to see the sunrise... Though we may see the sunset for two reasons: 1) we don't get up at 2:00 AM unless someone is passing out gold bullion and 2) a friend of mine at Decoma who grew up in Hawai'i recommended a sunset over a sunrise. It'll probably be the sunset. We're having an awesome time and we hope that National Geographic buys some of our pictures. More as it happens... Dino and Dani... From Maui... Out. Best regards, Dino Filias posted by Dino at 1:51 AM (permanent link) (0) comments Monday, October 11, 2004
Today's Dive (Scanned @ Decoma)Today's Dive I can say this because I've been around the world on a three-legged mule when it comes to scuba diving: Hawaii definitely does not offer the "best" diving in the world. Today's dive took me out to Molokai-- not to be confused with Molokini Crater or Lanai. First dive was named "Pinnacle". Profile was about 80 ft. For 30 minutes. Total beginner dive. Coral heads not fully developed. Decent wildlife and the guides kept on getting giddy about some black striped angel that is supposed to be rare. I guess they sell for $1500 in Asian saltwater aquarium stores. They didn't look too endangered to me... I counted a dozen of them. Visibility was 50 ft at best. Boat ride out was horrendous... Two people hurled projectiles about 20 ft long. Thankfully, I didn't. Second dive was called "Fish Rain", again at Molokai. Sidenote: a spearfisherman lost his entire right shoulder yesterday on Molokai to a Tiger Shark. Duh. He was covered in fish chum and bait. Anyway, this dive was dubbed to be our "big animal" dive that Maui is known for. Didn't see dick, other than a chubby Spotted Eagle Ray. I had to clang my tank to get our guide to see it. Thing was majestic and heading right for me. Nice sight. Took me at least a minute to get my guide's attention, who was more interested in those lame "rare" striped angels. Second group (I was in first) actually saw a school of hammerheads (four or five) running up the channel. Bummer for me. Good for them. Highlight of the whole two-tank dive trip was on the surface. After the entire group was surfaced, at least 100 dolphins schooled by our boat and hung out with us for at least ten minutes. I've never seen anything like it. They were playing "catch the hull" with our boat, jumping out ahead of us and doing 360's and 720's. One of the only things living in the ocean that have fun for the sake of having fun... Boat captain also commented that they're also one of the few species on this earth that actually have sex for fun. Pretty cool. But I shit you not-- there were at least 100 dolphins playing with us for a very long time. I'm bummed that we weren't in the water to play with them... Though I'm sure we would have bored them to death. My final synopsis: if you want to dive and see the origin of life, dive the Carribean. Hawaiin reefs are way too young, visibility sucks, variety of life is mediocre, and macro life is almost non-existent. However, if you don't mind 20 foot swells, currents of 5-10 knots, nasty swells, and want to see big animals, this is the place to be. I was told that there's whales that migrate here from Alaska to have their young, theb head back to the colder waters during the winter. I didn't see any whales. My next dive trip is going to be a repeat of Cozumel or a tre-peat of Belize. Best regards, Dino Filias posted by Dino at 6:06 PM (permanent link) (0) comments Scuba (Scanned @ Decoma)Scuba Diving in Hawaii I'm sitting in a parking lot at 6:30 AM waiting to get on a boat to scuba Lanai. It's supposed to be some of the best diving in Maui. I wanted to go to Molokini Crater, but after talking to some locals, I discovered it's overrated. Danielle and I did a shore dive yesterday at a place called Black Rock. We did see a bunch of turtles, but overall, I'm not too impressed by Maui diving. I'll. Let you know how today goes. Being married is cool. I love it! posted by Dino at 1:52 PM (permanent link) (0) comments Saturday, October 09, 2004
Maui (Scanned @ Decoma)Maui We're in Maui now. It's like a huge cruise ship... So much to do. posted by Dino at 3:43 PM (permanent link) (0) comments Thursday, October 07, 2004
Kauai (Scanned @ Decoma)Kauai'i Kauai is awesome! We took a 1 hour helicopter ride yesterday that was INCREDIBLE! Plus, the Sheraton has made us feel like royalty. Life is truely grand. We spent our first day in Oahu to visit Pearl Harbor. Can you believe that the USS Arizona still leaks out about a quart of oil per day? You can see the oil coming out and dispersing on the surface. It's spooky. We're off to Maui tomorrow. Still haven't scuba dove. I'll be catching up on Maui. I hear the diving isn't all so great here in Kauai. I'm just dying to try out my new BC I bought before the trip. Greetings to all from my wife and I. posted by Dino at 3:19 PM (permanent link) (0) comments |
