Digital Media Thoughts - Coming in 2003

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com' target='_blank'>http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com</a><br /><br /></div><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/dmt.gif" />

[Sheynk]

ha ha first reply!

Wow congrats on the site


But that means that you there wont be enough Jason for 2 sites :(

I got the free chapter, and can honestly say that I am going to buy the book if all goes to plan and I get my DV camcorder in the first half of next year...and even if I dont...this stuff is waaay to cool to pass up

I love you casual writing style. good job.

Ok enough about the book

So tell us what will the new site be like?

will we need to register with both sites?

what kind of new will you cover?

I can go on and on.....

[Janak Parekh]

But that means that you there wont be enough Jason for 2 sites :(
I seriously doubt that Jason would reduce his involvement in this site - it's his successful baby. He'll just have to give up sleep, in my opinion. :morning: ;)

--janak

[rogben]

Jason,

The chapter reads nicely, and hits the important points. Good job.

Now, with that said... :D

How did you manage to leave Digital8 out of the list of digital formats and yet include DVD? For the low-end videographer, D8 is arguably the best of all worlds, and failing to even mention it leaves a *huge* hole in the book. Please tell me you're at least gonna have a "Digital8: The Lost Chapter" hosted on the new site somewhere...

--
Roger

[sweetpete]

Looking forward to the new site Jason :!: :way to go:

[Jason Dunn]

But that means that you there wont be enough Jason for 2 sites :(

I can't make any guarantees, but our back end system is so superb for this site that when we clone it for the digital media site, we'll be able to update both sites with minimal effort.

So tell us what will the new site be like?

Think of Pocket PC Thoughts. Now take away the Pocket PCs - what you have left is the Thoughts "style". Our tone, our voice, our insight, our community (you guys!). Now insert digital media - voila! Digital Media Thoughts. We're going to clone the Pocket PC Thoughts back-end, slap on a new template, and fire the booster rockets....wheee! 8)

will we need to register with both sites?

Unknown. We may try to tie the databases together in some slick fashion...but your post count would likely be different on each site (to keep things fair).

what kind of news will you cover?

The logo tells that story: digital video, audio, photo. Gadgets, and a smattering of hardware news that impacts working with digital media.

[Jason Dunn]

How did you manage to leave Digital8 out of the list of digital formats and yet include DVD? For the low-end videographer, D8 is arguably the best of all worlds, and failing to even mention it leaves a *huge* hole in the book. Please tell me you're at least gonna have a "Digital8: The Lost Chapter" hosted on the new site somewhere...

I really don't know very much about Digital8 to be honest - but my take on it (and maybe I'm wrong here) is that it was a proprietary standard developed by Sony, a few companies licensed it, but MiniDV far outstrips it in product bredth. Sony makes MiniDV cameras, so I didn't exclude them by not covering Digital8. I'm certainly interested in hearing a compelling arguement for why Digital8 is a better choice than MiniDV! But perhaps that's a better subject for Digital Media Thoughts. :wink:

And correct me if I'm wrong here, but a Digital8 camera with Firewire is exactly the same as a MiniDV camera with Firewire, right? You plug 'em in to the PC, you download the video...so I don't know what I'd put in the "missing chapter". :wink:

I'm always interested in learning more though, so tell me what I'm missing by using a MiniDV camera! :D

[kagayaki1]

Make sure to dedicate some section of the site to video encoding and production for PPC. It would be nice to see a well done, CENTRAL location for PPC video information.

I smell websites sharing topics here. :sniff:

-Jason

[hshortt]

*****so tell me what I'm missing by using a MiniDV camera****

How about the change in your wallet? Here in Ireland, we pay through the nose for all electronic equipment. Last March I was in the market for a new Digital video camera and the least expensive Sony DV camera (not mini DV) was over €2,000.00. I finally settled on a Digital8.

My reasons for this, were not entirely budget related. I wanted a camera through which I could archive older tapes to the computer via firewire. Digital8 supports 8mm, and Hi8 tapes too. So getting my old footage into the PC was straight forward. This is one thing that you cannot do with DV or Mini DV cams.

Another advantage at the time, was that my Digital 8 Camera supports Analoge and DV passthough in and out.

Of course the offset is the physical size and weight, my Digital 8 camera is fairly heavy.

Other than this, its a really great camera and I'm making good use of it.

Best of luck to you with the new site Jason.

Cheerio

[Bob Anderson]

This is great news Jason...

Your timing is perfect. I am getting ready to invest in a mini-dv camcorder and set up a hobby video editing system on my PC. I'm in the "research phase" right now, which includes getting a copy of your book and scouring the web for info.

I hope you have reviews of hardware and software... I'm pretty darn PC savvy, but this is a new area to me and I want to carefully spend money in this category!

Congrats on the new site... and I can't wait to start surfing it daily too!

[dhpss]

Jason,
Bought the book and love reading it. I'd like to suggest few points:
In addition to hardware/software requirements, I'd recommend beginner to have lot of spare time. This hobby can be time consumming....

Another question: I have lots of family VHS tapes. I need to convert to CD (VCD or may be DVD). I know how to do it on my PC (after reading your book) but I don't want to deal with it (no time nor patience). Do you know somebody will do it for me?
I knew a company in San Jose, CA but I lost the URL. You just FedEx the VHS tapes then they send back a set og CD or DVD to you with a fees.

[hshortt]

You can go to http://www.dvd4tape.com

Cheerio

[Jason Dunn]

Make sure to dedicate some section of the site to video encoding and production for PPC. It would be nice to see a well done, CENTRAL location for PPC video information. I smell websites sharing topics here. :sniff:

Yes, this is something I plan on covering in great deal - I covered it a little in the book, but my timing was awful - the 9 Series encoder was still beta, the Windows Media team wouldn't give me the 8.5 player, and they told me early on that WMP 8.5 would have support for 9 Series media - which if course it doesn't. :evil:

Yes, our back-end system will be tied together in a very slick fashion. If I post on a new PPC video player, it would be "SOFTWARE" on this site, but perhaps "OFF TOPIC" or "PLAYERS" on the digital media site.

It's going to rock, all courtesy of Fabrizio, our brilliant Web developer. :rock on dude!:

[Jason Dunn]

In addition to hardware/software requirements, I'd recommend beginner to have lot of spare time. This hobby can be time consumming....

Hah! Great point! :lol:

I knew a company in San Jose, CA but I lost the URL. You just FedEx the VHS tapes then they send back a set og CD or DVD to you with a fees.

I haven't used a service like this before myself, but Google reveals lots of solutions:

http://www.digitransfer.com/
http://www.perfectpopcorn.com/
http://www.video2dvd.ca/

[Sunnyone]

This is something I've wanted to get for a while now. Probably after the first of the year I'll start seriously looking at what's available. Can any of you recommend any particular devices? I'm looking to stay around $1000 US, if possible. I haven't researched this at all yet, so I'm not sure if that's even a reasonable price. Ease of transfer to my PC is important to me.

I'm sure I'll get your book, Jason. I've looked at the TOC and I can see you have a large section on types of devices and what to look for.

thanks....

[Stefan]

Besides of pocket pc, I spent some of my spare time on video editing (just as an hobbyist).
Some time ago I started to develope transition-effects and to share them for free.
Interested readers can find them at
http://home.t-online.de/home/burger.stefan
regards

[Jason Dunn]

Besides of pocket pc, I spent some of my spare time on video editing (just as an hobbyist).
Some time ago I started to develope transition-effects and to share them for free.
Interested readers can find them at
http://home.t-online.de/home/burger.stefan
regards

Hey, I've been to your site! :D What a small world... :lol:

[ppcsurfr]

How did you manage to leave Digital8 out of the list of digital formats and yet include DVD? For the low-end videographer, D8 is arguably the best of all worlds, and failing to even mention it leaves a *huge* hole in the book. Please tell me you're at least gonna have a "Digital8: The Lost Chapter" hosted on the new site somewhere...

I really don't know very much about Digital8 to be honest - but my take on it (and maybe I'm wrong here) is that it was a proprietary standard developed by Sony, a few companies licensed it, but MiniDV far outstrips it in product bredth. Sony makes MiniDV cameras, so I didn't exclude them by not covering Digital8. I'm certainly interested in hearing a compelling arguement for why Digital8 is a better choice than MiniDV! But perhaps that's a better subject for Digital Media Thoughts. :wink:

And correct me if I'm wrong here, but a Digital8 camera with Firewire is exactly the same as a MiniDV camera with Firewire, right? You plug 'em in to the PC, you download the video...so I don't know what I'd put in the "missing chapter". :wink:

I'm always interested in learning more though, so tell me what I'm missing by using a MiniDV camera! :D

Jason,

Wit the Sony D8 cameras... you can slap in a standard V8 tape and output it digitally to a PC via Firewire... I think those who have tons of V8 tapes who upgraded to the digital version will appreciate it if you included a small section for D8 users.

ppcsurfr

[ppcsurfr]

Make sure to dedicate some section of the site to video encoding and production for PPC. It would be nice to see a well done, CENTRAL location for PPC video information. I smell websites sharing topics here. :sniff:

Yes, this is something I plan on covering in great deal - I covered it a little in the book, but my timing was awful - the 9 Series encoder was still beta, the Windows Media team wouldn't give me the 8.5 player, and they told me early on that WMP 8.5 would have support for 9 Series media - which if course it doesn't. :evil:

Yes, our back-end system will be tied together in a very slick fashion. If I post on a new PPC video player, it would be "SOFTWARE" on this site, but perhaps "OFF TOPIC" or "PLAYERS" on the digital media site.

It's going to rock, all courtesy of Fabrizio, our brilliant Web developer. :rock on dude!:

Hmmm. not totally true... My Media Player 8.5 supports WMA v9. But I did hope that it would also support WMV v9... which apparently does not.

ppcsurfr

[Jason Dunn]

Hmmm. not totally true... My Media Player 8.5 supports WMA v9. But I did hope that it would also support WMV v9... which apparently does not.

Sorry, you're right, I was talking about WMV - WMA codecs didn't change much from what I undersatnd, but WMV codecs are taking a long time to port to CE...