Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with video

What's the best simple lavalier microphone setup to use with DSLRs?

DaShiv — Fri, 03 May 2013 10:33:48 -0800

I've been tasked with filming a series of seated "talking head" interviews using my DSLRs. What's the best way to create a minimal audio setup that will have acceptable quality, be reasonably easy to set up on location and to edit the final results, and also be reasonably cost-effective?

Because of differing room sizes and levels of background noise, a lavalier (lapel) mic would make more sense than a shotgun/boom mic. Is this assumption correct?
I've found conflicting information about whether one needs to use an external sound recorder with wired lavaliers and DSLRs. For ease of editing, I'd prefer not needing to learn how to mix external audio unless it's actually necessary. What are some of the drawbacks to plugging a wired lavalier mic directly into the camera? Is this a feasible method, and will it be enough to record clean and usable (not necessarily professional) quality speech?
Is it worth splurging for a wireless+external recorder setup? How much more difficult will that make post-production?
Which specific lavalier mics (wired/wireless) would you recommend for this task? (Links/models appreciated!) I've read that different brands/models work better/worse with some DSLRs, so if you have any combinations that have worked well for you and that you swear by, I'd especially love to hear about it. The DSLRs that I'll be using are a Canon 5D Mark II and, optionally, a Canon T3i (600D).

Thanks for your help!

Would someone give me a Mac Pro, please? Thanks.

run"monty — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:48:54 -0800

Would the addition of a decent graphics card turn my workaday PC into a competent NLE workstation? I've managed to get by with running Adobe Premiere CS6 on my 2009 Mac Mini. It's useable but involves a lot of waiting. (Not so bad when cutting ProRes but rendering takes an age.)

Now, I may be able to secure a small amount of editing work. That is, not so much work that I could justify the purchase of a new computer.

I have two options. Work slowly with a workflow optimised for my Mac or upgrade my PC.

This is my PC (I'm running Windows 7 64-bit).

I'm not looking for the power of a souped up Mac Pro. I just want a machine that won't fall over during the most basic of picture edits, will encode to ProRes pretty fast or handle AVCHD well, let me grade footage at more than a snail's pace, and won't complain when applying the simplest of SFX.

This upgrade would be done on a tight budget. I'll likely be adding more memory and another single SATA HDD.

I understand the Adobe's Mercury Playback Engine makes use of CUDA graphics cards. I would like to know if there would be any significant improvement if I installed a low priced card (not more than £200) in my ageing PC. Would it be false economy? Should I just spend £200 on a new machine?

Thin screen or tablet for poster presentations

you're a kitty! — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:24:27 -0800

My graduate research has recently headed in a video-heavy direction, which makes the ol' poster presentation format somewhat challenging. I'd like to have a thin screen or tablet to hold — or better yet, mount — where I can easily play a number of videos. What's my best option? Videos work well for talks, but occasionally I have to give a poster and then it's a real pain. I thought of getting an iPad and somehow mounting it on the board, and maybe even cutting my poster around it, but I suspect that would be kind of tacky and the mounting situation is different at every event.

I don't really need much of an elaborate operating system, so paying extra for a (heavy) iPad seems a bit excessive, but ideally I'd like something about that size. My iPod is too small. Does anyone just make super-thin displays that can play off a flash drive?

Note: My videos are currently .avi or .wmv format, but I can adjust them. I saw this thread, but it's not quite what I'm looking for.

How can I stream live television to 50-100 computers?

Bathtub Bobsled — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:59:30 -0800

What is an inexpensive hardware and software configuration that would allow someone to stream a handful of channels of live TV to 50-100 computers, accessing these on demand? I've been contracted by an educational institution to do an upgrade to some of their network systems. Primary project is running GigE throughout several buildings. In a conversation with the customer, he was remarking that their cable provider wants to charge them $40k/month to set up cable feeds in all of the rooms (or maybe it was $40k to install... I may have misheard). This is utterly ridiculous, since he only wants 4-5 channels available, and it will be rarely used more than 50-100 times on a given week. The only exception is presidential inaugurations, shuttle launches, or other nationally televised events they will all watch at the same time (2 times a year at the most).

As I was driving home, I thought about my home setup using TVHeadend and RasBMC/XBMC. I have a PCIE TV tuner, and it can stream my HD cable to different rooms, and we can even DVR to an external USB 3.0 SSD without issue. My wife and I can be watching multiple channels, and I can PiP on my laptop. It works very smooth and it's not a remarkably robust or expensive system. I mean, one of the clients is a Rasberry Pi.

So, I thought, how hard would it be to setup a dual-Xeon with 4 tuner cards, and use a some sort of broadcasting stream (only broadcasting those 4-5 channels, and the 1 channel during big events) that allows them to open up a client like XBMC or the already installed WMC and watch the broadcast of whatever channel they want. For the scale he's looking for, I figure VLC, MythTV, or TVHeadend, and a well configured tower should be able to do the trick for less than $4000, right? Or am I overlooking something?

Also, there is no need for the ability to pause, rewind, or record anything. Just to pull up the channel and watch, the same as you would on a regular television.

Video Editing and Film Making Seminar Recommendations

trbrts — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:40:31 -0800

Does anyone have an recommendations for good video editing or film making seminars? I've got a pretty good background in filming and editing, but, looking to expand my knowledge and have a budget. Can be anywhere in the lower 48 states.

What software can be used to crowdsource a transcription?

perpetualstroll — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 17:55:22 -0800

I am looking for an online service in which a group of volunteers could use to transcribe an audio or video file into text. Is there anything that will allow 10-15 volunteers to simultaneously log in and do this? I am familiar with services like CastingWords and others that allow you to pay to have people transcribe software, but I'm curious if anything exists for volunteers to contribute to a project.

Low-cost automated / automatic camera movement / slider?

audio — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:10:51 -0800

I've decided to start posting my music on youtube... performed live. I'm looking to improve the cinematography with an automated slider / jib that could produce a movement like this on its own: Does anyone know how I can do this on a budget?

Looking for specific website to create quick animated videos.

_DB_ — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 07:20:21 -0800

A month or two ago I saw a video someone had made of an exchange they had with a customer at work. The video had two cutesy CGI dog-like animals talking with very basic gestures and motions. It googled the watermark in the corner of the video and it took me to the site the guy had used to create the video. The name was four letters long but it wasn't a real word. There were multiple themes or scenes you could select, enter dialog, etc. Most of the themes were very cutesy- animals, flowers, etc. The speech seemed to be rendered by some typical voice-to-text software as it was very flat with no inflection. Overall it was a pretty easy to use website. Fastforward to today... I can't find this site. I swear I bookmarked it but obviously I didn't. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Happy little (binary) trees. Is there a Bob Ross of coding?

quadog — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 22:28:23 -0800

Is there a Bob Ross of coding? I'm looking for a particular style of educational video which shows developers working through problems. It should include a voice over describing what they are trying to accomplish. It should also show the types of decisions they are making as they work through the problem. I'm specifically interested in Python and javascript. On the Python side, anything that includes data science stuff (obtaining, scrubbing, exploring, modeling or interpreting data). On the JS side, if there were videos on data viz libraries (like D3) that would be good.

Anyway, I get an incredible amount of benefit looking over someone's shoulder as they work. Point me to some learning materials!

How should one choose from different video interfaces?

segatakai — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 06:34:53 -0800

Starting from scratch (as it were), if I'm going to go out and buy a new cable to connect my laptop to my monitor, what cable should I ideally go looking for? The manual for my LED monitor (Iiyama Prolite E2773HDS) tells me that it has connectors of the following persuasions:

VGA (D-Sub)
DVI-D
HDMI
HDCP

Why would I pick one of these over another? When I bought the monitor, I just went with the VGA because I happened to have the adapter required to connect it to my MacBook Pro, but I'm currently working on getting all my cables from all the different tech things organised on/behind/under my desk.

I have the VGA to Thunderbolt (also known as MiniDisplayPort?) adapter, but I'm not excited about this big clump of a thing there on my desk. A friend lent me a HDMI to Thunderbolt cable (which is nice and straightforward, no big clumps – not sure how to describe this), but when I connect with that it seems that the image is much darker than with the VGA. I can adjust the monitor's Brightness/Contrast levels, but I wonder if there might be any reasons not to go that way.

I've been able to find descriptions of one or another of these interfaces, but nothing that explains the pros and cons of each. My suspicion is that one will give better audio, the other will have a faster display rate (if that's the right word), and another will give crisper detail, but I don't know which is which.

If I'm going to go out and buy a new cable, what cable should I ideally go looking for?

I use my Mac for basic computing, mostly online, flash movies, but from time to time some fairly complex video editing (iMovie), photo editing (Photoshop), and Graphic design (InDesign).

Thanks very much.

hardware/software to convert legacy video to h.264?

Zed — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:35:33 -0800

If you had, say, $2K to spend on a system optimized to convert a variety of legacy video formats to h.264-encoded mp4's, what would you get? There's a quagmire of hype out there... do I want a plain old powerful CPU, or some CUDA-powered videocard with software to take advantage, or both, or neither? Thanks.

Help me transcode video for my PS3

hanov3r — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:59:22 -0800

I've got home video in a number of formats that I'm trying to convert to play on my PS3. I have a Very Large NAS with integrated UPnP server (a version of Twonky), so I'm not looking for a new way to stream the data. I've got Handbrake 0.9.8 for OS X, which doesn't (appear to) have a preset for the PS3. I've dug around a little bit, but every set of settings I've found either results in data the PS3 won't read, or video that's more artifacted than I expected (common symptom - horizontal striping when things move). Anyone have a good set of parameters to transcode to something the PS3 can use?

Fastest VNC setup? Concurrent RDP sessions in Windows 8 Pro?

jsturgill — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:19:28 -0800

I just purchased an underpowered computer to experiment further with remote desktops. Ideally I'd like to be able to use a remote desktop technology to stream HD video from the remote server, play a game on the client that's rendered on the more powerful server, and to have a local user work on the remote serving computer while another account on the server is being accessed remotely by the thin client. It's OK if the ideal just can't happen, but I want to try out each thing and see how close I can get.

Does VNC allow concurrent sessions?

Any hacks that won't rootkit my computer to allow concurrent sessions over RDP in Windows 8?

Any specific software or approaches to try out that would allow the client to play high-end video games rendered on the server?

Any tips on getting HD YouTube videos or files to play at high quality on the remote client?

These are all Windows 8 machines, with Linux as a possibility on the client end if it provides some advantage, connected with each other on a fast home LAN.

Motion tracking video, data analysis edition

RobotHero — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 08:13:31 -0800

Is there a program that will do what I'm imagining? Import a video. Automatically pick tracking points in the video and track their 2D movement. Output tracking data in a text format that I'll be able to import into other programs. I've been playing with quantitative analysis of large quantities of video. I'd like to be able to analyze the motion within the video.

I was looking a bit at trackers in After Effects, but they either require more manual input than is practical for doing the quantities I'm talking about, or they won't export what I want. The 3D Camera tracker in AE has a stage where it will display dozens of tracking points, which would be perfect for what I want, and it proves that it's possible, but I can't get it to export those. It only exports the "solved" 3D camera movement, and if it fails to solve it I get nothing.

I guess overall, it's that a lot of motion tracking software is targeted at creating visual effects, not analysis.

I've been doing the other processing in R. Searching for motion tracking in R has so far resulted in only blob-detection algorithms that presume you have a still camera and a moving subject.

Any other solutions?

Cheap conference room audio for non-profits

Fnarf — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 11:13:06 -0800

I need a better audio setup for a projector in a conference room for a non-profit with no budget. Seriously: we're poor. This question has been asked before, a few years ago, but there wasn't enough detail to help me.

We have an adequate projector, but I want to first mount it on the ceiling as a permanent installation, so someone (usually me) doesn't have to set it up every time, and all the cables end up back in the right bag instead of in the trash. I can do that part, and run the video cable down the wall and up to a table where a laptop can be placed.

Audio is a problem though. We have an old Samson wireless mic, with a small Bogen amp, which is underpowered and feeds back, but it works. But we can't run laptop sound. We have to set up a pair of cruddy computer speakers and plug into the headphone jack on the laptop, but the whole setup is cumbersome and unconnected.

We've even had people try to hold the mic up to the laptop speakers, or the phone handset, which makes me cry, and people's ears bleed. We've tried a big satellite conference room phone, but people steal it (anything that's not bolted down disappears within the hour).

What I guess I'm dreaming of is a wireless gizmo that plugs into the laptop headphone jack and connects to the Samson wireless receiver, or equivalent. I've seen cheapo USB transmitter/receiver sets, but I can't guarantee a free USB port on the computer, either -- it's old.

I'm also hampered by the fact that I don't know what the eff I'm doing -- I understand the computer and video end of it, but anything beyond a 1/8" headphone plug on the audio side confuses me -- I look at the specs and see all this "balanced output" and "600 Ohm" and I dunno what that is. I need someone to talk to me like I'm stupid.

And, as I mentioned, we have almost no money for this. In the other thread someone mentioned spending $750, and that's not likely to happen. $150 might fly.

Every 5 years, it happens. Help me buy a laptop.

sully75 — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 09:14:40 -0800

Help me find the perfect laptop. Video/Windows 7/Video+photo editing/Reasonably speedy/SSD+Hard Drive/Bulletproof I'm looking for a new laptop and was hoping for some help.

Points:
*there may be some travelling in my future, possibly by boat. Something very portable would be awesome
*Prefer Windows 7 if possible. XP is not an option due to some software issues
*Relatively bulletproof/problem free
*ideally energy efficient with awesome battery life
*I'd like to have an SSD + 500gb or so of hard drive space (I'm capable of swapping out hard drives, so if there was something that came with a small drive and an empty space, I could definitely upgrade as long as isn't too terribly complicated)
*As far as power, I'd like to be able to do basic video editing (cutting/splicing/color correction/etc) and run photoshop and lightroom (it would be really great if all this were speedy). Also running panorama splicing software, which in the past has made computers (Core 2) choke.
*better than average monitor that's able to be color corrected/profiled

I've had an Asus EEE for a while and that satisified a lot of this stuff (bulletproof, small, long battery life) but obviously was not up for video editing or photoshop. Something similar in those characteristics but a bit bigger and much more powerful would be perfect.

I was wondering about something from the Lenovo X series but not sure about the build quality.

I'm open to finding 2 year's ago's awesome computer on ebay if there is something to search for.

<$1000 would be good. <$700 would be awesome. Cheaper better.

Is there a service that can stream a video file at a certain time?

AbsoluteDestiny — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 07:47:42 -0800

A con I help run has video art programming which we'd like to stream to people who cannot attend the convention. However, the infrastructure for livestreaming at this venue is prohibitively restrictive. Hence I'm looking for a service that would allow me to upload, say, an mp4 and schedule when it would begin streaming. Does one exist? If not, can anyone think of an alternative solution for time-shifted broadcasting like this?

Alternatives to Google Hangout for large groups

pete_22 — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 05:45:00 -0800

Is there something like Google Hangout that allows for larger numbers of participants? Particularly in a one-to-many classroom-type setup rather than an all-way conversation. Google Hangout, or something built on it with their API, seems like a perfect tool for an online class with a single instructor talking to multiple students. If it's a one-way thing where the students can mute their microphones, then the instructor is always the big image and the students are tiled along the bottom in little PIP-type screens. The students seeing each other rather than just the instructor is a nice motivator and makes it feel more like a real class, even if they're not interacting, and the instructor can tell at a glance who's paying attention.

But the limit of 10 or 15 participants (depending on acct status) seems a bit low. Is there a similar tool that would work for a class of more than 15 to see each other and the instructor simultaneously? If not, what about a tool where the students couldn't see each other but the instructor could still see the students?

If nothing like this exists and someone wanted to build one with a minimum of fuss, what existing video tech or platform should they start from?

And finally, what are the main technical constraints on the number of simultaneous participants in a video chat? Bandwidth, I guess? Video rendering? Or something else? I've seen comments online that G+ hangouts become buggy and unwieldy even at 8 or 9 participants.

A good or decent video game with beautiful and immersive sci-fi worlds

mysticreferee — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 18:40:19 -0800

Anyone have suggestions for video games that do a great job of immersing you in sci-fi (ideally alien) worlds? I spent 5 or so months playing all the Mass Effect games last year, and the one thing that really made it all addictive to me was its immense production value; not just in the sheer scope of it all, but also the breath-taking design. I loved taking in all of the surroundings at each step of the game -- it added to the whole gameplay experience for me. I'm looking for a repeat experience of that sort this year.

I was reading about "The Dig" today; and while the reviews of the game seem moderate to terrible (mostly in terms of the puzzles?), it looks amazing and fits my description. So this is the kind I'm looking for, it need not have fully rendered 3-D worlds, but rather do a really good job immersing you in within its limits. So oldies are welcome, as long as they fit this description.

I'm OK with RPGs and adventure games. Also puzzlers in the vein of Portal or Myst.

I'm not a big FPS or shooter player, but I was a fan of Quake / Unreal Tournament (OK environments IMO), and Halo (great!) back in the day.

I have a PS3 and Mac OS X with (S)NES and MS-DOS emulators.

What video camera will meet my requirements?

yesster — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 13:40:34 -0800

I want to have a very lightweight camera that has no wires, but sends a video feed to an android device. I want to mount it on a telescoping pole for close-up inspection of stained glass windows. I do restoration and repair of stained glass for my living. So it would be great to be able to use a camera on a pole to do assessments onsite without ladders or scaffolding. I'm thinking battery operated. It would be handy if it had onboard storage, preferrably an SD card. But I really need to be able to watch a screen HERE while the camera is up THERE, and have no wires. I would prefer to purchase from amazon, but am open to other sellers. Also willing to consider other solutions entirely. Let's pretend cost is not a big factor.

Silent Science Videos To Entertain Teens?

The Whelk — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 12:26:02 -0800

Looking for videos to create a youtube playlist to entertain a group of science-minded teenagers for about 30 min that are largely visual. Sound is fine but the bulk shouldn't be someone talking to the class like an instructor - visualizations are best - ideally they should look really, really cool. Class is engineering focused, but chemistry, robotics, wobbly bridges, comp-sci, biology, are all welcome. Backstory: the kids are going to be holed up in a room for a while without their phones, the projector will be playing a pre-selected set of youtube videos.

Help me identify this music video

mhjb — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 03:23:22 -0800

I'm thinking of a music video by a Japanese rock band that starts with a long tracking shot of a huge guitar effects pedal chain. I know it is an amazing song but I can't for the life of me recall the name.

90s games filter: what game was this?

Submiqent — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:35:41 -0800

What was the name of a 90s game where you try to find a rabbit in a theme park world? I'm trying to remember a game I played in the early 90s. You were in a theme park world trying to find a Rabbit, and if you pressed R a map came over the screen and you could see where to go via a bunny rabbit sillouhette. I think there were cavemen in the game and there was a candy world. The main character may have been a girl. It was the same viewing angle as theme hospital, it may have been isometric. Sorry I don't have more details, it's right on the edge of my memory.

JW Player video download advice?

caveatz — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 12:04:28 -0800

I need to download video from a jwplayer site. Looks like all the suggestions online require you to be a novice coder. I'm not. I just want this one video downloaded and all the normal Chrome or Firefox extensions don't work. Not even RealPlayer. Anyone care to advise. Here's the site. http://bit.ly/11blqJI Windows here if it makes a difference. Though I can access a Mac if need be.

How can i play HD video without it horribly stuttering?

emptythought — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:15:58 -0800

Any HD video files i try to play stutter horribly on my new computer, and just generally play inconsistently and in a not-smooth fashion. I've tried almost everything... I have years of experience building and supporting computers, Windows/Mac(even classic!)/etc. i work in IT. I've googled the crap out of this every time i get a wild hair for weeks now, and tried almost everything i could find. Every video playing app, different codecs, VLC, using media player classic set up various ways or on the "default ffdshow" mode which some people said was the fastest for them. no dice. I've also asked every meatspace and online friend i have who would be knowledgeable about this type of thing. Lots of suggestions, nothing helped.

The computer itself is extremely fast. core i5 2500k, 8gb of fast ram, dual geforce gtx 460 1gb cards in SLI, vertex 4 ssd, etc. High end stuff. I really can't see anything being a problem there, and there's nothing else i've ever tried to do with it that it couldn't handle smoothly.

It's also worth noting that it gets even worse with higher resolution or larger files. A 1080p version of "Brave" caused it to stutter so intensely that the sound started to skip and crackle. It can usually handle SD/DVD resolution video fine, but even that sometimes stutters.

This is compounded by the fact that my several year old Mac blasts right through most, if not all of these files with absolute smoothness. And even the ones that it doesn't, it just needs 30 seconds or so to throw them in to RAM from it's slow HDD and start caching to play smoothly. So it's not related to the files.

Completely at my wits end with this, and I've basically burned google down looking for solutions. Any thoughts?