News posts from 2004 Q4
 

Blu-ray

Competing for DVD Supremacy
NY Times
By KEN BELSON
Published: September 20, 2004
http://nytimes.com/2004/09/20/technology/20newcon.html?8hpib
http://nytimes.com/2004/09/20/technology/20newcon.html?8hpib=&pagewanted=all&position=

"The rivalry between the competing coalitions - Blu-ray, led by Sony and relying heavily on Sony technology, and the HD-DVD format group using technology from its leaders, Toshiba and NEC - is turning into a fight over whether the television or the computer will dominate the living room."

again!

Sony adding VC-1 and AVC support to Blu Ray means that they should be the odds on favorite. It seems that HD-DVD's only advantage may be cheaper production costs but if Blu Ray can hold more data that means less discs to be pressed ameliorating any HD-DVD production cost advantages. Should be interesting.

Personally, I would much rather have more room than more disks. I just hate putting in a new disk so I can finish my movie :P

I've been waiting for blu-ray for a long time, guess i'll be waiting a little bit longer! oh well good things comes to those who wait.

Not to mention

http://www.macworld.com/news/2004/09/21/sony/index.php

200GB Blu Ray discs that record 8 layers of data are on the docket.

Russ Meyer is dead
 

Without dwelling on the subject matter of his films, I have to say I really respected him as an independent filmmaker. He managed to retain ownership of almost all of his films. How many people can say that?

I stand up and salute him. Reruns of his movies gave me reason to stay up past midnight on many cold, lonely nights.

Here's to you Russ!

Russ, here's hoping you are resting between two big fat ones in the sky.

RIP

RIP - Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls is one of my faves.

Ny Film Screening Invite.
 

You are invited to the special film screening of WICKID PISSA FILMS new short film LIFE COACH.

A file clerk gets laid off from his job and then pawns himself off as a famous life coach named Sebastian Starr. Everything goes smoothly until the girl he has a crush on calls and requests his services.

Facing the chance of being revealed a fraud, he's forced to choose between great commercial success and the possibility of love.

WHEN: Saturday, October 2nd, 2004.
PLACE: LAILA LOUNGE
ADDRESS: 113 N 7th St. (b/w Wythe and Berry), Brooklyn, NY 11211
PHONE: 718.486-6791

You can watch Wickid Pissa's short film CELL PHONES & ACTION FIGURES on www.ifilm.com by clicking on this link - http://www.ifilm.com/filmdetail?ifilmid=2458986

A cell phone salesman writes a dirty book in an effort to raise money to buy an engagement ring for his girlfriend. But his world is turned upside down when an eccentric action figure enthusiast steals his car with the books inside.

The film recently played at The New England Film & Video Festival and on The Independent Film Channel.

Check out the feature story in the film magazine IMAGINE NEWS:
http://imaginenews.com/Archive/2003/FEB_2003/01_FEATURES/18A_JOSH_MITCHELL.html

Please RSVP to mitchmitchell24@hotmail.com

Thank you.

-JOSH MITCHELL
http://wickidpissaboston.iuma.com

PS - A new short film on the French playwright Feydeau called "Marriage is a Farce" will also be shown.

I may be in NY on Saturday. What time is the screening?

what is blue ray exactly, is it a type of DVD burner, company or what?

It's a higher density DVD-like recording technology which utilizes a laser with a shorter wavlength (hence blue color), than the typical "fatter" red laser recording system that we all use now. It has the potential to immediately hold more than 10X the data than current DVDs (and later, possibly way more than that).

8 substrates sounds like quite a lot, and many more chances for rot, unless they are gold. Wouldn't that make the discs pretty pricey? Although the cost:storage ratio would still be awsome...I am imagining an 8-layer Blu-Ray ReWritable disc, and doing a complete system backup sans compression. Now that would be nice.

I just found this site through one of the Mac forums posts from the 200GB Blu-Ray article...

What would you guys even do with a 100TB disc system?
http://www.physorg.com/preview785.html

Record your film in uncompressed 4:4:4 with enough resolution to project from?

Now that would be much easier than reels...

If you haven't seen "Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill" you've missed a great piece of entertainment.

"the world's first and only concept for non-contact UV photon induced electric field poling of ferroelectric non-linear photonic bandgap crystals" (from Jesse's link above)

......easy for them to say!

Star Trek goes HD!
 

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#nx01dvd

Check the site for more.

NAB Interview with Michael Ballhaus, ASC
 

In the course of looking up information on the new Arricam D-20 I came across an interesting NAB 2004 interview with cinematographer Michael Ballhaus regarding his perspective on the general state of digital cinematography. I think you'll find it a good read.

Ulead offers turnkey PC HDV editing...
 

this news seems more tailored for the JVC cam at the moment - no doubt support for the new Sony FX1 is bound to follow...?

http://www.ulead.com/aboutulead/press/pr10-06-04.htm

*L* Arent' DP's great? The only guys on the set more full of it than the director.

DVFilm Atlantis 2 is Here!
 

DVFilm Atlantis 2 is finally here.

Atlantis is commonly known for its unique approach to converting PAL to NTSC in a manner that makes it look very close to film. The PAL is first converted to progressive-scan, then resampled to NTSC 60 fields per second with a modified 3:2 pulldown. The results are much better than conventional PAL to NTSC conversions: vertical detail is preserved, excessive motion blur or image doubling is avoided, and the processing is fast (1 minute of video takes about 4 minutes of processing time).

Now the same approach can be used for NTSC to PAL conversion with Atlantis 2.

For converting NTSC to PAL, Atlantis first converts the NTSC to 24P, by using similar methods to our acclaimed product DVFilm Maker, then speeds up the playback rate slightly to 25 frames per second. Three different kinds of NTSC can be converted: 1) normal 60i NTSC shot with 1/60th sec shutter speed, 2) NTSC with a 3:2 pulldown such as produced by a 24P camera or film telecine'd to NTSC, and 3) NTSC with a 2:3:3:2 pulldown such as produced by a DVX100A or Canon XL-2 24P camera. Atlantis can remove both continuous cadence and randomly edited footage with a changing cadence. The cadence is detected automatically from the analysis of motion in the video.

One of the possible unique applications of Atlantis 2 is for the editing of 24P-NTSC video in a PAL-capable editing system which would not otherwise be able to edit at 24 frames/sec. The clips are captured in the editing program's NTSC mode, then converted to 25P. The clips are then edited together in the editor's PAL mode and prepared for transfer to film or conversion back to NTSC. One of the main benefits of this method over editing in a 24P system, is that the playback from the editing system through firewire is true 25 frames/sec, not simulated 24P with a 3:2 pulldown, or other pulldown that can exaggerate motion judder.

Atlantis also features a unique motion blur method which can reduce aliasing on high-shutter speed video and poor quality video. Another optional feature can reduce flicker caused by progressive-scan material that is intended to play back on an interlaced monitor. It can also simulate red emulsion shift and film grain if desired.

Atlantis 2 is $195 (Windows/Mac) and can be purchased online at http://dvfilm.com

Get your CherryOS!
 

http://www.cherryos.com

Nice!

- don

First Mac OS emulator for PC's that I've seen.

Video Clip
 

Click HERE for a video clip detailing the feature benefits of the new CherryOS MAC OS X emulator for the PC.

- don

That's very interesting.... I really doubt that it would be able to carry something like FCP or Photoshop in emulation tho... the speed would be slow, I am guessing...

Here's another one.
http://pearpc.sourceforge.net

A rather interesting approach is used by this project, which sadly looks like it has been abandoned.
http://www.daunity.org/macehq

And here's a guy who installed OS X on Windows XP running on OS X (yes, you read that right).
http://sveinbjorn.vefsyn.is/mac_on_win_on_mac

" PAL is first converted to progressive-scan "

" then resampled to NTSC 60 fields "

" vertical detail is preserved "

I find the last statement a bit hard to believe. Footage is
de-interlaced, then re-interlaced and vertical detail is still there?

Also resolution is dropped from 576 lines to 480 lines and
vertical resolution is still preserved?

It might look marvelous, but that statement makes no sense (to me).

Assuming the source video is from an interlaced PAL camera, the vertical resolution is at most 75% of 576 lines because the camera blurs out the vertical detail to avoid interline flicker on interlaced monitors. .75 x 576 is about 432 lines. Here is a an article by Steve Mullen which describes why this is so:

ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/pub/Panasoni...ressive-WP.pdf

When Atlantis (or DVFilm Maker) deinterlaces PAL, motion is detected and a soft mask is drawn around the static areas of the screen, and the static areas are left untouched by the deinterlacing. This preserves the full vertical detail in the static areas of the screen. The human eye can detect sharpness only in static areas, so the scene appears just as sharp after deinterlacing (with the DVFilm method) even if there is something moving in the frame.

The resulting progressive-scan image of 576 lines, but with 432 line vertical resolution, is interpolated to 480 lines of NTSC.

Since an NTSC camera must also spoil the vertical resolution to avoid interline flicker, it has only about .75 x 480 or 360 lines vertical resolution. Thus the NTSC image created with Atlantis from an interlaced PAL camera, has better vertical sharpness than the same image recorded with an interlaced NTSC camera, even if if both are viewed on an NTSC monitor. This is one advantage of using Atlantis with a PAL camera to create NTSC. The second advantage is you have a higher resolution image for transfer to film.

Of course, the interline flicker can be a problem with a progressive-scan quality image on an interlaced monitor, however Atlantis 2 gives you control over that and you can apply a deflicker filter, if that is your choice. Some customers will prefer the higher-resolution image.

The only case where there is an unavoidable loss in vertical resolution is 25P (progressive-scan PAL) converted to interlaced NTSC. In that case the deinterlace step is skipped by Atlantis and it does a simple interpolation and field-repeat conversion to NTSC. The vertical resolution is reduced from 576 to 480.

For more info on Atlantis 2 ($195 Windows or Mac) see http://dvfilm.com/atlantis and for DVFilm Maker 2 ($145 Windows or Mac) see http://dvfilm.com/maker

Many thanks as always, Marcus... by the way, we have a review of your book up on our main site now. Thanks again,

Thank you for the explenation Marcus. I have no doubt the
resolution will be better than the NTSC camera.

Charles McConathy
 

Not a valid news source, but this from the Avid L's trusty list member Bob Zelin:


> It is with my greatest regret that I must inform you on today Saturday
> 10/23/04,
> Charles McConathy, President of ProMax, has died.
>
> Charles has been instrumental in the establishment of inovative products,
> and low cost systems, that has
> revolutionized the way we do business today. Charles knew what customer
> support meant, and when you
> had trouble, you could go right to the top, right to him, to get things
> resolved.
>
> I am sure that you may recall his posts, directly on these forums. He was
> just not a businessman, he was actually
> interesed in what we did, and carried on regular correspondence with many
of
> us, to keep his feet "in the street", to know
> what we wanted. Charles made ProMax a great company. And Charles was a
> great friend to many of us. Although
> he was President of a big company, he was just one of the guys.
>
> He will be greatly missed. Certainly by me.
>
> With deepest regrets -
> Bob Zelin

I met Charles first on the DV-L list and later in person at the first DV Expo
and at NAB many times. He was a true scholar, gentleman and took everything
he did to the highest level. He spent hours online helping people make wise
choices and even developed his own solutions when none existed.
The customer was always number 1. Promax solutions worked
when nothing else really did. At NAB this year, the Promax party came to its
feet when Charlie took the stage and cried when HE THANKED US all for
all the love and support he'd received since being afflicted with cancer.

I will truly miss him and my deep sympathies go out to his family, his Promax
family and his Internet family.

Very sad indeed. I've known Charles for years and trade shows recently just haven't been the same without him. NAB this year was the last time I saw him as well, Jacques. We've all been fearing the worst and now it's happened. He did put up a strong, valiant fight though. He'll be sorely missed.

I met Charles McConathy years ago at one of the first NAB conventions I attended. He was a gentleman in every sense of the word and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

Here is a message that Charles sent to the Avid L a few weeks ago.

On Sept. 7, 2004, Charles McConathy wrote:

"Below is a list of items that I feel can improve most people's health...
- If you have an illness Trust in God and never give up hope.
- Take time each day for devotion.
- Stress - find ways to reduce stress - very important.
- Rest - try to get two hours of your nightly sleep before midnight.
- Avoid sugar, coffee, soft drinks, and snack foods - read the labels.
- Exercise - at a very minimum walk a mile a day.
- Lose weight if needed - be careful of low carb diets like Atkins--they might work now but could have other long term issues.

- If you smoke - STOP - Cancer of the lungs is serious - as seen on the Oprah segment first hand.
- Take a sack lunch to work versus going for fast food.
- Get 20 to 30 minutes of sunshine each day - good for Vitamin D that helps absorption of vitamins .
- Keep a window open day and night for fresh air - disease does not thrive in oxygen.
- Drink pure water - try to drink 64 ounces a day of pure water-without chlorine or fluoride - I drink spring water ..
- Be aware of the effects of mercury in your system - avoid certain fish.
- Eat more raw foods - cooked food tends to kill enzymes - try to get organically grown produce when possible
- Learn about enzymes and how important they are to your health.
- Use flax seed oil on salads with lemon juice - avoid iceberg lettuce - use darker leaf vegetables.
- Eat more berries and fruits such bananas, apples, apricots, peaches, cherries, strawberries, blueberries, and melon.
- Include almonds, sun flower seeds, and cashews in your diet.
- Use extra virgin olive oil for cooking.
- Use sea salt vs table salt.
- Eat less packaged and fried foods.
- Drink freshly made vegetable juices - such as blends of carrot, apple, beet, celery, spinach, onion, and garlic.
- Avoid or reduce animal fat in your diet - eat more fish or chicken vs beef or pork .
- Use almond, soy, or rice milk vs cow milk - cow milk often has hormones and other issues.
- Be very careful of the chemicals you use in your home or work.
- Study your personal need of supplemental vitamins and minerals.
- Have your blood tested - I go to a Natural Doctor that shows me my blood cells on a monitor - very revealing.
- Learn to test your saliva and urine using PH paper - easy to do - better to be 6 to 7 PH vs acidic - cancer likes acidic.

- Depending on your age - get a colonoscopy every five years and regular check ups.
- Learn about parasites and yeast and how they affect you.
- Remember that a lot of diseases start in the colon and liver - learn how to cleanse your colon and liver.
- Learn how to boost your immune system through foods, vitamins, minerals, and herbs.
- Try researching subjects on Google...its amazing what you can find. "

"Genius or Bust"
 

Exciting, beautiful, shocking, hilarious, CRAZY, and truly an inspiration. Meyer will be missed.

HDV Unwrapped presentation in NYC
 

The New York SMPTE Chapter presents "HDV Unwrapped"

Wednesday, 10 Nov 2004 at 6:30pm (social hour at 5:30pm)

Postworks at 100 Avenue of the Americas, 10th Floor

Presenters:
Ken Freed, JVC
Hugo Gaggioni, SONY Corporation

"Has affordable HD production really arrived? Why not? When HD cameras are available below $10K and some even below $4K. Representatives from two manufacturers who are leading proponents of the HD format will take you through their product offerings and work flow philosophies. Learn where HDV fits in the world of HDTV and is it right for you."

This is open to guests and non-members. Wish I could go!

See http://www.mte.com/nysmpte/meetings/mtg0411.htm

list of HD movies
 

films that are shot with HD cams>>>>> click on the link

http://hd24.com/who_is_shooting_hd.htm

This is a HDV forum, not HD.

<<<-- Originally posted by Ken Hodson : This is a HDV forum, not HD. -->>>

Perhaps the subtlety of the point, that there's in actual fact a quite extensive list of HD to film releases as well as HD dramas, comedies, documentaries, mini-series etc, etc, etc not being planned but already in the can, even though responders to threads here constantly ask "but what can I use HD/HDV video for?" escapes you Ken....

I for one appreciated seeing that the list, though extensive was really only representative, because there's far more HD programming, movies etc that I'm aware of here in Oz than what was credited.

After watching Kaku's FX1 clips on my HDTV, then watching CSI as a direct comparison, the HDV m2t was superior in many visual aspects..... so expect many more HD/HDV items to be added to that list once this cams impact really hits!!!