Dear readers, I wish you all the best for this new year with its magical name two thousand and ten!
I shall be honest with you: I’m happy 2009 is over. It was a stormy year for most people, I think. But this year I feel there is going to be a fresh wind and the doom and gloom of last year will disperse. For the time being, let’s celebrate at least that we survived another year 🙂
Importing bookmarks from Firefox to Opera
If you notice weird things happening to your blog or content management system and you are using Firefox, chances are that Firefox is messing up. Especially versions starting from 3.x are so bad that I decided to migrated to Opera. I’m not happy leaving Firefox because it has always been a great browser, but it … Read more
Video channels on Vimeo
Why are video channels on Vimeo so great? Because you can create several channels under the same account, unlike YouTube where you have to create a separate user per channel with login an password. Also, on Vimeo you can change the name of your channel at any time while YouTube channels are fixed. Imagine, you … Read more
Review of a video presentation
This is not the first time I show a video from MissK, and the reason is that she is a natural performer. Let’s have a look at this video and see what is good and what is bad: Now you have seen the video, let’s review what we have seen here: The good points: MissK … Read more
New version AVS converter 1.6.3 has bugs – revised
The new upgrade of AVS4you video converter 1.6.3.367 has a couple of bugs in the audio. As a result, converting to DVD, MOV, AVI and FLV messes up the audio or doesn’t produce any audio at all on some computer configurations. The support department says it is working on a new version to be released … Read more
Recording a video interview with Skype
Sounds absolutely fantastic, recording video with Skype, isn’t it? Well, it is sort of hard to believe, even with the latest version of Skype, optimized for video and with video recording software like Call recorder for Mac or SuperTintin for PC. After installing the latest version of Skype on PC (there is no new version … Read more
Recording audio interviews with Skype
For those who do not know Skype, it is an application somewhat comparable with Yahoo Messenger or MSN. You can talk with friends or business associates by using a headset (headphones with build-in microphone). It is a free service and the quality of the sound is much better then telephone. But Skype goes a step … Read more
How to embed Vimeo’s Badge widget
The badge widget of Vimeo shows thumbnails of your video collections on your post or page. Once embedded on your site, just like the HubNut widget, when you change settings in Vimeo, the changes reflect on your pages immediately. The Badge widget has been replaced by the Montage widget, therefore this tutorial is obsolete. View … Read more
YouTube doubled the size for uploads
YouTube announces that as from today, the upload for standard videos doubles from 1GB to 2GB, making it possible to upload bigger videos at higher resolutions. New features In addition, the YouTube team’s implemented new features to make it easier to show your HD videos on your site or blog by appending &hd=1 at the … Read more
How to embed Vimeo’s HubNut widget
Updated 29 November 2015 – Vimeo has several ways to import video onto your site. The badge widget displays thumbnails of your videos from Vimeo while the HubNut widget is a slider with videos. The great thing with both widgets is that if you add videos or change them, this is automatically updated on your … Read more
How to embed videos from Vimeo on your site – revised
Updated 26 November 2015 – Vimeo.com has 3 standard ways to display videos directly on your website or blog. In this article, I explain how to use the standard method, Embedding. In the coming article I show the other methods. But let me first sum up the all the options so that you know what to expect.
YouTube goes GoogleAdsense: Promoted videos
YouTube offers Promoted videos since about half a year ago and it works more or less like GoogleAdsense. The idea is to promote your own video and put it in front of other videos by paying for certain keywords per click. In other words, promoted videos show up in search results before all other videos, … Read more
AVS Video converter – review
UPDATE 8 May 2016: Due to the many problems with the software (after I wrote a review about it) and license policy changes, we no longer recommend using AVS Video Converter. In fact, Handbrake is much more convenient and it is a free product. AVS video Converter is a windows application to convert videos in all popular … Read more
Back up online recorded podcasts and video
Many audio- and video services offer to record podcasts or video online. The videos or audios are then saved on their server and conveniently, you get an url that you can link to in your web site. Easy and no worries, yet, there is one thing that most subscribers forget, and that is to download … Read more
Vocal booth for podcasting
A vocal booth helps improve acoustics for a microphone and it can be a complete cabin or a portable booth. A complete cabin is relatively expensive but offers generally a better result then the portable version, although it depends on the situation. Some studios use a cabin and place a portable booth inside, but that … Read more
Broadcast quality audio for video interviews
Regarding audio and video, there is huge difference between broadcasting quality and podcasting or play back from computer. Although computer sound cards are getting better, it lacks way behind in comparison with professional audio equipment. This article shows a couple of pitfalls you have to avoid if there is a chance that you interview is not only watched from the web but also on fairs with professional PA systems.
How to keep a mic close by without revealing it in video footage?
To keep the microphone out of view while holding close to the interviewee you have 3 options: either use a mic stand, a boom pole or, under certain conditions, attach the mic to the camcorder. If you are on your own, using a boom pole can be impractical, because you have to monitor your camcorder … Read more
Action! How techniques from the film industry can be useful for video
Shooting a video in one go is fine for straightforward interviews or short presentations but when it comes to complicated subjects, we often have to cut a video into pieces. When finished, we assemble everything in post production and glue the parts together. Sometimes, it can be difficult to recognize from the thumbnails in the … Read more
Under the influence
There is actually a future in compiling videos into a channel because who has the time to spend so much time finding gems on video channels? Well, Casey Pugh on Vimeo obviously does and his collection is just top class. It is primarily experimental- and art video and that is what I like about it. … Read more
CNET comparison between video services
Cnet is a great source for reviews on hardware. Whenever I buy a camcorder, I first go there to look up the reviews. This time, they did an excellent comparison test with HD videos between the most important video services offering high definition video hosting: YouTube, Vimeo, SmugMug, DailyMotion, BlipTV, Source and Facebook(which is not … Read more
Burn mark your videos instead of watermark
Recent developments urged me to raise the topic again on watermarking, or rather what I would like to call burn marking videos, because there are so many video players and free services which can create play lists from rss feeds located on external sites, that burn marking your video becomes a real necessity. “What’s that … Read more
Vimeo: the secret of good quality content
Updated 8 September 2016. Vimeo is to my mind one of the best video networks around because it has a high concentration of creative content providers. It is not like on YouTube where if you type “art video” in the search box, you get loads of music clips or ” the art of making jam“- type videos. … Read more
Video interview: I forgot to check!
Let’s confess; I behaved like a total fool when interviewing a sound designer in London. The interview went well when, after 10 minutes, I discovered that the connector of the external microphone was not plugged into the camcorder.
Because I had set the audio on the camcorder to external, I had no audio at all.
Share and backup large videos between Mac and PC using MyBook or any external hard drive
My Book and most external hard drives are set up out-of-the-box to work with Mac and PC thanks to a special format that both systems understand. As a result, you can use your external drive as a backup which you can access on both Mac and PC. This is very convenient if you are a … Read more
Tips to use a microphone
I was looking for information on Rode mics when I bumped into a video of Ken Sparkes, the famous broadcasting personality of Australia. In the video, he demonstrates the Procaster microphone for broadcasting and then he gives a couple of very interesting tips how to use a professional microphone. Update 1 Dec 2016: Unfortunately, the … Read more