Q. Just want a good mic for my camera for a good price. I upload piano videos to Youtube, but the sound isn't good. I have Windows Movie Maker if that helps. A good answer would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Thank you.
A. You don't say what sort of camera you have. I'm assuming it's a point & shoot digital camera since you're in this forum and p&s camera audio quality is normally pretty wretched.
Most P&S cameras have microphone and sample rate limitations which make audio sound bad. You need to record the audio on something better. Your computer can be set up to record audio if you use a microphone (Radio Shack has decent cheapo mics). Depending on your computer's sound circuitry, you may need an external preamplifier between the mic and the computer audio input or an external USB audio gadget to get rid of electrical noise generated by your computer.
You can use Audacity as your sound editor which will enable you to record your music to your computer. Audacity is free and works quite well.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
In Movie Maker, get rid of the crappy sound track from your camera's video and use the sound track that you recorded to your computer. Align the new sound track with your video. You can align the audio track laying in the new audio track and align it with the camera's audio track until the echo is gone. Then, mute the camera audio track and render your video making sure that you select a decent audio quality for the render process.
Better yet, if you have a DV camcorder, use that. Camcorder audio quality is generally pretty good.
BTW, the audio on youtube is sub-par. Youtube will take audio and resample it to a low bit rate. Don't expect something wonderful out of youtube. If you're trying to wow someone, put up your video on your own web site with properly encoded audio bit rate (44.1 kHz sample rate, 192kb/s or greater bit rate). I prefer using Flash .flv format for on-line videos as it is well supported by most browsers. Any other video format is a compatibility nightmare for on-line viewing. Riva can convert your video project to a Flash video. There are a few Flash player options for your web site. JW Media Player or FlowPlayer. I prefer JW player as FlowPlayer has gotten too complicated.
http://rivavx.com/?encoder
http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/jw-flv-player/
http://flowplayer.org/
Most P&S cameras have microphone and sample rate limitations which make audio sound bad. You need to record the audio on something better. Your computer can be set up to record audio if you use a microphone (Radio Shack has decent cheapo mics). Depending on your computer's sound circuitry, you may need an external preamplifier between the mic and the computer audio input or an external USB audio gadget to get rid of electrical noise generated by your computer.
You can use Audacity as your sound editor which will enable you to record your music to your computer. Audacity is free and works quite well.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
In Movie Maker, get rid of the crappy sound track from your camera's video and use the sound track that you recorded to your computer. Align the new sound track with your video. You can align the audio track laying in the new audio track and align it with the camera's audio track until the echo is gone. Then, mute the camera audio track and render your video making sure that you select a decent audio quality for the render process.
Better yet, if you have a DV camcorder, use that. Camcorder audio quality is generally pretty good.
BTW, the audio on youtube is sub-par. Youtube will take audio and resample it to a low bit rate. Don't expect something wonderful out of youtube. If you're trying to wow someone, put up your video on your own web site with properly encoded audio bit rate (44.1 kHz sample rate, 192kb/s or greater bit rate). I prefer using Flash .flv format for on-line videos as it is well supported by most browsers. Any other video format is a compatibility nightmare for on-line viewing. Riva can convert your video project to a Flash video. There are a few Flash player options for your web site. JW Media Player or FlowPlayer. I prefer JW player as FlowPlayer has gotten too complicated.
http://rivavx.com/?encoder
http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/jw-flv-player/
http://flowplayer.org/
Are you excited about the new Apple iPad? Will you be getting one as soon as they're available?
Q. I must say that if I was a book reader I would definitely pay the extra cash for this device over the Kindle. But, I am surprised at the amount of "disappointment" the new iPad has caused all over internet forums from the geek community.
As far as the price goes, I must say that that's a thing the iPad has going for itself. I was expecting something starting at $700.00 and up.
Are you going to stand in line to get one?
As far as the price goes, I must say that that's a thing the iPad has going for itself. I was expecting something starting at $700.00 and up.
Are you going to stand in line to get one?
A. I am definitely going to get one. I like iBook and iWork features and I also love that it can be connected to digital camera directly and import pictures.I am sure it will have some breathtaking photo editing apps.
My only concern is how would i save the document that I create on iPad and how will i be able to download the email attachment. But I am sure these things must have been taken care of.
There are disappointment because of the hype created by rumors. I remember when in 2007 iPhone was launched, it lacked very common feature like video camera, MMS, copy/paste and atleast a 3 MP camera. But regardless, it sold incredibly well because whatever it did, did amazingly.
Apple is not liked for its feature its admired for its ease of use and thats why Apple is loved only by people who use its products. People who don't use never like Apple because their mind cant see beyond features they cant think of performance.
Many people just see the commercial that iPhone cant do multi tasking and then start bragging about it but the fact is iPhone does multi tasking to a very large extent. For example you can listen to FLYCAST radio and creat a word document at the same time. You can run Voice Recording with other apps. You can run iPod with many other apps.
If you are chatting on Ping and get a message on Yahoo Messenger, you are immediately notified. Push notification is way better than running many apps at the same time. If you are FaceBook and an important news breaks, you are notified.
I am sure even with not so good initial response, iPad will rock just like iPhone did.
My only concern is how would i save the document that I create on iPad and how will i be able to download the email attachment. But I am sure these things must have been taken care of.
There are disappointment because of the hype created by rumors. I remember when in 2007 iPhone was launched, it lacked very common feature like video camera, MMS, copy/paste and atleast a 3 MP camera. But regardless, it sold incredibly well because whatever it did, did amazingly.
Apple is not liked for its feature its admired for its ease of use and thats why Apple is loved only by people who use its products. People who don't use never like Apple because their mind cant see beyond features they cant think of performance.
Many people just see the commercial that iPhone cant do multi tasking and then start bragging about it but the fact is iPhone does multi tasking to a very large extent. For example you can listen to FLYCAST radio and creat a word document at the same time. You can run Voice Recording with other apps. You can run iPod with many other apps.
If you are chatting on Ping and get a message on Yahoo Messenger, you are immediately notified. Push notification is way better than running many apps at the same time. If you are FaceBook and an important news breaks, you are notified.
I am sure even with not so good initial response, iPad will rock just like iPhone did.
How can I do stop motion animation of the JVC GZ-MG330 camcorder?
Q. Is there a software that would allow it to be hooked to my (mac) computer by it's USB? is there a firewire attachment that I could buy? Any other ideas?
A. Shooting at 30 fps is unnecessary and just creates undue added work for yourself. People typically shoot at 24fps, as that has been the film standard since sound was introduced to film. Now with the advent of the web, you can shoot at even lower frame rates. Check out this little animation loop that runs at around 15 fps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKuUaZ81xSU
I'd suggest shooting at 24 fps on two's (12 images per second, each image onscreen for 2 frames). If you need to, you can interlace your movie later to accomodate video's 30fps.
Typically, no camcorder has been designed to shoot single frames for stop motion. As such, stop motion software has stepped up to the plate to accommodate capture frames with a camcorder through the software. So, it HAS become a software issue.
http://www.stopmotionworks.com/stopmosoftwr.htm
The majority of these can be used with a camcorder, either through USB or firewire. People have been using camcorders to shoot stop motion for ages. The problem that has been arising lately has been getting digital cameras to work with stop motion software.
If you're just starting out, I'd suggest using Monkeyjam, as it's free. If your camcorder can connect to your computer by USB, the software should have no problem recognizing your camcorder.
http://www.giantscreamingrobotmonkeys.com/monkeyjam/
For any specific questions, you should visit stopmotionanimation.com. It's a forum filled with stop motion animators who give advice and help each other out. The site also has a handbook section which gives basic stop motion advice on a variety of subjects.
Here's what it had to say on camcorders:
You can use ANY camcorder for stopmotion, assuming you use it properly. Now, to qualify that statement, NO camcorder (with the exception of the Sanyo IDshot) will shoot single frames. You have to use them in conjunction with your computer, running a framegrabber program to ‘capture’ images from the live video feed. And yes, you can even use your old analog camcorder that’s been gathering dust since you bought it in the 80s. For that you’d need to get an analog/digital signal converter. Canopus makes a good line of these at affordable prices, some are cards you insert into your computer and some are standalone devices like the ADVC-100 (Analog/Digital Video Converter).
If you get a DV camcorder then you won’t need a converter. But in either case, you need to make sure your computer has either Firewire or USB ports (whichever the camera or digital converter has).
When using a camcorder for stopmotion, you DO NOT use any tape or record anything with the camcorder itself... you only use it to provide a live video feed to the computer for a framegrabber to capture images from. Many camcorders will automatically shut down (losing all your stored setting) after 5 minutes if there’s a tape in the deck... what you want to do is take the tape out, and if it still wants to shut down, simply open the tape deck and keep it open while you animate. Don’t run it on batteries... an animation session can go for many hours, and you’ll go through a lot of batteries. Get an AC adapter and plug it into the wall.
PROS:
Instant feedback and flawless interfacing with framegrabbers, same as webcams. But with camcorders you get better optics (they cost more).
CONS:
In order to get the full user control described above, you pretty much have to opt for a “pro-sumer” level camcorder, which start at around $2000. Most ordinary consumer models are “point and shoot”, meaning they do the focusing and adjusting for you.
But John Edmark has provided this information: Panasonic's PV-GS series of camcorders all seem to have these necessary manual controls. Several of these are older models, now discontinued and available on eBay. For example, the PV-GS19 is regularly selling for ~$150. John was able to test it out with both StopMotionPro on a PC and iStopMotion and FrameThief on a Mac. It worked great with all of them. The manual controls operated exactly as advertised. I assume the same will be true of the GS 59, 19, 35, 15, 65, etc (based on the description of their manual controls at CamcorderInfo.com)
http://stopmotionanimation.com/handbook/3.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKuUaZ81xSU
I'd suggest shooting at 24 fps on two's (12 images per second, each image onscreen for 2 frames). If you need to, you can interlace your movie later to accomodate video's 30fps.
Typically, no camcorder has been designed to shoot single frames for stop motion. As such, stop motion software has stepped up to the plate to accommodate capture frames with a camcorder through the software. So, it HAS become a software issue.
http://www.stopmotionworks.com/stopmosoftwr.htm
The majority of these can be used with a camcorder, either through USB or firewire. People have been using camcorders to shoot stop motion for ages. The problem that has been arising lately has been getting digital cameras to work with stop motion software.
If you're just starting out, I'd suggest using Monkeyjam, as it's free. If your camcorder can connect to your computer by USB, the software should have no problem recognizing your camcorder.
http://www.giantscreamingrobotmonkeys.com/monkeyjam/
For any specific questions, you should visit stopmotionanimation.com. It's a forum filled with stop motion animators who give advice and help each other out. The site also has a handbook section which gives basic stop motion advice on a variety of subjects.
Here's what it had to say on camcorders:
You can use ANY camcorder for stopmotion, assuming you use it properly. Now, to qualify that statement, NO camcorder (with the exception of the Sanyo IDshot) will shoot single frames. You have to use them in conjunction with your computer, running a framegrabber program to ‘capture’ images from the live video feed. And yes, you can even use your old analog camcorder that’s been gathering dust since you bought it in the 80s. For that you’d need to get an analog/digital signal converter. Canopus makes a good line of these at affordable prices, some are cards you insert into your computer and some are standalone devices like the ADVC-100 (Analog/Digital Video Converter).
If you get a DV camcorder then you won’t need a converter. But in either case, you need to make sure your computer has either Firewire or USB ports (whichever the camera or digital converter has).
When using a camcorder for stopmotion, you DO NOT use any tape or record anything with the camcorder itself... you only use it to provide a live video feed to the computer for a framegrabber to capture images from. Many camcorders will automatically shut down (losing all your stored setting) after 5 minutes if there’s a tape in the deck... what you want to do is take the tape out, and if it still wants to shut down, simply open the tape deck and keep it open while you animate. Don’t run it on batteries... an animation session can go for many hours, and you’ll go through a lot of batteries. Get an AC adapter and plug it into the wall.
PROS:
Instant feedback and flawless interfacing with framegrabbers, same as webcams. But with camcorders you get better optics (they cost more).
CONS:
In order to get the full user control described above, you pretty much have to opt for a “pro-sumer” level camcorder, which start at around $2000. Most ordinary consumer models are “point and shoot”, meaning they do the focusing and adjusting for you.
But John Edmark has provided this information: Panasonic's PV-GS series of camcorders all seem to have these necessary manual controls. Several of these are older models, now discontinued and available on eBay. For example, the PV-GS19 is regularly selling for ~$150. John was able to test it out with both StopMotionPro on a PC and iStopMotion and FrameThief on a Mac. It worked great with all of them. The manual controls operated exactly as advertised. I assume the same will be true of the GS 59, 19, 35, 15, 65, etc (based on the description of their manual controls at CamcorderInfo.com)
http://stopmotionanimation.com/handbook/3.htm
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