Reeltime Videoworks

Impact Instant Canopy

Don Greening — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:08:39 +0000

Tri-Cities Galla & Business Excellence Awards 2011

Don Greening — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 22:36:19 +0000

You can register for the Gala here:

http://www.tricitieschamber.com/promote/event-registration-form/

Al Jamal

Don Greening — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 03:26:57 +0000

Flag Ceremony for Salai Ko Tin Maung Oo

Don Greening — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 07:18:01 +0000

Burmese Dance No. 2

Don Greening — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 05:04:51 +0000

Talking About Burma

Don Greening — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 01:56:18 +0000

Salai Ko Tin Maung Oo teaser trailer

Don Greening — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 23:00:37 +0000

Gabriella van Rij — Adoption

Don Greening — Mon, 30 May 2011 03:55:05 +0000

Gabriella’s web site can be found here

With All My Might — Arabic

Don Greening — Mon, 30 May 2011 03:29:33 +0000

Gabriella’s web site can be found here

Gabriella van Rij

Don Greening — Mon, 30 May 2011 02:44:34 +0000

Gabriella’s web site can be found here

Ki Pro Mini and Time Code

Don Greening — Wed, 04 May 2011 03:19:41 +0000

I’ve discovered something about AJA’s Ki Pro Mini that perhaps even AJA might not be aware of. If you have the device hooked up to the PMW EX1R or the PMW EX3 via SDI and have these cameras set to TIME OF DAY time code generation the device will not start or stop recording unless you do it yourself by pressing the REC button on the unit. These cameras must be generating regular TC in order for the RP188 protocol to be sent down the SDI pipe from the camera. Other cameras may or may not be affected by this, but since I only have the 2 EX cameras I cannot validate any others.

- Don

H.264 from Mac to Web

Don Greening — Tue, 03 May 2011 06:10:27 +0000

One of the best video formats available today for all kinds of applications is H.264. Even though it’s primarily a delivery codec there are cameras such as Canon’s DSLR line that uses it for acquisition. Why? Because it’s a great lightweight (small file size) codec with superior quality. H.264’s most common use is for the web. I’m getting increasing requests from clients for deliverables based on H.264 with an MP4 wrapper to put on their web sites.

Not too long ago web-based video file sizes had to be really small so they would stream properly on dial up modems. Remember that? But now there’s much more bandwidth with ISDN and cable etc. and the focus now is all about quality and not so much about small file sizes. This makes the process of converting your masterpiece for the web much easier than it used to be. Now with web-based video hosting sites such as YouTube and Vimeo the streaming data rates can be larger than if your own web site was hosting.

The following workflow can be done right within Final Cut Pro using the “Export Using Quicktime Conversion” command but might I suggest an alternative: Quicktime Player. Using QT Player as a stand-alone allows you to continue editing in FCP while QT Player does the encoding in the background. Both ways use the same setup windows so if you’re used to doing it within FCP the QT Player windows will be the same.

If you’re shooting for the web do yourself a big favour and shoot progressive. Computer monitors are not interlaced and most cameras these days have a progressive setting. Use it. Now your first compression task is done because now you don’t have to de-interlace your footage before compressing it. You can de-interlace of course, but the result always takes a quality hit and makes your video look softer.

Export your self-contained movie from FCP and then open it up in QT Player. Choose “Export”. You’ll be presented with the primary export window.

On the lower left choose “Movie to MP4” from the drop down Export list then click on “Quality” to the right of the list. You’ll get this window:

In File Format at the top choose MP4 (not MP4 ISMA).

Select H.264 as the video format.

Data Rate is dependent upon your frame size. Notice my choice for the frame size of 1280x720.

Leave keyframes on Auto

If your frame size is anamorphic then you might want to check the “preserve aspect ratio” and choose “letterbox.” The particular frame size I’m using in this example is square pixels o I don’t have to worry about the aspect ratio not proportioned correctly.

Now click on “Video Options” and you’ll see this:

Choose Best Quality Multi-Pass for (you guessed it) the best quality bang for your file size buck.

Click OK then OK again to leave the Quality Window and then choose a destination for your MP4 file. Click “Save” in the main export Window. Now while QT Player is exporting you can get back to work editing.

- Don