I am using Windows Live Writer to publish this article to my Word Press powered blog. But neither Windows Live Writer, neither Word Press has any mechanism to add a copyright (or Creative Commons), the name of the photographer and a caption (the description) to each picture.

I would like to see the possibility to add this for each picture I use in my article. For me, this is a no brainer. The photographer deserves credit just as much as the article writer. So why is it not there?

The group of websites that actually uses some form of this best are the online newspapers. I guess that stems from the photographers there knowing a lot more about their rights. But we really need this on even small blogs today.

A very good source for illustrations for a blog today are the photosharing sites like Flickr. On Flickr, you can do a search only among the Creative Commons pictures to find something that you can use. Bust most of the CC marked pictures require that you give the photographer due credit and maybe also link back to both her/him and to the correct CC webpage. Today, there is no way to do this easily and I am trying to get some attention to this.

One way that has been suggested is to use the watermark feature in some editors to add the text inside the picture itself. But this means altering the picture and a lot of photographers do not want you to do that. Also, take a look at my picture above and think about placing the caption over the picture. First of all, it would look extremely odd. Second, it would hardly be readable. Sure, I could set the text color to white. But next picture might be a high key picture that requires me to set it to black.. No, forget about putting anything inside the picture. And by the way – why use a workaround that is clearly not meant for this? What we need is a real solution.

The first way to handle it would be to ask the creators of different WYSIWYG editors and off-line editors to add this functionality. It should not be too difficult. The second step would be to get it into the core of the different CMS’es like WordPress and Joomla. That is where it really belongs.

I want to add one more thing to the list. Microsoft has made available a nice plugin or addition to Windows XP. It is called Photo Info and it allows you to add the required text to the IPTC fields of pictures. Most of the higher end photo editing programs can do the same, and as I do not like doing the same thing twice, I would love to see Windows Live Writer and WordPress being able to load the IPTC info into the correct fields for each picture when I publish them on my blog. I consider this to be the ultimate and most elegant solution, but for now I will settle for one that just let me enter and display the needed info in a nice manner.

There are several ways to display it, and here the template designers might come in with some styling. The name and copyright could be added under the picture as I have done. But I have also seen it displayed up along the right side of the picture. The caption could either be under or over. For my own blog, I would prefer something more or less the way I made the mockup in this article. I am not totally sure about the 5% grey behind the caption, but I need to make sure it is easy to separate it from the article itself.

How would you like to display photo credits and captions? Do you do it today? As far as I know, copyright laws in most countries requires us to put a credit for pictures we use. Why has this been omitted in most CMS systems?

UPDATE: I have now posted an idea on WordPress.org to try to gather support for this. Add your vote on the idea! I have also put the idea into a forum for Windows Live Writer and someone replied that he could probably make something like this. Sounds like Windows Live Writer might be the first one to get something usable. This will of course be good news for more than WordPress users. You can add your support for it here.

UPDATE2: I tried to make an example of what it could look like in Windows Live Writer. Take a look at it here.

-Svein

Or you could head over to http://www.dvdflick.net/ and download DVDFlick. It is probably the easiest tool I have come across to make DVD’s. From their own description:

DVD Flick aims to be a simple but at the same time powerful DVD Authoring tool. It can take a number of video files stored on your computer and turn them into a DVD that will play back on your DVD player, Media Center or Home Cinema Set. You can add additional custom audio tracks as well as subtitles of your choice.

And here is a short list of some features:

• Burn near any video file to DVD
• Support for over 45 file formats
• Support for over 60 video codecs
• Support for over 40 audio codecs
• Add your own subtitles
• Easy to use interface
• Burn your project to disc after encoding
• Completely free without any adware, spyware or limitations

I can really recommend this program. And for the price of it, you can hardly go wrong – it is free. But if you like it and become a user, you should consider donating something. These programmers that make software and then give it out for free really deserve our support.

The interface is very easy. You add movies to a list and then you create the DVD. But before you start creating, make sure you have gone through the project settings and set the target size, target format etc. You can also decide to make an ISO-file instead of burning direct to DVD.

For each video that you add to the list, you can click on edit and adjust a number of settings. One thing to look out for here is the aspect ration. Check that it is set correct. This is also where you can add extra video sources, audio tracks and subtitles.

If you are new to making DVD’s, there is a nice tutorial online that you can get to by clicking on the guide button. It is a very easy step-by-step guide that should answer most questions.

I only have one thing to complain about. My main video editing program is Avid MediaComposer, and I have had some reports of problems with the Avid DV codec. So if you are using any of the Avid editing programs, you might want to make sure you are exporting with a more generic codec. But of course, try it out once with a couple of small videos. I have sent a mail to the author to tell him about the problem, so it might get solved in the near future.

Have you tried this program? Did you experience any problems? Let us know how it worked for you by leaving a comment. Is this the solution to all DVD authoring problems?

-Svein

Some time ago, I tested Windows Live Writer and could not even get it to run properly. Yesterday, I upgraded my MSN Messenger and had the opportunity to install Live Writer at the same time. So I thought "Why not try it again"? Maybe this time it will work.

Well, the installation was easy enough and it started fine. After giving it the log-in to my first blog, Live Writer discovered that it was a WordPress blog and it was ready to go.

Writing feels like writing in a word processor. I like this feeling and I also like being able to save drafts on my laptop. Now I can work on posts even if I am on an airplane with no connection to the internet. Of course, I could do this before by just using any wordprocessor, but I like this feeling of having a dedicated tool for the job. I hope it is easy to switch between different blogs so I can manage all of them from the same interface.

I have installed WYSIWYG editors on all my blogs. I do not like using codes when I write. I feel it interrupts the natural flow of writing. If Live Writer works, I can keep the WYSIWYG plug-in out of WordPress. One less thing to think about to update and install. Now I just wish there was a way to use Live Writer as a Live Comment System…

Do you know of any system for managing comments where you do not have to log in on your website?

-Svein

This is all about security for the data. First I list everything that I think is really essential. Everything else should be and add-in except for file and printer sharing.

RAID-1

Whether it is soft or hardware based (I really prefer hardware based, so I like support for Highpoint, 3ware and Promise drivers at least…), a home server needs to have a solid system for securing files. Why RAID-1? Well, a single point of failure will always be the RAID control mechanism, either as software or hardware. If you use RAID-1, you can just take one drive out of the server and mount it on a different PC and you have access to all your data. If you use RAID-5 or RAID-6, you are not sure to be able to recover your raid if the controller goes… RAID-1 is not as efficient as RAID-5 or RAID-6 in terms of storage space, but in my opinion, the security is higher.

The system drive should also be on a RAID-1 setup so it is not lost because of harddrive failure. The whole OS including programs, not any user data or backup data, should fit on a relatively small drive so there is no cost excuse to skip running a RAID-1 for it.

File system

Based on maksimum security, there should go a lot of thought into what filesystem that should be used for the data drives. FAT32 would be a good candidate if it had been a bit more robust and allowed for bigger filesizes. But with a maximum of 2GB files, it is totally out of the question since many people would like to store backups of DVD’s on a server like this. A good solution might be to to use ext-2 or ext-3 and provide Windows and OSX drivers to be able to read the drives if there should be a major crisis.

Backup

Even if we have a secure way of storing data on the server, we still need a good backup system. And I really prefer a centrally managed system. There should only be a small agent installed on each PC (Windows, OSX or Linux/BSD) and then the rest should be done from the server – setting up what to backup, when and how often. There system MUST be able to backup files that are in use and to control bandwith use so it can run in the background even if you are working on the system.

There should be a wide range of options on where to store the backups. The backups of the pc’s in the network could be stored or cached on the server. But there must also be a way to wite to an different medium e.g. DVD+R or tape. Or some other kind of attached storage. Because of this it would be smart to have the backup program divide all backup files into chunks of 2GB or less.

Health monitoring of critical components in the network.

There are protocols to monitor hardware today. Especially harddrives that are S.M.A.R.T. enabled. So why not do this centrally? Use the same agent that do the backup control to continually monitor the harddrive, fans, CPU of the pc it is running on and send any critical messages immediately to the server. There you can have a program that send alerts by e-mail, sms, make a call through an IP-Phone and play a recorded message etc. This should not be complicated to set up. And it would be a good thing to send status for each PC on a regular basis so the server builds a statistics that can be reviewed.

File sharing

This is a given. Each user needs to have their own home folder where they can store documents and folders where more people have access so pictures and other things can be shared.

IMPORTANT: Actually, there should also be some sort of version control on this. I have no idea if this is possible in any of the filesystems out there, but pictures, music and video all share one thing – you do not want to destroy the original. So a way to mark files as originals and then block all modifications would be ok. I can see one reason to modify the originals – add metadata. So this part is a bit of a challenge and I have not seen anything about this on the internet at all.

Printer sharing

This is also a given. Most people can not afford to have one or more printers for each computer in the house. There should be an easy way to get the driver for the printer from the server when you install it on a local pc.

One function that I use a lot is printing to PDF. This could be a central function as well. Yes, I know there are good, local alternatives, but it would be nice to collect all "printer" functions at a central point.

User control

This add one more to the given list. I would like to set up both users and groups and have an easy way of adding users to groups. I like using groups instead of user to control access to functions. The server need to be able to run really headless. No monitor, no keyboard and no mouse.

Communication with a UPS

A UPS is essential in a setup like this and it is equally important that the server communicates with the UPS so it knows when the power goes down and can shut down the server in a controlled manner.

Anti-virus

There should definitely be some software for this running on the server as well as malware detection. It is important to go for a software that is updated very often and that have a live scanner that do not bog down the server.

Firewall

Yes, the server need to be protected as in beeing hardened so it can withstand an attack. BUT – I do not think the server itself should be a firewall for any other component in the network. This is a task better done by a separate box as I think it is too dangerous to attach the box with the data you are trying to protect directly to the internet.

Caching DNS and DHCP server

It should be possible, but all internet routers today have DNS and DHCP built in. Still, a caching DNS might be useful and it should come with Open DNS as a predefined choice as the main DNS. The server need to be able to switch to IPv6 as soon as it is available without any reconfiguration.

Dynamic DNS client

Also present in a lot of routers, but can be a good idea to add.

Network Time Server

To make sure all things are timestamped correctly in the network, the server should have a network time server. This one should have two different ways of keeping time. One is the internet time servers and the other should be the possibility to connect a GPS and read the time from the GPS system. The last one is often used in bigger networks.

Server-to-server communication through firewalls and NAT

I absolutely see the need to have and additional server in another house and have the possibility to let the two servers communicate. This could be done through VPN, but the setup has to be very easy AND extremely secure. So using certificates that are at least 2048 bit or preferrably more with strong encryption on the traffic is a must.

VPN

Yes, it would be nice to have a way to use VPN to access the box from the outside of the home network. But it has to be real easy, and it should not be based on passwords. Use a certificate based system as this should be much less vulnerable to attack. Locally, access is best done through a HTML interface. And that brings me to:

Control of the server

As already said, the main functionality should be through an HTML interface. But for admin purposes, it might be necessary to have SSH and FTP as well. As I guess mySQL will run on the box, myPHPAdmin should also be available.

Automatic updates

There are no ways around this one. It is extremely important that the whole system is built to allow automatic updates from day one. All add-ins should also allow for this so there need to be some kind of guidelines on how to package them. The only alternative would be a kind of one-click updates. The server send the admin an e-mail about a new update. You log on and click the update button.

Add-in: Mail

This one is almost a part of the base system for me, but I realise that a lot of people are very satisfied using their normal mail client.

POP3, IMAP and SMTP server with webmail system. It should also have the possibility to act as a POP3 and IMAP client for the users that do not have their own domain. This is a part of the server that would be nice to access from the outside of the house when you are travelling.

Add-in: Calendar

This also comes close to the base system list. Having a shared calendar system with calendars for all the people in the house can be a major advantage. Especially if the calendars can use Google calendar or another internet based calendar to display busy/free times. Scheduling time in a busy family can be a good reason to install this add-in. It should also be possible to subscribe to calendars on the internet so things like football schedules, school holidays and other things can be easily added.

Add-in: Address book

The third of the "almost base system" add-ins. Beeing able to share important addresses would also be a major advantage. It is a must for me that any addressbook as a minimum can sync completely with Outlook and that I will not loose ANY of the information I have stored there when I sync.

I love any system that can take some of the work of keeping addresses updated away from me. I use Plaxo and as long as you do not pester your friends with invites and upload your whole addressbook there, I think it is a good service. I would love to see a serverbased sync with Plaxo so I don’t have to run the client on my PC. This would also mean that I would have correct addresses even when I use programs that do not sync with Plaxo as long as that program sync with the home server.

It is of course extremely important that you are able to control what addresses that are shared and what part of the info in an address that is shared. I use the comments on addresses in Outlook a lot and the info there is not always something that should be shared in a network although it would be a good thing to have it on the server so only I can see it.

Add-in: To-do list

This goes well together with the previous things and I am pretty sure there are programs developed that already cover this. But it is important that there also exist free sync systems for all major software packages (Outlook, Thunderbird, Opera etc.)

Add-in: Fax

Another type of printer function might be sending of faxes. The use of fax is diminishing by the day, but there are still companies that would like to have it. So why not add this as a printerservice?

Reception of faxes should also be an easy one with central management. It should be possible to add the e-mail addresses of each person in the house and then log on to the server, pick the right recipient for a fax and click the deliver button. It should then be sent as an attachment to the right persons e-mail.

Add-in: VOIP central

There is a beautiful box out there called Fritzbox. It is a ADSL2 modem, router, WiFi AP and VOIP router at the same time. I would love to have Asterisk added to the server and be able to do some of the things you can do with the Fritzbox. I have no idea if it is possible to use a standard modem or ISDN card as an interface to the normal phone system, but there should be a way to route the normal phone into this and use that line for local calls and emergency calls.

Then it should be possible to use something like VOIPDiscount to call international. There are now good IP handsets out there from Grandstream etc. so with a home PBX, you could have phones all over the house. Just plug them into the switch. And make sure you buy a switch with enough ports As the use of a server like this grows, it would be nice to be able connect to friends and family and set up your own small telephone network where you can call for free using this.

Add-in: Squeeze server

A server to serv all your MP3′s. I love the Squeeze box idea and the fact that you can stream audio without having to use a PC to play it back.

Add-in: *AMP server

I guess all of these will be running anyway, so it might be an idea to have a way to add php scripts. I develop websites and would really love to have a Joomla and WordPress system running locally. BUT – the directories for these things need to be on the data drives so they are backed up regularly. Maybe there should even be an automated setup where I only need to place the latest distribution of each system in a special folder and then I could go to the web interface and click on "Add new Joomla site" or "Add new WordPress site" and the server took care of setting up the database, user and install the script. Could be a cool thing. A little like Fantastico, but using the standard distributed packages so whenever there is an update from the developers, you can just replace the package.

Add-in: Web site backup server

As I work with web sites, I would love to have an efficient way to use the home server to regularly make backups of each domain so I do not have to think about it or run a separate PC to do it. But only as an add-in. Most people do not want this functionality.

Add-in: Wiki server

Making an in-house manual for different things can be a good idea. Just wish there were a way to just scan the manual of the new TV and say "Make Wiki"…

Add-in: Podcast client "server"

The people in our family have different taste. And we all love music. I like podcasts, but the others find it too difficult to mess with. But all of us use MP3 players. So my thoughts go like this: What if I had a system where they could subscribe to the podcasts on the server, then the server downloaded the podcasts automatically and put it in a folder where the Squeeze server could stream them locally? Also, there should be a way to just plug in the MP3 players, the server recognize them and load the right podcasts on them. The big feature here would be a function that would allow me to tell the server to make sure tha at any time, only the last 2 or 4 podcasts or whatever I decide are on my MP3 player. This way I will be sure it do not fill up. So I just need to set up a USB hub where we plug in the players whenever we want to update them. MP3 player central

Add-in: BitTorrent client

More and more things are distributed as BitTorrents. So it only makes sense to have a BitTorrent client available as an add-in. Not all people will care about this, but I know a lot will. I think many TV series in the future will be distributed this way. Also podcasts/vidcasts are being distributed through the BitTorrent protocol.

Keep the base system clean

There are things that I absolutely would like to keep away from this server. Home-automation, weather station, anonymous ftp server, Media Center are all examples of this. It should not be the everything-in-one box. It should be a server with the focus on security for files. Get all the basic stuff covered before any thought is given to the add-in stuff. If anyone want to tinker with the system and ad the possibility to make coffe, it is fine by me But do not add this into the base functions. Let people post it on the internet so anyone can add it if they want. But keep the base system clean.

What do you think? What is important for you in a server like this? I will add to this post as I get new input and ideas.

The picture is used under Creative Commons – Some Rights Reserved , Photographer: Zack Williams.

-Svein

We all love free stuff. Especially when it is something we otherwise would have to pay for. The fine people behind Divx has decided to give out a gift this holiday season. It is unsure how long it will run, so hurry over there and get your copy of a totally free Divx Pro.

What does this give you over the free version of Divx? Here is their own explanation:

So, the primary reason to buy DivX Pro for Windows is to get full
versions of the DivX Converter and the DivX Pro Codec, two things that
let you easily create DivX videos. What are these two things, you ask,
and why should you care? Read on, kind friend, read on…

DivX Converter

The DivX Converter is the official DivX video creation software application. It lets you:

• Drag-and-drop nearly any video format to create a high-quality, highly compressed DivX video
• Merge and convert multiple videos into a single DivX file with an automatically generated menu
• Back
  up your home-made DVDs, compress a full movie to fit onto one regular
  CD (requires the optional $4.99 DivX Converter MPEG-2/DVD Plug-in)

DivX Pro Codec

The DivX Pro Codec is the top of the food chain, codec-wise. It
includes the most advanced version of the DivX video encoder so you can
create the highest-quality DivX files in combination with DivX
Converter or another third-party encoding application. DivX Pro gives
you:

• Higher performance, including multi-threaded support
  for better performance on all HyperThreaded, dual core and dual CPU
  (SMP) systems
• More encoding options, including six
  carefully optimized encoding modes that balance visual quality and
  performance for virtually any application 

What are you waiting for?

-Svein

I used it back in the days of Photoshop 5 and really loved the way you could lift out any object from the white background with a click. If any pixel was not completely black, it would be partially transparent. This meant that soft shadows could be lifted off as well, something I have not been able to do with any other method so far.

But this plug-in does not work with Photoshop CS2 and I have been trying to find a newer version for a long time. Until recently when I stumbled across a way to run older plugins on newer version of Photoshop.

First of all – the Remove White plugin is as far as I know, made by Mark McLaren and you can find it here (scroll down and click on Remove White under Mark McLaren). Unpack the filter and put it in your filter folder.

But since it is an older type filter, you need an extra file to make it work. You need to add msvcrt10.dll (click here to download it) to the same folder as the Photoshop program. Do not add it to the system32 folder or anywhere else in the main Windows folder as it might interfere with how other programs work.

Reboot Photoshop, and it should start with no problems. You should now have a new category of plug-ins at the bottom of your filter list called Mac’s with a single filter called Remove White.

To apply this filter to an image, you first have to either duplicate the background layer and do it on the copy, or double-click on the background layer and turn it into a regular layer. If you want to apply this to just a portion of your image, you have to make a selection first, otherwise just choose the Remove White filter and you are done. You should now see the checkered background through the parts of your image that is not completely black.

To verify that the extraction is ok, make a new layer and fill it with white. Then place this layer under the image layer. You image should now look like it was before you removed the white background.

Most people do not like to have a transparent main object, so you need to make a quick mask of your object, fill it with white and place it under your main image layer. But you now have the option to exclude shadows so that the shadow will fall on whatever background you choose for your picture.

This is an effect that is simply not possible by using a mask or doing a selection based on color.

If you like this post, leave a comment and consider adding it to some of the social bookmarking sites.

-Svein

 My choice of rss reader at the moment is GreatNews , but I am happy to try out new ones whenever I come across them. I think that a tool like this is invaluable for people that work in the tv and film business as it allows us to stay on top of what is happening in our fields of interest. You find the links to add this blog in the right column or in the address bar of your web browser.

What is your favorite rss reader?

-Svein

Their software, SynthEyes, will set you back only USD 399 and runs on both Mac and Windows. Not too long ago they released a new version with many improvements. One of the improvements is a stabilizer that promises to do a correct stabilization of your footage. According to their website:

The hallmark of incorrect stabilization is that, though the point of interest remains stable, the corners of the image appear to be doing some very strange things, moving in and out. This is the result of 2-D stabilization, or 3-D stabilization with an incorrect field of view.

They then explain why

The underlying problem is that 2-D stabilization changes the image in a way that no real camera can. When you shift an image, it is not the same as pointing a real camera in a different direction

and explaines more about how they solve it.

The software has been used in a long list of movies, commercials and tv-programs all over the world. If you need to place a building into footage shot from a helicopter or any other moving images, I think you should have a closer look at this. You do not need to get a mortgage to buy it!

-Svein

Unfortunately, subtitling software cost a lot and is usually operated by a specialist. But that all changes with Belle Nuit Subtitler . This program, costing USD 120 for one license, can be used for making subtitles that you edit onto your video in most major editing systems, or you can include it on your DVD. If you add it to your DVD, the viewer can choose to see the subtitles or not. And choose what language to see if there are multiple translations available.

Using the software is pretty straight forward. I am a little disappointed that entering the text first and do the spotting afterwords does not work very well. But according to Matthias Buercher, the intended workflow is to do the spotting one by one, entering the titles either by copying from an open text document or by translating directly. And this workflow works very well.

During the spotting, the keyboard can be used for most of the important things and the most used shortcuts are similar to Avids editing systems. This means using JKL to play the video, I and O or E and R to mark in and out. Pressing Q and W bring the cursor to the in and out point and ESC switches between the video player and the text area.

The style of the text is adjusted in the top of the main window. Font, border, shadow, box behind text and placement in the frame can be adjusted there. I think the quality of the text Belle Nuit Subtitler output is excellent. And getting it into the Avid editing system was very easy.

First I exported the titles by selecting all in the text area and the choose File>Export . The titles are then exported as TIFF with alpha. The timing of the titles are exported as a CMX 3600 EDL and both titles and the EDL are then imported into the Avid system.

The program has a built in function called the Avid helper that essentially is a small macro the replace the Offline Media in the timeline with the correct subtitles. Or you can do it manually.

I have not had the chance yet to try adding titles to a DVD, but will get back here with some comments after I have tried it.

I can really recommend Belle Nuit Subtitler to anyone looking for a cheap and easy way to get prefessionally looking subtitles on video or DVD.

-Svein

Making TV programs, you need to plan your production and write a script. There are a few programs out there that do this, but they are any good at all, they cost money. The program I found last week is the first Open Source program of this kind that I have heard about.

Celtx, which can be found on http://www.celtx.com/ is a pre-production tool that is built on the same code enginge as the Mozilla products.

It has story development tools, script writing and a calendar for the project schedule. You can add video and audio clips to the scripts and print customized reports. And on top of all this, a special server has been set up online that allows users of Celtx to share their production planning with other members of their team.

The features are good, the layout is nice. Of course, the calendar is a straight port of Sunbird, no need to change anything that is already working!

The users have already made a contribution to the project in the form of a portable version of the program. Some users, including myself, have asked for a version that can be put on a USB flash drive so you can bring it with you in your pocket. One of the users took that challenge and based on work already done for the Mozilla products, he came up with a portable Celtx. After contacting the team behind Celtx, I understood they are thinking about making an official portable version. Open Source works!

I really like this product and it will become a permanent part of my software collection. Now I am just hoping they will implement something to make it work for planning multicamera recordings as well. Keeping my fingers crossed…

If you like this idea, you can download it and give it a try. They are at version 0.9.5.1 , so it is still a very young product. Join their forum, add requests for new features. This is how open source programs are developed, and it is the perfect chance to get the tool you always wanted!

UPDATE: Volda University College (Norway) is now installing Celtx on all PC’s in their media education. They are teaching journalism for newspapers, radio, TV and have a separate education for documentary production and animation.

The Celtx blog made a comment about this article.

-Svein

The reason I got it was to move data. But I found a few programs that did not need to be installed, just double-click on them to run them. I added them to the Flash Voyager and started to search for more programs like this. I am definitely not the first one that has this idea! Several websites are dedicated to this.

One of them is PortableFreeware . On the frontpage, you find the latest updates. But if you click on All in the top menu, you will find categories with a lot of programs. At the moment this site only caters for Windows users.

The first program you should get is PStart portable. This gives you a “Startmenu” in your systray (at the bottom of your screen, next to the clock). After that, it is up to you to add the programs you find interesting.

Another site for you to check out is TinyApps.org . Here you also find programs for OSX.

As with everything else that has to do with computer, it is very important to make a backup. And Microsoft has made available an application that do exactly that. It is called Microsoft USB Flash Drive Manager .

If you know any other good resources for this type of programs, or if you know any good programs that should get a mention, just leave a comment!

-Svein

But even if video is easy to work with and manipulate, the technical specifications have not changed. We still have limits we need to stay within. And a lot of people do not have any idea if their video is within these limits. On top of that, traditional scopes rarely has FireWire inputs and they cost a fortune. A waveform monitor and scope plus a good broadcast monitor can easily cost more than all your other equipment combined.

Along comes DVRack. A software that takes the input from the FireWire port, process it and show it on the computer monitor. It is really a whole rack of tools and Serious Magick that makes it, wanted to make something that could assist anyone shooting with a DV camera. So here you find ten different tools that can help you evaluate the quality of what you are doing. At an affordable price. If you shell out 295 USD you get the following:

• Digital Video Recorder
• Professional Field Monitor
• DV WaveForm Monitor
• VectorScope
• Automated Quality Monitor
• Audio Spectrum Analyzer
• Video Analyzer
• DV Grabber
• Timer/Clock Module
• Sureshot Module

A HDV addition is available for USD 195.

I think this is  one of the best investments you can make if you are working with DV video. It enables you to reliably monitor your signal while you are shooting. But you can also use it while editing or to analyze your production facility to find errors.

When you are shooting, you can keep a PC attached to your camera and immediately see if the signal is within the limits, and see if your framing is ok. And if you want to, you can even let the laptop record the DV signal as a backup for the tape. The DVR will detect when you start and stop recording and follow it. There is also a setting called Shot Saver that will buffer the video so when you hit record, it already has the previous seconds captured making sure you will never miss a situation.

I will not go into too much detail here, go to the website and check it out. But I will mention a few things. A lot of people use a TV as a monitor in their editing suite. This is fine if it is only for watching the cutting itself. But never use it when you do color correction or to evaluate the quality of a signal. A TV has a lot of filters to remove artifacts in a signal. But when you are editing you really want to see every artifact that exist in the material. DV Rack has a monitor that will give you a true picture.

There are a couple of things I am missing. First of all, it does not run on a Mac. And second, I really wish there were a version that would be able to monitor other types of video inputs. SDI, component, S-Video and composite would give people in the industry all over the world an affordable way to monitor their signals. 

To run DV Rack you need a PC running Windows XP or 2000, based on a Pentium 4 1,4 GHz or equivalent with a minimum of 256 MB RAM and a FireWire port.

This is the one tool that can help you perfect your video. But remember – you also need to know how to use it. So when you have bought the software, spend some time on learning how to use each tool. Knowledge is more important than every tool you can buy. Even here, DVRack can help you. The Sureshot module is a collection of charts and a software wizard that help you set up your camera and lighting correct. Do yourself a favour, download the 30-day trial version and check it out today!

-Svein

The abbreviation dpi is not used correctly here. It should have been ppi. To all and everyone – whenever it say dpi in this post, please read ppi Thank you to the readers that has pointed this out. And a word to everyone that feel like nitpicking – it is all semantics in this context. Neither ppi or dpi matters to someone doing a graphic for web or TV. Back to our regular program:

I must admit I like to challenge my students sometimes. Just mess a little with their brain. And one of my favourite subjects is the dpi setting in Photoshop. It might be old news to you, but there is still a strong belief that if you are going to use an image for web or TV, it should be 72 dpi. So here is what I say.

Statement 1: Dpi has no impact at all on filesize.

Statement 2: A setting of 3167 dpi is very nice for web. Or TV.

Do you feel the urge to shout “Wrong!!!!!!” ? A lot of people do… But let us examine it closer.

Dpi has no impact at all on filesize.

This is actually very easy to show. Open a picture and change the dpi to 300. Save it. Then change the dpi to 50 and save it again with a different filename. If you have done this correct, the files should be very close in size. There could be a few bytes difference due to the way the filesystem store things. But no dramatic difference.

But maybe you have a huge difference between the files? Then you forgot to uncheck the Resample checkbox. Remember, I said change dpi. Not resample the image. As soon as you uncheck the Resample checkbox, the pixelsize of the image is greyed out in Photoshop. And the only thing that happens when you change dpi, is that the print size changes.

A setting of 3167 dpi is very nice for web. Or TV.

Actually, a setting of 64 dpi is just as nice. Try it.  Make a 300 x 225 pixel file at 3000 dpi. Then make a 300 x 225 pixel file at 50 dpi. Put them on a webpage and compare. Or take a look at my examples here.

The reason for both of these statement is the same. And very easy to explain. Dpi is all about print. Not about monitors or other forms of similar displays.  It is actually very clear in Photoshop. Take a look at the area that has the print size and dpi. There is a border around it that separate it from the pixelsize. This is because on most  monitors you can display a variety of resolutions and as the resolution change, the ratio between the physical dimention of the monitor and the number of pixels it displays per inch changes. Without any change to the dpi setting of the file. And on a TV in Europe, the size is 720 x 576 non-square pixels. This fills the TV no matter how big or small the TV is. So all that matters when you are going to output on a monitor is the number of pixels. Get the pixelnumbers right and set the dpi to whatever you prefer.

You might argue that if only the software could detect what monitor it is and how big it is, you could add a feature that will display the picture according to the right size. But this is a big if. I do not know about any software that can do this at the moment. The only software I know that really cares about dpi is software that is primarily meant for output to a printer. They will scale a picture on a page, relative to the size of the paper.

Please add any comments you might have.

Main picture: Photo: Miika Silfverberg (CC BY-SA 2.0)

-Svein

This is what RSS feeds, also called syndication, sets out to overcome. It is a way to tell a special reader program what is new at a website. The most common way to list up new articles is in an e-mail like format. But what reader should be used? There are three main types.

Plug-ins for well known programs or web browsers

If you prefer to minimize the number of applications you need to keep running, you might want to see if there are any plug-ins available for one of the programs you already have. Outlook, Internet Explorer, ThunderBird and Firefox are only some of the programs that have plug-ins available. Check with the respective websites for each of these programs to find the plug-ins or do a search on the net.

Stand-alone programs

This is where you find most of the heavy, feature rich, programs although you also find programs that focus on being simple and easy to use. Some of the programs in this category are amphetaDesk, FeedDemon, FeedReader, NetNewsWire, SharpReader and Straw.

Web based services

If you are a real cyber nomad than keeping it on the net is a good thing. That way you can access your feeds no matter where you are and you can use any tool that can display webpages. You are not restricted to one operating system, you do not even have to use your own computer. Any computer connected to the internet will do. Even your phone if it has a browser like Opera. If you want to look at some of these services, you can check NewsIsFree or Bloglines. These are only a couple of examples. Try a search to find more.

My own choice (so far..)

I have tried many different systems and they all have they good and bad sides. I like to be able to download the feeds to my laptop so I can read them later. This rules out the web based services. I also prefer to have as little functions and plug-ins in a program as possible. In my experience this leads to faster respons times and more stable programs. So when I find something new, I check their webpage first, and if it look like it might outperform the one I am using at the moment, I download it and try it out. I never go for a new program that does not have OPML export/import. This is a format for exporting and importing the list of feeds you subscribe to. And it makes it very easy to switch from one reader to another.

After a tip from a friend, I decided to take a look at a program called RSSOwl. So I downloaded it and ran the installer. It was quick and easy and everything seemed ok until I was going to start it up. I got a short glimpse of the and then nothing. Tried again and same result. The solution was to clean out the old versions of Java on my pc. I had three versions and RSSOwl needs at least 1.4 to run.

As soon as this was done, I was able to start it up and use it. And the first thing I did was to import my feeds. RSSOwl comes with a set of feeds pre-installed. But you can change this, delete them or add to them. Your import ends up in a separate folder so it does not mess up the list you already have.

The interface is a typical three split setup that is quite usual now in RSS readers and mail programs. It is easy to navigate and understand.

The formats that are supported, and the possibilities to export to among others PDF, and all the ways you can customize it makes it a powerful program. But I am not in RSS nirvana yet. I have started to subscribe to a couple of podcasts and want my RSS reader to handle that. This is something RSSOwl still is lacking. It will show you the feed with a link and when you click the link it will open the player for that format and play it. This is ok as a workaround, but podcastsupport should be on top of the list of features that should go in there.

One of the features that really got me singing and dancing was the possibility to search a website for feeds. Sometimes when I know there should be a feed on a site, it seems to be impossible to find. If there is a link or icon for it, sometimes this drowns among all the advertisements and other clutter on a page. RSSOwl has a feature called “Discover NewsFeeds on a website” and it really works. Open it, type in the URL of the website and hit search. The feeds pop up and you can choose to import them into your list or save them as an OPML list.

There are many more features that could be mentioned, but I am not trying to do a complete review here. I just want to share a few things and recommend that you test the software for yourself. I sent an e-mail to the man behind RSSOwl, Benjamin Pasero, and asked him a few questions that he was kind enough to answer.

There are many RSS readers on the market now. Why did you decide to make another one?

Well RSSOwl is already two years in age. So, when I began with RSSOwl, there were not that many free readers available. Actually my intention was not in creating another newsreader, but in finding a project I could learn some Java/SWT with.

Why did you choose to base it on Java?

Because its a very intuitive language and with Eclipse, the best Java IDE, has very good tooling as support. With SWT, the native GUI library RSSOwl and Eclipse are using, you can’ttell that RSSOwl is a java-based application.

Why should I choose RSSOwl over the competition?

First of all, RSSOwl is freeware and opensource with 2 years of constant development. It is translated in more than 25 languages and some key-features are:
- support for RSS, RDF, Atom and OPML formats
- Export to PDF, RTF and HTML
- Integrated Feed-Search-Engine
- Highly customizble
- Runs on Windows, Linux, Mac and Solaris
- small, fast and leightweight
- more features here: http://www.rssowl.org/overview

Does RSSOwl support downloading of podcasts? If not, when will we see that?

Not yet. Podcasts are offered as download inside the news. Better podcast support is planned for the future.

How many people are using RSSOwl today?

I do not have exact numbers, but RSSOwl is downloaded ~ 15.000 times per month.

What features can we expect in the next release of RSSOwl?

Next version, which is 1.2 and about 1 month from the release, has better Toolbar support, Atom 1.0 support, and searchable preferences. The current status is written here: http://www.rssowl.org/dl/Integration_Build/changes_in_1_2.txt

You can also find a good article about RSSOwl on Sourceforge Project of the Month and of course at RSSOwl.org .

-Svein

There is not shortage of these products. Antivirus software can be downloaded for free, you can use online scanners, you can buy it in the nearest supermarket alongside potatoes and diapers and I guess you even got a CD from your ADSL supplier and from your PC dealer.

But the quality of these programs differ a lot. And some of them totally drain your computers resources. A standard install of some of these might even make it impossible for you to be able to do your work on the computer!

Through a friend that run an ISP I was made aware of a company called Eset that have a product called NOD32. He recommended that I tried this antivirus solution and I have not regretted it for a second. It is fast, it uses very little resources and it performs well in all tests I have seen so far.

If you need a good program for your facility, your office or your home, I suggest you take a look at it. There is a 30-day free version that you can download and it is not crippled in any way.

-Svein