Video issues - post if you are having problems with the videos on this site

***John Stone*** · Tue, March 30th, 2004, 08:01 AM

Before I do any more videos, I want to find out why I appear blue in some apps, and I also want to work out any other issues people may be having. If you are having any technical problems with the videos on this site, please post information below (OS, what you are using to playback the video and any other details you think might be relevant). Thanks.

SCHTEEVIE · Tue, March 30th, 2004, 02:47 PM

I compressed some quicktime for you.

I didn't have alot of time to tweak things too much; quality is still about the same, and file sizes are slightly bigger.
I did notice the saturation seems to be abit higher, and reds are pushed slightly in the quicktime files, but I only had time to do one pass for now.
if you want them redone - make note of what you want changed, and I'll try later.

quicktime
(let me know when you have them so I can take the file offline)

***John Stone*** · Tue, March 30th, 2004, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SCHTEEVIE

I compressed some quicktime for you.
I didn't have alot of time to tweak things too much; quality is still about the same, and file sizes are slightly bigger.
I did notice the saturation seems to be abit higher, and reds are pushed slightly in the quicktime files, but I only had time to do one pass for now.
if you want them redone - make note of what you want changed, and I'll try later.

quicktime
(let me know when you have them so I can take the file offline)

Thanks bro.

SCHTEEVIE · Tue, March 30th, 2004, 02:54 PM

that was fast - i was editing my above post and you responded already

anyway - I was just saying I swear by quicktime for all my online video needs
(I use it for my demo reel on the web)
even as a mainly PC user, I find QT is the only video format you can trust will not change by streaming or playback problems on the other end.

Obscura · Tue, March 30th, 2004, 03:04 PM

They play fine on my workstation at the office. (w2K/windows media player)

I'll test tonight from home on my linux box. :-) I expect they will work just fine.

***John Stone*** · Tue, March 30th, 2004, 03:05 PM

Courtesy of Schteevie, here is the video in Quicktime for those who can't play the Windows Media files:

Video welcome - Large (640x480; Quicktime format; 6,084 KB)
Video welcome - Small (320x240; Quicktime format; 1,338 KB)

jk0 · Tue, March 30th, 2004, 03:06 PM

Just wanted to state that the video looks excellent using Gentoo Linux (KDE3.2.1) / Mplayer.

***John Stone*** · Tue, March 30th, 2004, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SCHTEEVIE

that was fast - i was editing my above post and you responded already

anyway - I was just saying I swear by quicktime for all my online video needs
(I use it for my demo reel on the web)
even as a mainly PC user, I find QT is the only video format you can trust will not change by streaming or playback problems on the other end.

My camera records to AVI, and I can only post that or convert it to WMF using the (free) editing software that I have. Are there any free WMV to QuickTime tools out there? I run most flavors of Windows and Unix/Linux/BSD, but have no access to Macs.

Thanks again, you can take the link down now.

jk0 · Tue, March 30th, 2004, 03:17 PM

I would think AVI format should work well on most systems w/o converting it to anything.. wouldnt it?

***John Stone*** · Tue, March 30th, 2004, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jk0

I would think AVI format should work well on most systems w/o converting it to anything.. wouldnt it?

I think so too, but the AVI is just the raw file from the camera, I can't edit it and then save it back out to AVI with my software... so I wouldn't be able to add the fades, wipes, titles, and so on. Plus it's HUGE! The video in AVI format (minus the titles and fades, of course) is 30 MB!

jk0 · Tue, March 30th, 2004, 03:27 PM

Heres some stuff I found on Gentoo:

Code:

bash-2.05b# emerge -s avi

*  media-video/avidemux
      Latest version available: 2.0.18
      Latest version installed: [ Not Installed ]
      Size of downloaded files: 2,459 kB
      Homepage:    http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/
      Description: Great Video editing/encoding tool
      License:     GPL-2

*  media-video/avifile
      Latest version available: 0.7.38.20030710
      Latest version installed: [ Not Installed ]
      Size of downloaded files: 2,820 kB
      Homepage:    http://avifile.sourceforge.net/
      Description: Library for AVI-Files
      License:     GPL-2

*  media-video/kavi2svcd
      Latest version available: 0.8.2
      Latest version installed: [ Not Installed ]
      Size of downloaded files: 1,750 kB
      Homepage:    http://kavi2svcd.sourceforge.net/
      Description: GUI for generating VCD-compliant MPEG files from an AVI or MPEG file
      License:     GPL-2

Some of those might be of use, heh

<3 portage

***John Stone*** · Tue, March 30th, 2004, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jk0

Heres some stuff I found on Gentoo:

I also searched portage and didn't see anything that would be of use for me - I should have been more clear. I have shell access to most flavors of Unix/Linux/BSD.

I've run a few different GUIs under Linux, but I was having too many problems trying to run two GUIs as my "main" box. Work requires that I have Windows systems, and so I use XP for my main system and Linux/Unix/BSD for all my servers. Don't shoot me.

I think I need Windows XP video editing software, or a curses or shell-based WMF -> MOV conversion tool.

jk0 · Tue, March 30th, 2004, 03:53 PM

A couple buddies of mine render their own videos using Vegas and/or Premier, and they say they love them. Ive seen some of the output of their work and it looks very nice too. (although they arent free, but im sure that wont be a problem

)

SCHTEEVIE · Tue, March 30th, 2004, 04:14 PM

for the most part avi is fine.

the thing about avi is that there are so many variables with playback...
some players try to stream and end up dropping frames, or droping quailty, etc...
I find with quicktime, the file integrity stays the way you want it.
the draw back is that you force people to use the quicktime player only.

in my industry, the way the image looks is EVERYTHING, so I would rather a potential client/producer not see my video clips unless they see them exactly was I want them to be seen.

for your purposes john, I don't think you need to be as anal as I am

however - your "blue issue" is exactly the kind of problem that wouldn't occur with quictime.

I use "media cleaner" to compress my video.
I don't know about free software options with good control of all the variables to get files small with good quality...

Kristo · Wed, March 31st, 2004, 01:03 PM

Yes the video (you) is blue to me, but recently all the films i play in winamp3 are. (OS is XP pro) I'm pretty sure I've DL'd a codex that is causing the problem as they weren't this way from the beginning. I've DL'd all sorts of codexs to be able to watch diverse films/videos etc, and am too lazy to reinstall Winamp or try to find the problem.

Kristo

born sleepy · Wed, March 31st, 2004, 04:43 PM

Schteevie, did you make Quicktime out of the Windoze Media files, or are you starting with the original .avi files from John's cam? If the former, how? I always thought once something was in .wmv (or .rm, ugh) it was there forever.

M3kamikaze · Fri, April 2nd, 2004, 05:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Stone

Before I do any more videos, I want to find out why I appear blue in some apps...

Running on Windows XP

Not Blue with:
Windows Media Player 9 Series
RealOne Player

Blue with:
Winamp3

I'm guessing that it has something to do with codecs. Found a site (about half way down) which might help, but I doubt it.

If this happens all the time on all players, you might want to check to see if your camera is set on auto or manual white balance. Auto white balance can sometimes cause things to look dull or appear blueish. I don't know much of anything about this, but I used to have a similar problem with my old camera. Different sources of light have different impurities of coloring. The clear noon-day sunshine, which we perceive as white, is actually slightly blueish in coloring. Standard light bulbs have a slightly reddish tint. Fluorescent lights are slightly greenish.

Just my 2 cents.

SCHTEEVIE · Sun, April 4th, 2004, 05:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by born sleepy

Schteevie, did you make Quicktime out of the Windoze Media files, or are you starting with the original .avi files from John's cam? If the former, how? I always thought once something was in .wmv (or .rm, ugh) it was there forever.

I took the windows media and I think I just renamed them to avi so that "media cleaner" would open them, and then compressed from there...
but I was seriously multitasking that morning (I was actually on a business call while I was compressing the quicktimes) so I don't really think my conscious mind took note of what I did

but as for real media - yeah, you are pretty much screwed - the real media compression is not something you can mess with much - and for the record, I HATE real player - the quality always sucks.

KegRun · Sun, April 4th, 2004, 05:03 PM

The k-lite codec pack is the BEST pack for codecs for windows media player. My computer at work was having problems playing John's videos. I was just getting sound and no picture. So I dl'd the k-lite codec pack and now everything works fine. Quick and easy to install.

Here's the website. http://www.k-litecodecpack.com/