HD-DVD Death Imminent

Saturday, Toshiba announced that they might be pulling the plug on their HD-DVD format. This came from a death-blow decision made by Wal-mart on Friday to only sell Sony's Blu-Ray format starting this June. This adds to the list of non-supporters for HD-DVD this list includes NetFlix and Best-Buy.

This has been a long awaited end to the format wars, and personally I'm glad it's over. This is just like Beta-max vs. VHS only this time the better format won.

This is great news because I will have the solution for ripping Blu-ray to editable format guide by the end of the week. So, we won't have to deal with the HD-DVD side. :)

Success

I figure since I'm random everywhere else might as well be random here too. This was from a friend's house a couple of days ago... Bull's Eye not bad for throwing them without thinking. Maybe some how I could apply this power to other things...

So... I've Got It! .. Sorta

So, I have been working on a massive research project -- Blu-Ray to editable format rip solution -- for weeks, and I figured one out from start to finish. That allows for creating clips from movies which can be brought in to Sony Vegas (for my purposes) or any NLE.

The sorta part of it is that I have to work through my cryptic notes to figure out what I wrote. Once I get a cryptologist to figure out my own hand-writing, I will post it right here step-by-step. Stay tuned.

HD Formats Demystified

Last weekend before Saturday night service, we decided to record the services using our Canon cameras to get some good eye candy stuff for future promos. Whilst I was helping the guys get the camera ready, I was asked to set the DTE recorders we have to create .mov files instead of .m2t because Final Cut Pro won't natively accept m2t files. I replied, "we can't record in 'f' (pseudo p) mode if we record using mov files. That's just the limitation of the drive." Then, I was asked, "what's the big deal of recording in "1080i60" verses "1080f30"?" At that point, it of struck me that I need to go hit the books again to explain this concept completely and correctly.

Understanding How HD Formats are Named

We all see commercials for HDTVs nowadays claiming: "Beautiful 720p", "Stunning 1080i", or "See the amazing quality of 'Full HD, 1080p'". (all paraphrase of course) All these numbers and letters can be confusing to most people (the average consumer). Here I will demystify the numbers and letters.

HD is branded with a number-letter-number i.e. (720p30 or 1080i60).

1. The first set of numbers (1080i60) is the vertical resolution so 720 means that you have 720 lines from top to bottom of the screen and 1080 means you have 1080 lines from top to bottom of the screen. This chart should help you understand the size difference between the formats.
2. The letter in the center (1080i60) means it is either progressive scan (p), interlaced (i), simulated progressive scan (f). The difference between interlaced and progressive is how the screen (or playback method) draws the image. Progressive scan allows for the screen to play all the lines in succession in one screen refresh and is great for fast moving subjects. Interlaced draws the odd numbered lines 1, 3, 5...1077, 1079 in the first screen refresh then draws the even numbered lines 2, 4, 6...1078, 1080 in the second screen refresh. Interlaced suffers from artifacts when an object is moving quickly.
3. The second set of numbers (1080i60) is the number of frames (or fields) per second. In progressive, the number stands for frames per second where as in interlaced the number stands for fields per second. Fields vs frames concept goes back to progressive vs interlaced. A frame is all lines together; a field is either the set of all odd lines or the set of all even lines.

So What Does This All Mean to Me?

If you are a consumer, don't be fooled by the labels. Full HD (1080p) is a broadcast standard, but almost most all of (I will not say all because I can't know 100%) local and cable digital broadcasts are in either 1080i or 720p. The only thing that supports true "full 1080p" at current time is HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. So make sure the TV can correctly convert interlaced to progressive. Just keep this in mind when you're going to the store to pick up that cool new 50" LCD TV for the Master's tournament coming up (Go Phil!). ;)

If you're a videographer or an engineer like I am, always keep in mind what your end product will be. For my purposes, the end product is the 2 20-foot 720p60 side-screens. That is why I shoot in 1080f on my ENG cameras because they do not natively shoot 720p. Shooting in 1080f allows me to edit in progressive instead of editing in 1080i and de-interlacing the footage. De-interlacing video can either result in artifacts or degraded quality.

To make a long story short, I ended up recording the video using m2t files. For the most part, everything we do is edited in Sony Vegas which allows us to import and edit m2t files straight. If on the off chance we end up editing in FCP, I always have shareware apps . :)

Proof of Concept

Proof of concept is a short and/or incomplete realization (or synopsis) of a certain method or idea(s) to demonstrate its feasibility, or a demonstration in principle, whose purpose is to verify that some concept or theory is probably capable of exploitation in a useful manner.
- Wikipedia

This is MY PoC. I have a myspace, but I rarely use it. Mostly because, I think I don't really have much to say. I'm introverted in a massive way, but that's how God made me. In all actuality, I have a ton to say... I just never say it. I have ideas and concepts that only I know, but I've always wanted to share them. (For the most part, probably bad ideas but... whatever.)

Now for my intro:

For those who don't who know me, I'm the Production Engineer at EastLake Church in Chula Vista, CA. (Church of 4000+) What that means is I do just about anything technical. FoH (Front of House) mixing (aka Live Sound Reinforcement), post-production audio, video pre/post-production, motion graphics, Chyron Duet creation and operation, lighting design and operation... You get the picture: big nerd. I'm also a Junior at UCSD majoring in ICAM/Music (Interdiciplinary Computing in the Arts and Music/Music Emphasis). Pretty much a Computer/Electronic Music major. To add to the list, I co-manage/produce a local San Diego band called Fusse, and I do some IT consulting.

Now to my selling point:

What exactly am I going to post here? To answer that, I'd have to know. All I can say is that I will be posting on anything from random ideas I had during the day to some training manual for those who do what I do. And everything in between. I feel like my calling is to teach, so here's the start of something new (for me at least). Hopefully, we'll all learn somthing in the process.