Computer help to create video

Little House on Unaka | September 15, 2013 | don-o

[GeronL]

cassettes??

[GeronL]

bump

Good point

[Jeff Chandler]

Audacity - It’s great.

I agree. It's free, it's stable, it's easy to use, it's full featured, and it's . . . great.

[smokingfrog]

http://www.lwks.com/

[don-o]

As one who downloads songs from the Internet onto cassettes,

Jeff mentioned Audacity. That might be what you need. Freeware open source and frequently updated. There's a bit of a learning curve. I am no expert, but I can get what I want, which is mp3 or wav files from my recordings. Documentation for Audacity is excellent - tutorials and whatnot.

[Jeff Chandler]

I’ve been embedding videos in websites professionally for 15 years, back when Real Player was a real player in the industry—before they were gone in a Flash. Since the advent of smart phones it has become a nightmare getting a video to work across platforms. I have convinced all my clients to switch to embedding YouTube videos.

[don-o]

Absolutely good point. Though aware of that, this old dog tends to be set in his ways.

[GeronL]

Probably a really good idea until something better comes along

[don-o]

looks cool.

Looks I got my Monday work cut out for me.

[dhs12345]

Ya. My son did some pretty cool stuff with it. We bought a video effects program, too. He added fire and explosions.

I have done a lot of DVD videos, wedding videos, special events, with Vegas all they way back to before it was owned by Sony.

[dhs12345]

That simplifies it a lot. You have to assess the trade off of video quality versus bit rate. It might be dictated by youtube, etc.

[GeronL]

He added fire and explosions to a wedding video?

lol

just kidding

[don-o]

Audio is more important to me than video quality.

[Jeff Chandler]

Though aware of that, this old dog tends to be set in his ways.

I am here to tell you that whatever you are doing, there are viewers with smart phones who won't be able to access your videos, but they will be able to access embedded YouTube videos.

*********************

If you want to do it yourself:

.

<!-- first try HTML5 playback: if serving as XML, expand `controls` to `controls="controls"` and autoplay likewise -->
<!-- warning: playback does not work on iOS3 if you include the poster attribute! fixed in iOS4.0 -->
<video width="640" height="360" controls>
<!-- MP4 must be first for iPad! -->
<source src="__VIDEO__.MP4" type="video/mp4" /><!-- Safari / iOS video    -->
<source src="__VIDEO__.OGV" type="video/ogg" /><!-- Firefox / Opera / Chrome10 -->
<!-- fallback to Flash: -->
<object width="640" height="360" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="__FLASH__.SWF">
<!-- Firefox uses the `data` attribute above, IE/Safari uses the param below -->
<param name="movie" value="__FLASH__.SWF" />
<param name="flashvars" value="controlbar=over&amp;image=__POSTER__.JPG&amp;file=__VIDEO__.MP4" />
<!-- fallback image. note the title field below, put the title of the video there -->
<img src="__VIDEO__.JPG" width="640" height="360" alt="__TITLE__"
     title="No video playback capabilities, please download the video below" />
</object>
</video>
<!-- you *must* offer a download link as they may be able to play the file locally. customise this bit all you want -->
<p> <strong>Download Video:</strong>
Closed Format: <a href="__VIDEO__.MP4">"MP4"</a>
Open Format: <a href="__VIDEO__.OGV">"Ogg"</a>
</p>

[Jeff Chandler]

Compare to the code to embed Youtube (which has a much better chance of working on all devices)

****************

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embe/Vs6qZd_xP1w?list=PLSZotErv9A53BMi0oX0WmPtjal0rrPoLz" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Rodamala]

I guess I used MM...

OK... how completely nutty is it that I just read that phrase and read it as, "I guess I used MultiMate"? SHEESH!

Makes me consider how far we have come... and question how "better off" we are.

Frankly, I am about ready to give up this whole computer, internet, and and smartphone crap and go back to my Royal No. 10 typewriter.

[don-o]

Sorry I was unclear. I think YT is surely the way to go. My comments reflect my own thick headedness.

[dhs12345]

Agreed. And video quality control is limited, too.

The rule: always insure the best source possible. Whether you are the photographer or if you are converting it from some other format or source.

Also, if the option is available, always choose the best bit rate that fits on the DVD or provides the best performance via Internet playback (goes without saying).

Many of the low end tools are limited or people don’t pay attention to this.

Interesting note: Our cable company seems to compromise on audio quality first. Very annoying. Obviously, they have a limited bandwidth and are looking for ways to cut corners. That is probably why over the air HD broadcasts will always be better than through the cable wire.