[Chas Smith]

Thanks for your post. I’m sort of on the fence about them as I will open unsolicited e-mail every so often, i.e. those pertaining to my work or interests. I spoke with a potential client about buying a sponsorhip into a local TV show I produce and he refused, explaining he gets new & repeat customers by using inexpensive E-mail blasts for his biz which according to him were very successful and affordable (he has an indoor baseball / batting cage facility).

Consumer e-lists may work for general public. I’m not so sure about biz2biz mktg. though for a variety of reasons ( corporate firewall set-ups, etc. ) I was just curious if anyone has used these methods and to what degree of success. It seems to me that the key is to acquire a good e-mail address list that people have “opted-in” to receive info. This helps to prevent getting diverted to Spam / Junk folders.

I send out MS Publisher Docs to e-mail lists I’ve cultivated and I also send out e-mails with video weblinks for demos. Unfortunately a lot of receivers tell me they can’t receive or view webvideo at work because their firewalls won’t allow media files to be seen and/or heard at work. So this is a setback.

Anyway, thanks for your 2cents.

Chaz

[Chas Smith]

Just a correction…the unit I was originally looking for was a Pioneer DVR-510HS…not 511 or 512.

[Chas Smith]

Thanks for the info!

[Chas Smith]

I agree! The HV20 is a pretty nifty little camera and once you get past some of the operational limits, you can get some good results. I got a step-up ring and use my Sony WA 0.7 adapter which offers more weight (helps steady the camera ) and gives a good image.
I intercut with Canon AHX1 and they work very well. Color match in Vegas and it rocks!

[Chas Smith]

Thanks for responding. I am using the OEM SW of Nero Essentials that came with my Sony DVD drive. It doesn’t allow much in the way of “configuring” as the settings are somewhat automatic and limited.

But here’s what I’m able to read from the “set-up” menu.

Quality Setting : Standard Play
Sample Format: Automatic (there is progressive, interlaced settings

Bit Rate: 5073 kbit/s ( this button is muted )
Encoding Mode: Fast 1 pass Encoding & High Quality 2-pass VBR

I can’t find anymore specifics on this as I’m assuming this is an entry-level DVD burning software.

Probably might do well to get a beefier DVD SW with more varibles but I was looking for simplicity which has done okay but I do notice some subtleties in detail loss.

Thanks again,

Chaz

[Chas Smith]

I agree with you Steve. Unfortunately though systems may have their own unique operation peculiarities, configurations and workflows that possibly require more than a basic familiarity from the worker / user….hence the hiring manager’s preference for someone with exact experience using a particular system.

And having been a production manager for a large TV facility, I can personally recall how some new hires who had “experience” with our “in-house” gear would often perform faster & much better than those who used something else. Not saying they were bad employees ( well some were ) but they either took much longer to catch on than desired, made more mistakes or they were befuddled while trying, resulting in more time and cost to the company.

Managers use job descriptions with check-boxes to hire as that’s their job. They don’t like to take chances with someone who, while they may be a good editor given a particular toolset; if they don’t match the company job description/requirement they’ll be passed on. And if a manager hires someone who fails to perform right out of the box… it will reflect poorly on the hiring manager as he or she is assessed on how well they determine qualifications in choosing people for the jobs.

But I do agree with your outlook… a good editor is a good editor. But if they can’t sit down and make the machines fly right away… someone is going to have some serious splainin’ to do.

FWIW,

Chaz

[Chas Smith]

Back in the “dark ages” of NLE’s, (circa 1992-3) when I was considering buying/investing in a NLE, I was intrigued with a German company’s product “FAST” because of price, user interface and feature-set. Unfortunately, during the sales demo, the system froze or crashed too many times. While the salesperson was trying to figure out what happened, I got up to get a cup of coffee in their breakroom.

As I waited for the coffeemaker to fill the pot, a tech-serviceguy walked in and we struck up a conversation on NLE’s. This was back before everyone had cell phones and so his pager kept going off. He basically told me that for every 10 “help” pages from new NLE customers, only 1 in 10 would be from a “Mac” user and he could talk them through a simple prefs or “zap p-ram” procedure over the phone whereas the PC-based customers had to go through much more hand-holding or Sys reinstalls.

This little conversation helped me choose Mac with a Targa2000 Nubus card and Premiere. It worked well about 70% of the time, prompting me to upgrade during Media100’s “Fire Sale” when they went PCI, I upgraded again during the PCI firesale. I was pretty happy with Media100 until Data Translation got weird with all their fractional “upgrades” and with CEO Molineri trying to put a “TV Station on every desktop” ( anyone remember that debacle? ). The shift in Media100’s product emphasis left a lot of TV / Video users out in the cold with unreasonable upgrade costs for too-little upgrade benefits. I got ticked at a company that ignored my loyalty as a customer and started to look around.

Reasoning that PC’s were getting better at dealing with video, I took the plunge, built my own PC and got Vegas 6.0 at deep discount from B&H ($99 full OEM version). I’ve really not regretted it as it is a really powerful NLE software and I’ve turned other colleagues on to its capabilities. I’ve considered AVID and FCP as another tool in my shop but I’m an indy producer and I guess I’m too old and don’t have the bald-head or spiked hair and tat’s to be considered an “artsy-creative” to be hired as a fulltime editor for a creative shop. But as for choosing Vegas… no regrets… it is a helluva product and while the PC may not be as “bullet-proof” as the MACs… it is a solid performer.

If you are interested in working for someone else, I’d recommend some additions in your skillset; take some classes…. learn AVID or FCP or whatever and use it enough to get you hired. Barring that, if you like what you use and it’s making you a living and enhancing your creativity instead of limiting it…then don’t look back and keep blazing your trails.

FWIW, no matter what tools you use, it’s the end result that matters most. But if you’re looking to get hired by production companies..then you have to consider their tools and workflow and match em.

My2Cents,

Chaz

[Chas Smith]

Thanks for the info, Walter!

[Chas Smith]

Hi Mike:

Thanks for the tip. Did the gaussian blur vertical only .001 to .003. Softened a tad but the jaggies are still there. Any more increase and everything is just too soft.

May just do the “shoot-the-screen” with the XH-A1 and see what I can pull from that. I’ll try the TIFF for logos only and see what I can pull from those in Vegas. While it’s not preferred, doing just the logos and getting a good freezeframe is all I need. If that doesn’t work… shoot the screen.

Thanks to everyone for the help, I learned some things.

Chaz

[Chas Smith]

Hi Mike:

Thanks for the instruction. Did the “right-click/reduce interlace flicker” but it’s still the same. There’s no “flicker” in playback, it’s just the logo has the dreaded “stair-step” look after I import into Vegas. The ppt slides and converted slides to .png look fine. I even imported a slide into Adobe Freeware Business Edition (very stripped version of an early Photoshop SW) it looked fine and I saved it to .bmp, imported and still have jaggies.

I did a CAMSTUDIO Screencap in AVI of the Ppt, imported into Vegas…still jaggies. I guess I could use my XH-A1 and shoot the screen for a logo image. But I was hoping there would be a quicker, less cumbersome way to do this via software.

I’m stumped…( I’ve never fooled with importing Ppt so I’m really stumbling around here). Thanks for your help and if you have any other ideas, I’m all ears.

Chaz