* 50% of the OSNews readers (ok, it might be close to 80%) hate my guts thinking that I dislike open source (based on some old Linux distro reviews I wrote). Of course, this is misguided. What I hate is half-assed jobs, not open source as an idea. I am a perfectionist, not an OSS hater. In fact, my older software releases were usually under the BSD license, my current videos are under the liberal Creative Commons “Attribution” license too, I write tutorials, and I spend the best part of the day answering questions on a multitude of video forums. What’s driving me to do all that is because I occasionally think of myself in the death bed. And when that depressing thought appears in my head, the only question I seem to ask is “did I do enough for the world? did I give enough back? did I matter?“. My health doesn’t allow me to go out and work for Unicef or anything like that, so I try to help from the compounds of my office, in the fields that I also enjoy.

* I need to put a break on my iTunes purchases. I spent $90 this week. I don’t know if I give enough “to the world”, but I definitely give enough to Apple.

* I am floored by the Capital Lights. The whole album is really good, with “Mile away” being the best song in it, and “Work it out” being second best. I bought the album immediately after previewing it, it has very catchy tunes!

* Some other great releases: Music for Animals‘ “If Looks Could Kill” and Dizzy Ballooon‘s “Raise a glass”. I also can’t wait for Drist‘s third album in a few weeks. All local Bay Area bands.

* I am taking care of JBQ’s iPod, updating it and such (he doesn’t seem to bother). Of course, every song is legal in our players. We are also careful about the free songs that labels/bands have given away overtime as promotional material. I have updated the metadata of these downloaded songs to incorporate the information where they were downloaded from. With these new international laws about having to potentially justify your music ownership in an airport, it’s becoming important that freely downloaded indie songs have some sort of information in them about where they were acquired from.

* Adam Lambert is the real deal this year on “American Idol”. Amazing talent, a true rock star/actor. If this guy doesn’t win, then it’s the best example of democracy not working.

* My love for “Lost” has nearly eclipsed. Too many errors in it, and also it’s like the scripts don’t have enough detail in them for the actors to show emotion. The right words about the Lost situation are “I am not feeling it”.

Two true stories I remembered today. Not sure if I ever blogged about it before.

1. The year was 1993. It was rainy and windy outside. I was chatting with my friend about her boyfriend. “Maybe I should call him”, she said, “see how he’s doing”. So she picks up the phone, and dials his number. In its usual manner when the weather is bad, the Greek telecom called “OTE” messes up. So when she dialed his number, she was able to tap on his phone line, at a time when he was (sweetly) conversing to another woman. Apparently, her boyfriend had a second girlfriend! And she learned about it in this twist of fate that makes you wonder if there’s God.

2. Back in 1998 I was working as a web developer in London’s Kingston, UK. My boss, Ed, would often shout at me to use this or the other font. I kept telling him that they all look the same. And he kept shouting back “damn, are you font-blind?” Apparently, I was. With enough training, I learned to make out their subtle differences.

Malbec is the best band you should get to know right away. Catchy electro-pop tunes wrapped with alternative rock style vocals. I bought their whole repertoire recently and I have fallen in love with their melodies. They are stuck in my head. Heck, I still haven’t found a single track on their albums that was below par. Amazing quality and attention to detail throughout.

Also, go to their web site and download their five new “Answering Machine” EPs for free. Or download their great videos (two of them shot with an HV20)! They look great on our HDTV via our PS3. Mark Pontius is not only a great drummer, but an amazing filmmaker too!

I made the following fan video for them. Songs and pictures are used in this video after permission from the band (thanks Mark!).

A year and a half ago I wrote a tutorial about proxy editing with Vegas. There is now an automated visual solution, written by a French developer (update: ask *him* for support btw, for some reason people think that I wrote that script), that is much easier to work with. However, it requires Vegas Pro 8+. The Movie Studio versions of Vegas won’t work with it, as they don’t have scripting support, so if you are using Movie Studio, you will still have to use my own tutorial as a solution.

So, download Proxy Stream from here, unzip it, and copy the files on your Vegas’ Script Menu folder (on my PC it’s here: C:\Program Files\Sony\Vegas Pro 8.0\Script Menu\ ). Then start Vegas Pro, load the script from the Tools->Scripting->ProxyStream and tell it what kind of filetype you want to create proxy files for, and which files in which folder on your hard drive.

Then, select the format to convert to. I suggest you go with MainConcept mpeg2, but click “custom” to customize it, don’t use any of the templates offered there. So, click “custom”, and in the new dialog select “good” quality (no need for “best” that slows down encoding at this point), 640×360 resolution with square pixels, the right frame rate (NTSC or PAL or 24p), progressive field order, and no more than 640,000 bps constant video bitrate. Use 64 kbps for audio encoding. Then click “ok” to that dialog, and then “Convert” on the Proxy Stream dialog. It will take a bit of time to create the mpeg2 files, be patient.

When the conversion is done, set the project properties to the mpeg2 proxy files’ properties. Select “best” quality and “interpolation” for deinterlacing on that project properties dialog. Do your editing, save often. When all is done, load again the Proxy Stream script, select the “switch” tab, select “source files”, and then “switch”. Now all the mpg clips in the timeline have been automatically switched to the source files! Then, change the project properties again to reflect the source files’ properties (just use the “match media” icon in that dialog to set the right project properties). Then, export your high quality video using these source files.

If all that don’t work with a newer Vegas Pro version, use my manual proxy method, linked above.

Patrick Sheffield has developed some very interesting FCP color plugins over the years, but his “Three strip technicolor” and “Luma Toy” plugins are of interest to me, having bumping to these looks often enough in hip-hop music videos. I tried to reproduce the looks with Sony Vegas, and it was tricky, although I got close. Here are some before and after pics. The process involved the Sony “Channel Blend” & “Color Corrector” plugins, the freeware “AavColorLab” plugin (caution, it’s buggy), and in one case, multiple video tracks in compositing mode. Download the project files here to see how it’s done (Vegas Pro 8 and Vegas Platinum 8 project files included).

Original picture

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This is a public service notice: do not use iMovie and Final Cut Express if you respect yourself, and your footage. For the following two (and a half) reasons:

1. All HDV/AVCHD footage is imported using the ANCIENT, LOSSY, UGLY, DESATURATED, TERRIBLE “Apple Intermediate Codec” codec (AIC). Apple, on purpose, won’t edit the native streams of these files, and won’t use their much better, and newer technologically, intermediate codec “ProRES” that their FCP editor does. In other words, you are losing heaps of quality from the GET GO. Before you even start editing. And if that’s not enough, these editors won’t allow you to just drag’n’drop .m2t/.m2ts files on their editors, they have to be “captured” directly from the camera, otherwise Apple is treating them like pirated files or something, and refuses to import them! Apple 1, User Trust 0.

2. iMovie uses by default the UGLY, GHOSTLY “blend fields” algorithm to de-interlace interlaced footage when exporting for the web. So on top of the original loss of quality, here’s some added ghosting for you! I am not sure if FCE has a filter for “interpolation” support like FCP has, but it also uses “blend fields” by default. Personally, I never, ever, ever, export with “blend fields” because I want crystal clear, ghost-free footage even at the expense of some resolution. Of course, “blend fields” *is* a legitimate option and it has its uses, but it must be an OPTION, and not forcefully shoved down our throats.

[2.5: Despite FCE’s $200 price point, it still doesn’t support native 24p editing (for those who need it) even if a number of consumer cameras now shoot native 24p (e.g. the HV40 and some Panasonic ones). And of course, iMovie doesn’t support native 24p either.]

So, Apple, shame on you! People spend $1000 to get an HD camera, and you fuck their footage up for them just for segmentation purposes. Oh, yeah, you can talk all day about “it’s faster to edit AIC files”, or that “most people won’t even notice”, but I DO notice. Each time I see such a video on vimeo, the first thought I have in mind is this: “Huh, here’s another iMovie export for ya!“. I don’t even have to look at metadata or ask the author if he used iMovie or not. I KNOW he did. I can SEE it. The ‘iMovie/FCE effect’ is that visible!

My suggestion to consumers who respect themselves: either buy FCP or Premiere CS4 ($1200+) for your Mac, or even cheaper, buy a $500 DELL desktop PC with 3 GBs of RAM and Vegas Platinum 9 ($80). Keep your Mac alright, but get a PC specifically for video editing. Vegas Platinum is able to edit the native files, lets you select a de-interlacing algorithm, and it is the only consumer editor that supports native 24p editing. But this is not about Vegas. And no, this is not a Mac vs PC thing either. It’s a real suggestion, that makes both financial and technical sense. Go figure.

iMovie result. Notice the ghosting and de-saturation over the native file.

Vegas result. Interpolation and native editing creates a clearer, higher quality result.

Oh, and why the hell we can’t deinterlace with Quicktime when exporting with the .mp4 container and not in .mov? And don’t let me start about their 1.5 years old bug where de-interlacing in .mov sometimes won’t work, even if the “deinterlace” checkbox is checked! Or the QT gamma h.264 playback problem that is biting everyone, including professionals. Bug reports are already in place (I personally made sure of that), Apple hasn’t fixed any of that.

Camcorderinfo.com finally posted their review of the Canon HF-S10/S100 camera, which is supposed to take over HV20/30’s reigns. The camera has been in the market for a month now, so we already knew most of what was noted in the actual review. After 30+ pages of discussion over at HV20.com, we now know this camera pretty well.

Here are the good points:
1. Sharpest camera in the consumer market today, when light is adequate.
2. More manual controls than other consumer cameras.
3. Other stuff, as I have mentioned here before.

Here are the negative points:
1. High levels of noise when light is inadequate, and terrible low light support in general.
2. Terrible image stabilization (especially compared to the Sony HDR-XR520V).
3. Other stuff, as I have mentioned here before.

I think that Canon will have no choice but to use larger sensors in the future to make up for the bad low light support and noise. One thing is for sure: I won’t be buying that camera. Neeeext…

This is a good buy if you already don’t have a Canon HD camcorder. But if you do, wait for the next generation, next year.

Every few days I get down all existential on me. This time, it was because of the upcoming animated movie, Terra, written & directed by fellow Greeks Evan Spiliotopoulos and Aristomenis Tsirbas. The movie is set to be released this May in the US theaters.

The story is as such: “A peaceful alien planet faces annihilation, as the homeless remainder of the human race sets its eyes on Terra.” So basically, these future humans are the bad guys, having gone through several planets already, by using their resources up. They are portrayed as a species that doesn’t learn from its mistakes, as they keep repeating them on every new beginning they do on a new planet that they find to colonize. So these last remnants of humans, find this peaceful alien race living in a planet that it’s “almost” compatible with what humans need, and with some light terraforming it can be used by them. But if they do that, the very intelligent but not very tech-savvy alien race will have to die, as they are not compatible with the changes.

So the big question posed by the movie is if the humans have the right to annihilate this peaceful alien race in order to use up that planet too, and save their species once more. Here’s what I think. The answer is two-fold:

1. Speaking as a Darwinian cheerleader, it’s the right of every species to survive, no matter the cost or the ethical questions posed.
2. Speaking as a cynicist though (Diogenes being my favorite of all ancient philosophers), the humans deserve to die. They didn’t learn from their mistakes over and over again, so they should disappear from the galaxy’s face and leave it to those who do have respect for their surroundings.

Maybe the right answer is to let the humans die, but save their history, art, and DNA in a sort of a galactic museum. This way their existence will always be remembered, and their achievements will be respected, but they won’t be around to wreck havoc anymore.

Kind of like the dinosaurs. They had their time. Huh.

If you are following the international news, you already know that there is a lot of social unrest during the last year in Greece. I am 35 years old, and I don’t remember Greece being so close to self-destruction. Maybe things were as bad during the ’60s and early ’70s, dunno.

It pains me to see Greece being so close to an implosion, but to be truthfully honest, I expected it to, for years. There is so much corruption at every level of the government and press, and so much narrow minding from most of the citizens too, that the country just doesn’t move anymore. For every good thing the Greek life has to offer, there are two or three other things that kill any potential for growth. And of course, the current state of the world economy doesn’t help one bit.

I love my home, but unfortunately, I expect much worse to come. I just hope that the country will eventually rebound after an upcoming, possibly major, turmoil. I pray that this turmoil I am mentioning here will never happen, but I am by nature pretty pessimistic, so there you go.

Big disappointment from Josh Whedon over Dollhouse. Then again, I never liked Buffy/Angel either. Too corny of TV series. But both JBQ and I loved “Firefly”. I was fooled into thinking that after Firefly, Whedon found the perfect recipe for a successful — or at least cult — TV series. Instead, we were served some pretty boring, pedestrian flat shit.

The reason why Dollhouse sucks is because there’s no mystery in it really. The story is shown so flatly from all viewpoints that I can’t associate or sympathize with anyone at the end. It doesn’t make my heart beat faster the way “Lost” does. I mean, this is just some episodic TV where the main hero is getting reset at the end of each episode, making it impossible for me to theorize or delve into the mythology. Because there is no real story there, just some shit happening every week for some unlucky people. There are just episodes of actives doing this or that as they are hired to do. Sure, there’s the FBI guy plot, and the rogue active subplot, but they are not enough to keep the mystery afloat.

Now, you are probably asking, “how it would have been the right way to develop the series”, and the right answer is “there is none”. The very idea of this being a TV series is flawed. What Dollhouse should have been is either a SciFi Channel 3-part tele-movie (like the ones they used to do every December before the economy shitted on itself), or a feature film. But not a TV series. Just like “Lost” would never work as a feature film, same way Dollhouse doesn’t work as a series.

And the reason is because most of us who like sci-fi shows absolutely _hate_ episodic TV. Dollhouse doesn’t offer us enough mystery, action, coolness, geekness, or distorted perspectives of the reality the way ‘Lost’ so masterfully does. It’s just yet another boring TV show trying to be cool just by using Whedon’s name. This ain’t enough. Whedon must try harder to create something that will last.