Does anyone really need a Blu-ray burner nowadays???

We've come a long way in family video. I remember the days when I was obsessive about shooting video of my kids and then editing it with obscenely expensive and low quality analog gear. The number of days and nights and long weekends that I wasted on cutting and pasting and titling and adding music and all that, to achieve something I was pretty proud of at the time (we are talking late eighties early nineties folks)... you just don't wanna know. It's still fun to watch those low quality clips nowadays, now that we are all used to HD, and I often do quick captures of those oldies back to my Mac to then (iMovie) re-edit them, in order to freshen'em up a bit.

In the meantime, amateur video shooting has been galloping ahead, first with better resolution footages, but nevertheless far below the common broadcast quality as we know it on regular SDTV, with cameras shooting Super VHS and Hi8 video, a minor improvement really to the earlier amateur standards. Then, a few years later, into the new Millennium, progress advanced into digital video shooting with easy file transfer of resulting compressed files into PCs and Macs for further editing. Specialized software, featuring non-linear editing, effects, background sound music, transitions, titles, and even 3D effects that we are only used from professional network productions, added more pizazz to the video editing experience. All these suddenly came within the reach of relatively ignorant and computer illiterate consumers, who used to look up to the likes of Spielberg and get wet dreams at the thought of being a bit like His Masterness.

Then came HDTV. Initially came the flat screen plasma and LCD TVs with HDMI and component inputs and then came HDTV programming. More and more commercial channels were being added to the list, offering 720p live program resolutions, a marvel in the eye of the spectator. Then came two waves of optical disk players aiming at full HD resolutions (1080p) fighting for market domination, i.e. HD-DVD and Blu-ray. HD-DVD died prematurely and Blu-ray won but in the meantime it lost almost all its feathers from the cockfight and nobody knows weather it will ever properly get off the ground, feeling the hard competition from alternative content provision channels, like set-top boxes, media centers, PCs, live streaming, etc...

Between you and I, both 720p and 1080i/p standard HDTV resolutions are more than a man can ever desire. The higher resolution, currently only offered by Blu-ray players, is fine if you got a large monitor screen of more than 40 inches. For any other size less than that, Full HD is an overkill... but anyways!

In parallel, we have been overwhelmed the last few years by personal video shooting gear offering 1080i resolutions and progressive HD at 720p. These things are real small and cheap. I recently bought a Sony HDR-TG3 pocket video camera for less than 400 euros (incl. 100 euro rebate) that is the coolest gear an amateur video maker can ever desire. The picture quality of the raw footage connected to an HDTV via HDMI from a beauty like the TG3 is unbelievable! I mean it! Capturing that same footage on a PC or Mac and further editing with an editor like iMovie is simply the closest thing possible to an intellectual orgasm. Sharing the movies over the net or via Media Centers like Apple-TV is all what you further need to compete the act. However...

Full HD or even HD-Ready resolutions on recorded video are not as simple though. I mean, yes, you can read full HDTV resolution footage from amateur video cameras directly into Macs and PCs with a USB 2.0 connection, but how about reading from Set-top boxes that you use to record HD movies broadcasted by Cable suppliers? These morons maintain proprietary file formats and you cannot simply transfer your footage as a readable file into your PC or Mac. The signal way is the only way. Such boxes have normally HDMI and Component outputs for HDTV resolutions, and SCART or composite outputs for SDTV resolutions. Meaning, for HDTV resolution footage, that's a huge problem. Because, not many video capturing devices for PCs or Macs carry HDTV capable inputs (HDMI or component). Furthermore, even if you manage to capture a film or a camera footage within your PC or Mac, how do you output the result to a medium that can play it in High Definition? Excluding of course boxes like AppleTV as well those cheap purpose-fit appliances that interpret media content on attached hard disks and display it on TV monitors via their HDMI or component video outputs... you know what I mean, right?

Well, maybe most of you knew, but I only found out yesterday. Listen to this: It's perfectly possible to burn HDTV (Full-HD or HD-Ready) resolution clips on any optical disk (CD, DVD, DL-DVD and a BD) and then play it on a HD capable disk player, like PS3 or any Blu-ray player for that matter. Trust me, I just did that. HTF, you might ask?

Dead simple! True story! Captured footage with my TG3. Read the footage on the Mac (those with PCs do something similar). Edited the footage on iMovie by selecting good scenes, added transitions and cuts, sound and effects, incl. opening and closing titles. Saved (shared, exported) the result as an HDTV clip (HD-Ready or 720p is my preferred option). Then, used Titanium Toast 10.x to burn the clip on an optical disk of my liking. To enable that in Roxio's Ti-Toast I had to purchase a custom plugin that they charged me 20 bucks for. My target disks were writeable CDs, DVDs or DL-DVDs. I used plain vanilla CDR's and DVD+R's. I could also use BDs but I have no BD burner yet and, actually, since duration of my clips is typically measured in minutes rather than hours, who needs one anyway? It takes about 80 MB per running minute at 720p resolution, so do the math. How many minutes will you get out of a regular (cheap) DVD and how many out of the most expensive BD? Is it worth it? Nope. Trust me. BTW, an added bonus with the Ti-Toast is the fact that you can drop-in various clips to the disk's full rated capacity and you can also add simple menus for selecting those clips after you mounted the disk into your player. It's no Pro DVD production stuff but it works and is kinda nice to see.

So, the great news is that we now have simple and affordable ways to burn disks other than BDs for Blu-ray disk-player consumption and thus achieve HDTV resolutions. Megacool! The problem of shooting a video clip at 720p and burning it on a cheap writable CD or DVD to send to grandma for her to enjoy has been finally solved. And I just found out! However, I still hear many folks' complaining, as they're trying to store content permanently out of their Cable Supplier's Set-top boxes, like for instance the HD Digicorder from Telenet that many of us use in this country.

Actually there are two good solutions to this problem: One is IntensityPro from BlackMagic Design (a card with HDMI in and out that you can mount on your peripheral bus only in case you got a desktop PC or a Mac Pro) and HD-PVR from Hauppauge, a dedicated separate USB connectible box, like those TV boxes from Elgato, that accepts a component HD input (analog signal but still HD-Ready capable). Connect any of those two with your video source on one end (Digicorder, or any other) and your PC/Mac on the other end, and Bob's your uncle. You're good to go. The rest is chickenshit... Oh, yeah... rumor has it that the latter boxes, the Hauppauges I mean, are compatible with Elgato's latest version of EyeTV (3.1), which is by far my preferred package for handling TV signals on the Mac.

UPDATE: Despite what Ti-Toast sez, it's no good to burn clips on CDRs and try to fool a Blu-ray player. Won't do it! Not mine anyways. And it's a Sony. Meaning, only burn on DVDs your clips with HD-Ready resolution to be able to enjoy them on your living room BD player. And if you are loaded and got plenty of time too, then try messing with BD burners and disks if you feel like it! Also, always go for devices on the AVCHD capture standard (supporting the H.264 codec). Only then you can get them plain DVDs playing on Blu-ray players.

Experiencing the New Nano.

It's been some time since I indulged myself into acquiring and unpacking a new iPod. Following the recent product announcements on 09-09-09 and El Jobso's show-off of the latest and brightest from Planet Apple, I couldn't resist my geek temptations and decided to add a new baby brother to my dozen plus older iPods, acquired since their appearance almost 8 years ago. I actually never felt before the user experience common to most iPods of the last few gens. Like cover-flow and playing videos and watching slide-shows and such. Or iPods talking to you with voice menus.

I shot a clip and posted it on YouTube for you to enjoy it here. What can I say? I rather not spoil it by trying to use common words to describe the feeling. Ain't no good. Enjoy the clip instead!

BTW, in case you been wondering, I shot that clip with a Sony HDR-DG3 pocket camcorder and edited the footage in iMovie 2009.

And finally. I called the largest supplier of Apple goodies in this country and asked whether they had any 3GS in stock. I been trying to buy one since its introduction last June. Did the same with 3G a year ago. Then, they had some stock and I bought one; now they say, they have a 300 piece backorder and no idea when they gonna get delivered. And this is Belgium, right? Neither Kenya nor Côte d'Ivoire! Blimey! We'll end up in a state where we'll never be able to buy any iPhone anymore. By the time they' be able to deliver from stock, Apple will have announced the next model and naturally people will try to get that one...

Vanfleteren

The expo shown above by Stephan Vanfleteren, a promising young, in his mid thirties, Flemish photographer of 'De Morgen' newspaper, has been set-up at an unusual venue... a building in the city of Ghent that used to host a permanent circus, years ago. I always thought that circus set-ups were temporary, arranged in open areas, with huge, centrally built tents and lots of trailers parked around them, hosting animals, clowns, and acrobats. The Ghent building apparently defies that logic. Even worse. That circus used to be called 'the new circus' as there was already an earlier one down the road, naturally known as 'the old circus'. I've been living 33 years close to the city and had no idea that in the not too distant past Gentenaars loved circus-going so much! One learns all the time! In the mid fifties of last century (about when I was born, mind you), the circus was turned into the Mahy Garage for Fiat cars (see picture below) and then abandoned in 1979, 30 yrs ago. All this recent time, it obviously served as a refuge to pigeons and spiders (shown somewhere in the clip above, too). Not too long ago the city decided to create and plan a rather ambitious residential and shopping development project (De Krook) that will cover the entire block, surrounded by the canal and a few streets, but building works have not started yet.

Recently Lannoo, the editor and producer of Vanfleteren's books, decided to use the old circus as the venue for this expo in order to basically promote the photographer's recent work and moreover advertise and sell Vanfleteren's latest book titled "Portret 1989-2009".

My daughter, a college graduate in photography herself, finds his work déjà-vu and doesn't particularly think it's either original or creative. In many ways, I must admit she's right, his techniques are indeed familiar old tricks. Very short depths of field, measured in mm rather than cm or m, black and white dramatic effects with very little detail in the shadow parts, vignetting, often shot with wide angle, rendering some facial details quite extreme, and ultra sharp Carl Zeiss glass eyes and aged skin textures.

Vanfleteren shoots celebs in Flanders. Who are these? Mostly people shown in newspapers, books, and magazines. Like actors, TV celebs, politicians, writers, sportsmen/women, comedians, visual artists, in short all those with whom the common people like to identify and look up to. His book contains 335 portraits but that's not to say that there are 335 different individuals shot, as some celebs are shot multiple times. The vast majority of them are Flemish, some Dutch and Walloons too. The Flemish are mostly known in this country as BVs (Bekende Vlamingen). Not necessarily these folks are any better than the rest of us, but their photographs show-up in newspapers more often than anyone else's. So be it!

As I was checking the shots in his book (which I bought for 55 euros, mind you... true story), I couldn't help recognizing that two classes of people were missing from this celebs catalog of Flanders country. These were a) successful managers and industry leaders (incl. doctors, entrepreneurs, top managers, etc) and b) known university and other school professors and researchers. In fact, those who make it happen... the real thing... the economy that drives and steers our daily lives and cares that we all get some crumbs on the table, to eat and drink. In fact, celebs only deal with the entertaining part of our daily life whereas the leaders in those activities that keep the system running are mostly hidden in the shadow of celebs, entirely ignored by the media, simply doing their business. A cyclist celeb in this country is far more important that Pattie Maes, whom most among the 'high intellect Americans' (yep, that's no oxymoron) consider as one of the top female brains and researchers on the planet! But Pattie is no celeb material as she does her job and being under the spot is the last thing on her mind!

Per the author, there's visibly one key celeb's portrait missing, and the photographer makes a hell of a story about her in the prologue of his book. Belgian ex-Queen Fabiola, the 'Spanish witch'! Vanfleteren sez that he's fallen in love with her hair style and he was probably having wet dreams considering the possibility of shooting her portrait, but her Royal Secretary and Personal Adviser, a dude with a gazillion names -- typical of someone with noble origins in this part of the world -- informed the photographer that this was a no-go. If I was that adviser myself and had imagined beforehand what that rejection would have caused in terms of Vanfleteren's hilarious commentary in his book prologue, along with more comments on TV and other media, I'd have never refused the bleedin' photo-shoot, mark my words. But that's again Belgium. Pettiness and ridicule at all levels, turning the indigenous into targets for 'Belgian' jokes, adored by our neighbors, especially the Dutch and the French.

Did I, or do I like Vanfleteren's pictures? As I am neither a certified expert nor I ever studied photography like my sibling, I... love them. There's a lot of drama and variation. Each person shown takes a pose and uses artifacts that have something to say about his/her character and activity. His lens goes deeper, much deeper than the surface. We see aspects of the personages that are very intimate, very personal. From that point of view, Vanfleteren is definitely quite original after all. For Flanders, his work is as monumental as that of the likes of Yousuf Karsh and Mario Testino. Only difference, the persons he shoots or he shot, with very few exceptions, are only dudes known in an area of max 15K sq km, give-n-take, the Flanders country...

Like I said, so be it!

The Condom!

How to make a living without any productive work!

Capitalism is cool. To many though, especially the poor and the weak and the disadvantaged, it often seems evil and anti-social and destroying people's lives and should be dropped. Unfortunately, capitalism goes hand in hand with freedom and democracy, and as bad it may be, it's still way better than any other alternative that we've seen in the last 10 thousand years on Planet Earth, including Plato's Utopia.

It is a challenging statement that this blog has started with, innit? Imagine Johnny boy having a great life, in terms of income that is, while he don't need do no shit to earn a living. All it takes is surfing the net, watching the market, and doing some online day-trading. If you know what you are doing, you are da man! You can make a living with dough others sweat blood and tears to get any near to!

An example! Late July 2009. Johnny boy's watching AAPL moving south. He knows he needs to check upon AAPL's Puts. He likes trading options short term, so he looks no further than August / September expiries, less than one and two months down the road respectively. He decides to sell 10 August and 30 September contracts, breadcrumbs really, both @ 160 strike. AAPL is trading at 167 at that moment, give 'n take. Johnny thinks AAPL will move up. He feels August might be rather tricky for the strike to hold in the clear, but he's rather confident about the September expiry. Johnny will soon make, give'n-take 15 big ones on this transaction. Time needed to make it happen: 6 'productive' minutes. The time to search real time data on some gazillion free of charge URLs, make the sell decision, evaluate risks and send an SMS to his banker, some place out there in the banking universe, waiting for more of his Johnny clients to tell him what to do with their money. In the next 15 minutes Johnny gets a confirmation that the transaction got thru and placed a fresh 15 grand 'n change on his current account. Deal done. Let's go eat supper now, Johnny boy!

Johnny goes on with his life. He hasn't started spending his cash, as it's not earned yet for sure... there's always the risk options end "in-the-money" and then his buyers will come running, but that's ok. Johnny's got a few alternative strategies if things get ugly. Happened before. When things turned out bad, he used to go for some new similar 'sells' at distant future expiry dates. With the proceedings, he then covered his current open positions before too late. And so on. Eventually the stock does a turnaround (they always do) and Johnny wipes away his losses, hands down. In fact, his best bets work when, at expiration, his target stock falls sandwiched in between two rates at which Johnny sells Puts (@ the lower) and Calls (@ the higher). The narrower the spread between the two the better the dough. The higher the risk though. Johnny swears by Apple and its products, but bleedin' AAPL is much too tricky to handle short term. Don't even get me started on medium term! It's a high volatility stock, like the experts use to call it! Anyways, sometime in the past, Johnny tried buying options at "some" price, putin' his cash on the table, hoping for obnoxious percent returns if the stock moved in the right sense but he always screwed this up, big time. There were other Johnnies then, who were singin' their way to the bank, with his money. So, he decided once and for all to only do 'sells' in the future, and avoid 'buys' of derivatives like hell.

Anyways, about early August AAPL suddenly headed south and Johnny felt like his first bet might squeeze him to some panic recovery strategies with the stock closing @ just above 159 bucks, for just a single night. That one was a slight shock. His banker however got cold sweat running all over him, even more than Johnny himself, but... never mind. That's why the bank pays him, poor sod. To 'empathize' with his customers!

Long story short, eventually Johnny secured the cash of his August bet, following expiry Friday on the third week of the month, with AAPL trading safely far above 160 bucks a share. One down, one more to go, Johnny thought. He also treated his woman to a fancy dinner that Friday evening! In the meantime, Apple has been heading north from that moment onwards and never looked back. Analysts have been upgrading the stock almost daily. New targets started with a "2". Cool! El Jobso takes stage at the 09-09-09 event! All the way back from Hades. He's alive and kickin' ass! September Puts @ 160 strike seem a small dot in the southern horizon. Johnny sold them @ 4.4 bucks a share in July and they are trading @ 24 cents as we speak. Do the math! Another week and Johnny's about to pocket the cash for the remaining 30 contracts. He suddenly feels a wee tiny bit of sympathy for those morons who paid him 15 grand to buy his Puts, but he instantly decides to give no shit whatsoever. That's the name of the game. Capitalism is cool for clever and lucky bastards, he thinks. Life is good!

Sad story!