Video formatting issues and new computers and camera's.

LOUD Tour TV is still not back up and running at it's full capacity!

There are some issues with converting the videos right now. The video format is MPEG-1 Muxed format, which basically means that the audio and video are compressed into one track. What happens when you attempt to convert this into a quicktime movie you lose the audio and get only the video. I found a workaround so that I can convert the raw footage to what looks like a MOV file so that it can be posted to blip.tv, but when I upload the files and flash conversions are done sound disappers. Also, when I import these files into iMovie HD or even into Garage Band to try and do a podcast, I lose all audio. This is a problem and there is no immediate fix for it, so all Mac users with Sony camera's be forewarned. This is also a problem with Panasonic digital cameras, or with any other digital camera that records in MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 formats. All digital camcorders that record in MPEG-4 format, no worries, your video should import normally with all video and sound.

There is another option to work around this issue and that is using 3rd party software to extract the sound from the MPEG file and save it as an mp3. You will have to add both to your video project and then sync your sound with your video. So unless you are an advanced user, don't attempt this stunt! I'll give it a shot if I can find a free converter out there on the internet. By free I mean something that offers more then a 15 day trial of the software. I need a permanent fix, not a 15 day trial of a permanent fix that might still not work! Capiche?

In other news Christine's insurance company finally decided to replace our stuff. They are sending a check to replace the cell phone. We are not sure when we will get that, but we will have it in time. I hate not having a cell phone! They have also decided to replace my laptop computer and also our digital camera! Well the aren't replacing my laptop, they are giving me an Acer laptop instead. Have a look at the specs. The good news, it's Windows XP, not Vista! I don't want to go off the deep end trying to understand Vista and is crazy security measures.

The digital camera that we are getting is a significant upgrade from the model that was stolen. They are sending us a Fuji FinePix E900. It's 9 mega pixels, which is an upgrade from the 7.2 which was stolen from me. It is basically the same camera that we had before but with better quality photo's. The video quality is still the same as with the old Fuji at 30 frames per second. I may shoot regular episodes of LOUD Tour TV with this and music videos with the Sony, it will all depend on the video quality. It doesn't have the image stabilization like the Sony, so I'll make my decision on what I am shooting video with in good time.

So that's about it for now! Watch the video! I'm off to Syracuse for a weekend of performances. See you guys when I get back!

The Return Of The LOUD Tour!

Finally after a one month hiatus I will be returning to a regular blogging schedule. A few things have changed, for instance I'm now doing all of my blogging and surfing with a Mac! I've also changed cameras, so we will see what kind of difference I get with picture a video quality. It should be relatively the same as before. No HD camera, because of the circumstances here in real life I am just not able to afford one of those at this time. Maybe in the future depending on how other things work out. Basically I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. So look for more episodes of LOUD Tour TV in the near future. For now I have to somehow rebuild my 2500 song music library. Some of those recording were very rare and difficult to find, but in good time I hope to recover most of them. Well that's it for now, stay tuned really soon for plenty of updates to The LOUD Tour.

Attention Google Video Users...

I am looking for your opinions. Recently I have launched LOUD Tour TV as something to compliment my blog. I posted my video over to YouTube and it took nearly 2 hours for it to become available to be embedded here on my blog. The first try did not work because the sound was not synced with the video so I had to convert the format from AVI to WMV and then re post it to YouTube which then took another two hours for my video to become available to embed again. The video was a little over 2 minutes in length. The file size was roughly 6.5 Mb

Now what I want to know from you Google Video users is how long from the time you upload your video until the time it is available to be embedded on blogs and other websites? Also are their issues with syncing sound and video on AVI files? I am currently shooting my videos with my Fuji FinePix E550 digital camera. As you can see the quality is pretty good. I want my videos to be available to the public without #1 having to convert them to WMV format and #2 within minutes of the actual upload. Basically the video that I shot at 2 o'clock yesterday wasn't available to be show until almost 7 because of a sync error and the long processing time.

Please Google Video users give me feed back on your Google Video experience!

Fun With Photos

Lights and Lines, originally uploaded by spcbrass.

These past few months I have really been taking a lot of pictures with the camera that Christine gave me. In fact I have taken over 1300 pictures. Now many of them are for fun and some don't come out looking good, so I have deleted most of the pictures that I have taken. The really good one's I post online to my Flickr page.

As you can see, last night I discovered another setting on my camera that allows me to keep the shutter open for an extended period of time. This particular picture it was open for three seconds. I like the way it came out and I also like the fact that only half of the picture has the light in it.

Since I have all this time on my hands, learning how to use the camera has been easy. I'll keep posting shots all of the time, so keep checking here or my Flickr page for my favorites!