New Gallery!

i’ve got some videos up now aswell, here’s the page:
my unicycle media:

I put up all the un-rotated video.
I got the other ones rotated, but now they’re too big to post (around 50mb!) any advice on how to make these back to their original size?(around 3mb) (i used virtual Dub to rotate them)

Thanks Again,
Enjoy the pics!

-Ryan

Re: New Gallery!

You’ll need to compress them. Here’s something that I had just written up for Max.

Using VirtualDub to rotate videos does seem like overkill. You would think that there are simpler tools available, but I’m not aware of any. I’m sure someone somewhere has written a neat little free utility that rotates video by 90 degrees, but I haven’t been able to find it.

One problem with using VirtualDub is that it forces you to make decisions about what video compression codec to use and what settings to use for that codec. Choosing the wrong codec could mean that some people may not be able to play the video because they don’t have that codec installed and may not be able to get it. Choosing the wrong codec settings could mean that you either end up with a file that is bigger than it needs to be or is of worse quality than it needs to be.

You can get VirtualDub from http://www.virtualdub.org/

In VirtualDub
Open the file you want to edit: File >> Open video file…
Select the codec to use: Video >> Compression…
Set the settings for the codec
Rotate the video: Video >> Filters…
Click Add…
Select the rotate filter
Select the angle to rotate
Click OK to close the filter dialog
Save the file: File >> Save as AVI…
Name the new file and click Save
VirtualDub will now go to work creating a new rotated AVI file

The tricky part is choosing a codec. It depends on what you have installed on your computer. Most versions of Windows come with “Cinepak Codec by Radius”, “Indeo video 5.10”, “Intel Indeo Video R3.2”, and “Microsoft Video 1”.

Normally I would suggest using “Indeo video 5.10” but the latest version of Windows XP stopped including that codec so people with a new PC won’t be able to play the video. “Microsoft Video 1” is an old codec and makes low quality video so don’t use that one either.

Best choice is “Intel Indeo Video R3.2” with “Cinepak Codec by Radius” being a second choice. The Intel codec will result in a smaller file size than the Cinepak codec. The Cinepak codec will usually give better quality, but the file can be about twice as large. I think Mac and Linux can handle those two codecs without hastle.

There is also the option of compressing with DivX. But that means that the user will have to have DivX installed. If they don’t have DivX installed (or the right version of DivX installed) they won’t be able to see the video, and the error messages aren’t helpful in helping them figure out what’s wrong.

It sure is a bugger trying to pick a codec that will allow everyone to play the video without difficulty.

In the “Select video compression” dialog there is a quality slider. This slider affects how much the codec compresses the video. A setting of 100 give the least amount of compression and lower numbers give progressively more compression. I usually use a quality setting of 70, 80, or 90. Encode the video at each quality level and go with the one that gives you acceptable results with an acceptable file size.

In the “Select video compression” dialog there is also an option to force keyframes every number of frames. For short segments you can get away without setting keyframes. For longer segments you should set a keyframe every second or two so that people will be able to seek and fast forward the video. You can go to File >> File Information to see the frames per second (fps) for the source video. If the source is 10 fps then set the keyframe for every 10 or 20 frames. Keep in mind that you can only cut or trim frames at a keyframe. If your video has no keyframes you’ll have a hard time trimming frames from the beginning or end of the video later.

I didn’t address audio compression here. Sticking with uncompressed audio is easiest. Most still cameras usually use 8bit mono audio which isn’t too big. But if you use a camera that records high quality audio you may want to compress it or at least downsample it so it takes less space.

Sites for more info
<everwicked.com - Tämä WWW-sivu on myynnissä. - everwicked Lähteet ja tiedot.;
<dvdrhelp.com;
<http://www.divx.com/support/guides/guide.php?gid=4&gt;
<http://www.digital-digest.com/&gt;
<http://www.doom9.org/&gt;
<http://nickyguides.digital-digest.com/index.htm&gt;

Ryan,

You’re a freak (in a good way)! I’ve just had a nice long look in your albums and I’ve been blown away. In that photo of the gap from the bus stop to the sign, how big is the sign (I guess I’m mainly wondering about it’s width)?

Just one technical question, I’ve downloaded a few of the videos and am still downloading the rest. In the 85cm Hop one it doesn’t show any hop for me. It’s as if although it says I’ve downloaded the whole thing, it’s only sent me about half. Has anyone else had this problem?

That seems to be a good camera you’ve got there. It takes really good quality videos and they just look a lot smoother than the ones from my camera. It’s as if it’s using a higher frame rate even though they’re actually the same frame rates (20 frames per second). Thanks a lot for posting the photos and videos, and please continue adding to your great albums! :slight_smile:

Andrew

John –

All these great tips take you a lot of time to write and thank you very much!

Why not collect the best ones and copy them to a FAQ page on your website? That way they don’t get lost in the forum streamflow. Then the other pages could include a link to them.

yes, thanks for the advice. I used a newer version of the one you suggested (4.3??) and it worked great! the videos are up, and hopefully working.

andrew- the sign is about 4 inches wide, max. it was alot less intimidating going the other way!

Enjoy the gallerys guys!

-Ryan

Thank you… great stuff! TRAPED AT WORK… M U S T R I D E.

-Christopher