As I mentioned earlier today, my family just got back from a trip to Disneyland. As we were getting ready to leave home, I decided to leave my laptop, shut my brain off, and just not think about video technology for a while. I was doing pretty well, until my wife and I sat down to something called "Turtle Talk with Crush" at Disney's California Adventure.

Audiences sit in an auditorium with a large screen featuring and animated ocean scene. A host with a microphone explains what we are about to see, and invites Crush (the turtle form Disney/Pixar's Finding Nemo) to enter. The animated turtle swims onto the screen, and the magic begins.

A few audience members are selected by Crush to answer questions, then the turtle asks a few questions of his own. What it amounts to is a puppet show where the dummy has been replaced by a computer animation. I get that someone is talking into a microphone to supply the voice, and probably even using cameras to see the audience. What blew me away was what appeared to be quality animation being rendered on the fly. The mouth was in sync with the words, and gestures seemed totally random.

I attended the show twice, just to make sure, and was treated to a completely different experience, with children asking very different questions. I concluded that some sort of motion capture technology is at use, however no amount of prodding could persuade the host to "pull back the curtain."

If anyone has any insider info for this attraction, or even a good guess as to how it could be done, I would love to hear it. It also begs the question "how long will it be until animation is just captured from an actor's movement, and rendered on the fly?"

Click READ for a Video via YouTube

I must confess, my family just returned from vacation to Disneyland, and I've still got "Mickey" on the brain. This post isn't about the latest video doohickey or editing thingamajig... It's a about childhood memories.

Starting January 11th, Hollywood's legendary El Capitan Theatre will begin exclusive screenings of the Sing-A-Long version of Marry Poppins. The film is getting the royal treatment, being projected digitally from restored film elements, and featuring a remastered soundtrack. Audiences are encouraged to dress the part of their favorite character, and of course belt out the tunes along with the film.

Mary herself, Julie Andrews is scheduled to host each night. Screenings run through the 31st, and on the final night will feature a performance by songwriter Richard Sherman, the man who gave Mary her voice.

I realize some of you "indie" types out there are probably turning up your noses, but keep in mind Mary Poppins was revolutionary for it's day. The film went on to win several Academy Awards, and this was back when they meant something! If you're in the L.A. area, and are at all interested in seeing one of American Cinema's high water marks restored for the big screen, this is a must see. Oh, and for the record, I would dress up as a chimney sweep!

Growing up with Sundance (Park City, UT) in my back yard, I thought I'd seen it all when it came to film festivals. Boy, was I wrong. In a move that hearkens back to the earliest days of motion pictures, several art galleries around the country are hosting the International Flipbook Festival. Dubbed a 'Celebration of Hand-Powered Cinema' festival entrants are graded on the quality of their image, the story they tell, and the craftsmanship of their books. When was the last time someone told you your film canister wasn't sturdy enough?

Click READ for a link to one of the festival's recent stops

Before you buy that new HDV camcorder to go under the tree, you might want to take a look at this. Tore Nordahl over at Coax.tv says the format is dead in 2007. He goes on to explain that the new AVCHD codec is poised to slide into it's spot as the de facto HD camcorder standard.

I did a little checking, and we here at DVGuru have not always said the nicest of things about the AVC format. For starters, no editing system currently supports it. Also, in what is apparently another attempt to leverage it's format, Sony has opted to create camcorders relying exclusively on Blu-ray technology.

AVC doesn't have to be difficult though. As Nordahl points out, the format is certainly not dependent on disk media, and in fact can be recorded onto a drive, or solid state memory like Panasonic's P2 cards. In fact, he cites several models on their way, which will do just that. As for editing support, we recently reported on an AVCHD converter. I also expect major editing apps to announce support in the next revision of their software.

Nordahl makes some great points, and explains that AVC offers many of the advantages of HDV, with fewer drawbacks. There's no denying that HDV uses some gnarly compression to fit itself onto a standard DV tape. Not only is AVCHD less compressed, it doesn't have to shoehorn itself into a cassette tape.

Before you write this off as some blogger talking junk, take a look at Nordahl's resume. The guy knows his stuff, and he has seen quite a few formats come and go. I personally think he makes sense, and there are a few things I have always questioned about HDV. At this point, I'm more than willing to give AVCHD a chance.

We all know one. Maybe it's someone in your family, or a friend or co-worker. They think they are the bees knees when it comes to shooting with a camcorder, yet produce shaky, blurry, snap-zooming video that could make a sea captain nauseous.

These people need help! No one knows that better than home movie transformation artists at iMemories. the Arizona based production company makes it's dough converting and editing home movies and slides into watchable DVDs the whole family will love. Just in time for the holidays, iMemories has released 12 tips for Home Movie success.

I admit, many of the things on the list are basic skills most DVGurus will do in their sleep. Avoiding zoom controls, panning slowly, and using a tripod all make the list. iMemories also bravely delves into lighting, audio, and the dreaded rule of thirds. Now, before you pros blow this off, think hard, and give the gift of better home movies to someone you know. I'm forwarding this to my uncle even as we speak.

Click READ for the complete list

Let's face it. The HD format war is far from over. Surely we are destined for many years of back and forth name calling, and brow beating before a victory can be claimed. War is hell.

Even so, that shouldn't prevent us from enjoying a few of the spoils. We at DVguru have been proclaiming the benefits of HDV for some time, with the caveat that it is difficult to play in the living room. However, with the first wave of IDE burners hitting the market that's no longer the case.

No one realizes this better than the gang over at EventDV. They have provided us with a look at three ways to get your HDV content onto a disk. It's a great summary of the state of HD burning thus far. Definitely worth a look.

Linked via EMediaLive

So, I was watching the new "Pirates" DVD over the weekend, and decided to check out the "sneak peeks" on the disk. I should preface this by saying I couldn't find an online version of the clip, so those of you who didn't buy "Dead Man's Chest" will have to take my word. Disney has assembled a trailer of sorts promoting Blu-ray disks.

To my surprise, many favorite Disney characters, from Aladdin to the fairies in Sleeping Beauty turned out in support of the format. Basically, Disney pulled every clip of every character they could think of, who said the word "blue" in an animated feature. I have to admit, it was a bit unnerving seeing some of my beloved childhood animations hocking a format that could just as easily disappear as become THE standard.

Disney has always supported the Sony developed format over rival HD-DVD, but the company seemed in the past to be...hesitant to jump in feet first. Well, now they come out with a one-two punch that just about made me feel like Blu-ray was a member of my family.

Interestingly, the same "Pirates" movie which contained the the trailer will not be coming to Blu-ray in the near future. According to this article, Disney plans not to release any of it's "major A-list titles" until they reach a certain "platform penetration."

It seems to me Disney could help the platform grow by releasing all it's major titles in Blu-ray format. At the same time, I realize they have a reputation to think of, and it wouldn't look good to have mountains of unsold copies on store shelves. Maybe you can understand why I'm confused by the the house that Walt built.

That was the lecture, now here is your homework.

Tell me where you think Disney stands in the format war. Are they:
A). totally committed to Blu-Ray
B). sitting on the fence to see what happens
C). not really concerned about which format they use.

For bonus points, tell me "How important is Disney's role in the success or failure of the Blu-ray format?" The winner, who will be selected by an impartial panel of judges, will receive a personalized message board response from an authentic DVGuru blogger.

Looking forward to your input

Adam

Well folks, you can all pack up your things and head home. The HD format war is over! I know, I know - just yesterday, it seemed like it would go on forever, but Rob Enderle over at digital trends has called it for HD-DVD. He says Blu-ray can, at best hope to play catch up, and will eventually fade into the history books.

Of course, I'm just horsing around here. I would love for it to be true so I could finally feel comfortable buying one of these. I do however give Mr. Enderle mad props for having the Bal...'ahem'... guts to come out and proclaim his view on who is going to win this war. Although, I don't know if I would be equally confident in proclaiming HD victory, this is one of the most comprehensive and well written articles on the subject I've had the pleasure to read. It's obvious Mr. Enderle has done his homework.

Enderle has sales figures, and price comparisons to back things up. He briefly touches on the game console aspect of this mess, and cites HP as a major format fence-jumper. He does provide Sony a glimmer of hope, as they have thus far maintained alliances with Dell, Disney and Apple, but ultimately sees Blu-ray as a niche high capacity storage medium. (betacam anyone?)

It's truly refreshing to see a serious journalist hop off the fence and take a stand on this one. I suspect Enderle will be the first of many. However, he does hedge his bets slightly by mentioning that Internet movie downloads could trump both disk based formats.It's definitely worth a look.

Click READ below.

I've been on this kick lately about finding stories that highlight the inevitable unification of Internet and TV. Whether its the rise of IPTV, or the use of fiber optic for production, the 'net' and the 'nightly' are closer than ever. Over all, I'm happy to see this trend, but one thing I didn't factor into the equation was advertising.

What I thought was a quaint little article about Internet pop-up blockers thew me for a loop. Thomas Claburn over at Information Week sites some 81% of broadband users are employing ad-blocking technology. In the same article he goes on to state that 15% of TV households are using DVR technology to do the same thing.

I don't know about you, but in my head, I had never lumped commercials in with pop-ups and spam. For some reason, (perhaps because I work for a TV station) commercials always seemed innocent and good, while Internet advertising seemed like the 4th member of the axis of evil. Is it possible that consumers don't differentiate either? Honestly... probably not. But just like TV trends mentioned earlier, we are headed in that direction.

What all this amounts to, is that advertisers need to be smarter about the way they do things. Take a look at the the "I'm a Mac" commercials from Apple. People flock to the website the day those things come out. The spots have developed a following more typical of a television show than an ad.

I am excited by the prospect that every commercial might be a mini program itself, but not everyone has an Apple Computers budget. Where does this leave local small business owners? I can't see Mikes Sporting Goods, or Hometown Floral spending precious ad dollars on something nobody will watch.

Click READ below for a link to the article.

Some of you already know this, but I am an unabashed Apple fanatic. Final Cut Pro is my editor of choice, but my job requires me to use Avid. After getting over the initial shock, (Where in THE HELL is the tool pallet?) I have come to think of Avid as a sort of second home. It's a very good editing system, and you can't argue that it is THE industry standard.

One of the areas where I feel avid greatly differs from FCP (or Premiere, Vegas, Pinnacle etc.) is in the effects department. It's not worse, just different, and that is what led me to this tutorial over at Studio Daily. I ran through it on my NewsCutter Adrenaline, and it works great. It highlights many of Avid's basic effects features, and talks about promoting an effect to 3D, which most editors around my workplace don't really know about. If you are new to Avid, an FCP switcher like myself, or just want to delve into effects, it's definitely worth a look.

Click READ below

Scott Taves over at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (gotta love a paper with a hyphen in the name) has a roundup of the latest in the "hi-defmatch" (his words, not mine.) The article is a pretty comprehensive look at the current format war and, while there isn't much new for anyone who has followed Blu-ray and HD-DVD closely, it is a pretty good article.Taves discusses some of the lesser known issues, such as boot up time,and box design, and also dredges up the video game console argument.

Click READ, and check it out.

Denver 8 TV, the official cable station of the the City, and County of Denver announced today plans to incorporate fiber optic transceivers into their camera setup. The station, which mainly provides coverage of local, government, and community events will essentially be able to jack in the city's existing fiber optic network, and transmit data back to a control room across the street. The new gear will save them time, and provide audio, video, sync, and communications signals across a single cable.

the camera-mounted CopperHead transceivers (pictured here with additional battery packs) are the latest gadget from Massachusetts based Telecast Fiber Systems. The CopperHead features all the ins and outs of a standard transceiver, and is capable of sending NTSC, Digital SDI, or HD/SDI signals over distances of 20 Kilometers, or about 12 miles. The little black box is fairly small, fitting between the battery pack, and the butt end of a standard ENG style camera.

This seems like a great resource for studios and production facilities with an existing fiber network. In fact, it could even be a good incentive for start up companies to look at fiber as a single cable solution. The best part is, the network can still be used for super-fast transmission of regular old data. If nothing else, it's a great example of the narrowing gap between the television, and data networks.

click READ below for a link to the Press release

[CLICK] Attention Holiday shoppers. Please return all your HD-DVD players and Blu-Ray disk drives as well as any HD disk media to their proper shelves. Slate magazine has just doomed both HD formats to failure. All others with the above mentioned items already under the tree may return for a refund. [CLICK]

Chris Tew over at PVRWire recently posted this article from the good folks at slate.com. They site several reasons why Blu-Ray, and HD-DVD will fail, most of which involve the many other ways humans find to waste their time these days. Of course increased Internet traffic is bad for home movies, as is cable, or IPTV. Cost seems to be another factor, as well as the general confusion around the competing formats.

I find it interesting that most of these alternatives to HD home movies are not HD themselves. Since the days of the MP3 (an audio format technically inferior to CD) humanity has proved time and again that convenience outweighs quality. My bet is the only thing that will save these formats is a player that does both.

Linked via PVRWire

I know, I know! I have been writing an awful lot about video game consoles lately. I must confess video games are a certain weakness of mine, but lest you think this is turning into a game blog, hear me out. Both the Playstation 3, and the XBox 360 HD player have the potential for impact on the HD-DVD Vs.Blu-Ray format war. I had initially speculated that one or the other might swing the majority, but later recanted, giving the slimmest of margins to Sony.

Well, leave it to Sony to shoot themselves in the foot, and even the score. Nix over at IGN.com has a writeup detailing the technical problems early adopters of the coveted PS3 have been experiencing. Among the list of day one firmware updates, and games downscaling in 1080i, there is mention of a new problem surrounding Blu-Ray playback.

Several owners of 720 P native TV sets are complaining of poor playback quality with Blu-Ray titles. Of course 720p is listed by Sony as a compatible playback resolution, so may owners of Televisions purchased as little as a year ago are saying "what gives?" I seems in some cases the signals are being down-sampled by the PS3, only to be up-sampled again by the television. The result is blocky pixels the size of canned hams. OK, that might be stretching it a bit, but it certainly isn't the HD bliss you spent an arm and a leg for.

Recently I posted a snippet about the possibility of the HD Media format war being decided by a video game console. Well, both the PS3 and the XBox HD-DVD player are now available (yeah right!) and ready to do their thing. Early reviews are in on the movie playing capabilities of each device, and...

Honestly, it's like watching the worst horse race ever. The bell rings, the gates fly open, and... two old gray mares meander out onto the track and munch down some grass from the infield. (ZZZZZZZZZZZ) Must have dozed off there. Where was I? Right. Both systems are plagued by problems in the media playback department.

The XBox player (which I gave the nod to earlier) is limited by a lack of HDMI on it's mother console. That shouldn't be a huge surprise to anyone, but here's the rub. The player itself is capable of 1080p output, but component cables, which the XBox 360 uses for it's HD connection are only capable of outputting 1080i. To get the player to display true 1080p, you have to connect it through...drum roll please... VGA!

I didn't think that was even possible, and apparently neither did many major HDTV manufacturers, whose VGA ports only run in standard def. Don't get me wrong, 1080i looks great, but it's obvious the XBox setup is less than ideal. Now, if you want to buy one, and "hack" it up to your PC, that's another story.

As for the PS3... it features HDMI in spades, and supports HD movie playback in all it's forms, progressive or interlaced (game playback is another matter). The problem here is the dreaded user interface. According to a review over at PC World, it's difficult to switch from game playing to movies. If a game disc is taken out, and a movie inserted, the system doesn't automatically play it. The user must navigate through several menus using, not a standard remote, but... drum roll please... the Sixaxis Controller!

The game paddle features no simple play or stop buttons, but rather features an on screen controller, requiring you to engage the system with either the directional pad, or analog stick. It sounds like tedium ad nauseam. Too bad nobody thought of fast forwarding using the tilt sensitivity. That would be fun!

Well, it's a slow start for our contenders, and so far neither are having the impact on the format war they could've. After reading the reviews today, I admit, I am leaning slightly in the other direction. Except for the remote, which is due out next month, the PS3's problems are mostly software based. They could be corrected down the line. Unfortunately no amount of firmware updatin' is going to cause your XBox 360 to sprout an HDMI port. Advantage- Sony by a nose.

Link to Sony Review
Link to XBox HD Player Review