What harwares & softwares do the Professionals use?

Hi guys,

Seeing there are a good number of experienced professionals in this Forum, I
have a general question...

What do you guys use as hardware (camera, computer, special equipment etc)
and software besides WMM for shoots to DVD authoring?

As only an amateur, I have to contend with a low budget but what will the
above cost in terms of capital expenditure for a professional set-up?

Movie-making is not everyone's interest and this forum is a great place for
meeting of minds between green horns like me and the Pros.

Regards,
Basil
Canada

Basil,

Are you sure you're on the right newsgroup? Movie Maker is free entry level
software with much fewer features than higher level pro-sumer and
professional software.... professionals are more apt to be using the other
software.

rec.video.production is the newsgroup where the professionals hang out.
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org

..
"Basil406" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:CAEC1277-6A5B-4CD4-AB39-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi guys,
>
> Seeing there are a good number of experienced professionals in this Forum,
> I
> have a general question...
>
> What do you guys use as hardware (camera, computer, special equipment etc)
> and software besides WMM for shoots to DVD authoring?
>
> As only an amateur, I have to contend with a low budget but what will the
> above cost in terms of capital expenditure for a professional set-up?
>
> Movie-making is not everyone's interest and this forum is a great place
> for
> meeting of minds between green horns like me and the Pros.
>
> Regards,
> Basil
> Canada

Hi PapaJohn,

In my books, you are a pro

Regards,
Basil
Canada
----------------------------------

"PapaJohn (MVP)" wrote:

> Basil,
>
> Are you sure you're on the right newsgroup? Movie Maker is free entry level
> software with much fewer features than higher level pro-sumer and
> professional software.... professionals are more apt to be using the other
> software.
>
> rec.video.production is the newsgroup where the professionals hang out.
> --
> PapaJohn
>
> Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
> Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
>
> ..
> "Basil406" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:CAEC1277-6A5B-4CD4-AB39-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Hi guys,
> >
> > Seeing there are a good number of experienced professionals in this Forum,
> > I
> > have a general question...
> >
> > What do you guys use as hardware (camera, computer, special equipment etc)
> > and software besides WMM for shoots to DVD authoring?
> >
> > As only an amateur, I have to contend with a low budget but what will the
> > above cost in terms of capital expenditure for a professional set-up?
> >
> > Movie-making is not everyone's interest and this forum is a great place
> > for
> > meeting of minds between green horns like me and the Pros.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Basil
> > Canada
>
>
>

Thanks Basil,

In that case, here are some notes about the primary items I use. I'll give
you costs in USD:

First off, I make maximum use of what I own, and very seldom purchase
something new.... when I do get something new like my laptop 1-1/2 years ago
and my first digital camcorder the first of this year, I think about it for
a long time and then get the best I can afford.

Hardware:

2 camcorders: Sony TRV615 Hi8 camcorder - about 7 years old and about $750
at the time - does great in low-light situations, has S-Video connection.
I'm writing an article right now about editing a video using footage of the
same scene from 2 camcorders... this Hi8 one, and my Sony TRV80 digital one.
The digital one did the brighter clips and the Hi8 the darker.

Sony x0.6 wide angle lens on the TRV80.... it was a free extra when I
purchased the camcorder. For $1,100 USD, this $200 extra helped swing the
purchase. If it wasn't included, I'd probably not purchase it....but now
that I have it, I use it much of the time.

extra battery for each camcorder

Tripod... old generic low-end one and little tiny lower end one for
table-top use

Digital camcorder tapes - Maxell DV60 - $20 at Sam's Club for a 6 pack


Primary capturing/editing/DVD computer - Toshiba laptop - Satellite
5205-S705 purchased in May 2003.... about $3,200 - 60 GB hard drive....
Windows XP Media Center Edition.

Other computers in my home network have internal and external drives with
lots of space. Maybe 1000 GB spread around 8 computers, all connected by
Linksys BEFW11S4 router/switch (relatively slow now - wireless transfers at
USB1 speeds).... some of the computers are hard-wired and some are wireless.

Dazzle 80 for analog capture - $30 after rebate (and it included Pinnacle
Studio 8)

A note about hard drive space..... we all know that lots of space is needed.
Here's an economical way to get a significant boost in space, something I
just finished testing only 10 minutes ago: keep your eyes open for good
deals on internal hard drives - I had a 160 GB Western Digital (I currently
prefer that brand) drive in a closet for 3 months, one I got because it was
too good a deal at $30 after rebates (Circuit City) to pass by. It's been
waiting for a desktop computer that needed more space. But I decided to make
it more portable and flexible in use, so yesterday I put it into an external
drive case from www.micer.com - a Coolmax CD-309-U2 for $26. The case
included a USB2 connection and came with a USB cable.... 5 minutes to put
the drive in the case, plug it into the laptop and start using it.

I just finished testing it attached to my Toshiba laptop (USB2 connections
on it).... capturing via firewire to DV-AVI files on the external drive is
smooth, as is playback of the DV-AVI file in WMP. It'll be an easy way to
move a fast 160 GB drive around for use on any of my computers,


Software:

Movie Maker is the core of my capturing and editing work.

Sonic's My DVD4.5 is the core of my DVD work, only because I make very few
DVDs and the software was included on my new laptop.

Other often-used software: a personal home-made database to store all the
info about tapes, scenes, etc (something I'm going to start selling
soon).... Total Commander for file management and ftp connections....
IrfanView for image management... PhotoStory of course.... Pinnacle Studio 8
was free with the Dazzle 80 and it's great for copyright free background
music generation.... Motion DV Studio came with the laptop and has some neat
special effects.... TMPGEnc for going to and from MPEG files..... Virtual
Dub for specialized work on clips.... Windows Media Encoder for screen
capturing.... RadVideo Tools for conversion of MOV to AVI.... and lots of
seldom used utilities, mostly free.

--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org

..
"Basil406" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:F7DB8016-D352-4B7A-A977-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi PapaJohn,
>
> In my books, you are a pro
>
> Regards,
> Basil
> Canada

Hi PapaJohn,

Thank you for obliging my curiosity. You have a fascinating collection of
hardware and software! These things become out-dated too soon, owing to the
speed at which new versions keep coming. Whatever said, it is the brains of
the videographer that is the ultimate machinery that makes the quality of the
movies.

I agree, WMM is an excellent capture/edit core software. My challenge is
still how to stop WMM from crashing as the movie is being built. I use it for
smaller projects and for creating the excellent animated titles that many
commerically available packages do not include as basic. WMM's transitions
and title animations are awesome.

In conjunction with WMM, I use MovieMixer (Pixella's Sony version), Pinnacle
Studio 9 and MyDVD (Sonic) - usually in that order, to take advantage of the
neat features of each of them. My cameras are Sony DSC-F707 (for stills) and
Sony DCR-DVD200 (video).

I must get to the root of the problem of WMM crashing so that I could use it
for longer movies.

Thanks & regards.

Basil
Canada
-------------------------------------------------------

PapaJohn (MVP)" wrote:

> Thanks Basil,
>
> In that case, here are some notes about the primary items I use. I'll give
> you costs in USD:
>
> First off, I make maximum use of what I own, and very seldom purchase
> something new.... when I do get something new like my laptop 1-1/2 years ago
> and my first digital camcorder the first of this year, I think about it for
> a long time and then get the best I can afford.
>
> Hardware:
>
> 2 camcorders: Sony TRV615 Hi8 camcorder - about 7 years old and about $750
> at the time - does great in low-light situations, has S-Video connection.
> I'm writing an article right now about editing a video using footage of the
> same scene from 2 camcorders... this Hi8 one, and my Sony TRV80 digital one.
> The digital one did the brighter clips and the Hi8 the darker.
>
> Sony x0.6 wide angle lens on the TRV80.... it was a free extra when I
> purchased the camcorder. For $1,100 USD, this $200 extra helped swing the
> purchase. If it wasn't included, I'd probably not purchase it....but now
> that I have it, I use it much of the time.
>
> extra battery for each camcorder
>
> Tripod... old generic low-end one and little tiny lower end one for
> table-top use
>
> Digital camcorder tapes - Maxell DV60 - $20 at Sam's Club for a 6 pack
>
>
> Primary capturing/editing/DVD computer - Toshiba laptop - Satellite
> 5205-S705 purchased in May 2003.... about $3,200 - 60 GB hard drive....
> Windows XP Media Center Edition.
>
> Other computers in my home network have internal and external drives with
> lots of space. Maybe 1000 GB spread around 8 computers, all connected by
> Linksys BEFW11S4 router/switch (relatively slow now - wireless transfers at
> USB1 speeds).... some of the computers are hard-wired and some are wireless.
>
> Dazzle 80 for analog capture - $30 after rebate (and it included Pinnacle
> Studio 8)
>
> A note about hard drive space..... we all know that lots of space is needed.
> Here's an economical way to get a significant boost in space, something I
> just finished testing only 10 minutes ago: keep your eyes open for good
> deals on internal hard drives - I had a 160 GB Western Digital (I currently
> prefer that brand) drive in a closet for 3 months, one I got because it was
> too good a deal at $30 after rebates (Circuit City) to pass by. It's been
> waiting for a desktop computer that needed more space. But I decided to make
> it more portable and flexible in use, so yesterday I put it into an external
> drive case from www.micer.com - a Coolmax CD-309-U2 for $26. The case
> included a USB2 connection and came with a USB cable.... 5 minutes to put
> the drive in the case, plug it into the laptop and start using it.
>
> I just finished testing it attached to my Toshiba laptop (USB2 connections
> on it).... capturing via firewire to DV-AVI files on the external drive is
> smooth, as is playback of the DV-AVI file in WMP. It'll be an easy way to
> move a fast 160 GB drive around for use on any of my computers,
>
>
> Software:
>
> Movie Maker is the core of my capturing and editing work.
>
> Sonic's My DVD4.5 is the core of my DVD work, only because I make very few
> DVDs and the software was included on my new laptop.
>
> Other often-used software: a personal home-made database to store all the
> info about tapes, scenes, etc (something I'm going to start selling
> soon).... Total Commander for file management and ftp connections....
> IrfanView for image management... PhotoStory of course.... Pinnacle Studio 8
> was free with the Dazzle 80 and it's great for copyright free background
> music generation.... Motion DV Studio came with the laptop and has some neat
> special effects.... TMPGEnc for going to and from MPEG files..... Virtual
> Dub for specialized work on clips.... Windows Media Encoder for screen
> capturing.... RadVideo Tools for conversion of MOV to AVI.... and lots of
> seldom used utilities, mostly free.
>
> --
> PapaJohn
>
> Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
> Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
>
> ..
> "Basil406" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:F7DB8016-D352-4B7A-A977-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Hi PapaJohn,
> >
> > In my books, you are a pro
> >
> > Regards,
> > Basil
> > Canada
>
>
>

99% of the crashing is resolved by the info on the Problem Solving >
Acceleration and Codecs page of my website....

I agree with your thoughts about the tools versus the ideas.... if you have
an idea and some tools don't work, there are always others....

--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org

..
"Basil406" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
newsF0EED19-30F9-48B5-973B-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi PapaJohn,
>
> Thank you for obliging my curiosity. You have a fascinating collection of
> hardware and software! These things become out-dated too soon, owing to
> the
> speed at which new versions keep coming. Whatever said, it is the brains
> of
> the videographer that is the ultimate machinery that makes the quality of
> the
> movies.
>
> I agree, WMM is an excellent capture/edit core software. My challenge is
> still how to stop WMM from crashing as the movie is being built. I use it
> for
> smaller projects and for creating the excellent animated titles that many
> commerically available packages do not include as basic. WMM's transitions
> and title animations are awesome.
>
> In conjunction with WMM, I use MovieMixer (Pixella's Sony version),
> Pinnacle
> Studio 9 and MyDVD (Sonic) - usually in that order, to take advantage of
> the
> neat features of each of them. My cameras are Sony DSC-F707 (for stills)
> and
> Sony DCR-DVD200 (video).
>
> I must get to the root of the problem of WMM crashing so that I could use
> it
> for longer movies.
>
> Thanks & regards.
>
> Basil
> Canada
> -------------------------------------------------------
>
> PapaJohn (MVP)" wrote:
>
>> Thanks Basil,
>>
>> In that case, here are some notes about the primary items I use. I'll
>> give
>> you costs in USD:
>>
>> First off, I make maximum use of what I own, and very seldom purchase
>> something new.... when I do get something new like my laptop 1-1/2 years
>> ago
>> and my first digital camcorder the first of this year, I think about it
>> for
>> a long time and then get the best I can afford.
>>
>> Hardware:
>>
>> 2 camcorders: Sony TRV615 Hi8 camcorder - about 7 years old and about
>> $750
>> at the time - does great in low-light situations, has S-Video connection.
>> I'm writing an article right now about editing a video using footage of
>> the
>> same scene from 2 camcorders... this Hi8 one, and my Sony TRV80 digital
>> one.
>> The digital one did the brighter clips and the Hi8 the darker.
>>
>> Sony x0.6 wide angle lens on the TRV80.... it was a free extra when I
>> purchased the camcorder. For $1,100 USD, this $200 extra helped swing the
>> purchase. If it wasn't included, I'd probably not purchase it....but now
>> that I have it, I use it much of the time.
>>
>> extra battery for each camcorder
>>
>> Tripod... old generic low-end one and little tiny lower end one for
>> table-top use
>>
>> Digital camcorder tapes - Maxell DV60 - $20 at Sam's Club for a 6 pack
>>
>>
>> Primary capturing/editing/DVD computer - Toshiba laptop - Satellite
>> 5205-S705 purchased in May 2003.... about $3,200 - 60 GB hard drive....
>> Windows XP Media Center Edition.
>>
>> Other computers in my home network have internal and external drives with
>> lots of space. Maybe 1000 GB spread around 8 computers, all connected by
>> Linksys BEFW11S4 router/switch (relatively slow now - wireless transfers
>> at
>> USB1 speeds).... some of the computers are hard-wired and some are
>> wireless.
>>
>> Dazzle 80 for analog capture - $30 after rebate (and it included Pinnacle
>> Studio 8)
>>
>> A note about hard drive space..... we all know that lots of space is
>> needed.
>> Here's an economical way to get a significant boost in space, something I
>> just finished testing only 10 minutes ago: keep your eyes open for good
>> deals on internal hard drives - I had a 160 GB Western Digital (I
>> currently
>> prefer that brand) drive in a closet for 3 months, one I got because it
>> was
>> too good a deal at $30 after rebates (Circuit City) to pass by. It's been
>> waiting for a desktop computer that needed more space. But I decided to
>> make
>> it more portable and flexible in use, so yesterday I put it into an
>> external
>> drive case from www.micer.com - a Coolmax CD-309-U2 for $26. The case
>> included a USB2 connection and came with a USB cable.... 5 minutes to put
>> the drive in the case, plug it into the laptop and start using it.
>>
>> I just finished testing it attached to my Toshiba laptop (USB2
>> connections
>> on it).... capturing via firewire to DV-AVI files on the external drive
>> is
>> smooth, as is playback of the DV-AVI file in WMP. It'll be an easy way to
>> move a fast 160 GB drive around for use on any of my computers,
>>
>>
>> Software:
>>
>> Movie Maker is the core of my capturing and editing work.
>>
>> Sonic's My DVD4.5 is the core of my DVD work, only because I make very
>> few
>> DVDs and the software was included on my new laptop.
>>
>> Other often-used software: a personal home-made database to store all the
>> info about tapes, scenes, etc (something I'm going to start selling
>> soon).... Total Commander for file management and ftp connections....
>> IrfanView for image management... PhotoStory of course.... Pinnacle
>> Studio 8
>> was free with the Dazzle 80 and it's great for copyright free background
>> music generation.... Motion DV Studio came with the laptop and has some
>> neat
>> special effects.... TMPGEnc for going to and from MPEG files..... Virtual
>> Dub for specialized work on clips.... Windows Media Encoder for screen
>> capturing.... RadVideo Tools for conversion of MOV to AVI.... and lots of
>> seldom used utilities, mostly free.
>>
>> --
>> PapaJohn
>>
>> Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
>> Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
>>
>> ..
>> "Basil406" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:F7DB8016-D352-4B7A-A977-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> > Hi PapaJohn,
>> >
>> > In my books, you are a pro
>> >
>> > Regards,
>> > Basil
>> > Canada
>>
>>
>>

> I agree, WMM is an excellent capture/edit core software. My challenge is
> still how to stop WMM from crashing as the movie is being built. I use it
> for
> smaller projects and for creating the excellent animated titles that many
> commerically available packages do not include as basic. WMM's transitions
> and title animations are awesome.
Hello there,

You sound as though you are suffering from a codec problem. There are two
root causes and below you will find the solution for each together with some
notes on other issues.

Option 1)

The one stop solution for that is a program called Rename Codecs and it is
available from my web site (Free). Make sure you check out the FAQ, on the
site, on what it does and how to run it (That will take about one minute of
your time!!) All the info you need is on the web site. The latest version is
1.51.

This reassuringly safe to use program requires no knowledge on your part
about what it is doing or how it is doing it or what it is doing it too!!!
neither do you need to know where any of these files are or whether it is
safe to rename them or not.....and best of all, ITS FREE !!!

Option 2)

If this does not solve your problem then try the following out...it has
proved to be a successful procedure for a variety of problems.

1) Download the full version of DirectX Ver 9.0c, Media Player 9 (10 if you
prefer), and Service Pack 2(SP2).

2) Reboot you computer and Install DirectX

3) Reboot again and install Windows Media Player

4) Reboot yet again and install Service Pack 2

5) Reboot one more time

Yes it sounds very tedious, but if you want to be certain all file locks
are removed so that the correct files can be installed this is the way you
have to go.

It is very important that you only download the full versions of these
programs and that you DO NOT attempt an install over the internet.

Other Notes
===========
Graphic Card Acceleration
-------------------------

There is advice floating around that you should disable the graphics
acceleration abilities of your graphics card if Movie Maker locks up or
crashes out. Doing this is roughly equivalent to taking out your current
graphics card and replacing it with an Etch-o-Sketch toy.

The Graphics card on the machine I edit on is a cut above the average, it
has DV In & Out as well as Video In & Out. It does all sorts of clever
things and it is extremely fast. Then the day came when I tried Movie Maker
2 for the first time. It was a disaster. Knowing what the problem was I
immediately logged on to Microsoft and got the latest driver. There was no
change with the performance of the Graphics card with respect to Movie
Maker. After a lot of messing about I went to the cards manufacturer and
downloaded there most recent driver. I was convinced that the one from
Microsoft was in some way defective. It turned out that I was right but for
the wrong reason.

The version of the driver from Microsoft was more recent than the one on my
system AND more recent than the one from the OEM.BUT, the OEM had made minor
changes to how the card worked and these were not taken into consideration
by the Microsoft update!!!

So, do not get the generic update from Microsoft until you have tried the
latest driver from the manufacturer of your card.

Registration
------------

There is in my view some very bad advice floating around that tells you to
unregister the offending codec. If you take this advise be warned that
unregistering any file and doing it wrong will more than likely stop the
program that file belongs to from working all together and may in an extreme
situation cause your entire XP system to fail. This is true whether you make
a mistake using the Registry editor or the registration program itself, one
mistake and you are potentially in deep trouble. Whatever you unregister in
this manner has to be restored and you should take note that the
registration of a codec can often involve more than one registry entry. If
you are expert in these matters you will have no problem.

I have also found that MP3, Mpeg and Jpeg files can cause problems, So...

Convert all MP3 to WAV or WMA

Convert all MPeg to AVI

Convert all Jpeg to BMP

Video Conversion
------------------------

For Video Conversion you should also check out the Knowledge Base Section
of my "Great Links > Knowledge Base" One of the website's in there called
"Video Help" has the best collection of useful information I have yet come
across on converting between the various formats together with links to the
software needed.

Image Size
----------------
There is a lot of very bad advice being given out on Aspect Ratios in
relation to still images. The short version of the advice you actually need
is this.

16:9
-----
If you want a 16:9 ratio final product (video) you should crop your image
to the ratio of 16:9. In addition (talking in terms of PAL) you should use
your favourite image editor to resize the image so that is 576 pixels
tall...the width takes care of itself if you cropped it to 16:9.

4:3
---
If you want a 4:3 picture (older style TV screen) then crop it to that
ratio, then resize the image so that its height is......576 (Pal
measurement), again the width takes care of itself.

Weird Sizes
-----------------
Under no circumstances should you EVER create or resize an image so thats
its dimensions are something like 800 x 600....if you do you will get a
slightly blurred image...and no amount of tinkering around the edges will
ever put it right. See the FAQ on Movie Maker and Ratio on my website for a
more detailed example of why that image will blur.

---
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work
Just glad I don't live in Croydon, UK
\|||/
(o o)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

Thanks PapaJohn & John Kelly! You have given me ample interesting reading to
do today.

On another note, I've been browsing websites on gadgets like, home-made
stabilizer, jig, dolly etc but they will be inappropriate topics to post here.

Regards,
Basil
Canada

"John Kelly" wrote:

> > I agree, WMM is an excellent capture/edit core software. My challenge is
> > still how to stop WMM from crashing as the movie is being built. I use it
> > for
> > smaller projects and for creating the excellent animated titles that many
> > commerically available packages do not include as basic. WMM's transitions
> > and title animations are awesome.
> Hello there,
>
> You sound as though you are suffering from a codec problem. There are two
> root causes and below you will find the solution for each together with some
> notes on other issues.
>
> Option 1)
>
> The one stop solution for that is a program called Rename Codecs and it is
> available from my web site (Free). Make sure you check out the FAQ, on the
> site, on what it does and how to run it (That will take about one minute of
> your time!!) All the info you need is on the web site. The latest version is
> 1.51.
>
> This reassuringly safe to use program requires no knowledge on your part
> about what it is doing or how it is doing it or what it is doing it too!!!
> neither do you need to know where any of these files are or whether it is
> safe to rename them or not.....and best of all, ITS FREE !!!
>
> Option 2)
>
> If this does not solve your problem then try the following out...it has
> proved to be a successful procedure for a variety of problems.
>
> 1) Download the full version of DirectX Ver 9.0c, Media Player 9 (10 if you
> prefer), and Service Pack 2(SP2).
>
> 2) Reboot you computer and Install DirectX
>
> 3) Reboot again and install Windows Media Player
>
> 4) Reboot yet again and install Service Pack 2
>
> 5) Reboot one more time
>
> Yes it sounds very tedious, but if you want to be certain all file locks
> are removed so that the correct files can be installed this is the way you
> have to go.
>
> It is very important that you only download the full versions of these
> programs and that you DO NOT attempt an install over the internet.
>
> Other Notes
> ===========
> Graphic Card Acceleration
> -------------------------
>
> There is advice floating around that you should disable the graphics
> acceleration abilities of your graphics card if Movie Maker locks up or
> crashes out. Doing this is roughly equivalent to taking out your current
> graphics card and replacing it with an Etch-o-Sketch toy.
>
> The Graphics card on the machine I edit on is a cut above the average, it
> has DV In & Out as well as Video In & Out. It does all sorts of clever
> things and it is extremely fast. Then the day came when I tried Movie Maker
> 2 for the first time. It was a disaster. Knowing what the problem was I
> immediately logged on to Microsoft and got the latest driver. There was no
> change with the performance of the Graphics card with respect to Movie
> Maker. After a lot of messing about I went to the cards manufacturer and
> downloaded there most recent driver. I was convinced that the one from
> Microsoft was in some way defective. It turned out that I was right but for
> the wrong reason.
>
> The version of the driver from Microsoft was more recent than the one on my
> system AND more recent than the one from the OEM.BUT, the OEM had made minor
> changes to how the card worked and these were not taken into consideration
> by the Microsoft update!!!
>
> So, do not get the generic update from Microsoft until you have tried the
> latest driver from the manufacturer of your card.
>
> Registration
> ------------
>
> There is in my view some very bad advice floating around that tells you to
> unregister the offending codec. If you take this advise be warned that
> unregistering any file and doing it wrong will more than likely stop the
> program that file belongs to from working all together and may in an extreme
> situation cause your entire XP system to fail. This is true whether you make
> a mistake using the Registry editor or the registration program itself, one
> mistake and you are potentially in deep trouble. Whatever you unregister in
> this manner has to be restored and you should take note that the
> registration of a codec can often involve more than one registry entry. If
> you are expert in these matters you will have no problem.
>
> I have also found that MP3, Mpeg and Jpeg files can cause problems, So...
>
> Convert all MP3 to WAV or WMA
>
> Convert all MPeg to AVI
>
> Convert all Jpeg to BMP
>
> Video Conversion
> ------------------------
>
> For Video Conversion you should also check out the Knowledge Base Section
> of my "Great Links > Knowledge Base" One of the website's in there called
> "Video Help" has the best collection of useful information I have yet come
> across on converting between the various formats together with links to the
> software needed.
>
> Image Size
> ----------------
> There is a lot of very bad advice being given out on Aspect Ratios in
> relation to still images. The short version of the advice you actually need
> is this.
>
> 16:9
> -----
> If you want a 16:9 ratio final product (video) you should crop your image
> to the ratio of 16:9. In addition (talking in terms of PAL) you should use
> your favourite image editor to resize the image so that is 576 pixels
> tall...the width takes care of itself if you cropped it to 16:9.
>
> 4:3
> ---
> If you want a 4:3 picture (older style TV screen) then crop it to that
> ratio, then resize the image so that its height is......576 (Pal
> measurement), again the width takes care of itself.
>
> Weird Sizes
> -----------------
> Under no circumstances should you EVER create or resize an image so thats
> its dimensions are something like 800 x 600....if you do you will get a
> slightly blurred image...and no amount of tinkering around the edges will
> ever put it right. See the FAQ on Movie Maker and Ratio on my website for a
> more detailed example of why that image will blur.
>
> ---
> All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
> obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work
> Just glad I don't live in Croydon, UK
> \|||/
> (o o)
> ----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
> All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
> obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work
>
>
>