GR-I267TR INTERNET REFRIGERATOR

Why worry about what’s in your fridge-freezer, when your fridge-freezer can worry about it for you? This massive silver, side-by-side (one side’s the fridge, the other the freezer) monster contains a touch-sensitive LCD screen that contains all manner of wonderful things. It’s got full Internet and email access a built-in TV and MP3 player and an organiser.You can leave your mates or family members messages and recipe tips, and even kee p track of the entire contents without ever having to open the door, It’s also got an external ice dispenser offering various levels of ice, from crushed to cubed. How cool is that? Very cool indeed.

If you do fancy doing a Delia, or for that matter, an “Awight mate, pukka!” Oliver, then you’re going to need a top-notch cooker to cope with it all, especially if you like your Sunday roasts. TheTerim Dual Fuel Range Cooker is big enough and sturdy enough to cope with just about anything you can throw at it, on it or into it. Available in easy-to-clean brushed stainless steel, it’s got four main gas rings on the hob, plus an additional central wok burner to really stir-fry things up.The rings may be gas, but the 51 -litre main oven and 31 -litre side convection oven are both electric.The Terim’s got a digital auto-programmer and a warm storage compartment to keep things in while you wait for the other bits of your meal to play catch-up.

Soprano Jug Kettle

Kettles may come in different shapes and sizes, but when it comes to boiling water, they’re all much of a muchness: fill, boil, pour, drink. End of tea- or coffee-making story. But this chunky, brushed-stainless-steel and graphite effort from Morphy Richards is about as blokey-looking a kettle as you can get. It’s even got a butch, off-the-telly mobster name for added toughness. The Soprano is fast too, and comes with a robust handle for better grip, a removable limescale filter, and twin water-level indicators. Best of all, its got a pleasingly retro whistle feature that lets you know when its job is done.

BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID

Extreme killer robots know the way to San Jose

Mark Pauline makes robots that look like they want to kill you. Head of the Survival Research Laboratory, the body that organised the Art Of Extreme Robotics exhibition in San Jose, he gave visitors a view of robot art at its most terrifying. The SRL staged demonstrations have provoked criticism since September 11 .As Pauline often presents his work within enclosed environments;the results create the same claustrophobic terror felt by the people trapped inside the World Trade Centre. Another exhibitor was Eric Paulos. As part of his Experimental Interaction Unit, he developed the l-Bomb. Firing a magnetic pulse that destroys all magnetic media within its cone, you wouldn’t want this robot anywhere near your credit cards.

SONY’S ALL-SINGING, ALL-DANCING ROBOT
Following on from the huge success of their puppy-like AIBO robots, Sony has unveiled a new prototype that can sing (yes, sing) and climb stairs. The new “toy” is capable of maintaining an upright position while walking on two legs and can be programmed directly from the PC.
The SDR-4X is sensor-loaded and operates using 38 independently moving joints fed information from the unit’s real-time control system. One of the key features Sony boasts about is the robot’s ability to sense variations in the surface it’s walking on and adjust its walking pattern accordingly.The robot’s not only capable of achieving a stable and flexible walking pattern, but can also assess its course over varying terrain and navigate objects, such as stairs, in its path. You’ll also be able to program the biped to move around as you see fit, by hooking it up to a PC over a wireless link. Even if our mechanical friend takes a tumble, don’t worry, it possesses the mobility to stand up again.
Using image and voice recognition to respond to people’s faces and voices, it can also recognise up to ten different individuals through front facial image capture, even against complex backgrounds his is achieved by using seven microphones placed inside the robot’s head to locate a sound source and recognise individual speech and tone. As well as voice synthesis, the SDR-4Xalso  expresses emotion through an advanced range of fluid movements in its body. Not just a walker and talker, it can sing and dance according to the different music and lyrics programmed into its software.
More functional uses for the robot have not been detailed by Sony, who is tight-lipped about a release date for a consumer model, only suggesting that one will be available before the end of the year. Rumour has it, however, that the SDR-4X will not come cheap: early estimates are it could cost as much as a luxury car.

NOKIA 8270 CDMA PHONE
$175 (£125)
Even if no one calls, you’ll look incredibly stylish and popular with the new Nokia 8270 CDMA fashion phone. Weighing just three ounces, the phone comes with user-changeable Xpress-on colour covers (in orange, green, silver, white and magenta) and is the first Nokia in the American market with the signature bright blue backlight. Additional highlights include the ever-present customisable ringtone (with a special feature for individual identification tones), a standard 750m Ah lithium-ion battery, a phonebook with up to 250 entries, an alarm clock and a calendar. Nokia has also thoughtfully included a built-in mini-browser with Internet connectivity and two-way mobile text messaging.

GE OVENS WITH SABBATH MODE
from $399-$2/499 (£275-£1750) Oy vey! Dinner again and no plans already. GE Appliances has teamed up with renowned restaurateur and chef Laura Frankel (of Chicago and New York’s Shallots Restaurant) to create a line of kosher wall ovens, smooth-top electric slide-in and smooth-top electric drop-in ranges with the intruigingly unique “Sabbath Mode” A-okayed by kosher-certifying agency Star-K,the Sabbath Mode overrides most modern ranges’ integrated 12-hour automatic shut-off, enabling observant folks to keep food warm all day. The mode also puts a kibosh on tones and timer beeps, says ixnay to displaying icons and is unnoticeable to non-Jewish owners.

POGO! FLIPSTER PORTABLE AUDIO PLAYER $450 (£315) MP3 is sooo last week now that PoGo! has introduced the Flipster, the first fully portable MP4 player. Impersonating a flip phone, the $450 Flipster comes with 128MB of internal memory and has been designed to support SD/MMC cards (ever considerate, PoGo! promises future expansion is possible).The device can play CD-quality MP3,WMA and AAC digital music files, and display both Microsoft Windows Media videos (MP4) or high-resolution digital photographs on its LCD screen. Business peeps borrowing their kid’s Flipster will appreciate the device’s voice memo capability (and most likely the games that come bundled as well).

CORBIN MERLIN ROADSTER
Easily the slickest-looking street-legal vehicle to hit the road so far in 2002 is the Corbin Merlin Roadster. Coming in candy-apple red, tangerine, black or silver, the Merlin is a scissor-door one-seater, custom-built around a Harley-Davidson 88-cubic-inch, twin-cam-balanced, fuel-injected engine. With front-wheel direct drive and steering, and three-wheel disc brakes, the Merlin can hit over 100mph, and registers, insures and parks like a motorcycle. The car has a fully integrated dashboard, including an AM/FM stereo and CD player, and at only 117 inches long, manages 4.5 cubic feet of trunk space.

Have DVD recorders just got affordable? Well, almost, as Philips releases cheaper models to attract the masses

When Philips launched the UK’s first DVD recorder, the DVDR 1000 (73 65 5/5), we were cock-a-hoop.The only problem with this mighty piece of hardware was its £1,300 price tag. A little expensive for your average punter, even without considering the confusion surrounding the raging DVD format war. Weil, to address both these issues, Philips has launched two budget models, the DVDR 980 and 985. All right, so admittedly £800-£900 isn’t budget money, but, hey, it’s a start.These DVD+RW/DVD+R burners are running with the format F5 reckons will win out in the end,so you could do a lot worse than take the plunge. As you’d expect, you get the principal DVD recordable features (index navigation, recording on the next available disc space), but the DVDR 985 also offers iLink connection so you can record home movies from your camcorder. Both models are available now

Microsoft unveils the wireless LCD that’s at home in any room of the house

Is your home a temple to minimalism? Do you freak out at the sight of ugly  tangles of wires? Sorry, to hear it. Microsoft may just have had you in mind when it came up with its new home conceptJhe Mira is a portable LCD monitor that communicates with your PC over a wire-free network using the industry-standard Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) technology.
Named after the Spanish verb for”to look” the Philips,ViewSonic and Wyse 10.4-and 15-inch prototypes currently on show are good-looking, but what use they’ll be put to is another matter. Aubrey Edwards, Microsoft’s director of marketing believes the Mira will “free your PC’from the constraints of your desk, so you can pick up your email and surf the Web all from the comfort of your sofa.
Unfortunately the low transfer rate that Wi-Fi currently offers means it only works with low-end applications – and so that means, as yet, no DVD movies in the kitchen or Quake III on the toiletThis does prompt the obvious question; why not use your PDA or laptop? Microsoft argues that as Mira’s only power drain is its display,you’ll get 4-6 hours battery life, and its touchscreen conveniently pops-up a handy “fat fingers” virtual keyboard.
Whether we all go wireless monitor crazy or not, you can expect Mira in the shops by Christmas.

SONY CLIE PEG TB25C PDA
SHOWCASE SONY’S CUE HAS JUST HAD A SLINKY MAKEOVER. YOUR PDA LOVE AFFAIR STARTS HERE
Sony’s initial forays into the world of PDA were hardly inspiring, but can definitely be considered a sign that the company was on the right track. One year down the line, and it might have outdone itself with the latest PEG-T625C model. With its suggestive sinuous corners and wafer-thin form, this colour device is sophistication with an alluring wink, like the Nicole Kidman of the PDA kingdom. You definitely won’t be embarrassed to boldy whip this out on the train. Running off Palm OS 4.1 and showing off a 320 x 320-pixel backlit TFT LCD screen (boasting 65,536 colours), the T625C packs 16MB of memory that can be supplemented with an extra 128MB via the Memory Stick slot. As expected, you get all the usual PDA capabilities, but this Clie is undoubtedly the sexiest handheld on the planet. By the time you read this, the PEG-T625C will be available to lust over.

European gamers finally get their hands on Xbox, while Gamecube prepares for launch of its own
Prepare yourself for gaming nirvana. By early May, there’ll be three next-generation games consoles duking it out for your attention. Microsoft’s Xbox launch went off smoothly in the early hours of 14 March, while Nintendo is preparing for the UK launch of its GameCube console on 3 May.
Xbox’s launch at Virgin Megastore in Oxford Street was a glitzy affair, with a smattering of celebs including Jonathan Ross,Mis-Teeq and Johnny Vegas. Well, we did say smattering. Elsewhere, retailers saw the pre-midnight queues that are now an essential part of any new console launch.
Xbox itself has been flying off the shelves, with launch titles including Halo, Project Gotham Racing, Dead or Alive 3 and Jet Set Radio Future.lhere was also considerable demand for Microsoft’s DVD accessory kit, which for an extra £30 enables you to play DVDs.
There were 20 games available on launch day. Microsoft kept up the hype during launch week, even putting out a press release alleging Britney Spears’split with Justin Timberlake was down to his addiction to Xbox.Yeah, right.
Microsoft has already responded to criticism of its bulky controllers by announcing that the smaller Japanese version will be making it over here, under the name of Xbox Controller S. Besides being more comfortable to use, its buttons have been moved around to make them easier to reach, and the trigger springs are stronger. Expect to see them on sale in the UK imminently.
Meanwhile, Nintendo is readying itself for GameCube’s European launch on 3 May, with 500,000 consoles expected to be available on day one, and a further 500,000 for the rest of the
launch period.The consoles will be available in purple and black, while the controllers will come in purple, black and a purple-and-clear combination.
You’ll be able to get your hands on more than 20 games on the first day, with 30 more following before the summer. Launch titles include Wave Race, B\ue Storm, Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, Super Monkey Ball and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.
Finally, Nintendo has also launched a slinky new black version of Game Boy Advance, while from 3 June, US gamers will be able to buy a limited-edition platinum-coloured version, which is being released to tie in with the handheld’s first anniversary.

CANON POWERSHOT A40
Following hot on the heels of last year’s Powershot A10 and A20, is the Powershot A40, a beginner’s camera with enough features to satisfy a professional photographer. Equipped with an 8MB CompactFlash Card, the A40 is capable of snapping a clean two megapixels (just high enough for decent print-outs at the average 35mm film size of 6 x 4 ins). Detailed images and colour should also be guaranteed due to Canon’s Imaging Engine system, and the A40 also sports a respectable 3x optical zoom lens to boot. And when you’ve stopped pretending to be Robert Capa, you can take short sound-filled movies with the A40 as well.

CANON NETWORK CAMERA VB-C10
If you’re gagging for the third series of  Big Brother, you’re going to love this. Combining a camera with a built-in server, the natty VB-C10 enables you to transmit live images over your Local Area Network (LAN) or the Internet As the VB-C10 uses Motion-JPEG data compression, you can capture footage at anything from 0.1 frames per second to an impressive 30 per second (your local cinema only uses 24). The real joy of Canon’s Network Cam is it uses existing Internet protocols to communicate, so you can control pan, tilt and zoom from any Web browser in the world. Just invite your mates to an anonymous house in East London and you’re away.

PANASONIC DVD-R32EBS DVD PLAYER

The company’s new entry-level DVD comes with a slew of features designed to make the most of your movie-watching, including a 27MHz/10-bit video digital to analogue converter (DAC) and a 4:3 Zoom function which practically eliminates the black bars you get on top and bottom of the screen on square shaped TVs. The sound side of the equation hasn’t been neglected either with twin laser pickups and a 192kHz/24-bit audio DAC promising improved sound quality from your DVDs and CDs. Plus the DVD-R32EBS can handle MP3-encoded discs. As an added bonus for hardcore movie fans, Panasonic has also thrown in a Dialogue Enhancer that boosts sound signals from the centre channel speaker in an AV setup so you can more easily understand what your favourite actors are actually talking about.

FUJITSU SIEMENS POCKET LOOX

Slimline, high-powered, and with Bluetooth built-in. What more could you ask for in a PDA? Well, Fujitsu Siemens figure a GPRS plug-in module (coming this August for European users), a Compact Flash type II and SD/MMC card slot plus a 240 x 320 screen capable of displaying over 65,000 colours. Its the fastest PDA we’ve seen, powered by Intel’s new XScale processor which runs at 400MHz. Being Pocket PC 2002-based, the LOOX is not only ideal for syncing with Outlook but comes complete with Pocket Word and Pocket Excel too.

NOKIA 7210

THE 7210 IS THE LATEST IN A LONG LINE OF MOUTH-WATERING HANDSETS FROM THE NORDIC GIANTS

Style over functionality seems to be de rigueur with mobile phone manufacturers.  Take Motorola’s swoonsome V70, for example. This handset, with its swish swivel-cover action and white-on-black LCD screen, is a poser’s dream. Admittedly, it’s awkward to use, but who cares when it looks that stylish? Well, not to be outdone, Nokia has rolled up with an adversary, the tri-band 7210. Unmistakably Nokia, this handset may not eschew the phone blueprint as much as the V70, but it still stands out from the mobile hoi polloi. Ditching the uniform keypad format and glistening with translucent trimmings, the GPRS 7210 flaunts a 4,096-colour display and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) capabilities, enabling you to send combined text, graphic and image content to your friends on compatible phones. Supporting the Java 2 platform, the phone also enables you to download games via WAP, while the built-in FM radio provides the toe-tapping tunes. The 7210 five-continent globetrotter is available around July, and will be reviewed in T3 imminently.

It’s also dead easy to use and will lovingly serve you up a perfect cappuccino or espresso again and again and again. And, more to the point, you can call the cup whatever you damn well like. What the Zippo is to lighters, the Dualit is to toasters: fci a design classic, an icon, a touch of class, a retro 50s pieo of kitchen kit that’ll never go out of fashion. Yes, for a toaster, it’s pricey, but it’s something everyone else will coo over forever, and it makes the toast too.The squat Dualit is of a solid, chunky build, with three settings and a reassuring timer that buzzes its way down through the minutes to finish with a satisfying click. Available in two- or four-slice options, the super-wide slots are spring-loaded, and the pressure-sensitive cage can adjust to the shape and size of any slice of breakeven baguettes.The toaster’s ProHeat element comes with a two-year guarantee.

And, what’s more, it’s easy to clean. Bonus! Circumnavigate annoying queues for coffee – in shops staffed by the terminally bewildered, as you impatiently wait to be served up an overpriced coffee in a cup with a daft, pretentious name such as Grande or Verde – by cutting out the middleman and doing it yourself at home.This Gaggia espresso coffee-maker has a 1,425W boiler, a powerful 12-bar-rated pump, a turbo steam frother,a removable side-loading reservoir together with a hard-wearing brass filter-holder.

Hectic lifestyles demand shortcuts, and this applies to cooking.The advent of the microwave was a godsend to anyone who hasn’t got the time to do anything other than lob their dinner into a box and wait the ten or so minutes until it goes’ping’.  The Samsung CK-99FS is an especially solid-looking stainless-steel, no-nonsense affair, with easy-to-use controls, six power levels, a very generous 0.9-cubic-foot capacity, a 1,300W grill, a 1,700W convection oven and a contemporary design. It’s perfect for ready-made meals, big dinners and yesterday’s leftovers a like.

As well as voice synthesis, the SDR-4X also expresses emotion through an advanced range of fluid movements
in its body. Not just a walker and talker, it can sing and dance according to the different music and lyrics programmed into its software.
More functional uses for the robot have not been detailed by Sony, who is tight-lipped about a release date for a consumer model, only suggesting that one will be available before the end of the year. Rumour has it, however, that the SDR-4X will not come cheap: early estimates are it could cost as much as a luxury car.

You’ll also be able to program the biped to move around as you see fit, by hooking it up to a PC over a wireless link. Even if our mechanical friend takes a tumble, don’t worry, it possesses the mobility to stand up again.
Using image and voice recognition to respond to people’s faces and voices, it can also recognise up to ten different individuals through front facial image capture, even against complex backgrounds.This is achieved by using seven microphones placed inside the robot’s head to locate a sound source and recognise individual speech and tone.

The SDR-4X is sensor loaded and operates using 38 independently moving joints fed information from the unit’s real-time control system. One of the key features Sony boasts about is the robot’s ability to sense variations in the surface it’s walking on and adjust its walking pattern accordingly.The robot’s not only capable of achieving a stable and flexible walking pattern, but can also assess its course over varying terrain and navigate objects, such as stairs, in its path.

Even if no one calls, you’ll look incredibly stylish and popular with the new Nokia 8270 CDMA fashion phone. Weighing just three ounces, the . phone comes with user-changeable Xpress-on colour covers (in orange, green, silver, white and magenta) and is the first Nokia in the American market with the signature bright blue backlight. Additional highlights include the ever-present customisable ringtone (with a special feature for individual identification tones), a standard 750mAh lithium-ion battery, a phonebook with up to 250 entries, an alarm clock and a calendar. Nokia has also thoughtfully included a built-in mini-browser with Internet connectivity and two-way mobile text messaging.

Unfortunately the low transfer rate that Wi-Fi currently offers means it only works with low-end applications – and so that means, as yet, no DVD movies in the kitchen or Quake III on the toiletThis does prompt the obvious question; why not use your PDA or laptop? Microsoft argues that as Mira’s only power drain is its display,you’ll get 4-6 hours battery life, and its touchscreen conveniently pops-up a handy “fat fingers” virtual keyboard.
Whether we all go wireless monitor crazy or not, you can expect Mira in the shops by Christmas.

Named after the Spanish verb for”to look” the Philips,ViewSonic and Wyse 10.4-and 15-inch prototypes currently on show are good-looking, but what use they’ll be put to is another matter. Aubrey Edwards, Microsoft’s director of marketing believes the Mira will “free your PC’ from the constraints of your desk, so you can pick up your email and surf the Web all from the comfort of your sofa.

Is your home a temple to minimalism? Do you freak out at the sight of ugly
tangles of wires? Sorry, to hear it. Microsoft may just have had you in mind when it came up with its new home conceptJhe Mira is a portable LCD monitor that communicates with your PC over a wire-free network using the industry-standard Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) technology.

In its guise as a tray-loading DVD player, the H40 also shapes up, and the inclusion of progressive scanning will guarantee decent image quality. Compatibility-wise, it’s impressive if not utterly comprehensive, with support for standard DVDs and DVD-R plus CDs and CD-RWs packed with MP3s.

The H40’s low-slung dimensions measure up at 430 x 70 x 370mm, and it weighs a lithe 4.5kg. If the undoubted money-saving and operational benefits of this DVD/PVR hybrid catch on, then Samsung may well be conveniently placed at the forefront of a whole new breed of home digital recorders.The DVD-H40 will be in the shops in May.

Samsung nave musded ¡n on the home recording marketwith a sleek all-in-one DVD player and 40GB hard disk recorder. For anyone looking to make the inevitable digital upgrade from VHS,this £699 hybrid does away with the more expensive option of buying a sepárate DVD player and personal video recorder (PVR).

As a digital recorder, the DVD-H40 holds 40 hours of low-qualityTV,a figure thatfallsto eight hours on the high-quality setting.Still more than enough to record, in tortuously pin-sharp style, England getting knocked out in the first group stage of the World Cup fináis in Japan.You’ll also be able to stash MP3s and digital images on the 40GB hard disk.

The VW Camper Van, vehicle of choice for surfers, and hemp shirt-wearing travellers the world over, has been given a makeover and a change of name. Enthusiasts can pay their respects to the all-new VW Microbus at Volkswagen’s impressively swish site. A movie shows off the Microbus’s new curves and illustrates the additional gizmos; such as a rear-view video camera, mounted above the license plate, that relays pictures back to a screen in the central roof console. And they’ve upgraded the original’s wheezy engine to a 230-horsepower V6 beast. Is nothing sacred? • For more concept cars turn to page 68.

Shutterbugs will be thrilled by Canon’s new six-megapixel digital camera. The D60 is based around the same design principles as its predecessor, the D30, but includes a raft of improvements. Its resolution has been increased by 100 per cent, and it has an upgraded 1.8-inch LCD monitor on the back. It can shoot three frames a second for a burst of eight frames, and has features to give better image quality in difficult shooting conditions. You store images on the 128MB CompactFlash card that’s supplied. All this in a lightweight yet strong cover and stainless steel chassis. You get the picture. Well, you will.

The 42-inch 16:9 CMP4121 is certainly versatile, handling both computer and video applications. Its native resolution is 1,024 x 1,024 pixels, but it can go as high as UXGA (1,600 x 1,200). Meanwhile, it can display video up to HDTV standards. There’s a variety of video and computer inputs, and a built-in 8W stereo amplifier for audiophiles. Worried about it burning out too quickly? Well, don’t. Hitachi is touting a bunch of screensavingtechniques, and promising a lifespan “16 times” that of normal produets. The display uses cutting-edge ALIS (Altérnate Lighting of Surfaces) plasma panels, and has a healthy contrast ratio of 700:1. All this, yet an overall depth of less than 9cm.

Those in the know say that one day, pretty much every household appliance will be connected to the Internet in some way. We’ve had Net-enabled fridges, washing machines and microwaves… now make way for a piano. Roland’s HPi-5 is the first digital piano to enable you to download music from the Internet and see the notes appear on its built-in screen. What’s more, its Digi-score technology can produce an on-screen musical score based on the notes you play. Don’tworry if you’re a novice key-tinkler: there’s even a video game-style “guess the notes” tutorial and – oh yes – an on-screen bouncing ball to keep your tempo in check. There’s also more advanced recording and playback features for all the budding Mozarts among you.

This is a beast of a player, clocking in at a whopping i8.5kg in weight. The specs are equally heavyweight too. There’s a digital output for stereo 24/192 and six-channel 24/96 audio, and it has what Denon describes as “the latest state-of-the-art chippery” throughout. For audio, it uses eight 24-bit 192kHz audio DACs, and additional HDCD decoding for CDs. If you’re playing DVD-Audio discs, there’s flexible bass management too. Meanwhile, for video output, it uses Denon’s cutting-edge sean circuitry, and twin 14-bk 108MHz video DACs with Noise Shaped Video – one for progressive sean, and one for standard ¡nterlaced video.

We’ve got a fruity feeling for this new subwoofer from Tannoy, with its long-throw heavy-duty cast chassis and American cherry finish with a polished alloy trim. It’s not just a looks thing, though. Its continuous output power shapes up at 200W RMS, while its peak output power is a healthy 400W. The dimensions are 522 x 805 x 5iomm, and it weighs in at 42kg.

From the latest batch of IBM’s
ThinkPad laptops, welcome the A3ip. It’s being pitched as a mobile workstation, theoretically giving you the power of a heavyweight PC in the form of a laptop. Its basic specs are impressive, with 256MB of memory as standard, ATI Mobility FireCL 7800 graphics wizardry and a 15-mch UXGA FlexView display. The wireless functionality is a big selling point too. This A3ip model is one of the first IBM laptops to support both Bluetooth and the 802.11b standard. Perfect for tapping away in the comfort of your backgarden, in other words.

While the world dribbled over the new ¡Mac’s fíat screen, Apple had another surprise up its sleeve: this new Cinema HD Display. All right, so it’s really aimed at creative types using it for their work, but ¡s still sexy enough to tempt the rest of us. It’s less than two ¡nches thick and has a wide-format display with a 16:10 aspect ratio. It has support for 16.7 million colours and a 160-degree viewing angle, and runs its digital video signal, USB data and power through a single cable. Far less clutter, and a lot more style. Why should designers have all the fun? Surely your desk is crying out forone ofthese.

With the ability to send email and SMS text messages, surf the Internet and playgames, it really is the ultimate in home communication. Developed in collaboration with one of the world’s leading telecom service providers, and manufactured with onlyAmstrad’s know-how, it offers the most cost-effective and easy way to stay in touch with friends and family.

ViewSonic’s go-anywhere tablet PC was announced at this year’s CeBIT computer fair in Hannover,Germany.The ViewPad 1000 is a fully functional PQrunning Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional and based on an Intel Celeron 800MHz processor with 128MB of RAM and a 10GB hard drive, but what makes it unique is the touchscreen functionality and the complete absence of a keyboard (though a wireless keyboard can be bought separately). Its networking capabilities are impressive:it has built-in WAN and LAN support,and it can connect to other PCs and devices wirelessly, using Wi-Fi networking.The machine,

Unique 3x optical zoom lens.
This revolutionary system employs a high-precision prism behind the first lens element to refract light through 90° downwards onto the CCD. So the lens moves up and down, not in and out.

2 million pixels.
2-megapixel CCD plus Minolta’s optical excellence, enhanced by the latest image processing technology means A4 prints can now be made with confidence.

The oldest hi-fi company ¡n Japan – Denon – ¡s to merge with rival j Marantz in a move that’s sure to mean a big shake-up for both
companies ¡n their homeland.The newly formed merger company, called D&M Holdings, will still produce both Denon and Marantz AV and hi-fi gear, for both brands will continué to exist, but they’ll now share research and development resources in Japan. What does this mean for us? Well, probably not a lot in terms of the amount of equipment out there to buy, though we should see quality improvements in both Denon’s hi-fi components and Marantz’s AV kit as they share experience and knowledge.D&M Holdings hasn’t announced any redundancies as a result of the merger.

Panasonic have thought of everything with this set: therearethree Sea rts and four phono outputs, as well as Pro Logic and Digital Theatre Surround. Youalso getarangeof picture in picture options.  Our recent group test of widescreens {T3 67) rated theTX32PB50topofthe pile: ¡t delivers excellent visuals and is jam-packed with connection options, including digital inputs. It’sa truly versatile choice.

Someso-called fíat screens are merely less curved,butthe32DX100’s useof Sony’s WEGA technology actually means the screen is so fíat your eyes are fooled into thinking it’s concave. The set is as well specified asyou’dexpectjncluding the provisión of three Scart points,even if some áreas, such as sound,fallshort. It’s the awesome screen and picture, though, that’ll swing your vote.

Notevery32 inch widescreen has to cost overa grand, as this Hitachi model proves. Despite the price,features such as Pro Logic surround and phono output sockets areincluded. The difference between this model and costlier alternatives is obvious -there are only two Scart sockets, for example.The set can prove potent when combined with a decent sound system,though.

With threeScarts,five surround speakers and a 100Hz picture,this set comfortably delivers all the basicsyou’dexpect, plusafewbonusessuch assplit-screen viewing of two channels. The AV32P10can’t match the sumptuous visuals of setsfrom Panasonic or Sony, and sound support is limited to Dolby Digital, but it’s an agreeable option if you need to keep the budgetdown.

This set is ready to go out of the box, with two pairs of surround speakers to exploit the Dolby Digital and Pro Logic options. There are three Scart sockets, plus the option of component video input. The32ZP18isagood,but not exceptional, model that won’t cause many complaints. Aesthetes will love the super-slim frame, which means the set doesn’t dominate your room like others can.

You get the impression Philips has all the bases covered herewith a solid 100Hz image and superb sound,thankstosix speakers combining to offer 75W output, plus Dolby Pro Logic surround. Compelling picture and sound aside, this model is thoughtfully configured for digital TV, with digital reception, a smart-card slotforpayTVandevena built-in modem all part of the package.

All these models offer multiple Scart sockets for pure images. Look out for extra connection options, such as phono outputs. Some models offer Dolby Surround, but the option is redundant if you prefer to take your audio through your hi-fi or home cinema system.

If your TV viewing is dominated by DVD movies and digital broadcasts, a widescreen TV is a must-have, its proportions ideal for letterbox visuals. While 24- and 28-inch screens are cheaper, 32-inchers undoubtedly mark the point between just having a great TV and creating a home cinema.

Also impressive in the looks department is the SC-DM3.This slim and slinky one-box Micro DVD AV system can be stacked either horizontally or vertically, again offers Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic and DTS decoding, a sub/sat speaker system and an integral amp capable of delivering 200W power output. The SC-DM3 is available in June.
The final piece of the AV puzzle arrives in the shape of the SA-XR10 home cinema receiver. Designed to partner the DVD-XV10 DVD player (reviewed on page 112), this 55mm high box of tricks uses digital tech to deliver 100W into all five AV channels and comes with Dolby Digital

Now that Matsushita, parent company to Panasonic, has effectively called time on its Technic brand (the company hasn’t launched any new products with the name for two years), the company is refocussing its AV effort with a range of new products bearing the Panasonic monicker.
Heading up its 2002 home cinema assault is the incredibly stylish SC-DT300 Micro DVD Audio Home Cinema System. Offered complete with a full mirror finish fascia, the DT300 boasts built-in Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro-Logic and DTS decoders while the supplied sub/sat speaker system handles the 50W per channel output from the built-in amp.

Both cameras have LCD screens and are available now.
The company has been busy and also rolled out a range of eight new MiniDV camcorders to accompany its still camera offerings. Pick of the pile is the NV-MX350 which comes with 3 x 570k CCDs for superior imaging, and a 10x optical Leica Dicomar Zoom lens. Prices will be announced imminently.
Other Panasonic goodies include an SD memory card slot, USB and DV-in/out sockets so you can copy your still pics and movies to your PC for editing. Bluetooth adaptability and the ability to send MPEG4 Video Mail movies complete the picture.

You’ve been able to take digital pictures with some Panasonic camcorders for quite some time, but now the company’s gone the full ten yards and has launched four dedicated stills cameras.
The best by far are the two 4-megapixel models, the DMC-LC5B and DMC-LC40B. Both offer Leica 3x optical zoom lenses, with images stored on tiny Secure Digital (SD) memory cards. Each camera in the range also enables you to shoot short Motion JPEG movies or take rapid-fire still images using the Burst mode.

This handset, with its swish swivel-cover action and white on black LCD screen, is a poser’s dream. Admittedly, it’s awkward to use, but who cares when it looks that stylish? Well, not to be outdone, Nokia has rolled up with an adversary, the tri-band 7210. Unmistakably Nokia, this handset may not eschew the phone blueprint as much as the V70, but it still stands out from the mobile hoi polloi.

Our after sales support services are designed to make your John Lewis experience even more positive. For example, the availability of installation professionals to help you set up your Apple and the free delivery service that saves you the hassle of carrying your purchases home yourself. Apple trained

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That is why we ensure that our sales staff are fully trained by Apple on an ongoing basis, so you can rest assured that you will get the best product to suit your needs.

John Lewis department stores not only stock the award-winning Apple iBook, iMac and G4 series, but in fact you can buy any Apple product in our shops, including a wide range of monitors, printers, scanners and other accessories. As well as the John Lewis reputation for quality and value to give you peace of mind, we offer a free 2-year guarantee with every Apple computer as standard!

The new iMac is designed around a stunning, adjustable 15-inch LCD flat screen that’s bright, sharp, easy on the eyes and can be effortlessly controlled at the touch of a finger. You have a choice of three new iMac models: the 8OOMH2 iMac with DVD-R/CD-RW SuperDrive, the 700MHz iMac with DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo drive or the 700MHz iMac with CD-RW drive. All models ship with the fearsomely-fast NVIDIA GeForce2 MX graphics processing unit for photorealistic games and spectacular 3D graphics.

According to the companies involved, the format had been agreed to avoid the debacle we’re seeing with recordable DVD formats. Sadly nothing’s as simple as it seems, and when you scratch beneath the surface you discover not everyone buys into the format. Complicating matters further, the DVD Forum (which oversees the recordable DVD format) is also looking into developing red laser for the next-generation replacement for DVD – not blue laser.

Welcome to our blue laser issue. Scientists have been trying to create blue laser disc players for years, but the first prototype wasn’t demoed until 2000 at a Japanese trade show.
Westerners caught first glimpse of blue laser at CES in 2001.Then in January 2002, as reported in our February issue, prototype players were demonstrated from five leading manufacturers.
So what’s new? Well, blue laser hit the headlines in the press in February when the Blu-ray Disc consortium announced a replacement for DVD and agreed a format.This was the first time the public was introduced to blue laser and its consequences for traditional DVD.

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While platform choices have definitely gotten a bit more cut and dried over the course of the past year and a half, it’s still not an easy decision to make. You still have to consider how much the machine conforms to your concept of “ideal” when you purchase it.  such as how easy it is to perform any upgrades you might want down the road (particularly hard drives, disc burners and memory), whether all the ports you need are present, and so on.

The second issue is that Apple World would rather sell you their hardware to run their software. Apple enforces this with a somewhat controversial technology called TPM, or Trusted Platform Module. This is a chip on the Macs logic board that must be present in order to use Mac OS X.

Intel Macs (and a few high-end workstations and servers) use EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface), a newer type of firmware. Mac OS X can’t deal with BIOS, and 32-bit versions of Windows don’t know how to work with EFI, though 64-bit versions do. (This is one of the functions of Boot Camp—providing a bridge for booting into Windows.)

Doesn’t Work That Way So. you ask. since I could boot my Mac into Windows, why can’t I boot my Windows box into Mac OS? Two problems: first off. an Intel-based Mac uses a different type of firmware. Practically all PCs in the wild use BIOS (Basic Input/Output System), a type of firmware which has existed since the original (circa 1981) IBM PC.

Apple hardware has historically commanded a premium price (though that seems less the case now), and Apple’s pricing policies make it unlikely that the prices between retailers will be much different. However, the standardization of Apple SKUs also makes it easy to find a machine you like on Apple’s Web site and buy it at your local dealer or an online shop. Compare this to the wildly-differing prices and specs you’ll find for other manufacturers’ hardware, which can make comparison shopping for pre-configured systems somewhere between very difficult and nigh impossible.

However, it’s notable that Dell is again offering Windows XP for sale with certain systems as a result of customer demand. Windows Vista does have its charms, though—the Aero Glass interface is indisputably beautiful to look at. and Vista will probably become the most mainstream path to 64-bit computing. (You can. indeed, get 64-bit versions of Vista now. but unless signed 64-bit drivers are available for all of your hardware and all of your software, including installers, is either 32- or 64-bit. the 64-bit version of Vista won’t help you much today.)

The other tools allow Windows applications to run alongside Mac applications. On the PC side, the choice of Windows XP and Windows Vista also figures into the equation. We are not yet comfortable recommending Windows Vista at this point, but Microsoft is working more kinks out of that operating system every day.

Luckily, the question of which platform to buy into is now easier to approach, as a result of Apple’s recent shift to Intel processors. This allows you to use Mac OS, Windows or Linux on the Mac. when used with software like Apple’s Boot Camp beta. VMware Fusion, or SWsoft’s Parallels Desktop (among others; this is not a complete list). Boot Camp operates as a simple boot manager, giving you the choice of operating systems upon boot.

The question of “Mac vs. PC” has started holy wars on computer forums. It also led to the notion of platform bigotry, the condition where people are so gung-ho about their platform of choice that they actively disparage anyone who doesn’t use it. (This also causes certain users to blindly accuse publications of being biased against a certain platform, even though four out of five current Vldeomaker editors happen to be invested in both platforms.)

Don’t forget there are other tools in your editing software. EQ and other filters can make your edit punchy and loud or thin and grungy – it’s your choice. If the project needs a 30-second edit and your cut is 31 seconds, just apply some time compression to squeeze it to the exact length. Export the finished product as a 16-bit 48kHz wav file, and import to the video project. Music editing is a powerful tool that allows you to re-purpose your music library, creating new arrangements and extending the life of your investment. Oh yeah, it’s fun too!

Depending on your software, it may be easier to save each segment as a separate file, before you start to assemble the puzzle. You can also create loops as bed music. A simple example is to identify a verse and chorus and save this section as a file. Playing this as a loop – or stacking copies end to end on the timeline – will create an endless run of music that’s perfect as an underscore for interviews or scenes with lots of dialog.

Basic editing is simply removing musical chunks you don’t want or need. Start by moving your cursor to the beginning of a section and highlighting one or more sections. Delete the highlighted area and play the remaining audio. If it flows well across the edit, you’ve made a great cut. If not, undo your edit, decide what’s missing and try again, using different segments or starting points, as with video editing. Advanced editing includes mixing and matching different combinations of segments.

It’s easy to encode MP3s, and short cuts can be emailed to clients for approval. With a media player, they can use the time counter to reference any changes. If you have a Web site, consider building an exclusive media page for clients, where you can upload their materials and send them a link. They can preview from anywhere, and you’ll look every bit the professional.

So far, this has been pretty easy. Now the fun starts. So, what kind of edit do you need? Thematic opens and closes are relatively short, but they don’t have specific length requirements. Broadcast-length cuts must be exact and may take some serious massaging. Musical beds and loops should. When you’re collaborating on a project or working for a fussy client, it can be difficult and time-consuming to get approval for audio edits. Rather than burn and deliver a CD of every cut, why not leverage the Internet?

Once this is done, you should be able to go to any of your markers, push the Play button and hear a clean musical start to the section. If it doesn’t sound right, zoom in and fine tune your markers until you find the perfect groove. Listen through each section by itself as you think about how you want your edit to sound. Some sections will have a lighter feel, while others may be more aggressive. The first verse and chorus may be sparse compared to later versions. Make lots of notes – mental or otherwise – and then go through it again. You need to know the piece inside and out before doing the final edit.

This is easy for those with musical training. The rest of us have to listen harder. If your software supports markers, it’s easy to play through the piece and set a marker at each transition. To find the exact starting point, zoom into the region until you find a recognizable drumbeat or other visual clue. Kick drums on the downbeat of measures are perfect places to set markers. If there are no markers in your software, set the cursor at the section starting point and write down the timecode, giving it a simple name like Verse 1 or Chorus 2.

Buyout music is the obvious choice for most video projects. There are no copyright issues and plenty of variety, and most vendors offer full- and broadcast-length edits of each piece. But what if the supplied versions don’t suit your project? Thai’s where music editing comes in. Most popular music uses standard verse/chorus/bridge structure, and instrumental music is no exception. Forget that there are no lyrics, and listen closely to the music. You’ll hear repeating sections, themes and hooks. Your first step is to identify and mark the beginning and end of each.

Audacity is excellent freeware that offers all the basic editing tools and runs on Windows. Mac and even Linux. Those using Nero to burn discs will find Nero Wave Edit in their toolkits. It takes a slightly different approach to some tasks, but it is more than enough for most music editing. With some practice, you can create perfect edits with any of these products, so find some music, load up the editor and let’s get started.

Audition is your tool of choice. Sony users will probably want Sound Forge. The Avid crowd will naturally gravitate toward ProTools. Those with Macs might look at Bias Peak. If you don’t have a dedicated audio editing program, there are some free alternatives.

You can do some amazing things in your NLE. but music editing is best left to dedicated audio editing software. If you use Adobe products. Audition is your tool of choice. Sony users will probably want Sound Forge. The Avid crowd will naturally gravitate toward ProTools. Those with Macs might look at Bias Peak. If you don’t have a dedicated audio editing program, there are some free alternatives. Audacity is excellent freeware that offers all the basic editing tools and runs on Windows.

I’ve mentioned this before, but back in ancient times, we actually edited audio with razor blades and sticky tape. It took a good eye. a good ear and mountains of patience. Today, digital recording and editing make the process seem like child’s play. Back in the day. if you made a mistake, you had to start all over Today, fixing an error is just an Undo click away. You can even fix something from 30 minutes ago. so no whining about the level of difficulty.

Carving up a music piece can give it new life. You can add bits to other bits to form an entirely new creation. You can define sections to create never ending loops. Or maybe you just need a different length or feel in the piece. Music editing can do all this and much more.

Video distribution was a grim prospect ten years ago. Today there almost seem to be too many choices. As long as you know your limitations and you have the patience for some experimentation, you should be able to get pleasing results. The following question remains, though: where will video be viewed ten years from now? We really wish we could answer that, but, sadly, we left our crystal ball out in the rain

You can burn any type of file to DVD or CD for file transfer or back-up. but it most likely won’t play on a set-top player. VCDs are considered below-VHS quality and never really caught on in the States; with the low cost of blank DVD media, they most likely never will. Another consideration is bit rate. Though video bit rate on a DVD can be set as high as 9.8Mbps (without audio), pushing it above 8.5 might be asking for trouble with some players.

We’re not going to spend too much time here, as many of you already know how to encode for these technologies. (To find more specific articles, type “DVD authoring” in Vldeomakers Web search field.) Keep this in mind’, for a DVD to play in a set-top DVD player, the disc must be encoded in MPEG-2 (or DivX if your player will accept it).

Many programs can help you compress your video/audio into a 3GP or MP4 file for your cell phone, including QuickTime Pro, Sorenson’s Squeeze, Ñero Recode and Kinoma Producer. You can Google search for free programs as well, though remem-ber the general rule: you get what you pay for. Sorenson’s Squeeze may be more expensive than the rest of these options, but it gives you great control over your work and. in many ways, gives you better-looking and -sound-ing media.

With audio, music is the deciding factor. If your video is voice-only, you most likely could lower your sample rate to 22kHz, while music would be better at 32 or 44.1kHz. Lowering the bit rate can make your file smaller as well. Bit rate, or the number of bits per second of video, changes quality with different codecs. If you are using MP3 compression at 192kbps. your music will sound quite good. As far as music is concerned. 96kbps is low quality, and 320kbps is generally considered to sound exceptional. Again, this changes with the type of compression used, so you may want to experiment.

Shrinking your video resoluNext check your data rate options. With video, you will most notice the lowering of the data rate with fast movement. The more motion you have, the less you’ll want to drop the video data rate. If the program you are using has the ability to use 2-pass VBR (variable bit rate) encoding, you will benefit from the compressor’s ability to scan the media twice for better compression.

The most important setting to concern yourself with when compressing for a phone is the frame size and resolution. Many of the smart phones have a resolution of 320×320. such as most of the Treos. though some Blackberry devices have a resolution of 240×320. Many smaller videophones have a screen size of 176×144.

Cell phones play 3GP-compressed video. This technology uses MPEG-4 or MP4 compression. Many phones now play other MPEG-4 variations as well. If you promptly lost or disposed of your camera’s user’s manual, check your phone’s Web site, as most have PDF files of the user’s manual available for download.

A highly-dramatized compression scenario reveals some of the artifacts common to fast-moving objects in video. Notice the block edges of the car. Increasing the maximum bit rate will help reduce this effect.  Though the lines between cell phone.

PDA and MP3 player are getting blurrier and blurrier, there still are some considerations for compressing video for cell phones.

The Blackberry, the Treo and the Razor are the popular players on the cell phone/video market (and we’ll see what the Apple iPhone does to the tion to match your phone will shrink your file size and assure smooth playback.
Another way to get your file size smaller is with your frame rate, measured in frames per second (fps) and data rate, both with video and audio

There are even a few free compressors online that you can find with a simple Google search.
The one thing to keep in mind, especially if you are manually compressing video for a handheld, is the screen size of the player. The iPod and Zune are both 4:3 ratio at 320×240 pixels, while the PSP is 16:9 at a 480×272-pixel resolution.

IPod. PSP, Zune and many other handheld media devices primarily read video encoded with the H.264/AVC/MPEC.-4 Part 10 codec, more commonly known just as AVC or H.264. Many of these devices can read other MPEG-4 formats, as well as other codecs. It can take some time to encode H.264, but the finished results are excellent. You can accomplish this with most editing systems, as well as with QuickTime Pro, PSP Media Manager and products from companies such as Nero, Neuros and the PQ Computing Corporation.

What could be cooler than pulling a handheld media device like the iPod out of your pocket to show off one of your movies? Taking a nine-hour flight to Europe or twelve-hour flight to Asia? No problem, as you can put four to eight feature-length films on a 1GB memory card to watch on one of these small players (make sure your device accepts memory cards). You could also plug one of these portable players into a video projector to show your videos.

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing software client that can deliver any type of file to and from anywhere on the World Wide Web. Some filmmakers will distribute trailers or whole movies using BitTorrent. Many use this service to trade copyrighted material, which is illegal. Most people distributing movies via BitTorrent use DivX compression

YouTube and MetaCafe sidebars for compression suggestions). You can upload .wmv. .avi. .mov and mpg files to VouTube and MetaCafe from just about any camcorder, digital camera or cell phone (though members of the Vldeomaker community will probably edit them first). These Web sites then convert your video into an flv Flash file.

There have been great improvements in all aspects of Web video, from faster and cheaper computers to quicker connection options to better codecs (compressor/decompressor software) to Web sites that have invested millions of dollars in server space and bandwidth. YouTube is the obvious leader in online video. One of the obvious reasons for YouTube’s popularity is its ease of use.

Video outlets on the Internet seem endless. Not too long ago. it was a real challenge to compress video and audio for the World Wide Web. and. even if you did a good job. the viewers’ experience was not always great, due to their connection speed and/or the quality of their computers. There have been great improvements in all aspects of Web video, from faster and cheaper computers to quicker connection options to better codecs (compressor/decompressor software) to Web sites that have invested millions of dollars in server space and bandwidth.

QuickTime mov, Windows .avi or .mpg files are the most common formats today, and they work well within YouTube’s system. The YouTube Web site recommends using the MPEG-4 (DivX, Xvid) format at 320×240 resolution with MP3 audio.

A short decade later, a video that costs a bit more than the price of a Mini DV tape has many distribution options, from YouTube to the iTunes Music Store to cell phones and handheld media devices. But all of these outlets require different compression strategies. Let’s take a look.

Try your best to stay detached from the story and its characters, so that you can be an objective observer. Break the video down into its essential elements and enjoy the discoveries you will make as you enter the video classroom. If you or I made a video ten years ago. we would be extremely lucky if anyone other than our family and friends saw it. Television or a movie screen was the only outlet, and it would have cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars to get your work there.

The story, of course, is the ultimate point of study for any critical viewer. Does the story have a character you care about and who is in a situation that will be hard to get out of? Do the acting and direction work with the character and story, or do they seem at odds with each other, drawing attention to their craft instead of enhancing the story?

If the shot was computer generated, does it look real and does it fit seamlessly with the realaction sequences? Can you tell when the director is using a matte painting, a computer-generated background, a stunt double or a model? By carefully examining the film, you can begin your education in the world of special effects.

Effects and graphics are just a small portion of most films. Watch how the filmmaker used the opening credits to portray the mood of the pieces, as well as to give credit where credit is due. Pay close attention to any special effects, step through them frame by frame to see how they were shot and try to identify the technology behind them.

One of the toughest things to do in audio production is to create a three dimensional aural landscape that matches the level and tone of the audio with the physical space in which it is created. For example, a lav microphone placed on an actor that you see at a distance will sound very unnatural. Use a shotgun and place it at a distance from the actor, so that the voice matches the distance we see. These will not be equal. The microphone will be much closer to the actor than you might think. To practice mic placement, choose a favorite scene from a movie and try to duplicate the sound you hear.

Now watch the film with both audio and image present. Does the music work with [he image? Do the sound elements of dialog and effects sound natural in the aural landscape and match ihe physical landscape? Carefully watch the film to try to determine how the audio director miked the actors.

Unfortunately, new filmmakers often overlook audio. When studying films, listen to the audio without watching the picture. Does the audio convey the story and provide a sense of what is happening? Is the audio clean and consistent, and does it show good dynamic range? Are there any points where the audio is overmodulated and fuzzy? Is the dialog clear and concise?

A good editor hides the cuts in well-shot matched-action sequences, always cutting on motion and maintaining a smooth flow from shot to shot. This flow leads to a sense of continuity that makes the scene believable and the passage of time reasonable. Observe this flow and take its lessons to your next editing session.

Why did he or she choose to make the cut at that precise point? Has the editor hidden the cut in a well-designed matched-action sequence?
When watching a film sequence by sequence, shot by shot, you may be surprised by the number of cuts you find

The pace of edits, the placement of the cuts and the use of transitions are perhaps among the easiest and most valuable lessons you can learn by watching a classic film. Carefully watch the film frame by frame and see where the editor placed the cut between two shots. Could the editor have cut sooner or later?

Does the key light look like it is coming from a natural source in the scene, or is it a mysteriouslight? Carefully scrolling through the scene will answer these questions and show you the subtle changes the director made in the lighting when shooting closeups versus long shots. Lighting is a fine art that should enhance the production. Every time you watch a new film, the lighting lessons you find are invaluable in improving your lighting skills and design.

Lighting not only lets us see the action, it also helps set the mood, time and location of the scene. Observe how the Director of Photography or director chose to light the scene. Do the shadows and light enhance the scene, or are there distracting dark or bright spots? Is the color balance of the light appropriate for the scene?

When you want your talent to appear to sound far from the camera (such as in a wide shot), switch the lavalier mic (top image) for a boom mic (bottom) with a few feet of distance between the mic and talent.

Finally, did the director maintain good screen direction and continuity in images? Screen direction is very important; it allows your audience to follow the action without getting lost. Following the 180 Degree Rule and maintaining a good sense of time and continuity enable your audience to become part of the action and immerse themselves in the film experience.

You would not want to shoot a soft love scene with very shaky, fast moving handheld camera, and you definitely would not shoot a subjective viewpoint shot of people running for their life through the woods with a slow-moving camera mounted on a dolly.
Take a serious look at the composition of the shot. Did the shooter use the rule of thirds? Is there plenty of look space and walk space? Are the shot sizes appropriate for the level of involvement and emotion? A lot of new directors and shooters forget shot size when shooting a project. Always remember that the more emotional attachment you want in the scene, the tighter the shot. Wide shots are less emotional and more objective than tight shots.

When looking at the film’s camerawork, you have to become aware of the shooting of the different scenes. Was the scene shot handheld or Steadicam. on tripod or dolly? Ask yourself why the director chose that particular type of camera support. Did the camera movement match the style and tone of the scene, or was it distracting? Camera movement adds depth and flow to a scene, but if the movement is at the wrong pace or time or in the wrong style, it can be very distracting.

Throughout the process, they discuss and critique the director’s choices. You can use the same format to critically review a film. You might also add elements such as visual design, acting and overall directing techniques. Let’s take a look at each of these elements.

Soon, you will be able to do both at the same time, though it does tend to reduce your overall enjoyment of the film.
When you watch the film a second time to study it.  Directors work to get the right pacing for different parts of the movie. Take notes on shot and scene lengths to see how pacing helps move the story along.

Finding the answer pulls you away from your primary task, which is to study the various aspects of the film, so that you may grow in your own filmmaking. There is a very easy solution, though somewhat time-consuming: watch the film twice, once for enjoyment and once for study.

To really give a film your total critical attention, you have to distance yourself and become a totally objective viewer. This can be difficult to do. especially if the film is well done and pulls you into the story with characters that you begin to care about, thrust into a situation that seems insurmountable. Will they escape? Will they fall in love?

All good directors are students of film. They devour film, looking at the way their peers chose to present the script – their shot choice, transitions, music and form. To get the most out of watching films and glean new ways of shooting scenes and presenting ideas, you have to start with the basic elements that make up any film or video production. In this column, we will look at these various elements and provide a simple guide that you can use to begin your journey into the film classroom.

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Break yourself of the habit of putting the camera at eye level. Your eyes are stuck at the top of your body, but your camera isn’t. Today’s lightweight and inexpensive camcorders can go places that cameras of only a few years ago couldn’t go without very expensive equipment and oftentimes large crews of people.
By considering a scene from many angles when you first sec it and thinking of innovative and unusual ways to show things to your audience, you’ll engage and entertain them while telling your story.

“Hidden camera” shots by undercover journalists often use cameras placed inside purses or boxes to catch people unaware. Allen Funt made a career with Candid Camera by hiding cameras in plants or in coat closets and playing practical jokes on people.
You Tube and a spate of new reality TV shows have taken this a step further (very often taking an unabashed leap from the realm of questionable to complete bad taste). Spying on people while putting them into increasingly unbelievable situations has become de rigueur at this point. But you can also put your camera in a paper bag and rattle it for a first-hand account of the last thing a mouse sees as your cat charges across the floor to attack.

This added an element of excitement, digital cameras,  as the audience wondered which of those tasty swimmers would be eaten. It also allowed him to show that the shark was in the scene without actually showing it, which he didn’t want to do. not only for budgetary reasons, but also to keep the viewers in suspense.

We sometimes call a point-of-view shot a “first-person shot” or abbreviate it as “POV.” It is the camera shot we see very often in home videos, where the camera operator is holding the camera at eye level and walking about But you can also effectively use POV shots to show what the Sasquatch sees as it creeps through the quiet camp at night.
Steven Spielberg used POV shots effectively in aws to show us what the shark was seeing.

As camcorders have become smaller, cranes and jibs have become more affordable. Crane shots are more challenging to do. When they’re done right, however, the results are very pleasing. You don’t need fancy things for a unique angle. All you really need is an open mind and a little creativity. Just don’t leave your camera in the fridge too long.

Steadicams are brand-name stabilizer devices with counterweights which make handheld camera movements smooth, lies videotape. The originals weighed a lot and had to be mounted to the operator with a brace, and the operator had to be trained and licensed in its use. New consumer versions weigh only a few pounds, and you can carry them with one hand.

This doesn’t just mean lying on the floor and photographing up people’s noses. Consider videotaping what a child or pet might see or what goes on under the dinner table. What can Today’s tiny camcorders don’t require the huge supports of yesterday’s huge video cameras; lake advantage of this.

Canted angles can help give your image some extra punch, getting shot video. This technique is often seen in car commercials, as the vehicle travels a windy toad,  editing video shot. To get the camera in a new spot nobody had tried before, wunder-kind Orson Welles famously chopped a hole in the floor to fit a camera and tripod at shoelace level. Today’s modern video cameras don’t require anything so drastic to peer through a mouse hole.

Shoot from a ladder, a balcony, a window, or even from on top of a chair. This bird’s-eye view is a one we’re not used to seeing – things look different and exciting – it grabs the viewer’s attention. Cooking shows often use shots that look straight down on the action, so that viewers can see over the edge of the cooking pans. It’s also a very handy shot for looking at something like a pool game. But why not try an aerial shot of the birthday party or family reunion as well?

Next time you’re watching your favorite TV show or movie, take a look at the camera angles the Director of Photography is using; they’re a lot more varied than you probably think. Let’s take a look at a few ways to place the camera that will get your productions out of the doldrums.

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Crane shots add a whole new level of sophistication to your shoots. They can cost thousands of dollars, but there are also low cost alternatives. Cranes like the Cobra Crane (www.cobracrane. com) start at just a few hundred dollars and use your existing tripod as a fulcrum. You could also use a camera strapped tightly to a monopod. or try making your own crane out of a sling securely fastened to the end of a long pole.

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HDD Smart Shock Absorber Protection System ZS’LCDwIth 123kPixels Memory Stick DOO/Pro Card Slot Super NightShot Low Light Mode

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The AG-HSC1U has no tape I mechanism, and captures highly-accurate 10801 images onto an SDHC memory card in 6:9 in the new AVCHD format, The Kit includes a 4GB SDHC memory card, and a portable, digital cameras,
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Call an organization that has an event already scheduled, video cameras, like an environmental group that will be planting trees. Ask them if you can videotape the digging and say that they can use the video in the future to promote Mother Earth. Don’t forget to tell them you’re giving the video away for good!

Church members could tape a service and show it to shut-ins who have difficulty leaving their home. Instead of putting on a play for Sunday school, you can produce a video with the kids. For artsy people in the “scene.” create a video montage of the hottest works in your city and put it up on the Web. Airplane enthusiasts can produce a training video for their aeronautics club.

Before diving into the world of raising money, figuring out tax-exempt status and getting an executive board, why not learn to swim with others? Starting out by helping charities with video is exponentially easier than beginning your own nonprofit. Take your camera, microphone and editing chops to an already established organization and get some experience.
So where do you find these charities? If you are already involved in the community, it’s a no -brainer. Just find a way to work your video wonders with the groups you already know.

Get a release form from everyone who is on camera. There would be nothing worse than having your nonprofit sued because someone didn’t want their face shown. By asking for a release, you are also making sure that it is clear to everyone that the video might be shown to the public as part of a promotion.

Oh, by the way, don’t ever let the subjects hold the microphone. You will watch as they move it closer and closer to their mouth until it looks like they are licking an ice cream cone. A great place to start is taking video of art in public spaces. Your city or the artists might want to have a visual record of this. If you can get a lavalier mic. the subject will be much more comfortable. If you don’t have one. hold the microphone yourself.

Sit the nervous nelly down while you park yourself next to the camera, and strike up a conversation. Ignore the camera and be informal, digital cameras. If this still doesn’t work, I always use my “Tape is Cheap and We Edit” speech: “Don’t worry about saying the wrong thing. I’ll cut out anything that doesn’t sound good; that’s what editing is for. In fact, you can say the same thing three times and I’ll just take the best one. Tape is cheap. There is no rush.”

You are working with charities and, therefore, many of the people you serve are in a vulnerable state or sensitive situation. They could be hospitalized or in need of a home and food. Establish a rapport with people before you stick a camera and microphone in their faces. Many are nervous or just bad on camera. The best way to make them comfortable is to talk to them, conducting an interview without their knowing it.

Another way to teach video is to put the students completely in charge. This works best with one child or a very small group. I learned this approach while working with critically ill children in the hospital. The goal was not to teach video techniques so much as to allow the children to express themselves through video. Whether playacting superheroes or talking about the boredom of living in a hospital, the children found dealing with illness a little easier. The quality of these videos wasn’t as good as it would have been under strict creative supervision, but the children had more fun while learning about video.

In the end. every one of them got to be the director, camera-person, lighting expert, sound person and actor,  digital cameras. I edited the piece myself to show them and their parents what an excellent job they did. The nice thing about educating in this fashion is that you can keep the class well-organized, teach a lot of information in a short amount of time and come out with a coherent video. However, the final video doesn’t communicate the children’s own thoughts.

I set up a program for a children’s summer camp. Many of them had never seen a video camera before. My goal going in was to show them how the video camera works (focus, iris, zoom), sound and lighting techniques and how movie makers tell a story. I went in with a simple storyboard of 14 shots. It was a commercial selling bottled air, a parody of bottled water. After going through a general tutorial on the storyboard and how all the equipment works, we rotated duties for each shot.

You are teaching video techniques and storytelling, and you are not overly concerned about how it looks. I’ve found two productive ways to teach video. One is to start with a storyboard I wrote ahead of time and concentrate on the technical aspects of video. The other is to approach students with an open slate by letting them decide what to say and how to say it. Both have benefits and drawbacks.

When video is used as a promotional tool, quality of the final product is key. The charity is going to show this video to others, so if it looks cheap, your production will hinder rather than advance the cause. Nonprofits can benefit from video in many ways, including volunteer recruitment. Frequently, representatives will go to community groups to talk about the charity. It’s great when they have a video in hand that shows happy volunteers and clients

Why not give your video expertise away for good by helping out a charity? You’ll have a built-in audience, a story to tell and a real reason to shoot. Plus, you will take away some great stuff for your demo reel.
There are three general ways to go about making videos for charity. You can produce promotional videos, do training videos or teach video making as a purely educational exercise. Reading this article will help you decide what type of project to do and for which charity.

With image sensor technology making incremental improvements every year, both CCDs and CMOS sensors will continue to get better while becoming even more affordable, which will lead to higher resolution, low-cost camcorders.

However, single chips can be larger than the individual chips in a three chip system, which means single sensors can have higher resolution and larger pixels, which gives a higher signal-to-noise ratio and a cleaner image. This consideration becomes important for “ultra-high-defi-nition” Digital Cinema cameras, such as the Dalsa Origin, Arri D-20, Vision Research Phantom and RED, all of which use large single-chip sensors. The resulting images have a high signal-to-noise ratio, which contributes to clean images.

To achieve a full color RGB image from a Bayer Pattern sensor, complex interpolation algorithms are needed to avoid glaring color artifacts on edges. As computer processing power advances, the adaptive algorithms needed are now being seen in cameras with one chip.

CCD vs. CMOS: CCDs have traditionally provided a “cleaner” image via a higher SNR than CMOS, but recent and ongoing developments in CMOS technology have closed this gap, especially in the case of large, high-resolution, high-frame-rate chips.With CMOS, less vertical smear is an advantage; vertical smear is very common when shooting with a very bright object, such as a light, that is in the shot. The effect shows up as “points” coming off a bright spot, which CMOS helps to reduce.

BAYER PATTERN: Named after inventor Dr. Bryce Bayer, it is used with one-chip camera systems to allow the chip to “see” color. It’s broken down as RGBG – 50% green, 25% blue and 25% red.

DIFFRACTION: This occurs as light travels through an aperture, especially one that is closed due to increased light. The resolution of the image will actually decrease with diffraction; to avoid it, control the light going into the lens with neutral density filters or with filters, diffusion, etc. on the lights themselves. Keep the aperture as open as possible with smaller-chip cameras.

CMOS: Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor. You may be familiar with it from digital still cameras. This more affordable chip consumes less power and contains electronics that convert the analog information from the pixels to a digital form. This conversion must be performed off-chip in CCD sensors.
SNR: Signal-to-Noise Ratio. The higher the SNR, the cleaner the image; the lower the SNR, the more noise. Smaller pixels, relatively speaking, have a lower SNR than bigger pixels.

CCD: Charge-Coupled Device that is used to detect light, but not color, in video and digital still cameras. On their own, most sensors would detect only black-and-white images. To achieve full color, filters are used on the chips, either spread out evenly (three-CCD Red, Blue and Green, using dichroic filters in a prism) or on each pixel (one-CCD via colored filters).

The number of chips in a camera is another factor when it comes to overall image quality. With single-sensor systems, color and sensitivity to light are handled by one chip versus the tasks being distributed over three chips in other systems. Three image sensor systems have the advantage of reproducing color more accurately.

With a bigger sensor, the camera needs a larger lens for the same pixel resolution, which can add to the bottom line of a purchase or rental, hdv cameras, even if the lens resolution doesn’t need to be as high as a small sensor camera’s lens. Also note that a telephoto lens will actually have to be longer on these cameras for the same field of view. As stated above, a smaller-sensor camera needs a wider lens to achieve a similar field of view.

Different video formats display using differently-shaped pixels (square or rectangular). This is one of the reasons why an image sensor at 1440×1080 pixels can display video at a 1920×1080 pixel resolution, professional hdv.

The lens plays an important part in how the sensor will work; specific size and resolution of the lens will help the sensor keep its image intact. The resolution of a lens refers to the quality of the lens and the ease and clarity with which light passes through it. Smaller-sized image sensors need a high resolution lens with a wider field of view to squeeze the image onto a smaller area (the image sensor). Smaller chips also allow for smaller lenses, which are more affordable and will keep the costs of the camcorder down.

The result is that the bigger, standard definition-resolution chip is more sensitive to light and has less visible noise in the image it reproduces. Not all sensor sizes are native to the final aspect ratio they produce. The Canon XL HI has three 1440×1080-pixel sensors, the Sony HVR-Z1 has three 960×1080-pixel native sensors and the Panasonic AG-HVX200 has three 960×540-pixel sensors, yet they are all capable of reproducing 1080i (1920xl080-pixel) video. Each camcorder is capable of doing this by a measure of multiple technologies and algorithms thai include pixel shifting and pixel interpolation.

The most interesting question is: Why does a smaller, hdv tuner, AVCHD camera with, say, a chip that is 1/6″ in size, with over a million pixels packed onto it. have differences, both good and bad, versus a chip that is 2/3″ in size, but is only considered standard-definition with about 320.000 pixels?
In a small, high-definition-resolution chip, the pixels are smaller and packed more closely together to fit onto the chip, leading to a lower signal-to-noise ratio than a standard-definition chip would have achieved.

Lowel lights serve documentary, corporate, news, independent, student and feature filmmakers “round the globe with speed, agility, economy and adaptability. It’s what you’d expect from the world leader in location lighting. Before you know it. you might be selling tickets to your next movie online and streaming it directly to the viewer’s home theater. Far-fetched? So was easy-to-use streaming video across the Web. not five years ago

Getting your videos seen online has never been simpler. Whether you just want to get your work out to the world  or make some money for your time (Revver). your options have never been better.
Consider this: The distance from the PC to the TV shrinks more every year. Home theaters, high Internet bandwidth and built-in monetization are set to change the way we purchase From New York to New Delhi, from Ike to W, we’ve been there. From wedding days to election nights, from still to film to HD/DV, we’ve lit that.

Get Moving
Make your video accessible to mobile video players, like the iPod or Zen VlsionM People who can download your work are going to provide you with the best kind of marketing, word of mouth. Focused keyword entries
Keywords are often overlooked as a method of driving traffic. Just remember to boil the key points of your video down to one- or two-word blurbs.
Example: You’ve just created a video demonstrating how to safely cut a piece of laminate flooring with dental floss and a lawn gnome.

Here are  rules of thumb for successful Internet videos:
. Keep It Short
People don’t like to sit through long videos on their PCs. Your running time should be four minutes or less. A short, funny video is more likely to be seen by a corporate worker during the lunch break than a long, angst-ridden drama.

Online distribution creates unlimited opportunities for independent filmmakers. OurStage’s unique approach to online media fits perfectly into the future of short film. They’ve brought indie short film back into the hands of the people

The thing I like about OurStage (is) the idea is that rather than one person or a handful of people choosing what’s featured on a site, TV Channel or film festival, you let the audiences collectively decide. And if this is possible, it’s no longer necessary to have a marketing budget to get
your work discovered because the gems can rise very quickly to the top on their merits alone

We’re 100% democratic, 100% unrigged and 100% dedicated to overthrowing the entertainment mediocracy. We give monthly Best Video prizes of $5k, exposure to industry trailblazers, plus many other useful goodies.

In our example of the school play, this kind of mic would have been ideal to record the dialogue onstage. My neighbor could have followed the action by aiming the mic in the general direction of the actors as they spoke their lines. Even better, he could have arranged with his wife or another willing volunteer to sit in the first row and follow the action from there. 15 rows closer to the speakers.

It normally resembles a short length of dark grey or black pipe with slots cut into it, wireless mic. You can mount a shotgun mic on the camera or on a pole. There are shotgun mics for the home user, although they may not be as rugged as the professional version. They are ideal for band concerts, speeches and other locations where sound at a distance is required. They can also “pull” in sound from a greater distance, as the pick-up pattern is narrowly focused.

If your needs are of a general, instrument microphones, wider-area use. like a play, football game or a crowded situation, then a “unidirectional” mic may be more to your liking. The most common of these are cardioid microphones. These mics accept sound primarily from a single direction and concentrate their pickup pattern

A lapel or “lavalier” mic is not handheld; you normally clip it to a tie. collar or suit lapel for more subtlety than a handheld mic. Make sure to mount the mic up high and on the side of the body the speaker is facing for the best result, as a left-mounted mic will have trouble delivering clean sound with a right-facing speaker. You can also mount it subtly to a podium mic with the judicious use of tape. Lavaliers are not perfect, as they can pick up the rustle of clothing as they brush against the mic. and high winds blowing across the head can cause a disruption of sound, if you do not place a quality windscreen over the mic.

Using these mics is pretty simple, condenser mic. Get the mic head as close to the mouth of the subject as possible Careful! You don’t want to rest the top of the mic on the speaker’s chin or raise a stand-mounted mic so high it blocks the audience’s view of the speaker. A distance of 12-18 inches from the mouth is plenty to ensure a high-quality result, and this is the range the microphone is designed for. In a crowd or noisy area, it’s advisable to move the mic up a little, so the person speaking can drown out the competing sounds. Inch it up slowly until the sound level is more acceptable but still out of sight as much as possible.

If you watch the TV news, you’ll often see the microphones used for recording the spoken word. These can be handheld, mounted on a stand or clipped to clothing. We also call these mics “omnidirectional.” This pattern is equally sensitive to sound in all directions. The “pickup pattern” of an omnidirectional mic resembles a large invisible ball mounted at the top (or “head”) of the mic. Because the pickup pattern does not exclude all unwanted sound, it may sometimes allow in stray audio along with the desired sound.

The choices available for better collection of audio fall into essentially two categories: mics intended for words and mics meant to pick up other sounds like music, cheers of a crowd and other ambient noises.

I was watching a neighbor’s video of his child’s school play. The kids were adorable and the costumes well done. I would have enjoyed the play very much but for one issue: the sound. My friend and his camera were 15 rows back from the stage, the sound was muddy and indistinct, and it forced all of us in the room to lean forward in an effort to make out every word.
This was a problem that never had to happen. All my friend had to do was buy a simple microphone and. if he had used it properly, his audio would have been much better.

This is great for most situations; however, we think there’s room for a brighter light for those utilizing HDV camcorders in low-light situations. One drawback is its difficulty in connecting to our camcorder’s accessory shoe. A small plate that should slide firmly into the accessory shoe is a rotating one, and it is loose enough to cause some concern.

The ElightZ light really offers a cool compact design which is especially good for anyone who travels. It features an articulating arm, replaceable lOw bulb and a nice stack of gels. The arm makes the ElightZ quite small when packed up, as the head and arm fit nicely together. When mounted on-camera. the articulating arm is a great feature too. The light can be brought closer to the subject for more intense light, and it can be raised up for a higher angle. Adjusting it up and down, as well as front to back, is smooth and straightforward. The light thrown by the ElightZ is soft and even. According to Anton/Bauer, the supplied 10-watt bulb throws 30 foot-candles at a distance of five feet.

We ran the gamut in our real-world tests, trying to see both how fast and how slowly we could drain the battery. The worst we could get was 4 hours of recording time. This test was conducted using our Sony FX7 camcorder with the flip-out LCD on. recording to Mini DV tape in HDV mode, along with Anton’s ElightZ shining the whole time. Four hours. The best we could get was a little over 7 hours of recording with one ElipZ battery. This test had our camcorder recording to Mini DV tape in HDV mode without using the flip-out LCD or the ElightZ light.

Where the ElipZ battery really shines is its efficiency. Not only does this single battery take the place of more than 2 camcorder batteries, it’s also your battery for other accessories. The ElipZ uniquely supplies up to 6 amps to power both your camcorder and light, using its proprietary plug. This design makes for a really clean setup that doesn’t leave extra battery packs in your pocket or cables running everywhere.

Which locks into the battery when you activate the long blue release switch. Anton/Bauer includes a few “sticky pads” for the small plate, to make a rock-solid attachment. However, we had to re-tighten the plate before we got a good fit. There is a small amount of play where the battery meets the camcorder. We think this is quite acceptable for general use, but it may be a turn-off for the discerning videog-rapher.

A powerful 2D/3D character generator that lets you Type on a Curve, create rolls S. crawls and manipulate characters, words, rows, layers and pages by scaling, skewing, kerning, leading, justifying and rotating in any direction.

A powerful creative tool, consisting of more than 400 exciting 3D transitions & animation effects that are easy to use & customizable. Manipulate and control an effect’s style, flight path and lighting all with a few simple mouse clicks.

All the connectivity you need – including DV FireWire, Component, S-Video S. composite video plus stereo audio S SPDIF digital audio connections. Real-time video playback directly from the Liquid timeline, surround sound audio monitoring S. direct MPEG capture for DVD production.

Avid Liquid includes integrated, full-featured DVD authoring for creating interactive DVDs. Create and customize menus S navigation; preview and modify the DVD from the timeline; add a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mix; and then intelligently render out to a finished DVD.

Avid Liquid supports the Avid Open Timeline: mix content from a variety of sources without having to transcode between formats. Edit DV MPEG2/4, uncompressed SD, Windows Media, DIVX, as well as HDV!

Avid Liquid software offers native transfers S. frame-accurate editing of 720p and 1080i HDV content. It features a powerful realtime effects engine that provides multiple streams of HDV in real time. Avid Liquid Pro breakout box will downconvert HDV footage for HD preview on an SD monitor.

Avid Liquid combines powerful SD S HD video editing integrated with DVD authoring from the timeline; surround-sound audio processing; and powerful visual effects. Editors only have to learn a single interface to create high-quality video productions with sophisticated effects and audio—and quickly output to tape, disc, or streaming media.

“the clarity ot the audio, the choice of 63 channels, the diminutive size, and the reasonable price make the Azden 100LT an excellent value for videographers!’ Wedding & Event Videography
Tve yet to find a wireless mic system for under $500 that comes close to the quality and performance of the 100LT’

While enclosures exist to build a system similar to this,  HDMI they’re not very easy to find – and then you still have to add hard drives to make it work, . If the price of the drive were closer to the $ 1,200 range, we’d be a lot more enthusiastic, but it still appears to be quite a good drive overall.

However, we are very satisfied with the speed of the product as configured out of the box – remember. 3.5MB/sec is all the sustained throughput you need to handle DV and HDV playback. Of course, if you intend to juggle large video files with the drive, we’d certainly recommend reformatting it before you start moving everything into it.
We’re happy to see a drive this powerful, yet so accessible and widely available. The problem at the moment is that the MSRP of the drive is on the high side (although we’re used to seeing prices of products like this fall quickly after they’ve been in the channel a while).

Between 50-200MB each, over to the drive, which slurped up the files in 1 minute 44 seconds (22.6MB/sec), a very respectable speed for RAID 5 over FireWire
400 onto a FAT32 filesystem. Iomega claims a maximum write speed of 47MB/sec and a maximum read speed of 70MB/sec – these seem completely reasonable speeds to attain over FireWire 800 onto the native filesystem of your machine of choice, particularly if you reconfigured the drive to RAID 0.

We attached the Power Pro to a MacBook via the FireWire 400 cable to see what it could do (other interfaces that can be used include FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 – there’s no eSATA port).
The drive showed up on the Mac desktop in short order. We dragged a couple of folders (2.35GB worth of audio and video podcasts.

When we applied power to the drive, its dot-matrix LCD display illuminated blue and noted that the device was in a normal state. You can press the menu button on the front panel to see information on the installed drives, the current RAID level, capacity of the system, firmware version, serial number, etc. There’s also a 24-hour time clock on the front panel.

The system would then dutifully rebuild the drive, unless you configured the system as a RAID 0 (in that case, all your files would be gone).
Our test unit shipped with four Seagate 500GB hard drives installed. Note that Iomega’s documentation states that you must use replacement drives provided by Iomega to retain warranty coverage; but when the two-year warranty expires or you don’t intend to pursue any warranty claims, the drives in question are simply desktop SATA drives mounted in the carriers.

The first thing we noticed was the hex key locking mechanism used to keep the drives in place. The Power Pro comes with two blue plastic hex keys, along with a key ring Wed recommend not putting this key on your day-to-day key ring next to the house key and car key. though – it’s hard to say how well the plastic will age over time.
If (perish the thought) the array issues an audible alarm and a red indicator appears on the drive, you would use the aforementioned key to remove the failed drive and replace it with a new one

You can hot-swap dead drives out of the system, and there’s an audible alarm and indicator lights that show you exactly the drive’s status at all times. As icing on the cake, the Power Pro ships with EMC’s Retrospect Express backup software.

The previous iterations of Iomega Iomega has diversified a bit to include brought some revolutionary storage other storage devices in their  products into the limelight. The Ber- line, including the REV drive see our noulli Box. their first major product, review of the Grass Valley version ofwas the first high-capacity removable REV in the November 2006 issue, NAS disk, well, “high-capacity” at a time devices. DVD burners, a portable media when 40MB was considered huge.

The Essential Guide to Advanced Computer Video Editing Techniques
Advanced Editing Tools, The Art of Editing, Video Filters and Color Effects, Compositing Titles and Graphics, Encoding and Output How to Sell Your Home Video for Big Bucks!
What Sells, Who Buys, Where to Go and What to Shoot How to Shoot Video that Sells, How to Sell Your Home Video for Big Bucks, and much more!!! 45 Minutes)

Refine Your Shooting Skills and Tell a Better Story!
Shot Sheets, Logs and Slates, Lenses and Filters, Exposure and Shutter, Camera, Handheld Techniques, Composition.

The Art of Titles & Graphics
Introduction to Titles and Graphics, Splash Screens and Opening Titles, Segment IDs, Lower Thirds and Bugs, Diagrams and Info Graphics, and Credit Rolls and Crawls.  There’s more to making DVDs than transferring video to a disc. Video producers need to approach DVD authoring completely differently than videos created for distribution on VHS.

The Guide to Getting Started With Computer Video
Editing Tools, digital video editing,  Hooking Up, Editing Audio, Editing Sequences, Transitions and Filter Effects and Titles and Graphics. 130 minutes)

The Essential Guide to Lighting for Video
Light Theory, Tools and Terms of Lighting, Studio Lighting, ndoor Daytime Lighting, Outdoor Daytime Lighting, Outdoor Nighttime Lighting. The Essential Guide to Audio for Video
Mike Types, Wired or Wireless, Overcoming Indoor Audio Problems. Overcoming Outdoor Audio Problems, Editing Audio, Audio Sweetening.

The Essential Guide to Basic Camcorder Techniques
Camcorder Features and Functions, Button Basics, Lighting Basics, Sound Advice, The Art of Composition, Smooth Moves and Steady Shots.

This book offers future media professionals systematic hands-on coverage of entry-level production skills. Companion Workbook available.  A comprehensive handbook that explains, in lay terms, the myriad legal issues that the producer will face on a regular basis. Increase your productivity with Encore DVD while integrating with Photoshop After Effects, and Premiere

This book will help you to understand the basic principles of setting up and running your business. Whether you’re a student or an independent filmmaker, this practical guide will help you to develop and sharpen your skills

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This book will give you must-have techniques to work more quickly and achieve dazzling results.

Final Cut Express HD 3.5 Editing Workshop
This workshop give you firsthand experience with the art and technique of editing.

Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects. Vol. 2
Advanced techniques focuses on how After Effects integrates with other programs vital to the motion graphics workflow

Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects. Vol. 1
This book reveals expert techniques for producing compelling motion graphics.

Avid Xpress Pro Editing Workshop
hands-on practice with an extended example that demonstrates the edit of an entire sequence.

Packed with mote than 300 techniques, this book delivers what you need to know-on the spot

For those who want to easily add some fun graphics to existing footage, its graphical interface is incredibly intuitive. Others may find this software far too dumbed-down for their needs. But for a price of S130 direct from Muvee and a street price of around $85 from retailers, it’s certainly worth experimenting with, if only for those style templates

The company lacks a call center. This may be a frustrating inconvenience to a video newcomer, if the program crashes or behaves in an anomalous fashion.
That said. AutoProducer 6 could be a fine starter product for someone who’s new to editing video on the computer and wants his or her confidence boosted by getting some videos cranked out and burned onto DVD or uploaded to YouTube as quickly as possible.

Shooting video as an educational tool for charities is about method rather than the end product. You are teaching video techniques and storytelling, and you are not overly concerned about how it looks. I’ve found two productive ways to teach video. One is to start with a storyboard I wrote ahead of time and concentrate on the technical aspects of video. The other is to approach students with an open slate by letting them decide what to say and how to say it. Both have benefits and drawbacks.

A training video can be as simple as a videotaped message from the head of an organization, describing the charity to a more detailed video on how to keep safe during an annual chili cook-off.

A training video’s quality should be good, but it doesn’t need to be as snazzy as a promotional video. Let’s face it; you have a captive audience of people who have already committed to your organization and are sitting through the training video to get information, not to be impressed.

That’s what charities do: find a problem and try to fix it. A video that addresses this issue would focus more on the charity’s clients. Not only can you present this type of video at community events, but you can also offer it to local television stations and cable providers, who are always looking for public service announcements. It’s even possible to go high-tech and stream it on the Web for the whole world to see.

I also interviewed them about how much they loved their work. At that point, all I needed to do was take short sound bites of the interviews, place a video showing that donations are being put to good use, video shot.
Charities also want to raise awareness about a societal, health or environmental problem.

I once shot and ediled a promotional piece for a group of retired seniors who volunteered for the local sheriff. The group came to me with a general script about what the volunteers do on a daily basis. In one afternoon. I shot them patrolling neighborhoods, doing office work and directing traffic. While getting the b-roll (general video shots that help support the story).

Creating a video for an organization is a good start, but you should also consider providing additional copies to be given out to the public. Make sure to drop your business card in each video case. Let your work and your name be seen.

Muvee Technologies Inc.’s AutoProducer 6 software is a remarkably user-friendly way to add a semi-professional sheen to holiday, vacation, wedding and other family-oriented videos, through the use of its unique style overlays. These templates superimpose a variety of textures and effects to what would otherwise likely be fairly pedestrian footage. But in Muvee’s rush towards simplicity, its engineers may have created a product that risks alienating professionals and more serious amateurs.
On the plus side, AutoProducer 6 is about as simple as video editing gets.
The program’s slick, handsome GUI and its easy-to-follow workflow intuitively walk the user through the steps. First you import raw camcorder footage into the PC, either straight from the camcorder or from your hard drive, in most popular formats, including .asf, .avi (including DV), .mov, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, .mp4. .wmv and .3gp. Then you add any desired still images (such as a slideshow) to the timeline.

Whether you’re drawing a picture or recording your family, you want brilliant, vivid color and clear, crisp images. With Optical Image Stabilization and 3CCD true color technology, which captures color the same way as our professional video cameras, that’s precisely what you’ll get.

Auto exposure gave us accurate exposures for all normally-balanced scenes we shot. We could easily compensate for strongly backlit scenes by pressing the backlight button or switching to manual. If a subject is predominantly bright or dark, the AE shift does a good job adjusting for these extreme values.
You select white balance (WB) modes through menus. The default requires four steps, but you can move this and other buttons to an earlier menu page if you prefer. Our WB tests shooting a Macbeth ColorChecker chart revealed that manual WB is somewhat more accurate than auto. Manually white balancing provides a one-percent average variance from color neutral toward blue-green. Auto WB gave us a nine-percent average variance toward red-green. The included WB shift feature will get you even closer. The HC7 buffers its auto WB adaptation to different lighting conditions by taking about ten seconds to fully adjust.