mediageek

Category: video

  • Six Months with my Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG10 Pocket Camcorder

    One of the biggest problems with most electronics product reviews is that the reviewer has a very limited amount of time to use and get to know a particular item. That’s why so many digital camera and camcorder reviews rest on technical specifications and relatively easy to measure qualities like resolution, image noise and sharpness.…

  • Environmental Encroachment on the mediageek radioshow – sound, pictures and video

    In a change of pace from the otherwise talk-dominated radioshow, my guests this week were the magic circus band Environmental Encroachment. They played several songs in WNUR‘s multi-use studio number 105, in addition to our interview. The show is now available for listening and download at the radioshow site. Because the EE marching band is…

  • Making the HD Camcorder Leap with Sanyo’s Xacti VPC-CG10

    Over the last three years I have not been shy about airing criticism of the newest wave of low-cost flash memory camcorders shooting alleged high-definition video. My critique has largely rested upon video quality being lower than established tape-based HDV camcorders and the difficulty of editing footage shot in the highly compressed AVCHD format. The…

  • What Use Is Educational Video If You Can’t Find It?

    My latest column for Streaming Media Magazine is online. In it I focus on the importance of being able to search through the mountains of educational video being produced every day: That’s the next crucial step in educational video online: developing a common standard for cataloging, organizing, and sharing content, regardless of platform. We already…

  • Interview: The End of Television

    Although the delay of the DTV transition to June 12 has taken a little wind out of the sails for the potential of a massive rude awakening for an American public unprepared for the sudden obsolescence of their analog TVs, the transition is still going to happen. While more households will have obtained DTV converter…

  • LoC Digitizing and Preserving the Nation’s Motion Picture Legacy

    Who knew the Library of Congress has a robotic system for the automated digitization of VHS and 3/4″ Umatic videocassettes? I sure didn’t, but I’m glad I took a last-minute opportunity yesterday to learn about the LoC’s film and video digitization and preservation facilities and efforts as part of an event on the Northwestern campus…

  • Free Radio Berkeley Video: How To Make a Radio Station

    The venerable Free Radio Berkeley has a (relatively) new video demonstrating all the parts in the air chain of a micropower unlicensed radio station, fresh from their Oakland, CA shop: How To Make a Radio Station from Free Radio on Vimeo.

  • Inauguration Shows that the Internet Still Isn’t Broadcast

    Last Tuesday’s presidential inauguration was one of those moments where I think all business except for vital functions like transit and public safety stopped all over the country as people tuned in to watch Obama’s swearing in. Another thing that stopped for a lot of people was the internet. Arguably this was one of the…

  • I Think I Must Admit that Laserdisc Is Dead

    I have the sinking feeling that I might be forced to define my terms…. My pal Aj alerted me to this boingboing post about the news that Pioneer is ending production of laserdisc players. The funny thing is, I honestly didn’t think Pioneer was still making laserdisc players. That’s not a joke. Although I’ve been…

  • Rumors of VHS’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated

    Oh, planned obsolescence, you are such an insistent mistress. It seems like the end of the year news hole combined with the imminent digital TV transition (which does not necessarily mean the end of analog TV…) has sparked additional interest in the press ringing the funeral bells for that most ubiquitous yet unloved video medium,…