CATEGORY: Multimedia

The Philosophy of “Creation” and the Appeal of Adobe Illustrator & Quicktime H.264

Why do we at Video Labs www.VideoLabs.net often tell our clients that our preferred format for artwork files are vectors created with Adobe Illustrator?

And why are we talking so much about H.264 files for video?

Allow me to digress for a moment.

From a philosophical point of view, the concept of making something out of nothing has long intrigued me, and of course, that has been pondered by greater minds than mine throughout the ages.

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Cool tech at Capitol Communicator event . . .

So I attended a Capitol Communicator  www.capitolcommunicator.com event in DC last evening (9/30/09). 

It was a release party for their new offering, the online SourceBook http://tinyurl.com/y9slotg, which I assume will become something like the “LA 411″ www.La411.com for the mid-Atlantic region.

I always enjoy attending these CC events, as I get to network with a great mix of media peers . . .

. . . and the Capitol Communitor is an excellent e-zine.  (Kudos to the combined business savviness of founders Paul Dunning and Phil Rabin along with fellow marketing team member, Amy Schwab http://tinyurl.com/y8no9cj)

But what also caught my eye at this event was the showcasing of a device called “Boxci” http://www.boxci.com/ created by Bethesda-based A.M.G. (Alternative Marketing Group) www.amgww.com

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What is a “Frame Grab?”. . . (yep, and more about SD vs. HD)

I got a call the other day from a client asking whether taking a still frame from a video (aka known as a “frame grab”) would adequately work as a source for a printed image.

In the days before HD, the answer was almost always, “not unless a grainy shot will work for you.”

300+ dpi (dots per inch) is the standard for quality print.  Television / video is rated at the equivalent of only 72 dpi.

But what about an HD source, as this client’s tape was?

HDTV turns out to be only 72 dpi as well, but the other enhancements of the HD process will allow for a higher quality frame grab. 

So, in short, the HD still frame should work fine for a printed brochure; however, blowing it up to poster size would not be advised.

OK, what’s going on here?  If HDTV is also 72dpi, what exactly are “those other enhancements” that make it look better?

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How might our OCR scanning services help you?

We at Video Labs specialize in media replication.  So why stop at just copying discs and videotape?

We now offer document archiving as well.  And we can do so with OCR scanning.

What does OCR scanning mean?

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