CATEGORY: Video Postproduction

The importance of “house reference”

If you’ve played piano, you are proably familiar with the metronome.

Or perhaps you have played in a rock band, you’ve realized first hand the value of a good drummer.

Or maybe you’ve worked on your car.  You are likely well aware of the importance of the timing belt.

In any of those cases,  if you lose the “sync,” things start falling apart.

Same in video . . .

Read the rest of this article »

What is “Audio Description?”

You are likely familiar with the term “closed-captioning” for television and video.

But have you hear about “audio description,” or the acronym, DVI? 

It stands for “Descriptive Video Information.” (Note: Some call it “audio description,” others “video description.”  WGBH, the PBS station in Boston calls in it DVS, a term they copyrighted through their Media Access Group  http://tinyurl.com/kmtuuj, the entity that pioneered the process.

However it is called, the purpose of the service is to make television and video programming more accessible to the visually-impaired segment of the audience.

(Data from the National Health Interview Survey states that over 20 million US adults have some form of vision loss even with glasses or contact lenses.)

Read the rest of this article »

Video resolution . . . for the rest of us

OK, so your video editor comes to your desk and says that the video clip you wanted is ”320 x 240,” . . . and you basically rely on the look on his or her face as to whether that is a good thing or bad thing.  Sound familiar?

Let’s see if we can’t help you look a little less like a deer in the headlights in such situations.

Again, my disclaimer, I myself have had my deer-in-the-headlight moments, and I am not a bonafide engineer (I only play one on TV - ok, ok, I couldn’t resist), but over my years as a producer, director and editor, I picked up info along the way — at least enough to help me survive. (though some might say I know just enough to be dangerous, but let’s ignore that, ok?)

With that all said, let’s move on to the topic at hand.  Video Resolution: it all comes down to pixels.

Read the rest of this article »

What is meant by 24P and 23.98?

1080i, 720p, 24P . . . oh my!

30 frames, 60i, 25 frames, 50i, 29.97, 23.98.  Somebody help!

Here are links to two in-depth articles on the web that I found that does an excellent job in explaining what all these terms all mean: http://tinyurl.com/ysxs4h   http://www.answers.com/topic/24p

But if you want a quick-read summary, I’ll give it try.  Please read on:

Read the rest of this article »