Summary. Join Peter King, tiny house builder, at the 7th Annual Connecting for Change: A Bioneers by the Bay Conference, October 21-23, in downtown New Bedford, MA.

Peter King’s workshop, How to Build a Small Wood Frame House, will be joined by dozens of other workshops and keynotes throughout the conference weekend.

The conference is a three-day, solutions based gathering that brings together a diverse audience to create deep and positive change in our communities.

This conference is likely one of the most inspiring gatherings that you will experience. This conference can change the way you see the world and the experience can help you change the world!

Register: Click here to register now.

Learn More. If you want to join Peter visit or learn more, click here for a full list of conference events or go to ConnectingForChange.org.

Event Details. Below are the details of Peter King’s presentation. [source]

Video. Below is a video from the 2010 Connecting for Change Conference. [source]

Summary. The Elgato Turbo H.264 video rendering acceleration system from Elgato is an excellent way to save yourself considerable time when exporting video projects.

Below are some real world screen shots that illustrate the performance gains and time saved by using the Elgato Turbo H.264 hardware acceleration solution.

Some of the examples provided below are based on using faster Apple computers. Your actual results will be different depending on the speed of the computer you use.

This first example is with a slower computer. The specifications are shown here.

Below you can see that a 15 minute video will take about 15 minutes to export when using the Elgato Turbo H.264 hardware and software solution.

The same 15 minute video is estimated to take about four hours without the Elgato Turbo H.264 hardware and software solution.

Below is a sample using an Apple Mac Pro computer with multiple dual core processors with the specifications indicated here.

Using the Elgato Turbo H.264 device, the export time for this 1 hour 17 minute project is about 20 minutes. (click to enlarge)

Without the Elgato Turbo H.264 device, the export time for this 1 hour 17 minute project
is about three hours. (click to enlarge)

The optimal custom export settings for the Elgato H.264 export for most uses are shown below.

Below is an example using the Elgato Turbo H.264 HD hardware and accompanying software on an Apple iMac with an Intel Core i7 Quad Core processor. With the Apple Activity Monitor, it is possible to view how well distributed the processing is across all four cores (and all eight available threads). The distribution is quite effective, resulting in 255 frames per second. Standard playback speed is 30 frames per second, so this one hour 40 minute video will take about 12 minutes to convert and export.

Summary. This page contains a video slideshow of music and photos by Gregory Johnson.

I composed the song Arpeggio Rising and posted it on 21 February 2009.

Today, I decided to share it on YouTube with some photos I’d taken while in India during the winter 2010/2011 break.

Because YouTube is a large social network, I think it’s a good way to share music simply by adding some original photography.

People are more likely to hear the music than if it was somewhere on a MySpace page. The photos are a nice addition also.

With the YouTube player being very accessible from mobile devices and easy to embed in web pages, it makes the platform ideal for sharing.

Eventually I want to combine photography, video, music, singing, and written quotes, poetry, and words of inspiration all in a single multimedia creation.

Video. Below is the music video, and further down on this page, Gregory Johnson explains how he created the video.

Technology. Below, Gregory Johnson explains how he created this music slideshow video.

I’m really pleased with the sharpness and vibrant colors in this video slideshow turned out. To create it, I used the iMovie software from Apple. I added some of my favorite photos by clicking and dragging them into the storyboard project area and then with a click and drag added the music. The zooming effect was done manually for each picture using the Ken Burns effect. I kept adding photos until I filled the duration of the song. I also set the project theme to automatically create a fade between pictures. That saved me some time.

To get the video into YouTube, I chose Export Using Quicktime from the Share menu in iMovie. For settings, I make sure that Export is set to Movie to QuickTime Movie and then Use is set to LAN/Intranet. Before clicking Save, it’s important to go into Options and for Size choose Dimensions Current from the dropdown menu. Then click the OK button, then OK again, then Save. For this short video of 2 minutes 47 seconds it took about 25 minutes to export on a fast new Apple Macbook Pro with 4GB RAM.

I didn’t spent much time producing this video. Had I taken more time, I would have really tweaked the transitions, length of each slide, and the Ken Burns effect. Some of the slides I wanted to include were still in RAW format and hadn’t been converted to JPG images. So, even though they showed up in the Media Browser, when I clicked and dragged them to drop them into the story board project area, they wouldn’t drop in.

I think this is a bit of a shortcoming in the Apple iLife ’11 software. There should be some kind of setting to automatically render RAW to JPG for such purposes. I’ve noticed the same problem when synchronizing to devices. Untouched RAW photos don’t show up in the mobile device. Only photos that have been tweaked in some way (no matter how small) will have a JPG image created, and then they show up.

Summary. The Apple iPhone 4 offers high definition video recording at 1280 x 720 pixels of resolution.

Highest Quality Video. A 1280 x 720 resolution video of 9 minutes in length will be about 700MB in it’s native file size when stored in the phone or transferred to a computer. When played directly on a computer, this video looks great. Were this video to be burned to a DVD, it would still look quite good.

Recording Tips. For best video quality, there should be an abundance of diffused light during recording and limited background noise. The video camera and subject should be moving as little as necessary. The touch screen can help with focus and light metering on the subject.

YouTube Upload From iPhone. When uploading to YouTube directly from the iPhone, the HD quality will be lost. This is because a reduced quality video is produced before uploading to save on Internet network bandwidth usage. The 700MB video mentioned above will be reduced to about 37MB, and the loss of about 660MB (about 95% of your original image information) is obviously noticeable. The reduction in file size is achieved by reducing the video size from 1280 x 720 to 480 x 270. In addition to the reduced number of pixels, video compression (like image compression) is used. Normally when reducing a photo or video, you can choose to reduce the dimensions but retain the image quality for a smaller picture that is very crisp and clear. Unfortunately, the video compression used in the upload process with YouTube is not very good. So, the resulting video image is small and fuzzy.

YouTube Upload from Computer. For better quality video, it’s recommended that you transfer the video from your iPhone to your computer and then upload it to YouTube using the video uploader application on your computer or directly from your YouTube account page. This will result in the following compressed videos being available for viewing on YouTube: 1280 pixels wide by 720 pixels high (130MB file), 853 x 480 (81MB file), 640 x 360 (54MB file), and 427 x 240 (28MB file). Regardless of what video you choose to view, the quality is obviously not as good as the original 700MB file since much of the video information has been removed to save file size and bandwidth. However, the HD setting on YouTube should offer the best quality.

Understanding Video Compression. There are two ways to reduce the file size of a photo or video. One method is to retain the clarity and sharpness, but simply reduce the dimensions. The other way to reduce photo or video file size is to reduce the clarity. When saving JPG images, it’s common to see a slider control that allows you to determine the clarity of the resulting image. The same is true for video, unless it is an automated system (as with YouTube uploads).

YouTube Video Quality Comparison. Using the two video samples below, it’s possible to compare by playing them both at the same time (use pause and then play to synchronize).

YouTube Video Sample – 480 x 270. Below is a high definition video sample that was uploaded from the iPhone 4 to YouTube. Notice that the original HD dimensions are reduced during the upload process.

YouTube Video Sample – 1280 x 720 HD. Below is a video sample recorded on the iPhone 4 that was uploaded to YouTube as a 700MB file with full 1280 x 720 HD video. YouTube converted it to be the same dimensions, but a file size of 130MB making it reduced quality from the original.

YouTube iPhone 3GS Video Sample – 640 x 480. Below is a 6 minute video sample that was recorded on the Apple iPhone 3GS. The video was transferred to the computer and then uploaded to YouTube. The original size was 640 x 480 and 160MB. The compressed size retained the dimensions of 640 x 480 (480p), but lost about 75% of the video information and resulted in a file size of 39.7 MB. Surprisingly the quality is still okay.

Video Samples. Below are six samples of the same video that was recorded and edited on the iPhone 4. The first three have been transferred to a computer from the iPhone 4, and then uploaded to YouTube. The next three were uploaded directly from the iPhone 4. They were created using iMovie on the iPhone 4 and exported/saved to three different sizes into the iPhone 4 camera roll. Be sure to select the maximum playback quality for the most accurate comparison.

Below is a video test produced by Gregory Johnson as follows: video recorded on the iPhone 4, edited in iMovie on the iPhone 4, exported from iMovie to the camera roll in 1280x720p format with a resulting file size of 327MB. Then, copied over to the computer and uploaded to YouTube.

Below is a video test produced by Gregory Johnson as follows: video recorded on the iPhone 4, edited in iMovie on the iPhone 4, exported from iMovie to the camera roll in 960x540p format with a resulting file size of 164MB. Then, copied over to the computer and uploaded to YouTube.

Below is a video test produced by Gregory Johnson as follows: video recorded on the iPhone 4, edited in iMovie on the iPhone 4, exported from iMovie to the camera roll in 640x360p format with a resulting file size of 110MB. Then, copied over to the computer and uploaded to YouTube.

Below is a video test produced by Gregory Johnson using the iPhone 4 to directly upload to YouTube a video of 1280x720p that is 327MB.

Below is a video test produced by Gregory Johnson using the iPhone 4 and uploading from the phone to YouTube in 960x540p format.

This is a test by Gregory Johnson uploading a 640x360p video from the iPhone 4 directly to YouTube.

Summary. IOGEAR recently released a 56-in-1 memory card reader, model GFR281.

Photo cameras and video cameras are adapting new standards of higher speed and higher capacity memory cards. Video cameras in particular are shifting from tape, disc, and hard drive storage to memory card storage.

The 56-in-1 memory card reader model GFR281 from IOGear is a versatile device that can read most photo camera and video camera memory cards as well as memory cards from other devices like cell phones.

At a purchase price from $20 to $35 depending on where you buy it, the device is relatively economical. Buy locally if you can, or click here to purchase from our store.

Testimonial. Below is a testimonial from Gregory Johnson about the product and where to buy it.

“We have the IOGEAR 56-in-1 memory card reader available in our online store for about $20. So, with the free shipping of Amazon Prime, it’s a fairly good deal. However, I paid $3 more and bought it at our local downtown office supply store, Iowa Book and Supply. I like to support local downtown merchants because they make life more convenient, and at Iowa Book the prices are low enough that my cumulative aggregate savings are usually better than buying anywhere else, even online at my own store.” ~ Gregory Johnson

Learn More. Below are links to more information about this device.

• IOGEAR – Official Website
• IOGEAR – Products Page for Memory Card Readers
• IOGEAR – Product Page for the 56-in-1 memory card reader model GFR281

Summary. Nike created a humorous series of videos with Steve Nash including the one below with Nash as the 60 Million Dollar Man.

Traditional advertising places a product or service at the center of attention. However, a new approach to advertising has become more common where the primary message of the advertisement is either hope or humor. This kind of media is a fusion of advertising and entertainment.

Making advertisements funny increases their appeal, and with the help of friends telling friends through social networks, a simple advertisement can quickly generate a huge number of viewers.

This hybrid approach to advertising has been hugely successful. If you are a professional in advertising or marketing, do all you can to help promote this kind of advertising. It’s better for your brand and it’s better for the world and allows for two messages to be presented simultaneously.

Video. Below is the Nike advertisement with Steve Nash as the 60 Million Dollar Man. This is a parody of the television show titled the Six Million Dollar Man.

Summary. Various programs make it possible to capture video from web pages.

Programs such as Camtasia Studio (Windows) or iShowU HD (Apple) record the audio and screen video in realtime while you wait.

Some programs, such as Real Player, can identify the video file and download it directly. This saves time and can result in better quality downloaded video.

With Apple computers, it’s possible to use the Safari browser to download Google YouTube and Flash Video FLV in Safari.

Some web pages have what appears to be video, but it is actually animation or web programming that, in some cases, relies upon user input. To capture this kind of media, it’s necessary to record the screen and audio. This is also true with streaming video.