B2B going high definition ?

[WSFanfare]

Hi, Dave. Have you considering that ?

[Loo-Loo]

I imagine an HD camera would cost a lot of money, but on a more selfish note this would be a disaster for my laptop as my graphics card can only just cope with the current quality.

[BlahPeeV]

I would hazard a guess at a high-quality HD video camera (the same kind that Dave uses now, but in HD) would be in the four- or five-digit amount for price...not to mention that this would substantially increase the size of files to download (crippling the poor Australian fans ).

[Bound2Burst]

Not a quick, simple answer. I have considered it but such a transition would be far from problem free, should I be foolish enough to try it.

To begin with, there are huge compatibility issues with older cameras, even when HDV cameras are supposedly operating in the earlier HD mode. That means no backwards compatibility with existing movies.

To complicate the issue, there are multiple definitions of "high definition"; the cameras I have now which were manufactured 5 years ago are called high definition cameras, but that's not at all the same as the current HD. Jayne tried to give me some material recorded in new HD and I could not even import it using my cameras. I also discovered that new HD is not compatible with iMovie 6. I despise iMovie 9 and would not want to have to upgrade to that to fix the problem. Nor will I use any of the shite that is written for PCs, not least because I don't have a current PC that could be used to handle importing and editing. This means that I would have to take the plunge into Final Cut Pro which is both expensive and far more complex to use. The movies from the new HD cameras are also widescreen, perhaps exclusively so, and even if I could go on with iMovie, it takes forever to process widescreen movies, which is why I stopped making them after a brief foray into that territory back in 2006/7.

The real question is, shall I continue as I am, or invite a whole load of grief for myself for an "enhanced" result that probably doesn't matter to most people. It's not as if what I do is a professional production - the lighting would still be questionable at times; the backdrops would not be any more complex. Would it really benefit anyone, especially given that the files would become even bigger than they are at present?

[cantholdit]

Personally, I can't see the point in offering Hi Def. I believe most, if not all, of us are buying for content, not video specs. The present quality is excellent and the prices are affordable - a great combination for those of us who like to feed our fetish!

[WSFanfare]

I see the reasons for not, as I suspected to have a didactic answer, but not how expensive could be shooting a HD project.

[Bound2Burst]

Expense: the camera and software required to process the movies. Outlay might be of order $4,000 U.S. Hassle factor - off the scale

[Loo-Loo]

I am not a techie, but does HD improve the picture on a computer? I have my screen set to the highest resolution possible (whatever that is) so I cant see how upping the definition of the original is going to make any difference unless I upgrade to a HD capable laptop.

Is that correct, or am I just thick?

[MPee3]

Reply to Loo-Loo:
If your screen is set to the maximum resolution, and the movie you're playing has been recorded with a lower resolution, you have two options:
A. Display the movie in a window. This way it is shown as it was shot, but it does not fill the entire screen
- or -
B. Enlarge the movie to fit the screen. This way the image is "stretched" and the pixels enlarged so that it appears to fill the screen, but at the cost of the image becoming "blocky" or grainy.

So you basically either see good quality small video or bad quality large video. HD allows you to fill the screen with high-quality video. Naturally, you need a computer that can handle decoding HD video (mine for example can't), otherwise you'll see breakups and stalls in the video.

In my personal opinion, I don't think there's any need for B2B to go HD right now. But in a few years, when everything would be HD, B2B would not be able to stay behind, or it would look anachronistic. Eventually Dave will have to make this transition, but it won't be a "must" for a few years.

[Bound2Burst]

Hopefully by then all the annoying issues will have been resolved, or at least as many as one might realistically expect.

By the way, the pixels are only stretched on enlarging the video if you change the aspect ratio. I find I can enlarge the videos a long way before they start to look blocky.

Another factor is the software used to create the compressed movie (the video recorded by the camera is about 100 MB for a minute of video, making a typical B2B movie 1.5 GB. These are compressed by iMovie to something more managable. The quality is still very good, but then we come to the unfortunate part - everything has to be converted to WMV format because almost everyone buys PCs, and this extra step degrades the video quality noticeably. Naturally, Quicktime and WMV are not compatible; just one more delight to lay at the door of Microsoft.