New Media Center

Welcome to the new school year. I’m still shaking my head about where the summer went. I’m also still grinding gears from vacation last week, but despite those issues, I’m very excited about 2010/11 at UMW. While perusing my RSS feed today, Lifehacker reminded me about Evom, a Mac only (sorry) video converter that is super slick and easy. If it were on the PC it could be the one program I would recommend to do a myriad of tasks.

Evom comes from a company called Little App Factory, makers of the Mac DVD ripping software RipIt! I don’t know where the name Evom came from, but the program works great. It converts many types of videos, and uses the ffmpeg engine to perform its magic. The beauty of the program is the ease in which it gets video into the right configuration for Apple devices. You drag a file from your hard drive into the interface and you get asked which device you want to prepare the file for.

Choosing the iTunes or iPod buttons gives you the option convert the video, or to ditch the video and just save as an MP3 audio file, so it’s handy for ripping audio from video files. You can also prepare videos for an Apple TV (and therefore iPad), or for uploading to YouTube. It’ll even take care of the uploading part (supply your YouTube credentials). You also have the option to simply save the file to a folder anywhere on your computer.

OK. So lots of converters do similar things to Evom. Big deal. Well, for me the big deal is that it can also convert videos that are ON YouTube. If you’re using Safari or Firefox, simply drag the YouTube link from the address bar to the Evom window, and then choose your destination. The downloading and conversion can take a while, depending on connection speed, length of the video, etc., but it all happens in the background. So it’s YouTube to iPod, or iPhone, or iPad, or Apple TV, or to PowerPoint or Keynote, in minimal steps.

One wrench in the works, and it’s not Evom’s fault, is that the Google Chrome browser doesn’t allow the dragging of links into the Evom window. I don’t know what prevents this, but there’s a simple solution. Simply copy the link, with a Command-c shortcut, or by clicking the Edit menu and Copy, then paste the link into Evom (use Command-p or choose Edit>Paste in Evom). Since Google Chrome still does not have a YouTube downloader extension, this is a great solution for grabbing those videos.

One final word about Evom. It’s free!

I know.

You’re welcome.

Standard disclaimer about grabbing YouTube videos or ripping audio from files. Remember there are copyright issues.

Flickr photo by ShellyS

Myth #1 – You need an iPod to podcast

In theory you don’t really need to even own an MP3 player, let alone an iPod. Podcasting gets it’s name from the iPod (Start with the word Broadcasting, take out Broad and substitute Pod). It’s the idea that you are broadcasting to an iPod, but you are actually broadcasting to any MP3 player or even just a person’s computer through the web. It is also not LIVE broadcasting, it’s more like a magazine subscription.

Myth #2 – You need an iPod to listen to podcasts

As we said in Myth #1, you can listen to podcasts on any MP3 player, UNLESS, the podcast is ONLY available in AAC format from iTunes. Even then there are some portable players that support some AAC files (Microsoft’s Zune, Sony’s PSP, and the SanDisk Sansa).

Myth #3 – When I make my recording and save it as an MP3 file, that’s a podcast, right?

Well technically, no. Though many people say that they are recording a podcast, the podcast is actually the recording plus the backend mechanism that syndicates the recording. The ability to subscribe (using RSS) to this special type of broadcast is the reason we call them podcasts.

Myth #4 – Podcasting is complicated

It certainly CAN be, and to get very high quality and high production value podcasts takes lots of know-how. However, there are many ways to make it a very easy and enjoyable process (the satisfaction of broadcasting your production is VERY rewarding).

What you (and your subscribers) need:

• A web-hosting site (do a Google search for web hosting), or a specialized site such as Podbean.com (which hosts podcasts). Hey, if you are a UMW student or faculty member, how about UMW Blogs?
• iTunes – or other “podcatcher” – Here are instructions and a screencast on how to subscribe to a podcast using iTunes.
• iPod or other MP3 player, or a web page
• Microphone/Recording device*
• Recording software* (like Audacity)

*Notes: A USB Headset microphone we recommend – Logitech USB 350. If you’re using a Mac, GarageBand is a great program for creating a very professional sounding podcast. For recording hardware we have used and recommend the Marantz PMD660 or similar, and the Edirol R-09 or similar. You can even record using an iPhone!

Shopping for a camcorder has never been an easy experience, but there has been constant improvement in the quality of video that can be obtained. Before you buy a camera, know what your final destination for your video is. Is it YouTube? Then you won’t need the highest quality camera because this is low resolution video. However, having said that, YouTube does offer HD quality video on their site, so high resolution video is now an option. Will you be making a DVD? Then you’ll want to get a high quality camera. Will you just re-watch it on your TV? Make sure you’ve got the right cables to make the connection. If you’ve got an HDTV, you might want to consider and HD camera. If you’re ready to shop you can start with Cnet’s camcorder reviews. Otherwise, here’s what to look for in a video camera (also known as camcorders):

• HD – Determine if you want to do HD video or not. The advantages are that you have the high resolution to output to an HDTV. The disadvantage is that HD is a new format with somewhat limited support, and it’s more time consuming to edit.
• Automation – Decide whether you want a camera that you just set on automatic and it does everything for you, or if you want to control exposure, focus, audio, etc. It is strongly recommended that you get a camera that at least gives you manual focus control. Auto-focus is nice, but there will be times when the camcorder won’t know what you are trying to focus on. You can fix bad exposure in a video editing program. You can’t fix focus after the fact.
• Media Types – The ways in which you can store video are constantly evolving. DV Tape, mini-DVD, hard disk, and SD memory cards are all used to store your recorded video. So which one should you choose? Whichever format you decide to go with, make sure you know what you need to transfer your video from the camera to the computer. The new AVCHD format is somewhat problematic because there is still limited support for editing it. Also, you need a very fast machine to edit AVCHD in real-time. Here’s a video round-up of AVCHD editors.
• Audio – Most people don’t think about audio when they look for video cameras, but it is at least equally important. Imagine these two scenarios. Scenario one, you recorded a lecture, but you forgot to take off the lens cap and you only got the audio. Well, that’s a big problem, but you can at least post the audio somewhere and people can listen. Scenario two, you get great video images from your camcorder, but you were far enough away from the speaker that the audio is inaudible. Unless you were going for the silent movie effect, your video is pretty useless. That’s why good audio is so important to good video. Bad audio is very noticeable. Good audio isn’t noticed at all. Look for a camera that has an external microphone input, so you have the option to add a quality microphone. Also look for a camera that has a headphone jack so you can monitor the audio that is being recorded. There’s a good reason why you see professional videographers wearing a set of headphones. They don’t want the surprise of unwanted sounds being captured. A good directional, lapel, or handheld microphone will do better than a camera’s on-board microphone almost every time.
• Image Quality – How important is video image quality to you? Cameras with multiple video sensors will give a better image (generally) than single sensor cameras, but they cost more.
• Photos – Do you want your camcorder to have the ability to take photos too? Keep in mind that you won’t get the resolution (generally) that you get from your digital still camera.
• Image stabilization – There are also cameras with image stabilizers that reduce the shakiness of handheld video, so you may want one with that feature. They’re handy if you are zooming way into the action and you need a steadier shot. They have a limit to how steady the video will appear. Tripods are better tools to use to get steady video.
• Firewire – While firewire connections generally only come on cameras that use the DV format, there is another advantage of having a camera with firewire. You can record live video directly to the hard drive of a computer, or use the camera as a high quality web cam by using the firewire connection.

Image via Wikipedia