DSE

First, you might want to be sure your monitor profile is correctly calibrated. Devices like the Spyder, Pantone Huey, and the Eye1 are totally useful and somewhat needed for accuracy if you're going to do a lot of this sort of work. Beware of compression. If you're starting with highly compressed images, you run the risk of having all sorts of resampling errors when you recompress the image. Start with high quality, and you may already be doing so. Bear in mind that with a quality color printer on high end paper will likely be about the same as what Target is using if you're providing them dig images vs negatives. It could also be as simple as you might be working in CMYK mode, and Target prints RGB, but I'd wager you're probably working in RGB. It could be you've got your monitor at an incorrect color temp. Check out the bottom of the page for some helpful Photoshop files that will help you understand color transfer and gamut better. HTH

If your content is *only* skydiving footage, consider theming it together to build suspense for your best shots. A good edit is like a good song; dynamic with low points to accentuate the highs, and power into the high points. If it's all similar content, group them together and let the contrast between whatever your best and worst shots might be. Consider punching up/down color to add polish to the high points, consider single point frame edits to create repetition of the best parts or to keep the viewer "wanting" to see what's next but they don't get to see it until you're allowing them to see it. Don't forget audio to build the suspense. Too many skydiving videos are just cut to beat points in the music. Consider some sweetening or sound design to "beef" exits, openings, or super cool swoops so that the ear gets some candy along with the eye. Don't over use slo-mo, it's waaaayyy too overused in most vids I've seen from folks. Consider running the majority of the vid at 80 or 85% of normal speed. The eye sees it as normal speed even though it's slower. This makes it easier to speed up or slow down segments while keeping contrast. Try creating small segments on their own as "micro stories" or micro-themes. Then combine them all so they all have an impact point that comes together in one monster finish, somewhat like a fireworks show. Somewhere in there, you've got a "money-shot." Don't be afraid to cut it up, zoom it, sequence it, stretch it, flip it, colorize it, composite it, and really screw with it up until the *best* frames of the money shot. This will help the money-shot shine, and allow the audience some relief after a fast action scene. Most of all, let the vid breathe. Don't make it *all* great shots, because eventually the eye and brain become numb and nothing is impressive any more. Let it dance with give & take. One last comment, is that if you mix some ground footage, you might for example, run several near-ground shots together from various angles just before a great landing or sequence of landings. Play with it from a new perspective, and eventually you'll find a groove. Once you feel it, stick w/it.

Dunno about the Archos, but the Nnovia works great with a Sony bullet cam, we only climb to 13,500 AGL/about 17,500 MSL. I've got a Firestore, but haven't figured out how to fly it without making a pouch. It won't fit in the Nnovia case. The Y/C out/input works well, and if you did have to lose your helmet, it would suffice as a cutaway connection.

Welcome to the forum and the skies, and believe me, you'd LOVE jumping at Mesquite. Terrific people, great place, good vibe. Plus they have great Tshirts.

Half field or not, the format is ALWAYS 60Hz or 50Hz. That is the frequency at which the electricity operates, and the frequency at which the clock is timed. Doesn't matter whether we're talking about 720 x 576 50i, 720 x 576 25p, 720 x 480 60i, 720 x 480 30p, 720 x 480 24p, or HD in those same framerates. The cycle is always 60Hz or 50Hz, interlaced, progressive, or PsF. If you disagree with the above, you probably should hit the books. The original post spcifies that he's converting to PAL in FCS, and playing back on NTSC. What we don't know is if he's tested the DVD on a PAL DVD player. Some NTSC DVD settops can play PAL with no issue; most can't play it at all. So the first issue to eliminate is whether the settop can play PAL at all. One way to check the PAL disc is to put it in the computer DVD player. Since it's likely not region-protected, it should play without problems in the computer.

Not to nitpick, but NTSC is 60Hz, PAL is 50Hz, and doing a framerate conversion in any decent software tool will either correctly generate frames (when going from PAL to NTSC) or intelligently remove/blend frames (NTSC to PAL). Some software does this poorly, including FCS, but many tools do a great job of conversion. Additionally, most consumer PAL DVD players do a very good job of blending frames when playing NTSC DVDs, but most NTSC DVD players won't play PAL at all, and those that do, most of them do a poor job.

Yeah, I know of one. She is from Australia/Melbourne area, but I met her at a DZ here in the states. I really wanted to ask a question about how the opening shock hit, but felt it wasn't a good thing to ask. On the subject of race, at our DZ we have a mix that just about fits the state racial avg. Coupla black guys, an asian woman, a few Hispanic, myself, and a bunch of white folks. I find it odd this question comes up and keeps coming up. Look at *all* extreme sports and check the numbers. Maybe I see it this way because we shoot a lot of extreme sports, but it appears to me that skydiving is just about identical across the board to other extremes? Extreme sports are seriously expensive, no matter which discipline you get into.

Was that at Hill? And yes, that's the color of blue that was etched into my Bonehead.

Sarah, During my AFF, I landed out more often than not, and while I never landed off-airport, I saw several folks that did during AFF. Bear in mind that while on student status, you're probably riding under a large, fat (safer) canopy, which likely doesn't have great control. After my AFF, I jumped a number of canopies, and it was great to eventually settle in on a canopy that I eventually bought (used) and now can virtually always land where I want to land unless winds are really strong. My daughter had challenges with her AFF 4 and 5, but eventually passed it. She's thrilled to be jumping on her own at 19. She also couldn't stand up her first jumps. Know why? Because before every jump she focused on not standing it, and focused on not landing in the target area. She focused on falling without pain, and on how bad the hike back to the DZ is. Once she quit thinking about landing on her butt and focused on landing in the target area instead...she stood it and hit it every time. How do we avoid obstacles? Ignore them. (Don't look at them) Ask your instructor for some "marker" points for your approach, and at what altitude you should be striving for at each of the marker points. Eventually you'll develop your own visual markers for landings. And eventually you won't need markers, it will be a "feel" thing. You're not failing if you're still trying. You only fail when you quit. If you keep trying, you're simply learning all the ways you shouldn't do something. My favorite thing to tell people that think I'm good at what I do is to tell them, "I'm not good, I've just learned all the ways to not do something." I've also attempted more things in my life and failed than most folks ever attempt, period. I'm really good at screwing up, but I eventually get it right. Smile and pull....

I knew someone would bust me for that comment, and meant no disrespect for it. However, you also can't get a union ticket for shooting RW or freefly outside of broadcast or film (Even though they should) Anyone getting paid to shoot anything is a pro, arguably. At the same time, being paid doesn't assure quality, either. I'll be curious to read your opinion of the HyPeye as well. So far, really liking it. I don't use a ring sight most of the time, and like that this can be farther away from my eye and still visible. I'm considering modifying an old Mindwarp to hold this in the actual helmet itself, just for giggles.

I know a lot of guys like em', but find myself very glad I've not drilled my helmet. In a "professional" shooting environment, it's rare that the cam is stop/started like is done for competitions (as if I'd know, I've not shot any competitions) or shooting tandems. We let the cam roll from just prior to exit til hitting the ground. you never know what you might catch on tape. McGowan and some of the others say they don't like the button because of riser strike issues and the fact the button fails first. That's another reason, I suppose. But for me, it is more about the fact that I don't stop/start the camcorder anyway. In fact, skydiving is the only extreme sport I'm shooting that "allows" me to start/stop the cam. Everything else requires both hands.

Strangely enough in *mostly* white Utah...our DZ follows the census numbers pretty darn close. Coupla black guys that are regulars, an Asian woman, me, my wife (also indigenous), a mid-eastern guy, and a few Hispanic folks. Interesting question, but IMO, it also speaks pretty loudly about the cultural differences of Anglo America and the rest of the citizenship. But that's for another thread.

After seeing the ads and chatting with Trunk, I got my hands on the HyPeye. Anyone else using one? Used it today on a helmet with no post/ring sight, and it really impressed me, because with how bright it is, I was able to gaff it way off to the right of my eye and still have enough light to see it. Kinda thinking about using it without the ring sight for a while, since I'm shooting fairly well back from the RW groups. YMMV, but I like the device, FWIW.

Here's my take as someone who recently changed my mind about an AAD... First, my opinion is if you won't jump a rig without an AAD, you might want to re-think skydiving at all. However...had a premature container opening a while back due to a loose bridle, as I was setting up for a launched exit. My helmet slammed into the plane so hard, it left blue paint on the helmet and left me unconscious or at the least, completely unaware of anything until I was around 7500 feet AGL. We got out of the aircraft at 12,700. Fortunately I was under a good canopy. Once I started thinking about all the things that were wrong with the jump (I was demo'ing a canopy that was in a student rig, I was doing a launched exit, so two strikes against me right there), and I realized that the AAD would have potentially saved my life if I'd been knocked out and no canopy out. In that glide down, once I realized all the dumb things I'd done, one of them wasn't that I'd turned on the AAD on the student rig. So, whilst I'm very willing and able to feel good about jumping a rig that doesn't have an AAD, I also know that I can be kicked in the head by someone's boot, hit hard in any kind of RW dive, weirdness at the exit, whatever...so I'm happy to have at least one facet of the odds stacked slightly more in my favor. But I'd never, ever jump thinking "this thing is gonna save my life." If you'd asked me 5 mins before that jump how I felt about AADs and helmets...you'd have gotten a different answer than what I'm offering now. All in all...I feel they're worth it for *most* skydivers. If you're riding under a small canopy, and/or are a fast pilot, you might want to re-think having one.

I didn't get an email, no? dse [at] vasst [dot] com

Most of the EU camcorders have the DV input disabled as a result of copyright agreements. Silly, but that's the way it was. This should be changing now, but...that won't help you. Can you take the firewire output of your computer, feed it to the firewire input of your DVD burner, and do a jam sync print to the DVD burner from the Premiere timeline? It should work, but possible it won't, of course.

Yeah...a tad kludgy, but it works well. RW Designer makes a droplet that you'll put on your desktop. Open Explorer and the folder of images. Then sort your images by size. Then drag images to droplet. It'll process them all in order, starting with largest or smallest first. It only resizes to one size, not percentages of original size. ACDSee older versions did it by percentages and original size, sortable however you wanted, name, size, date, dims...but they killed that in later versions. If you can find an old version like 2.0, you'd have it good

Quade makes a couple of excellent points; that said, if you use a high-grade media such as TY, and keep the bitrate at sub 8.7Mpbs, chances are exceptionally good that it will play correctly. We make PAL DVDs on a daily basis. One of our rooms is strictly "desktop cheap" gear, and we have zero issue. We still burn two of every disc, because as Quade mentions, desktop burning still isn't "perfect" but like skydiving, you can stack the odds in your favor by watching the bitrate, using good media, and being sure your encoder is entirely spec-compliant. All of the bigger brand encoders are compliant. Fortunately this will get better soon, with BD burning on the horizon.

These days many set tops will play out PAL, but the choppiness is a potential indicator of a different issue; excessive bitrate. At what bitrate did you encode? The problem could also be PAL, what happens when you play it in your computer DVD player? It should suffer nearly as easily if it's a bitrate issue, by comparison to the set top. Be sure your encode is less than 8.5 Mpbs, and see if you still run into the choppiness issue. Remember you can do a two-pass encode if you're using a high bitrate vs a two pass.

We already have these here at Skydive Utah. One guy in particular (camera guy/tandem master) is scary fast with his Vengeance. Rules are simple: 1. canopies must be of somewhat similar size. Most of the smaller mains are either ZP or hybrids around here, but fabric should be a part of the competition. 2. must jump the pack job 3. can pack any way you want to, but since you're gonna jump it... 4. Contest is over when the rig is stood up with PC packed and tuck tabs in. winner gets a case of beer.

Disc at once means you're burning and finalizing the disc in one step with most systems, rather than building an open ended disc that can be added to later. have you tried the trial versions of any of the softwares I mentioned? Again, post or send me your system specs, I might be able to help. Do you by chance have a VIA chipset? If so, be sure you're using the 4 in 1 driverset.

Sony Vegas Canopus ProCoder Teranex recode are all good tools for PAL to NTSC. Be glad you're going PAL to NTSC rather than the other way around, cuz *nothing* does that really well.

Actually, when Doug Jensen created the WarmCards, he did so with still cams in mind. They offer a small set on a necklace/lanyard for stills. Thx for the input, guys.

What is a big business? I work for a company that employess 10,000+ people globally and believe it or not, our email goes down sometimes, things get lost in the servers and spam filters, etc. j Whatever. The odds of both "big" resellers having their computers all go down at the same time and all their customer emails lost at once and them not saying anything about it and not responding to follow up phone call (maybe their phones were down too? except that I spoke to a live person) are pretty astronomical, wouldn't you agree? And if the big business is so poorly set up that they'd lose requests for orders/quotes in their spam system, well, they don't deserve to be in business, IMO. I don't use Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail, so there would be no cause for my mail to be routed to spam. Doesn't matter. I got my rig, the businesses that responded got my money, I'm happily jumping and having a good time. and for me, that's all that matters.

Just about any DVD authoring tool can do what you're asking about, rather than just a data burning program. Sony DVD Architect Studio Ulead Video Studio Pinnacle 10 Adobe Encore DVD Lab iMovie All can be used to add music and author a DVD. If you need to actually EDIT the video to music, then you need an editing software, and all the companies mentioned above have editing software too. Even the free Windows Movie Maker can help with that.