Activists Want Federal Rules for Reality TV Kids

NPR News is reporting on a new push by several child advocacy groups (and AFTRA) for federal rules to govern under-aged participants on reality shows. Child performers are exempt from Federal labor laws, and California and New York have strong laws to protect child actors. However, children on reality shows are usually classified as "contestants" or "participants", not performers. Additionally, states like Pennsylvania, where the Gosselins live, have their own laws, which according to attorney Gloria Allred creates "a crazy patchwork quilt of laws throughout the United States."

Activists are trying to strike while the iron is hot, by using the attention around the recent "balloon boy" incident, which turned out to be a publicity stunt to create a buzz around the father's reality show pitch.

Converting Flip Cam Footage for Use in Avid

I've now worked on my second show that used footage shot with a Flip MinoHD. There are literally dozens of programs that transcode video, but the best option for converting video to use in an NLE is MPEGStreamClip.

While I've tested this method specifically with Flip footage, it should work for any format that's viewable in Quicktime. If you can't view your video in Quicktime Player, try installing Perian, which enables Quicktime to view a whole slew of different formats.

MPEGStreamClip just works. It isn't bogged down with a lot of iPod presets you don't need, it just opens a video and lets you choose a format to convert to. It offers a few adjustments, but mostly it does one thing and does it well.

I'm an Avid user and will use it for this example, but this workflow should work for Final Cut Pro systems, you'll just want to choose a different compression than I use.

1. Open your video with MPEGStreamClip, and from the menu bar choose File -> Export to Quicktime...

2. In the Compression drop-down menu, select your codec. You should choose a codec based on the format you're finishing in. This project is onlining at 2:1 in standard definition on Avid, so I chose Avid Meridien Compressed. This codec is installed with Avid Media Composer, if you're using a computer without Media Composer you can download the codecs here.

3. Clicking the Options button will give you a few more settings, and I use "RGB Levels (0-255)", "NTSC", and "2:1 Interlaced".

4. Back in the previous window, under Frame Size, select "Other" and type in "720" x "486" for the dimensions. Also, choose "Lower Field First" for the field dominance, despite what the text next to the box says.

5. Uncheck any boxes along the right relating to interlacing, since Flip and most other computer-viewed formats are not interlaced.

6. That's it! Hit "Make Movie" and save the video. The transcoding starts with a progress bar.

7. Once it's time to import into Avid, you'll want to use some specific settings on the "Image" tab of the import settings. Choose "601/709, non-square" because 720×486 is the standard 601 frame size. Choose "601/709" for the Color level, because using the Avid Meridien Compressed codec automatically converts your video to 601 levels. Choose "Even (Lower Field First)" because that's what you chose in MPEGStreamClip. And choose to "Ignore" the Alpha, since there is no alpha channel.

8. Upon pressing OK, your video should import using "Fast Import", since the video is already in the Avid codec. This should save you some time.

And that's it! I've used this method professionally and for small home projects and it's worked every time. Hopefully I can save you some head-scratching.

ADS Tech's Instant Video To-Go: Not Ready for Primetime

It's another post about getting quick H.264 encodes! I previously recommended the Pinnacle Video Transfer, now I'm here with another product I've tried that I do not recommend: the Instant Video To-Go from ADS Tech. I should note that this device is for Windows only.

This device works a little differently from most others. It's a hardware USB dongle that encodes videos five times faster than real time, using included software. The speed claims ring true, but the quality of the videos is really not up to snuff.

The device says it supports importing Quicktime videos, but in practice, when I tried to encode a video that had been exported from Avid using "Same as Source" (a.k.a. a "Fast-Export"), the color channels were misaligned, leaving me not with a full-color image, but a purple and a yellow image laid on top of each other, and not properly centered.

But things didn't stop there. I tried to convert a DVD to watch on my iPod, which seemed fine at first, but I began to notice that about every five to fifteen seconds, the saturation of the picture would suddenly shift, which was jarring to the eye. I made a split-screen example using two consecutive frames that look similar:

Note the diference in the red stools in the background, and the green table in the foreground. This shift occurs from one frame to the next, not gradually and is really, really annoying.

So, being brief, I recommend you stay away from this product.

Two Developments in the Future of Watching TV

There were two big news stories regarding television today, covered by two different kinds of news outlets. One seemed to point to the impending doom of broadcast television, the other defends its continued success.

If you follow the technology sector, the big news was that Apple has been pitching the television networks on an all-you-can-watch package through iTunes for a flat monthly fee of $30. Napster and Microsoft's Zune store currently offer this kind of service for music, and many tech pundits think this is the future of music distribution. Apple's attempt to use the model for television is right on the heels of an "underwhelming" update to their Apple TV set-top box, as well as the news that Hulu may introduce a partial paywall.

But, if you were reading the entertainment news, the big story was that nearly half of all people watching programs that are played back from a DVR do not skip the commercials. Nielsen Media Research has been tracking the ratings of DVR-recorded programs for the past two years, but since the networks assumed viewers were skipping commercials, the networks were ignoring DVR ratings. This new development means that broadcast and cable television viewers are watching a lot more ads than anyone realized. With these DVR ratings included, shows that were thought to be struggling suddenly become hits.

The DVR story is far more substantial, but if you follow Apple rumors, they generally come true (eventually). These two means of distribution have been duking it out for the past few years, I think we're beginning to see a future of coexistence.

Big Brother Winner Uses Prize Money to Begin Drug Trafficking

Source: Fox 25 News in Boston

Uh oh. Big Brother season 9 winner Adam Jasinski was arrested in Massachusetts on October 19, with 2000 oxycodone pills hidden in his pants.

From the article:

"Jasinski allegedly confessed that he had been selling thousands of oxycodone pills all along the East Cost over the past several months, and had been funding his enterprise with the $500,000 price [sic] he won from the 'Big Brother Season 9' show."

I'm just wondering how far in advance of the show he planned this business venture.