The Apprentice 2 - Trials of making my first DV movie

[John]

I put together a video for the Apprentice 2 and had a
great deal of difficulty. Here is a breakdown of what
happened and how I fixed it.

I started by shooting the individual clips I wanted to
put into a movie. This was the easy part.

Then my friend recommende Adobe Premier as an editor
which I loaded. After learning about Premier found that
my DV camcorder could transfer digital data to my
computer rather than analog converted to digital so I
started down that path.

I installed the USB drivers and Imaging capture software
included with my Sony DRC-TRV19 DV Camcorder and saw it
had the ability to capture video directly from the
Camcorder so I used this feature to capture the clips.
BUT the sound didn't work!!! Installed Adobe Premier
Trial (free) and during install it pointed me directly to
the control panel and config location that fixed the
sound issue. Cool!!!

While searching for a fix to my sound issue I found out
that XP included Movie Maker and after looking into that
I decided to use it. After loading 3 clips MM crashed.
Looked into the debug info it was sending to Microsoft
and found a Codex from a WinDVD program I installed was
causing the problem. Looked in Google and found the
answer. Just uninstall WinDVD. MM worked now and I
composed the entire movie and was pleased with the cool
transitions and MM. Now to copy the movie back to tape.

First issue. USB 1.1 vs 2.0. To do good editing work
you'll need fast interconnect either USB 2.0 or IEEE
1394. I thought I had USB 2.0 but found if the mfg
doesn't specify 2.0 it is either 1.0 or 1.1. Went to the
store and bought a USB 2.0 and Firewire PCMCIA card which
fixed the USB 2.0 issue with my external hard drive.

Then I found out USB is one-way only from the camcorder.
Only Firewire is bi-directional. So off to the store to
get and i.Link cable. ( Later I found I didn't need to
buy this as Firewire PCI cards include a cable 6-pin to 4-
pin.)

When I used MM to save my video directly to the DV
camcorder, it looked like it was going to work and the
record mode automatically turned on when I clicked record
in MM. But for some reason the camcorder only recorded a
blue screen for the entire movie. No sound, no picture,
nothing. I spent hours trying to figure this out but
could not and had a deadline so I went down another path
after finding a GREAT website www.papajohn.org.

I ended up successfully using a program called WinDV
which is free and papajohn links to in his site. It is a
simple program that captures and copied .AVI files
directly to the camcorder. I only needed the copy to DV
feature so I generated an .AVI file. It was HUGE, 1.5GB
in all for my 8 minute movie.

There was some type of driver issue with my laptop and I
could not get it to work. It also copied the .AVI file
as a blue screen. Now that I knew my laptop was hosed, I
tried to get it to work on my desktop. Off to the store
for a USB/Firewire card and also bought Pinnacle v9 with
a PCI capture/Firewire card for $99 as a contingency plan
since all computer stores are closing in 30 minutes.

The separate USB/Firewire card I bought was trash,
neither the USB or Firewird drivers for that card worked
correctly on my desktop. It wouldn't even recognize my
external hard drive or my camcorder correctly. I need to
return it.

Put in the Pinnacle capture card and loaded Pinnacle 9.
I tried to load the .AVI file into Pinnacle but it didn't
work and the message was not helpful so all I knew is it
couldn't load the 1.5GB .AVI file.

Then I got the idea to try the free WinDV program on my
desktop now that it had a firewire connection from the
Pinnacle software/hardware bundle I bought. The first
try didn't work then I noticed an unlabled checkbox and
decided to check it and click <Record> in the WinDV
program. IT WORKED!!! By default the WinDV software
does not automatically turn recording on, but after
checking the unlabeled checkbox it automatically turned
recording on and I saw the movie copying to my
camcorder!!! IT WAS WORKING!!! The Pinnacle card in my
desktop worked and made the difference.

Now I had to copy to VHS which was easy using the analog
output on the TRV19 Sony DV Camcorder connected directly
to my home VCR. Put a label on it and it was FINALLY
ready to go.

In summary to do video editing I'd recommend the
following:
1. Use a DV camcorder, do not use analog.
2. Use an external USB 2.0/Firewire harddrive that can
move between multiple computers. That was helpful.
Copying a movie to another computer can take 15 minutes.
3. Use Movie Maker that ships free with XP. It is a
great utility for editing movies. What a steal.
4. Be aware of incompatibilities with USB and Firewire
drivers and cards. Not all USB/Firewire cards are equal
and compatible.
5. Reference the www.papajohn.org site
6. Check out the WinDV program from papajohn especially
if you are experiencing difficulty.
7. Editing makes home movies 10 times better. It makes
all the difference. I tossed out at least 80% of the
clips and reordered them to tell a story.
8. The faster the computer you have the better. 2.0Ghz
and 512 memory at a minimum. Video editing is VERY
demanding on your hardware.
9. Use i.Link and Firewire to pull video from and send
video to your camcorder. It is the only way to go.
10. Pinnacle 9 is much cheaper than Adobe Premier $99
vs $699. Try Pinnacle first and only get Premier if you
are either rich or need a specific feature it has.

Have a Great Day,
John

 

[John Kelly]

Hi there,

Thanks for your input.

 

[John Kelly]

Hi there,

I thought I had seen a posting similar to this elsewhere...still can't remember
if it was in this newsgroup or not. So, I checked up on it. The video referred
to is of an EXTREME PORNOGRAPHIC NATURE in every way possible. Whilst someone
is bound to say that by bringing it to every ones attention I am encouraging
them to go take a look, I believe it is far more responsible to warn parents or
those of a sensitive nature to stay away from it.

If I was still a serving Police Officer I would take great pleasure in bringing
these sort of people before the courts.

I hope that Microsoft will see my comments and delete this entire thread.

 

[John Kelly]

Hi there,

I thought I had seen a posting similar to this elsewhere...still can't remember
if it was in this newsgroup or not. So, I checked up on it. The video referred
to is of an EXTREME PORNOGRAPHIC NATURE in every way possible. Whilst someone
is bound to say that by bringing it to every ones attention I am encouraging
them to go take a look, I believe it is far more responsible to warn parents or
those of a sensitive nature to stay away from it.

If I was still a serving Police Officer I would take great pleasure in bringing
these sort of people before the courts.

I hope that Microsoft will see my comments and delete this entire thread.

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

Hi John,

Thanks for the interesting story.... hopefully you can now sit back and
enjoy your learning experience.

And thanks for posting it.

PapaJohn

 

[John]

What are you talking about? I made a video for the
Apprentice Season 2. I don't think Donald J. Trump is
interested in porn stars on his show or running any of
his companies.

John (The author of the original post, not John Kelly or
PapaJohn )

 

[John Kelly]

Oh Dear,

Well maybe you did not read my message about the nature of what "John" is up
to...at least I very strongly hope you did not. There are various types of PORN
out there.....those who make it and those who support it in any form, deserve
nothing but the highest condemnation and imprisonment. I am sure you agree.

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

John,

I read and responded to John's post.... and didn't see any links or pointers
to the movie he made. I'm here to learn about and help others learn about
Movie Maker 2.

No, I'm not interested in what they use it for. I leave the legal and moral
issues up to each person and their lawyers, governments and religions.... I
don't agree.


PapaJohn

 

[John]

The movie I made was for the Apprentice Season 2 reality
show on NBC hosted by Donald J. Trump. The tapes are due
today and I fed-exed it yesterday to beat today's
deadline. If you want I can post my fed-ex tracking
number for verification.

John

 

[John Kelly]

Papajohn,

I am very sorry to see your reply even though you have consistently and
demonstratably tried to undermine a lot of the help I give this group I have
always thought that you had morals, "Leaving it to others" is exactly how
Hitler rose to power with every one else saying "I am just following orders",
surely you do not want us to think of you as having that kind of a standpoint,
do you...I guess you do, you say so in the message I am replying to, anyway,
it is not what I expect from a Microsoft Valued Professional and I am sure that
Microsoft will agree.

Even though as of yesterday your name does not appear in the list of appointed
MVP's you represent your self as a PROFFESIONAL and favoured member of a team
of people recognised for their abilities.

Some of those abilities were highlighted when you did not know how to reply to
a secure e-mail using Outlook (I can tell you now that we all had a good laugh
here when we realised that) or why it is very bad manners to send HTML
formatted messages out over newsgroups that do not EXPRESSLY permit it (I have
brought that to your notice many times. I would love to be in a position of
seeing whether or not you know why it is happening and how to stop it), or
understand why your web site was unavailable or had and I quote "repaired
itself, I Like that" and did not know what a Tracert was and tried to belittle
me when I helped out others on that issue. These are not the comments of a
professional.

I doubt when Microsoft see your reply they will agree with you at all. If and
when they see the material...and I don't give a dam what "John" has to say on
the issue, they WILL care about the moral and legal issues and I hope will
advise you on their legal standpoint. They have a huge legal department you
know. Perhaps you should read the guidelines your self on the subject of
Usenet.

You also once sent me an e-mail saying that two people could not run this
newsgroup, meaning me and you. I never ever thought of myself as running this
newsgroup, how could I...its a non-moderated news group....and that means
Papajohn that you do not run it either.

All of my comments above are demonstratable...I kept all of your messages, and,
it was also clear from you first reply to "John" that your intent was to
inflame the
issue that I had brought to the attention of every one else, when Microsoft
read the time date stamps they will see what I mean. I am sure Microsoft will
take a less than favourable view on that as well. and just in case they miss
all of this I will send them a copy.

If you had replied along the lines of "I was not aware of that" or anything
equally polite I would have let your past performances go, as it is I am afraid
letting the issue go is the very last thing I will do.

 

[John Kelly]

Hi there,

Your comments about Fed-Ex as presented are of course worthless, or did you get
the delivery man to view it first?

I look forward to seeing the tape on the show, I do have live access even
though I am in England.

For your information, the advanced search engine I use found more than 200
entries referring to the title before I stopped any further search...and it had
a long way to go believe me.

It may have been this newsgroup, I am not sure, but I have read a posting which
used almost identical phrases and that had come "out of the blue" before. This
is why I checked what you referred too.

I checked several of the references found and discovered that the web site
contained extreme porn and one of them actually "called back" with a port
probe....

Even though you posted the message anonymously and cannot claim you are damaged
by my comments which in any case made in good faith and if you are genuinely
not connected to the above, I offer my apologies.

None of the above means that I will not pass this info on to Microsoft. I have
actively pursued purveyors of filth for a long time and unlike papajohn, this
person will stand up for what is right and decent.

 

[Guest]

My Fed-Ex number is 844982451501. Log on to fedex.com
and check it for yourself. If you log onto nbc.com and
the apprentice section you'll see that today is the
deadline and you can match up the city in both the Fed-Ex
tracking history and the address to send in your tape for
the Apprentice Season 2 reality show.

In my original post it states it took 1.5Gb for 8 minutes
of video. There is a reason why it is under 10 minutes.
The instructions for submitting a tape for the Apprentice
Season 2 state that tapes over 10 minutes long will not
be considered.

Those are the facts.

I submitted the post to help people like myself that
might be having difficulties with home movie editing.
That is all.

Have a great day.

John

 

[Digger]

John,

Don't feed into this junk. John Kelly's comments were completely uncalled
for, unrelated to anything you posted or referred to and his mistaken
rush-to-judgment is better left to those who hunt witches for a living. You
do not need to defend your behavior here, so don't.

 

[John Kelly]

Hi there,

Perhaps you have not read my message on the subject of fed-ex, but in any case
as we do not know who you are we are not really in a position to determine
whether or not your tape will appear on TV or not...those are the facts !!

The issue has of course moved on from you to the more immediate issue of Morals
and letting things slide paste representatives of Microsoft.

I see no further point in discussing whether you are or not associated with a
pornographic web site. If you are not well that's a shame, all the more so
because of the choice of name by a large TV company and what you typed....I
wonder if they know about the connection. If you are connected, YUCK!

The whole point of my very first message on this matter was to bring it to the
attention of people like me...and nowadays quite young children and maybe not
many older people.....they know how to check up on these things...its a few
seconds of effort you know...that's all...the title you used got a 100%
relevancy rating on the first two screen's of data...if you had done that check
and come up with some pretty horrific scenes of pornography on all of the links
and then gone to the trouble of telling people what you had found, how would
you feel if an MVP knowing you had made the remarks I had, then replied to you
direct with the phrase "you can sit back and enjoy your efforts......".

Now, as I know from past experience the person making those remarks is apt to
say things that reveal a better understanding of his knowledge about matters
"Internet" I have to wonder whether he checked what I had said or not....his
reply infers that he leaves it up to other people and that he did not check....
knowing what I had said he replied...lets hear it again, "you can sit back and
enjoy your efforts...". Its just sick. I intend to make sure that Microsoft
get to hear about it and his general attitude, which is nicely demonstrated in
some earlier posts.

For those of you for whom this flies straight over the top of your heard...I'm
sorry, this is an important issue. I have seen the very distasteful effects of
people who leave things to others, whether I am right or wrong about whether
"John" was referring to Pornographic material or not is almost beside the
point, an MVP actively encouraged the person, and was content to let moral
issues be dealt with by others...I am one of the others.

 

[jquiet]

That was a long post. But one thing caught my eye. You mentioned capturing
with USB from a camera? Video captured that way is never high quality unless
you have a DVD Camcorder. If you were referring to the drive connection then
that is OK.

 

[Alan]

I thought I had seen a posting similar to this elsewhere...still can't remember
if it was in this newsgroup or not. So, I checked up on it. The video referred
to is of an EXTREME PORNOGRAPHIC NATURE in every way possible.

WHAT are you talking about??? I did a thorough Google and could find nothing
to which you refer.

Whilst someone
is bound to say that by bringing it to every ones attention I am encouraging
them to go take a look, I believe it is far more responsible to warn parents or
those of a sensitive nature to stay away from it.

If I was still a serving Police Officer I would take great pleasure in bringing
these sort of people before the courts.

But you're not. You're a rambling paranoid dillusionist fool. Get a grip
before you embarrass yourself any more.
Then,
1: Explain what you were gibbering about in the first place
2: Apologise to PapaJohn

I hope that Microsoft will see my comments and delete this entire thread.

I hope that Microsoft will see your comments and delete YOU!

 

[John Kelly]

WHAT are you talking about??? I did a thorough Google and could find nothing
to which you refer.

Then sir, you are incompetent...give me an email address and I will swamp you
with links....end of conversation FOOL

 

[John Kelly]

Hi there,

Because at a later stage I want it to be seen what you wrote, here is the email
from you that I just replied to.

John Kelly said:

Here you are ..Just the first page sorted by relevance...I strongly
recommend
that you do not view any of these links as a large number of them refer to
pornographic materials...I have sent you these because of your request in
the
Movie Maker newsgroup so that a point may be made and to demonstrate that
your
search method was inadequate.

But...I still don't understand. The original poster was referring to a
show on NBC - <http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice/>

""The Apprentice" is a 15-episode unscripted drama in which 16 candidates
from all walks of life, including both Ivy League MBA graduates and street
entrepreneurs with no college education, will endure rigorous tasks each
week while living together in a hip Manhattan loft apartment. The tasks
will test their intelligence, chutzpah and street-smarts. They will face
the challenges of living in close quarters and must complete sometimes
humorous, but always difficult, job assignments and will be forced to
think outside the box in order to outshine each other to get to the top."

You've chosen to find some obscure web results, and on the basis that a
fraction of them contain porn references which contain the same words,
you've then started a flame war on the newsgroup. I'll ask you again: Why
have you chosen to do this?

PS - what is your outgoing email wrapping set at? The "standard" is around
72, and much more makes replies wrap strangley, like this!
The author of the above message Mr. Alan Parker is so far off beam with his
comments its almost a joke. His own abilities are such that his only course of
action is to attack a listing made by a deep search utility and then in an
attempt at making it sound right he refers to his own search of an incorrect
title.
If this is the best you can do fellas...I would give up now.
Oh yes, as you appear to have never replied to many email messages...it often
occurs that when your program includes the reply and it adds the > symbol it
will force the original message to re-wrap but because the program can not do
it properly...it alsways comes out wrong..Outlook course 101
And strangely is spelt S T R A N G E L Y at least in my country.....

 

[John Kelly]

Yes he is getting boring now...and clearly weary of his quest...but here is
the next message from Mr Alan Parker (who tries vainly to hide behind one of
those email address's that he thinks hides his location or ISP) BTW Mr Alan
Parker...F.U.'s set to alt.foolish.users........................

John Kelly said:

But...I still don't understand. The original poster was referring to a
show on NBC - http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice/

Sorry...no he was not...please read the first message

I did, and still see no evidence to the contrary.

There may well be such a program...however it is not the one refered to in
the original message...keep trying

OK, can you quote clearly the section in which the author says otherwise?

PS - what is your outgoing email wrapping set at? The "standard" is around
72, and much more makes replies wrap strangley, like this!

Incorrect...when you know the right number and say whjat it is...try
setting
your system to work by it.

I'll be sure and do that. Can you assist me in the correct number?

P.S. comments come after the signature.....

In ten years of being on the net, I've never heard that. Perhaps you can
clarify this for me, for example, the RFC number?

I am having an excelent day thank you...

Except I didn't write "Have A Nice Day"....

I am having a lot of fun watching
people try to justify themselves...the allegations are getting more and
more
wild...but people writing to me saying well done are growing by the hour.

OK. Whatever.

Take it easy...you may cause your self to have high blood pressure...that
can be quite serious.

Have fun now.............

Try it sometime.

I'm going to end this at this point, as you seem to be copying replies to
the newsgroup.