[253] 10 is not enough...

[Richard Smith <smith@sfu.ca>]

Dear 253,

I know some of you are agonizing about the impact of compression on  
your video. A couple have even asked for exceptions. I am not giving  
any exceptions, but I do have some suggestions (below).

First, the reason(s) for no exceptions:

	- [most important reason] the assignment is all about compressed  
digital video, the kind you might exchange on a phone or an ipod or a  
web site. The compression is *part of* the assignment.

	- we have 25+ videos to watch. Swapping CD's, DVD's, or hard drives  
(yes, people have brought in hard drives...) is just not feasible. It  
takes too much time.

	- when people bring in things on their own media, there are WAY too  
many chances for it to be incompatible with the display equipment we  
have in the theatre.

	- allowing *some* people to use more megabytes changes the rules  
midstream and if there is anything that will drive students crazy it  
is knowing that the rules changed midstream; especially if it  
advantages some people and not them.

If you want to see how it can be done, and done very successfully,  
then check out the video from the "KIRK" group that is already on the  
"A4Uploads" page. It is under 10mb and very successful.

Some other hints:

Don't use scrolling titles. Use fixed titles. The scroll means that  
the titles have to be redrawn by the computer, using new pixels,  
every time they move. You can save a lot there.

Compress your sound - 22khz/64kbps is fine.

Also, know that I will be using a "hardware zoom" (like when I put my  
face up on the screen in the classroom and zoomed it to fill the  
screen), which isn't as nasty as the software zoom that you might get  
when you take a little picture and ask your movie player to fill the  
screen.

...r



--
Richard Smith, Associate Professor School of Communication
Simon Fraser University, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, CANADA  
V6B 5K3
Phone: 604 291 5116 Web: http://www.sfu.ca/~smith/ Mobitus: 2001 1070  
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