Oly 5050 video clip - playing with a Remora

[SM Diver]

I honestly feel bad for you, Genesis. I don't get over here much, but I've seen enough to feel bad.

It has nothing to do with your views on white balance, computer applications, red filters, the rule of thirds, how someone died on a dive (per your theory), insurance underwriting, nitrogen exposure, constitutional interpretation, Suunto algorithms, municipal graft, county ordinances, Steve Jobs, Microsoft, Pixar, state legislation, Bill Gates, Apple, Disney, Clinton, Smoking Ban Amendments, the 14th Amendment, the Second Amendment, the Florida Constitution, the Federal Constitution, Air-fill rip offs, Girl friends who have left you in a drunken stupor, funny gag grouper photos lip strung on a stringer that you amazingly use as your profile photo, playful ramoras, trade practice violations, how to make your own diesel fuel, peanut shell 02 analyzers, haskels, evil Democrats, or any other brief glimpse into your jaded psyche I have had the misfortune of briefly witnessing.

I feel bad for you because you're never there. Never there to shoot fish, to hang with the guys, to goof around on the boat, to lay it on the line, to show that you have anything resembling grit. Tell you what, big guy. I've got an extra spot on my boat this weekend for the Southern Open (well, I'll make an extra spot). Bring some lean mixes, my friend. I'd recommend a couple of 26s (1.6 plan), and the rest will be in the shallows (120 or so), so 32s will do. My email address is speargun@tampabay.rr.com. My name is Scott McPherson. My cell phone number is 727.457.3050. You'll be treated first class on my boat like a part of the brotherhood. Bring your gun and gear and be ready to drop when told. Your share of the fuel is on me. No B.S. I will write here and on spearboard that you're for real, and can shoot something more than your mouth behind a keyboard. (Assuming you actually show-up and shoot something more than a suicidal hog or trigger).

 

[SM Diver]

Dee...sorry....I've got no beef with you.

 

[Genesis]

I feel bad for you because you're never there. Never there to shoot fish, to hang with the guys, to goof around on the boat, to lay it on the line, to show that you have anything resembling grit.

Never been there to shoot fish? Uh, what is that shot fish in my profile photo? He sure tasted good.....

Or just to dive? Wrong again. I'm out at least once a week, and if I can get the people up to go, twice or more.

Did two dives yesterday, and shot about 10 minutes of video and some still. Should have brought the gun - there were a bunch of scamp under the first barge we were on. Nobody got them - but we did get a mess of fish anyway; a few snapper, one gag, and a gaggle of flounder. Oh, it was all guys yesterday on the boat, although it was a close-in, short trip - has to do with being a full-time Dad and having to be back home by 3:00 to meet the bus.

My kid's birthday is Monday and her party Saturday, or I'd seriously consider taking you up on that offer. 26%? What depths are you guys diving? I mix up 28% for deep (to 140 planned max, 130 typical) and 30% for anything else. I do planned deco down to about 140' if the site is worth it (it rarely is.) I do need to bring a laptop with me to calc the deco tables for that though, which pretty much eliminates most small (under 40-45' with a "dry" cabin) boats for that purpose.

Last weekend we did a dive to 130 on a landing craft, and on the first dive I took my gun instead of my camera. Mr. Black Snapper was on the menu. Another guy had his (very expensive) 3ccd video cam, and while he didn't get me shooting it, he did get me stalking and bagging it - he thought I was not going to fire, turned away with the cam, and then came back to me when he heard the gun fire. Would have bagged a couple more but the 4'+ cudas were hungry and ate 'em right off my spear before I could get to them. Oh well.

I may not have as much "grit", but I bet my gas lasts longer. Yesterday I logged 76 minutes across two dives on one 120cf cylinder with depths of approximately 70' while shooting that video, and had 800lbs of gas left in it when I surfaced on the second one. I'd send 'ya the VCD of that dive, but for 12 minutes of video, post-production, its about 150MB. I'll stick it up as a CD image somewhere if you (or Dee) would like though..... Sorry, but the only fish I actually SAW shot were flounder, although the "bag" included both grouper and snapper.... I just wasn't in the right place at the right time.

I'm going out Sunday, weather permitting, and I'll promise 'ya this - if we do go, I'll take both the gun and the camera, and clip off the less useful one on the line while using the other. "Less useful" will be defined as "if there's something legal to shoot around, the gun goes first." Proof probably can't go here though since I don't think Dee would approve of pictures of speared fish as my "main subject" If I'm wrong about that I'm sure Dee will advise.....

BTW we don't have hogs around here. But from what I've read, they're the dumbest fish out there and not really much of a sport in that they're neither hard to shoot nor particularly dangerous when you do. Try black snapper for spookiness and skill in approach, or legal-sized AJs or Ling for pure "stones" quotient. The former are hard to get close enough to hit, the latter will be more than happy to try to kill YOU instead of (or in addition to) THEM once shot.

 

[SM Diver]

Genesis, you make things up and then argue them in an indignant tone. A perfect example is this and the other thread on this topic. I went into much detail to try to explain to Dee how she could get by CHEAP using her PC with the quicktime files. I pointed out that quicktime is also made for windows, and that she could even do some editing in quicktime. Apart from that $30 purchase, the only other thing I suggested was that she might upgrade to Studio for PC, which is very cheap and also and has transitions. (see http://www.scubaboard.com/t36897/s.html). I made a harmless tongue-in-cheek comment in this thread I believe that it's a one step process on a Mac. Next thing I know, you extrapolate this to mean that I am making an "insane" suggestion that people go out and buy a new computer. Where do you get this stuff? Are you on some kind of medication that causes confusion? Is it a personality flaw that just looks for conflict?

I wish you would take me up on the offer. Maybe another time. Seriously, I'll have you on the Gag. You've got my cell number now, feel free to call. As it turns out, since this is an aggregate tourney, and I found out the weigh-in deadline is early, we're going to stay local and hit stuff inshore in 100ft.

As for amberjacks, I know well what they're like. I've free shafted them, been bloodied by them, and been taken for long rides. Most recently, I shot one on a 130fsw wreck that was immediately inhaled by a jewfish that pulled me into a wreck and could have killed me. I've shot my share.

Do the Spearboard Open, that'll be the next tournament in May. Maybe you'll learn that a "locker room" can be a fun place to be. You'd also get to meet some of the biggest names in spearfishing. Could be fun. (Leave the laptop at home).

 

[Genesis]

isn't enough. I have QT Pro, and its only real use in this context is to export to another format so that you can actually do something with the video that doesn't require spending $700 on a package like Premiere. Standing alone, its damn next to worthless, but you can't find that out until you blow your $30, and its non-returnable.

As I noted in THIS thread, I pointed out that with QT Pro and the Roxio Platinum software you can cut VCDs and SVCDs of the Oly 5050 files, which is pretty good, for a total investment under $100. You CAN'T cut DVDs with that combination, since the format is not compatable even if you extract the clip(s) from the QT created by the camera to UNCOMPRESSED AVI files, Roxio won't "eat" the native QT files the Oly creates, and upconverting to what it wants to burn a DVD appears to be impossible. Roxio's package does transitions, audio overdubbing and basic editing (cutting out segments of a clip, etc) and can burn to VCDs, SVCDs and DVDs (given appropriate hardware.)

My DVD player won't play a SVCD properly, but it does play VCDs ok.

I'm sure there ARE options in software that DO work for the "full monte", including upconverting for DVD format, but some of them are just insanely expensive, and buying a Mac for this purpose is even more so.

The point of THIS thread, and the other one, was to present a way to get very servicable video out of the Oly 5050 and get it in a format where you can do something more than just put it on the web. Putting it on the web requires nothing. Its doing something ELSE with it that requires some effort and money.

As for the offer to come diving, its reciprocal. Come up here sometime and you can take a dive or three off Gig. Its a standing, open offer for members of Scubaboard, and I don't care if you're shooting your fish with a camera or speargun, as I do both and typically, on a 3-tank day, I'll do some of each.

I generally dislike locker rooms and don't feel that they add anything of value to my life, other than being a necessary evil as a place to change my into and out of various sports attire.

 

[SM Diver]

Quicktime Pro is worth $30. You're right, not as an editor so much, but it does many other things you must not understand. At $30, it's a value.

I still crack-up. You insulted spearboard by calling it a locker room, and the guys loved it and adopted it as their own. Even those originally put-off by its rough exterior now recognize it as the premiere place for spearing info, and many top authorities, including several from here, now participate. It has had write ups in the St. Pete Times, two-page four color spreads in Spearfishing Magazine, and exposure in Florida Scuba News. It's first annual tourney had over 100 participants and over $14,000 on the table. It's not the nefarious place you make it out to be.

With that said, I'm out like a fat kid in dodge ball!

 

[Genesis]

is worth, as I see it, on the PC, $0.

Visual Studio appears to be reasonable. I'm evaluating it now - they allow you to play before you pay. It looks like it will do what Roxio and QT does, and for the same money, but in "one step", which saves you buffering disk space and time in upconverting.

I'll see what I think of the video quality once I get done burning a few test disks....

The permitting of gross, personal attacks and graphics/avatars/etc that many people find way beyond the boundaries of good taste on SB is why I won't participate.

That has nothing to do with the kind of diving that I do.

To each their own Scott; there are lots of people who get ink; all that means is that you stand out.

There are many ways to do that, and not all of them are complimentary.

 

[andrea31419]

So video clips from Olym, you can pull into Quicktime, edit and you're rearing to go. I've got both QT and Roxio. I'm trying to understand this process to give it a go.

A.

 

[Genesis]

BTW, ULead's Video Studio does all this in one step, and is about $100 - so that is also an option if you have NEITHER Qucktime or Roxio. You can do a 30-day eval on the Ulead product (I'm looking at it now.)

You need Quicktime PRO (not the free player) to do the extracts. Assuming you have it, and the Roxio Platinum edition, the process is:

1. Grab the .MOV files off the camera and store them on the disk.
2. Open each one you wish to use.
3. Go to EXPORT. Select "Movie to AVI." Click Options. Click SETTINGS and change the compression to EITHER "None" (huge files) or DV/DVCPRO-NTSC. Set Motion in "Frames per second" to 29.97, then select OK. Once you do this Qucktime will "remember" your export settings, so you only have to set the options once. If you don't set these options Roxio will throw up on the input files and what you get probably won't play.
4. Pick somewhere to save the extracted files; you need a LOT of space! Click "SAVE".
5. Repeat for each clip you wish to assemble.

Now you can go into Roxio CD and DVD Creator 6. Click "DVD Builder". Use "import" to get each clip and assemble it in your timeline, add music, transitional effects, build your top ment, etc.

Note that many players cannot handle SVCDs properly. I have two and neither can read them consistently. There apparently is a CPU issue with managing to render the higher-quality video in real-time. Obviously it works for DVDs, so I can only surmise that the problem lies in the actual compression algorythm used for SVCDs. VCD works fine. This is not a Roxio problem; I have the same issue with VideoStudio. While both productions will "play" on my two DVD players, both have periods of being very jerky or even skipping entire frames - and its not a disk problem. If I play the MPEG file on my PC its fine; the rendering is not the problem; the decoding on the DVD player is. Of course if you have the burner and are willing to toast the DVDRs you can burn to there too, but I have neither and for the inherent quality in the 5050 videos it would be overkill anyway.

If you have nothing, VideoStudio looks like a "one stop" deal for the whole shooting match, but if you already have either Roxio or Quicktime, that combination works, albiet with a bit more work.

 

[zboss]

Genesis,

What maufacturer of batteries do you use? Where did you get the 2100 mAh?