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| Here are a list of links to sites that I have found either essential, useful, or interesting, for one reason or another. Just to reassure you - I DO NOT GET ANY REVENUE for referring you to any of these sites. Check back here regularly - this list is often updated with new stuff.
VIDEO EDITING LINKSMike Shaw's Hints and Tips - www.mikeshaw.co.uk Mike is known world-wide for his highly informative pages. They are full of information drawn from his own experience, starting with his time as a Studio400 beta tester, through to the present. There are also tips and and advice taken from the Pinnacle webboard over a long period, and contributions from other users. Mike has recently overhauled this site to focus on the generic Studio editing software that is used by all the NLE products, and the original Studio400 Linear product. Look out too for Mike's regular informative newsletters. Jos Roijakkers's Site - http://studio.club.tip.nl. This site is for Dutch language users. Some of this information has been translated by Jos, and is on Mike Shaw's site but, if you understand the Dutch language, you will find something new here. You may also recognise exerpts from my site here, which Jos has translated. Jos, too, has taken the generic approach to the Studio product range, and has combined all his sites into one, now with the addition of the recent Studio7 and Hollywood FX products. You will also find an active forum on this site, moderated by Jos. Pete Archer's Site - www.petesvideo.com Pete is an enthusiast who runs this site in the USA. He has a practical user-oriented approach to his movie-making, and new users will find his description of the system enlightening. Pete also describes his foray into digital editing. Karl Miller's Site - www.pdc.ca/video/StuEDL This the long awaited contribution from Karl, a regular contributor to the Pinnacle webboards. This site is so new, I would not be able to do its description justice, so Karl has offered the following few words - "StuEDL - the Studio Translator" is a shareware software utility that gives any Pinnacle "Studio" video editor access to Studio 200, a powerful free-download videotape database manager and movie assembler. Studio 400, DV, DC10plus, MP10, and PCTV, from Pinnacle Systems Inc., have no tape library capabilities, but StuEDL translates their "Edit Decision List" (EDL) or tape capture data into Studio 200 format. Studio 200 can catalog, search, sort, sift, split, combine, preview, and print any combination of tapes, clips, collections, and projects. Studio 400 users also gain accurate and reliable movie assembly. Visit this site for a Studio 200 online tour and downloads, more information about StuEDL, and an interesting collection of resources and links for all Studio video editors. Allen Pilgrim's Site (Visual Appeal) - http://www.video777.com Allen hosts a site under the attractive banner 'Visual Appeal'. If you are into working with Pinnacle's Studio 7 editor and Hollywood FX plug-in, then you will find much to interest you here. Allen has the enthusiasm, in common with most of us amateurs, to maintain an active site - so visit it often. You will also find some very amusing light relief here in the 'Humour' section. Pinnacle Discussion Forums - http://wboard.pinnaclesys.com/default.htm This is the homepage for Pinnacle's video editing discussion forums. You can enter all of the consumer webboards from here. Computer Video Magazine - www.computervideo.net If you want to keep up with latest developments in the world of digital video editing, then this is the key site to start at. There is a very active message board here that covers all aspects of video editing. ACE Video Enhancer - www.gthelectronics.com I bought one of these some while ago, and wouldn't be without it. This site gives you a good feel for what the unit will do. It is worth the price, just for the 'Colour Shift' control. Versions available for PAL/SECAM/NTSC. If you think this unit is redundant in this age of DV - think again. That final dub down to VHS will be done using S-Video/C-Video connection. This is where the Ace also scores strongly. It will fine-tune the image to perfection (digitally), to give optimum quality to your distributed productions, and also give the opportunity of adding an adjustable WIDESCREEN aspect ratio to your movie. This product is now available as a FULL STANDARDS CONVERTER. This means that you can convert any video source (PAL/SECAM/NTSC) to any standard - (e.g. convert NTSC input to PAL for recording on PAL VCR, and vice versa), and have full simultaneous control over all aspects of image quality. When you check out the prices, you will find these units are incredible value for money. (Check on how much professional studios pay for similar facilities!)
SOUND LINKSSyntrillium - www.syntrillium.com This is the home of the superb sound file editor CoolEdit2000. It may be downloaded from this site for a 30 day evaluation. I have used CoolEdit for over two years, and can wholeheartedly recommend it. The latest version will both decode and encode mp3 files. Amongst the many attractions of this editor is the ability to use a Timecode timebase (including SMPTE and Drop Frame formats), and an easy way of stretching or compressing sounds in time without changing pitch (very useful for tailoring added soundtracks when video editing). All Music Guide - www.allmusic.com A superb database of Composer/Artist/Song/Title/Album information of all genres. Also links to the All Movie Guide, and All Game Guide. If you heard it or saw it, but can't remember what, who or where, then this is the site to consult. Utopia Live Soundfonts - www.utopialive.com If you have one of the Creative Labs Soundblaster Live! cards, and use MIDI files, then this site is for you. If you compose your own music as well, then this site is a MUST. Utopia have released a professional 32Mb GM soundfonts package that replaces the 2, 4, and 8 Mb soundfonts that come with the card. The results are astonishing - check out the mp3 samples of compositions made with this amazing product on this site - they are almost indistinguishable from a live performance. The low cost will amaze you too! Looking for ways to add free music to your movies, fed up with SmartSound, can't compose your own? Then how about downloading some free MIDI files from the web (here's a starting point, or here for classical), playing them through SB Live with Utopia Live, and recording them to wav files. If you have a MIDI file editor (like Voyetra Orchestrator ) you can change the composition to suit your own preference. Your audience will think you hired an orchestra or band. Gone are the days of that second-rate PC MIDI sound. Want to make your own 'original' music? - www.musicmachines.net Some while ago, Mike Shaw described a program to me that he had recently re-discovered lurking in the depths of his hard drive, although how it had got there he couldn't remember. From his enthusiastic description, it sounded too good to be true. Called Microsoft Music Producer, it apparently generates very acceptable MIDI music, based on nothing more than a few verbal preferences. Mike had just invested in a new PC, and now wanted to install this program on it, but could not locate any installation disks. His enquiries to Microsoft produced a blank - they had ditched it in 1997. The subject came up again the other day in conversation, so I decided to go on a 'Cyber-Expedition' to see if it was possible to locate the origin of, or locate a source for, this long lost treasure. What I eventually unearthed was an intriguing trail of destruction, perpetrated by Microsoft, involving the annihilation of a long list of innovative companies, amongst them being an outfit called Blue Ribbon Soundworks Ltd. This company, I discovered, was the originator of the technology behind Music Producer. Their roots were in the highly respected Amiga camp, but were now making inroads into the Windows PC. A little more digging finally located a site hosted by an enthusiast, Tom Smith, that contained some 'booty'. This site was a real find. Tom has rescued two utilities (Melody Maestro, and Super Jam) from obscurity, when Microsoft enveloped Blue Ribbon Soundworks. They removed from the market all Blue Ribbons' leading-edge music (midi) products, but tried developing their most recent (Audio Tracks Professional) into Microsoft Music Producer. This was available as a free download for a while, in beta form, then released as a product (V1.0), but sadly deleted from their catalogue shortly afterwards. Melody Maestro or (its big brother) Super Jam, will create midi music for you without the need to place a single note anywhere! You just choose a style, mood, tempo etc., then listen to various versions until you find one you like. You then add a melody, which can also be auditioned and 'adjusted' to your liking and, after a little more 'tinkering' (like selecting different instruments, and placing them in various positions on the stereo 'stage'), you can save your masterpiece as a midi file (easily converted to .wav). It is also possible to save the composition in its own format too, so that it may be recomposed or edited again at a later date. There are lots of options too, like building up a multi-section composition. You can even sing into the microphone and let the program compose a melody from that! Here are a couple of examples I 'composed' with Melody Maestro in less than 5 minutes. Just click on them, and they should play. Being midi files however, there is no guarantee you will hear them exactly how I did (It depends on your soundcard). Normally, for movies, you would record them as .wav to eliminate this problem. For interest's sake, I also include these two in .mp3 format, so you can hear exactly what I heard. These are naturally much bigger files, and will take longer to download than the midi files. If you are using a 56k modem, then the datarate will be too low to stream into your player without the sound breaking up. To overcome this, right-click on the files, then save them to disk by choosing 'Save Target As' - you can then listen to them offline, without any interruption.
Best go quickly to Tom's site, and read more about the programs, then download them (free), and start playing with them yourself. If you combine these programs with Utopia GM files (now available for soundcards other than SB Live!), and try 'trimming and tuning' the sound with CoolEdit2000, you should be able to create impressive original soundtracks (and sound 'bites') for all your movies in no time at all. Tom's site also has lots of other 'goodies' that are worth taking a look at, whilst you are there.
COMPUTING LINKSMicrosoft technical help - www.microsoft.com/technet Get help on problems, and the latest patches and free upgrades on all Microsoft products. You can also access their Knowledge Base from here - a huge information resource. Find new drivers - www.helpdrivers.com If you are desperately seeking a driver update for that obscure peripheral, or just want to find where to go to get driver advice on your current setup, then this new site is the place to start. Stunning Screen Savers - http://users.owt.com/pixelate/pages/savers.htm I am not a fan of screen savers, I usually disable them (despite their monitor-saving properties), as they are the kiss of death to video editors like Studio400, and they can play havoc with CD writers. But this site is guaranteed to turn the head of even the most ardent cynic. I will say no more - just take a look. Try galaxies for starters - you will be stunned! - a cosmic fireworks display par excellence (it also runs as an application). I have to thank my astronomical (in the star-gazing sense!) colleague Chris Seymour for this one.
PROGRAMMING LINKSHexEdit - File Viewer and editor - http://www.expertcomsoft.com/ HexEdit V1.0 is an easy to use but powerful binary file editor modelled on MS Word and the Visual Studio hex editor. Complete C++/MFC source is available separately. It includes many display options including optional character display (ASCII/EBCDIC), autofit to window, increment/decrement font size, change font, graphic chars, hex/decimal addresses etc. Editing tools include comprehensive undo, fast keystroke macros (with configurable refresh rates and error-handling), fast (Boyer-Moore) searches, comparisons, insert/overtype mode etc. It also has full support for printing (page-range, selection etc), clipboard (ASCII, binary, EBCDIC, Unicode, C source), help (including context-sensitive help for all dialogs and controls). You can also monitor over 50 different values at the cursor position including Unicode and EBCDIC characters, 8/16/32/64 bit integers, IEEE/IBM floating point numbers (big- or little-endian). This is a FREE program from Andrew Phillips, and has to be the best utility of its kind anywhere. Andrew's website is well worth a visit. POSTSCRIPT ON HEXEDIT - This program has just been upgraded to V2.1, and is now Shareware. It has several refined options, an updated interface, and will now handle files >4GByte. Andrew has moved his website to a new address, which has been updated in the above link. My recommendation still stands.
This program was a remarkable find, not only in the excellence of its design, its flexibility, and simplicity of use, but also in the fact that it is offered as freeware. It is described as a Windows Program Installer but in fact, because of the way it is designed, it will install any file (not necessarily a program), anywhere on a target machine using a single compressed .exe file compiled by InnoSetup. This is something that many high-end (and expensive) Program Installers would have difficulty in doing (I know this, because I have tried them). As an example, it is possible to create a single 'setup.exe' file, complied by InnoSetup which could create a (set of) folder(s) anywhere on the target machine, then extract a number of .jpg image files to it (them). Of course, this is a long way from the complexity of distributing a full-blown Windows application, but this is where InnoSetup scores full marks too. It produces an installation interface to the target user that matches the latest Win2k/XP wizard style (or the older style if required), and provides the following key features to the programmer -
The program is simplicity itself to use - Installations are created by means of scripts, which I believe is the best way to gain full control over intricate operations like this. However, there is the option to use a Wizard approach too. This gives the best of both worlds - use the wizard to create a script 'outline', then polish the job by 'tuning' the script manually. The help files supplied with InnoSetup are among the best that I have ever seen - these alone must have taken a lot of effort to produce. Jordan Russell is to be congratulated on producing this package. It does exactly what he designed it to do (and more), with no fuss, no problems - a 'must-have' for anyone who distributes files, upgrades, or applications to 'the great unwashed'. Jordan offers this 'free', but also provides the chance to make a nominal 'thank you donation' if you think it's appropriate - well worth considering in my opinion. Take a look at his website for more details, information on third-party extensions, and a link to an active InnoSetup Newsgroup (there is a massive user-base). Intel Performance Library Suite - http://developer.intel.com/vtune/perflibst/ This site has 5 free libraries that will prove invaluable to programmers working in areas of Graphics, DSP, and Math. The DSP library alone contains vector functions similar to those found in libraries supporting dedicated DSP chips, costing many thousands of pounds. These libraries are highly optimised, and are very fast. Delphi (Pascal), C++, Java, and VB are all provided for, as are Borland and Microsoft compilers. Full pdf manuals are included. No serious programmer should be without this set, but be prepared for lengthy download times (files 10-20 MB).
MISCELLANEOUSKite Aerial Photography - www.arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/ This site, crafted by Charles C. Benton, is fascinating. There is everything here from construction of the gadgetry used to get your camera aloft, to a huge gallery of photographic images. You can easily spend a lot of time here. Charles takes his kites with him everywhere, even on holiday. In a matter of minutes he's got his kite up aloft, taken his shots, and reeled it all back in. Ever thought about putting your old video camera through an altitude test....? What a stunning addition that would be to your vacation masterpiece! Fastest Search Engine Around - www.ussc.alltheweb.com I have to thank Mike Shaw for putting me on to this one. This search engine is really FAST - and accurate. There are also lots of useful links here. My Favourite Search Engine - www.google.com This has got to be one of the best search engines on the web. It rarely fails to find exactly what I am looking for. I have now added this engine to search Sparky's World - try it! Cheap 'Phone Calls from UK - www.axstel.com/smarttalk/ Save 90% on phone calls to Australia, 85% on calls to USA, 75% on National Daytime calls in UK. Keep your BT line, no extra charges, just precede your phone number with a four digit number and you get these fabulous savings. I have saved over £100 in the last 6 months on USA calls alone (my son lives there). Absolutely no 'catches' to this. It really works. You even get proper itemised billing free. Check it out yourself. (If you get as far as filling in the application form, drop me an email and I will return my registration number to you which will give you (and me) a one-off £5 free call credit).
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InnoSetup - A Superb Windows
Program Installer -