April 15, 2008

Episode 12 - The Most Commonly Made Mistakes when Shooting HD

HD isn't the future, it's HERE. Let our resident video expert take you through some of the ways shooting with your new HD camera differs from shooting in standard.

March 11, 2008

Ask Eric Episode 11: Cameras!

HD! High definition. We know it means at least that much. But what does that mean, for you? When you take a video in HD, how can you really tell the difference from a video recorded the "old fashioned way," in "standard definition?" Well, the difference really comes in size, which, in this new world of flat screen TVs and computer monitors, is really important.

An HD image is a minimum of 3 times larger than an image at standard resolution, and can be up to 6 times larger. When you watch normal TV on an HD monitor, it gets blown up to the size of the screen, so it can be hard to tell the difference if you're not searching to see the extra pores on the cheek of your favorite movie star. On a computer monitor though, the difference is a lot more important, because the image isn't being expanded at all.

There's tons of new HD cameras coming out this year, and most record to a card just like your digital camera has now. That means easy uploading at super high quality, so I went to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to test out all the new HD cameras.

The cameras I looked at were:

• Kodak Easyshare 1273
• Panasonic HDC-H59
• Canon HF-10
• Sanyo Exacti HD-1000
• Sony DCR-SR300

Feel free to click back through the video if you want to check out individual features on these new HD cameras. Also, keep in mind that this is a sneak preview - you won't be able to buy these until early summer.

Write in with any questions you have about this stuff, and if you do go to buy an HD camera, the most important thing is to remember what your priorities are: there's a lotta bells and whistles out there, and you wanna make sure you are getting the ones that are right for you.

January 31, 2008

Episode 10: Top 5 Uploading Tips Revealed

Our hardworking support team gets lots of emails from members asking how to get videos up on Motionbox as easily as possible. We think our awesome uploader is one of the fastest and simplest tools on the web, but there are many factors that contribute to a happy upload experience.

In this episode of Ask Eric, we'll go over five ways to get your videos off your camera or hard drive and in front of friends and family without breaking a sweat or throwing your laptop out the window. Check it out:

If you're interested in trying your hand at compressing your videos (a.k.a. re-encoding), try these handy free applications. They should make the job a cinch!

• For PC: Any Video Converter (free version)
• For Macintosh: Roovid Lite

December 20, 2007

Episode 9: The Mixer

Have a ton of footage you want to show off but don’t want to make your friends sit through the boring stuff? With our easy-to-use mixer, you can crop your videos, cut parts out, combine them, and more!

In this episode of Ask Eric, learn how to use the mixer to make the most out of your video memories. Check it out:

The Motionbox Mixer is our super easy way to take a bunch of videos and combine them into one awesome movie. The Mixer allows you to trim your videos (so you can get rid of the boring stuff) and link them together (so multiple videos become one). Here's a quick walkthrough of how this simple tool works:

Step 1: Add Videos to the Mixer

First, decide which videos you want to add to the mixer. Go to "My Videos" and when you find a video you like, check the box next to it. When you've selected all your videos in a folder, head up to the top and click "add to mixer," then select "add and go to mixer," which will take you there.

Step 2: Rearrange Your Videos

In the mixer, you'll notice a few things right away: we've got the videos we selected at the top, a preview window over on the left to watch what you’re working on, and in the center of the window is the thumbnail viewer, for fine-tuning your video clips.

You can add as many videos as you want to the mixer, and select the order they will play in. To change the order of the videos, just drag and drop them around, and the arrangement changes instantly.

Step 3: Preview Your New Arrangement

The preview window is the place to easily check how you're doing. Just position the cursor and click the play button. The video plays, jumping from clip to clip as it moves through the whole mix, allowing you to see how the videos look together, back to back.

Step 4: Trim a Video

So let's say you like most of a video, but at the end it gets boring -and you want to cut that part out. Easy as pie. Head down into the main window, the thumbnail viewer, and select the part you like by dragging across. As you drag, the selection becomes highlighted in orange. Let go of the mouse and a menu pops up: click "Trim to Selection." The part you don't want becomes grayed-out, but the handy orange handles remain, which I can drag to fine tune my selection if you didn't get it perfect on that first try.

You can do this for every video - just drag them down and select the portions I'd like to keep. Remember that you can always go back and change a selection, too.

Step 5: Making It Perfect

Sometimes you want to make a selection that's very precise - for this you can use the tool called the "Thumbnail Slider," found on the upper right of the thumbnail window. Drag to the right to zoom in, and the number of images increases, allowing you to hone in on a specific moment. A good way to do it is to make a general selection in a zoomed-out view, then zoom in to get it just right.

You may find that sometimes you want to cut out a specific section of a video in the middle, but keep the beginning and the end. This is pretty easy too. First, select the beginning portion of the whole clip - right up to the start of the part you want to remove, and click "Trim to Selection." Now go back up to the video list, hold down the Control key (or Apple key on a Mac), and drag the video clip down: it automatically duplicates! Now you can hop down in the thumbnail viewer and find that duplicate, and make a new selection to include the end of the video, i.e. the part you want to keep. When you preview, it plays from one video to the next, seamlessly cutting that boring bit out. Sweet!

Step 6: Finish Your Movie!

When you're finished, publish the Mix as a new video, and your old videos remain safely saved on Motionbox. Your new video is just like any other video on Motionbox - you can view it, share it, make a flipbook out of it - and for premium members, you can *download* your mix as a new single file.

So that's the mixer in a nutshell. It makes it real easy to combine all the videos from one event, so you quickly and easily have a great way to preserve your memories! If you have any comments or questions, please contact me at askeric@motionbox.com. And happy mixing!

November 14, 2007

Episode 8: How to Turn Your Videos into Motionbooks

Ever wanted to free your videos from the digital world and make them look great on paper? Now you can! Grab a 15-second clip from any of your Motionbox videos to create a Motionbook -- a new twist on the classic flipbook.

In this episode of Ask Eric, learn how to shoot or select a video that will make the best possible Motionbook. Check it out:

Ready to make your Motionbook? Get started!

Too lazy to watch the video? Read the recap after the jump!