Anything better than Canon XL-2?

My company is needing to purchase a new camera because our XL-1 is pixelating and tiling - I've tried the fixes but none seem to be a reliable fix. We've lost a lot of video because of that. I've looked at the XL-2 and love all the features. I was just wondering if there is another camera on the market that you would recommend in comparison to the XL-2. We don't need a HD camera and all our setup is based around miniDV. I appreciate any suggestions!

Bad is in the eye of the beholder .. and the ability of the shooter, no doubt. Because I work with cameramen who are not always the most seasoned, a more simple "out of the box" camera seems to fair better: Tho I still contend the Panasonic and Sony always seem to look good
Problem with the Canon is mostly around the auto-iris (mind you, I edit I don't shoot so I don't know what the specific functions are called)and for sure the autofocus. I always reccomend not using autofocus but some guys are going to go there, and the Canon's seems particulary sensitive, which in a live event sceneario leaves the editor with a mess on his hands
Also, in a lower light situation (again, in the live event world this can be unavoidable due to some clients insisting on no lights) the Cannon does not seem to match up against the Sony; when boosting the setup or gamma in post, you tend to see a lot more grain with the Cannon.
The tapes I've seen from the Cannon never seem to have the chroma right; colors seem a bit skewed towards the green and the blacks are fairly crushed
Again, I'm sure with the right lighting conditions, different lenses etc you could produce a nice image with the Cannon. I actally worked on a TV wedding show where they shot with XL2s and it looked nice .. but they used lighting setups that would be impossible for us in the real world. So, sure, caveats always apply
All said and done tho, I would give the nod to the Panasonic and the Sony

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Test-to-speech program--anything better than Voice Dream Reader? I have AMD and NEED the serviced.

I have AMD and need a text-to-speech reader; anythiung better than Voice Dream Reader? HELP!!

My son uses Touch Chat. It wworks great for him. he is 14 years old and has been using it for 2 years. You can set up several different pages to ease navigations.

Is there anything better than iPihoto?

Hi there,
I'm a long time iPhoto user, but I think I'm out growing it. I have about 5000 photos in my library now (and no, I don't want to split it into smaller libraries). I have a 1ghz PowerMac G4 and the speed of iPhoto isn't that bad. The issue I have is that I about to get a dSLR and I think I will be taking much more photos, so I see my library growing faster.
I'm about to keyword tag all my photos with people, places, and things, and rate all the photos (I know, major job, but I'm anal enough to do it Before I undertake such and job, I want to know that my work won't be wasted.
Here are my criteria for my image management program:
1) easy to use
2) Albums, or the ability to place photos in virtual containers
3) keywords with ease of entering and assigning them
4) ratings (1-5 is fine)
5) web publishing. here's the hard one. I don't want to create web galleries from my library, I want to have the library dynamically published. Right now I use iPhoto and iPhotoWebShare, which works pretty well. I want more. I want the ability to search by keyword, not unlike how you can search within iPhoto. Ideally, the search would let the user search by keywords and ratings. I'm not above writing my own web system (i'm in the process of dumping the iPhoto data to a sqlite database, and then writing a php search engine), so if there is no native web publishing, at lease good scripting capabilities to get the data out.
I figure the obvious choices are cumulus, portfolio, and iview. iPhoto might still fit the bill, but it just seems fragile. Maybe iPhoto 6 will use core data and we will have direct sqlite access to the database (cool), but until that is announced, I'm not willing to hold my breath.
Any ideas?

Allan
I was in a similar situation to you, and decided to go with Portfolio.
I'm currently in the process of migrating my iPhoto libraries to Portfolio, and I'm very impressed by the sotware. Most important thing for me is stability (closely followed by feature set) and it hasn't crashed once so far.
It easily takes care of items 1 to 3, though I'm not sure about item 4 (I'll check when I go home tonight); I use a "Favourite" keyword, rather than a rating system. And, even if it doesn't, you could replicate it using keywords of 0 through 5.
I use a combination of real, physical "watch" folders (I like to store the originals in folder(s) based on date taken), smart folders (keywords, etc..), and virtual folders (events, vacations).
To meet #5, Portfolio 7 comes with a basic version of NetPublish that allows for one concurrent connection to the website per hour. If this isn't sufficient, you'll have to pay for the full version of NetPublish.
Obviously, Portfolio's a serious financial investment ($200), so I'd recommend you take a look at the 30 day trial version and see what you think. There's also copious documentation available at their web site.

Is there anything better than the cloud app

I am new to the "cloud" and although I understand FTP pretty well, I don't understand the cloud very well. I am going on vacation with my ipad and want to take along some word documents and an mp3 file to transcribe some audio.
I have the pages app and can drag the word docs into pages and the .mp3 into itunes, but this is a projec that I want to save in a folder. Anything I create I want to save in a folder and want to be able to download it to my MAC and visa versa when I get home.
Anything free app out there with the ability to let me download and store a folder. Can I also have full access to this folder on my ipad without having pages documents and mp3 documents spread all over my ipad?
Hope this isn't to confusing. I wished Ipad had a usb port.
Thanks

I agree on DropBox.
In DropBox, Favorite (Star) the files (documents, MP3...) when you are on-line. They will be available when you are off-line. Test access to your files in Airplane mode before you leave home.
To bring the document into an app (e.g., Pages), use 'Open In..'.. the MP3, you can just tap in DropBox.
There are solutions to get files back from different apps to DropBox, but honestly it is probably just easiest to email it to yourself (and then use your Mac to copy the final file back to DropBox for reference purposes).
Have a good vacation.

Is there anything better than a new iphone?

Hello,
My 3G iphone is coming to the end of its contract and I can get a new phone. I have an imac desktop so I am looking for something that will sync my diary, contacts and music easily. Are there any cheaper alternatives to the iphone? Im not sure I want another one...

If you are running a Mac OS less than Lion, there are literally hundreds of iSync compatible phones.
See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2824 for natively supported devices.
See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2520 for devices supported via a third party iSync plugin.
Other Mac syncing solutions for non-Apple phones include the "Missing Sync" range of products, "Blackberry Desktop Manager" for Blackberry devices, and "SyncMate". Check the websites for lists of phones these products support.

Anything better than apple?

Hi,
After finding my bedroom Pansonic TX-26LXD60 incompatible with my MacBook Pro - the outsides of the outputted screen can't be seen (toolbar and dock etc.) and seeing that I won't be able to use the 46" Bravia sitting downstairs much because it is the main tv for the household and my parents won't like me, certainly as a long term solution, using it, I'm looking for a monitor to use with my new computer.
I have a PS3 which functions as my TV when needed but it obviously has to output to something.
I would like the Apple 24" to be honest, but are there any adaptors to change that mini-displayport to HDMI?
I like the USB ports on the back and the capability to charge my MacBook Pro, they are huge benefits.
If not, what would you recommend for a 24"-26" monitor (resolution needs to be 1920x1200 or greater) within the price range of the Apple?
Thanks all,
Fred

You can use the mini to stream stuff. Buying the Apple TV would be mostly redundant if you already need to buy the mini for regular computer use.

Anything Better Than OMF or AAF?

I've been going back and forth trying to figure out a way to make a self contained and consolidated Soundtrack Pro file to send to another computer for mixing. Our process is that of a post house where editing is normally done in one room and then it's sent to audio in a different room. It seems to me that Apple and only thought about one computer operations and never thought about seemless transfers to other computers. Here are the processes I have tried so far:
-exporting an OMF out of Final Cut and importing it into Soundtrack Pro. The problem here is that stereo tracks are not kept in tackt when opening up in Soundtrack Pro which is a nightmare to edit.
-exporting an AAF out of Final Cut and importing it into Soundtrack Pro. This problem is the same as above except it also makes duplicates of all mono tracks.
-sending the sequence from Final Cut to Soundtrack Pro, then saving the project and copying all media. This problem is that it doesn't consolidate the media and I end up with a huge folder of audio.
In all three of these scenarios, crossfades are intact, but end fades never show up, which can also be a bit of a problem. When exporting a session out of Final Cut for audio, I can never seem to find a way to make two mono tracks into a stereo track for ease of editing and mixing. I've tried grouping tracks and sending them to a submix to treat them as a stereo pair, but editing grouped tracks doesn't really work like I would have expected it. If anyone has any help or suggestions it would be appreciated.
Thanks,
-b

Try saving the project with all its media in a single folder.
1. Save or Save As
2. Click the *New Folder* button and name the folder
3. Check the box to *Collect All Media*
4. Click Save
Now you have a folder with a stmp file and a media folder containing all the elements. Move that to the other mixing station.

Anything better than Time Machine Buddy??

I'm not satisfied with the fact that this Widget does not appear to give me a History of backups and am wondering if anyone has any suggestions for other tools to monitor the state of my backup.
I have a 2TB Time Capsule and I just got into my MacPro (1TB) and MacBookPro (150 GB) backups by entering Time Machine on each machine and I see that on the left hand side my MacBookPro goes back to September of 2011 (great) but the MacPro on the left hand side only shows that this backup goes back 1 day (very bad).
Is there something that will let me check this kind of information instead of what appears to be simply a report on the last /successfull/ backup?
Thanks.

I see. Thanks Bob.
This will show what has been backed up by way of files on each Time Machine backup - say in addition to simply saying "Here are the last fifteen or twenty or thirty successful backups and their dates"?
You know what I mean?
I mean, I think I really only need it to show me a large number of successful backups and their dates so that I can see this in time and not have to actually get into Time Machine to see this if that makes sense.
Thank you/

IMovie capture quality better than anything FCP can offer for consumer DV?

As a newbie to FCP, I have not found Capture, sequence, and export settings that is equal to or better than what iMovie 08 can create. Prior to this, I've been using iMovie 08 which is extremely user friendly. Just plug in the fire wire connections and it auto detects only one setting for DV. I am not sure what format it captures in but it does a good job. When I export out of iMovie 08 I use "using Quicktime" and choose the Uncompressed 8-bit NTSC method. The result is a decent, non-interlaced looking .mov file.
The first time I tried to capture with FCP I chose the easy setup, where I would capture in the NTSC DV, sequence would be NTSC DV and export using the current settings in quicktime. The result was an interlaced and lowered quality vid.
I have also tried the following combinations with no success with quality comparisons w/ iMovie 08:
capt: NTSC dv, seq: NTSC DV, progressive exp: Uncompressed 8-bit
capt: Uncompressed 8-bit, seq: Uncompressed 8-Bit exp: Uncompressed 8-bit
This last one came close, but still iMovie 08 was better.
My assumption is that FCP would contain the settings to duplicate or even out perform iMovie's export quality for consumer video dv. I viewed iMovie as little brother and FCP as big brother. Shouldn't FCP produce equal to or better quality than iMovie 08? And what are the settings for this?
Thanks

Thank you for clearing up my confusion. How is my export from iMovie 08, using "Uncompressed 8-bit" coming out progressive (I see no interlaced, odd/even scan lines)? Is this export dropping lines/information? If so, uncompressed is not an appropriate name for the export.
I understand what you are saying about "getting quality back" on export. My initial question was comparing the quality of an iMovie 08 export vs. FCP export and having the problem of a lowered output from the FCP export.
If anyone has the time, would they try a short experiment:
1. From your DV source, camera or deck connect to your computer
Capture a short clip via iMovie 08 a short clip in standard 4:3.
Export using Quicktime, Uncompressed 8-bit setting
2. From your DV source, camera or deck, connect to your computer.
Capture the same short clip to FCP using Easy set up for NTSC DV. Export with current settings.
3. Compare the two.

FLV quality looks better than F4V, what am I doing wrong?

Hi,
I exported a small clip as a on2vp6 flv, a h.264 f4v, and a h.264 mp4 file with the adobe media encoder cs4. Each file is the same clip, exported with pretty much the same settings. Resolution: 640x480, 0.5mbps target bit rate, 29.97 fps.
Everything I read says that for a given file and a given bitrate, h.264 should provide better video quality when compared to a h.263 flv file. I would like to know what I am doing wrong, because the h.264 files look worse than the flv file. I have provided download links for a short demo clip in each format.
fl7756n_29_640x480_500kbpsbr.f4v
http://www.filefactory.com/file/af5gc7b/n/fl7756n_29_640x480_500kbpsbr_f4v
fl7756n_29_640x480_500kbpsbr.flv
http://www.filefactory.com/file/af5gc7e/n/fl7756n_29_640x480_500kbpsbr_flv
fl7756n_29_640x480_500kbpsbr.mp4
http://www.filefactory.com/file/af5gc71/n/fl7756n_29_640x480_500kbpsbr_mp4
Why does the clip look better in h.263? It seems that everything I encode at low bitrates looks better in h.263 which leads me to believe I am doing something wrong.

Okay, that is true, they are different codecs. But even adobe says:
Q: How does H.264 compare with the current video formats supported in Flash Player?
A: Flash Player supports the Sorenson Spark video codec (based on H.263) and On2 VP6. H.263 is the predecessor of H.264 and was designed for teleconferencing applications, at 64k rates. H.264 delivers even higher quality at lower bitrates. H.264 will deliver the same or better quality when to compared to the same encoding profile in On2. Factors you should consider when choosing a format include the complexity of the content, the desired reach, ability to archive, and licensing considerations.
at
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Flash_Player:9:Update:H.264#Q:_What_is_H.264.3F
Are there any tricks to getting the h.264 to look "better" than the h.263? Like, the h.264 version of the video doesn't even look close to as good, and I think that the f4v version looks worse than the mp4, which I don't really understand since they are both h.264 files. The footage is from a canon XL2 and the original source is ntsc 720x480. Is there anything special I should be doing for encoding in h.264 instead of h.263. The video is going to be only for the web.

Carousel View Better Than Cover Flow For The Finder?

I have been using my .Mac Web Gallery quite a bit lately and I love the new and improved Carousel view. Apple keeps updating it (they added reflections, a nice play/pause scroll bar, and now you can use the scroll wheel (or ball) on your mouse just like Cover Flow in iTunes and the Finder) making it better and better and it has gotten to the point where I think it would make a lot more sense (and look nicer) for Apple to implement it in the Finder in place of Cover Flow. Cover Flow works perfectly for iTunes still (as that's what it was intended for) and I think that it's "Ok" in the Finder in Leopard, but now that Apple has cleaned up the Carousel view so much in the .Mac Web Gallery, I can see it looking PERFECT in the Finder in Leopard. For anyone who's used or seen the Cover Flow view in the Finder, you'll realize what I mean when I say that it's "Ok". The problem with it is that most of the dynamically generated icons in Leopard are not nice squares like the albums in iTunes so the icons off to the sides of the center one look skewed and distorted. The Carousel view would fix that problem while retaining the benefits of the Cover Flow view and, from what I can see, would actually enhance the benefits because the side icons would be easier to see as they are not skewed. All I'm suggesting is for Apple to swap out the Cover Flow view in the Finder for the Carousel view and then the Finder would really SHINE! So, my question to any of you is, "Would you vote for the Carousel view to replace the Cover Flow view in the Finder?" Please let me know any of your ideas or suggestions. Thanks.

I made a newer post about this same topic (trying to be a little more strategic) and this time I included a link to a video demonstrating my point. Here's the post http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6574743#6574743.
I couldn't agree with you more on the custom folder icon issues. I'm beginning to find out what the problem is on that. I have used the newest version of Candy Bar for my Home directory icons and that works fine, but there are some folders that I want to use a different icon for and leave the rest as they are. Candy Bar can't do this for me (as it only works with the generic icons) and so I used Apple's Icon Composer application (in the Developer Tools) to make the correct icon sizes for Leopard and then saved them as .icns but then copying and pasting that on a folder would result in the default ICNS icon and not my custom icon (that was under 10.5.1). So I finally got the custom icon to appear, but it only works for sizes 128x128 and lower, even though I put a 512X512 version in there. That's why it doesn't show up in Cover Flow. For some reason, Leopard "blacks" out anything larger than 128x128 on "Cut and Paste" icons. I found that out by copying my custom icon from the Get Info panel and then opening that in Preview and it shows a black background for the larger icons instead of the alpha channel. I'm still trying to figure this out. Also, IconBuilder seems to be doing the same thing (making and ICNS file) but it seems to work better. I haven't used that since I've upgraded to Leopard but from what I've read it should work, but I don't have Photoshop right now. Well, thanks for posting and agreeing with me on the Carousel view and I hope you check out my video. Thanks.

Are Classes better than Function groups and Modules

Hi,
Are classes better than Function groups? For example if you want to execute something is back ground or use parallel processing you can't do it using classes. Even inside classes most of the places we use Function modules.
Then how classes are beneficial?
Regards,
Deepak Bhalla

Yes they are compared in the sense that the class and function group are the containers, and the methods and function modules are the interfaces in which you interact with the encapsulated data.
Again if you are developing an application in which you are not forced to push the processing to differenet work processes, then using classes/methods is preferrable. The reason I say this, is because anything coming from SAP will most likely be implemented as a class as opposed to a function group. This is not to say that SAP will not create new function modules, because of course there still is a use for them.
Regards,
Rich Heilman

Is the iPhone 5 better than the Samsung Galaxy S4/Lumia 1020?

Is the iPhone 5 better than the Samsung Galaxy S4/Lumia 1020?

Like almost everything in this world is a matter of choice, but, if it is to logically make a choice here are a few criteria you should consider before picking up a smartphone:
Do you really need it? - if not, the money will stay better in your account;
Set up the budget and consider the fact that smartphones get upgrades faster than computers and laptops, will you be able to upgrade?
Which operating system are you familiar with?
What are your needs and expectations from the smartphone?
What type of person you are (email/chat/SMS/Social Media-man aka. communications, multimedia, productivity, gamer, etc.) this will help you chose the appropriate hardware and check out what are your options regarding the existing applications for your needs;
Are you always on the run or work in an office? - this will help you decide from the battery life point of view;
If you own a tablet you might just need a simple smartphone.
Samsung does not really innovate in terms of functionality and usability, they only copy what others do and make it their own way. Android is not a mature operating system, yet. I like some of its features, of course, but I can rely on it when it comes to productivity as I'm a person who sends 100's of emails per day and need to easily manage the messages.
You can have the best hardware in the world but that's useless if you operating system is bad at managing those resources, you will not be able to exploit the device to the fullest and you might cry over the money you've spent :-) Nevertheless Samsung has a large market share, makes good phones, but not quite smart, they are rather... intelligent, a smartphone is smart from the day you buy it, you don't have to put it in training mode :-)
As about Lumia, I don't have much to say, it's what iPhone had at the iPhone 4 version minus the 40MP camera and the operating system. If I want a good camera then I buy a camera, a Canon or Nikon :-) Yes, the Krait CPU, so what? That CPU is managed by a Wi*dows OS and that should say everything. I'm not against Micr*soft, they had/have their part in technology progress, but I'm more into stable operating systems, I'd chose Android over Wi*dows, yet Nokia were always great at hardware and batery life. Bad choice for Nokia, look at their sales and you will understand.
That's just my two cents, but iPhone is the choice of millions when they chose their first smartphone: is user friendly, solid, great hardware specs, lovely screen, wonderful support, high-level security, multimedia at its best, a design that catches the eye, looks and feels great in your hand, it's light, you have millions of verified apps in the store and a nice community to tell you all these :-)

Hardware setup advice needed for 2 track 'better than demo' sound recording

I've enjoyed browsing the forums and seeing of the good help that people get here. Hopefully, I'll be next.
I have an accoustic guitar (Taylor 314-CE, Expression System) with onboard pre-amp, cable is 1/4 from guitar to XLR
I have a dynamic mic, with XLR to 1/4 cable
Key issues so far:
(1) lack of a mic pre-amp
Right now I've got a unidirectional dynamic mic from RadioShack that was a gift. I think it cost $50, so I know it wasn't the cheapest one in the store. Of course using it with GB and line in, you have to practically swallow the mic and turn the levels up to get anything. So I don't really know enough about it's quality yet.
(2) difficulty recording guitar
It seems like I either get clipping or not enough input, so I end up with lots of noise relative to a quiet guitar track. To avoid clipping, I have the pre-amp on the guitar set way down, and the track volume way down too. Just doesn't seem that great.
(3) one track a time
So I need a system that will allow me to record two tracks at the same time, mic and guitar (not mic'd), and I am looking for 'better than demo' sound.
Have I got this right:
Behringer UB502 ($30) would work? - since my mic is dynamic, I don't need phantom power (available on UB802 ($40)). Will I need a new mic cable, XLR to XLR, or can I use the XLR to 1/4 cable? Would an XLR to XLR be better?
How is the Behringer connected to iMac? USB? Firewire? I didn't see anything included - Do I need to purchase cabling separately?
Is the sound quality going to be good enough for Home CD quality recording? If not, to what do I have to step up to? Firepod at $600? Its track count is overkill for me, but I need good sound, too, so maybe... Or is there something in between that offers great sound and just a few inputs?
How much of a difference would a condenser mic be? Am I right that with that type of mic, I need phantom power on the (mixer / interface - which is it?) Have seen recommendations for MXL 990 ($60) and Rode NT1000 ($300).
That's about it. Hope you can help.

Nice guitar. Radio Shack mic were made by Shure not sure if they still are. A cheap mixer will just plug into the line in jack just a matter of getting the right plugs an cables. I would use a xlr cable pretty cheap from online music stores. You may want to consider a usb interface they tend to be a little cheaper then firewire check M-Audio. Condenser mic are great but they pick up everything and you should be fine with you mic you have and the fine onboard system taylor uses.

Nokia 5610 Firmare 6.60, how far better than Firmw...

I know that Nokia takes its own sweet time to release firmware for any of their given phone models, typically 6 months or more.
Considering the release time and the problems of restoring older firmware, how far the firmware v 06.60 is better than 4.81?
Are the common problems like the one mentioned below, are solved? : -
1. Phone restarting
2. Jitter playback of video files of 30 fps. REMEMBER, the phone is incapable of playing video files smoothly, which are of 30 fps!
3. Phone hanging
Overall, what does firmware version v 06.60 offer? What good it does to the phone? If not good, What bad it does to the phone
Is it recommended to existing phone owners to upgrade their phone firmware from 4.xx to 6.60?

I didn't feel anything better or worse in v6.60.
The major issue, hanging while playing music is still persist.

Anything better than Canon XL-2?

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