RasterWeb!

Wowza! 75 mph limit proposed for Wisconsin freeways:

…a higher speed limit would save drivers time, save some drivers money on speeding tickets and bring Wisconsin’s limit in line with a third of the nation’s states that already have the higher limit.

It would not save them money for gas, however. (Damn!)

“Cars are engineered these days in a way which can better handle a little higher speeds,” Reynolds said. “It’s a slowly emerging trend.” (Not mine! See below…)

“Speed doesn’t kill. It’s the speed differential that causes accidents.” (???)

My only worry is that my car (affectionately referred to as ‘the crapmobile’) starts to wobble pretty bad when going over 65, so there’s a good chance it’ll wobble itself off the road and down an embankment if I attempt to go 75 miles per hour, killing me and leaving no one around to update this web site…

Other than that little concern, Zoooooooom!

I would have called this Analog Video How To but I don’t really consider it a very comprehensive How To… It’s really just a description of my set-up.

I don’t have a digital video camera for the stuff I do on tinkernet, I use an old JVC VHS camcorder I picked up around 2000 or so. It records to little VHS tapes that hold 30 minutes of video. I rarely shoot more than 5 or 10 minutes for most stuff I do, and edit it down to less than 2 minutes for the final product anyway.

Besides the camera, I use two devices, a Griffin iMic USB audio adapter and an XLR8 InterView USB video capture device. These convert the analog signals from the camera into digital files on the computer. You’ll need to plug them into the USB ports on the computer. I’d try to plug the XLR8 InterView right into the computer instead of a hub, as you may see better performance. (If your computer has a sound input port either built-in or on a card, you probably won’t need the iMic, but I do for my Quicksilver – yes, I use a Mac.)

The image above shows the camera with two cables, the video cable has an RCA connector on each side. This one connects to the XLR8 InterView to carry the video.

The other cable needs to have an RCA connector on one end, and a small audio connector on the other, as it will connect to the Griffin iMic to carry the audio signal. (You can probably use an RCA cable with a small adapter on the end, ask your local A/V geek at Radio Shack.)

Once it’s all connected, you launch the USBVision Capture (well, that’s what the OS X app is called) and start to play the tape, and you can capture the video (and audio) to your computer. It’ll create a movie file, which you can then convert to another format using the USBVision Exporter application. (Both of these apps came with the XLR8 InterView, they can pretty much do what QuickTime Pro can as far as saving and converting formats.)

Typically I will capture the video, then convert it to a DV Stream file, which will make it huge, but will allow you to import it into iMovie where you can edit until you have a masterpiece worthy of the presenting to the videoblogging Yahoo! Group. ;)

I’m not going to get into the editing or encoding or compressing part of creating your final video, as the folks at Freevlog cover that much better than I can…

If you have any questions on this setup, or suggestions as to how to do it better or what not, let me know. I pretty much figured all this out by digging around the wonderful web, and a lot of testing and trial and error. Good Luck! Make some video!

So you want to start a videoblog? Go to Freevlog.org. That’s what I did before I started tinkernet.

The folks behind it are Ryanne Hodson and Michael Verdi. They’ve done a great job of creating tutorials and gathering up all the info you might need to get started. (There’s a focus on using free services, which is great for people just starting, but if you happen to decide you want to pay for things, see Steve Garfield‘s FeeVlog.com which explains how to use for pay services and sites.) Oh, don’t forget to also check out videoblogging.info as well for more useful information.

Getting stuck? Confused? Totally lost? You might want to join the videoblogging Yahoo! Group where questions are answered by a fine group of folks willing to help.

Besides letting the group know once your first video is online, stop by the VLOGDIR and vlogmap.org and add youself to the lists so others can find you.

You know what Wired says: Blogging + Video = Vlogging… Or something like that…

Ok, now that we’ve got that covered, make some video! And don’t forget to let us know about it…

(Also see these posts: Ourmedia Archive and FireANT.)

Update: Wired News: Man Cleans Freezer, Film at 11

Huh? REO Speedwagon is playing at The Waukesha County Fair this year?

What, Cheap Trick wasn’t available?

The Summer Camp Program at Oakwood Manor for 2005 was a huge success!

There was canoeing and singing and swimming and ice cream and tennis and a bonfire and even a (short) hike!

The entire event went off without a single problem… Well, actually, a very large branch broke off of a tree, but you know what they say, “Gravity is a harsh mistress!” and we’re just lucky nobody was hurt.

We look forward to more exciting activities at Oakwood Manor in the future.