Update

I have updated the version of ffmpeg.exe that installs with The Fix. It seems much more Windows Vista friendly and maybe even a little faster.

No updates to the program itself, at least not now. If you have any ideas how to make it better, let me know.

Click here to download.

Windows Movie Maker Live - hands on

I am in the process of condensing close to 20 hours worth of video taken during 2009 into about 2 hours to fit on a DVD that I give to my parents and in-laws that live far away. I do it every year and they love it. It allows them to see the goings on of the kids, even if it is well after it happened.

This year all my video was taken with the Samsung SC-MX20. Along the way I've figured out the glitches and am doing my best to make good quality videos, even it if is just home videos, and share what I'm learning with you.

I've decided to use Windows Live Movie Maker for my project this year. In the past I've used various versions of Move Maker, but it's my understanding that with the release of Windows 7, the Windows Live version is the only one being supported going forward. So I'm giving it a whirl.

I'm not going to bore you with a how-to because, honestly, all versions of Movie Maker are very simple to use and anyone can crank out a projects. Making a high quality video, however, can take some patience and practice.

Windows Live Movie Maker focuses a lot on the simple, almost to the point where it makes it hard to do some of the "cooler" tricks. It seems aimed at your average junior high student that just wants to crank out something to post on YouTube. It's still possible to make your videos look more professional, but it's not easy.

So far I've been kind of disappointed with what I've been able to produce. I mean, for the grandmas and grandpas, it's good enough, but for the wannabe Spielberg in me, it's just not good enough.

Have you used Movie Maker Live? Do you like it? Have you learned any tricks to make it better? Let me know.

A firmware fault

I discovered a fault in the firmware that was really heartbreaking, but easy enough to work around.

My wife was recording my daughter's baptism. When she was done, she didn't push the record button, she just shut the camera off.

Now, almost every other electronic device I have, my computer, my cell phone, etc. They all go through a shut down routine. They finish and close what they were doing before the power goes off.

The Samsung SC-MX20, however, just powers off. It doesn't stop what it's doing, it just shuts off.

When recording, just powering off does not save the file you are recording, it's just gone. My daughter's baptism was not recorded.

It should have been easy enough to build in a shut down routine that does the same as pushing the record button to save your movie.

I really wish Samsung would release a new firmware update to fix these issues. I know I'm not the only out here that is having a love/hate relationship with this camera.

Remember: Always end your recording by pushing the record button BEFORE powering off your camera.

Interval Recording

I'm always on the lookout for great projects to use my Samsung SC-MX20 camera for. I love recording home videos of my kids, but I always feel like I want to do more, something really creative. But my creativity fails me. Fortunately, we have the Internet, which makes it possible for everyone to share everything all the time. Where my creativity fails, someone else's shines and I'm able to steal ideas from them.

I found this video online of someone using the interval recording feature of the SC-MX20 to record themselves drawing.




My daughter is an art student, so maybe when she comes home from college this summer we'll make a video of her drawing.

I also found this Internet meme called "Geddan" or "Get down". Here's a video explaining this very weird meme:



There are literally hundreds of these videos out there. Here's one of the more odd ones:



I don't know why, but I like these. Maybe it's weird or sick or whatever, but for some reason I think they are just hilarious. The interval record feature on the SC-MX20 lends itself perfectly to making one of these. If you've made one with your camera, let me know, I'd love to share it.

Have you used the interval record feature for anything really interesting? Send me the link and I'll share it here.

ffmpeg.exe Not Found

This issue has come up a couple of times with my program "The Fix", so I guess I better write it up so you all can fix it.

First, let me state that I don't know if this is a Windows 7 problem, a Vista problem, or what. The users that had this issue didn't tell me which version of Windows they were using, so if this repair doesn't help, let me know and I'll adjust this help.

The Issue:

You've downloaded the program, installed it, you've set up your conversion, hit start and you get: "ffmpeg.exe was not found. Please locate the file." When you hit ok you get this confusing box with no further direction. Ok, that's my bad. I need to make that a little more clear, but until then here's what to do.

First, locate the file you downloaded and extracted. I always extract mine to he desktop. You're looking for the folder "New Converter Install". Not the ZIP file, the folder that was created after you unzipped it.

Open the folder an locate ffmpeg.exe. Drag it from the folder onto your desktop. Really, you can do that. Click on it, move the cursor onto the desktop. Really, that works. You might have to right click and choose "copy here" when you release it.


Next, right click on your start button and choose "Explore". On the left hand pane, locate "Program Files". Click on it to open it.

Now, on your desktop. No, not the window, the space behind it. Yes, there. No, don't close the window, don't minimize it, you need it open. Now, on your dekstop locate "ffmpeg.exe". Click and drag it into the right hand pane. No, it doesn't have to be in the left pane for this to work. You can drag it into the window. Really, you can. Try it. Again, you may have to right click and choose "copy here". Make sure you drop it in a space where it won't go into a sub-folder.

Now ffmpeg.exe is in the default position for "The Fix" to work. Close everything, reopen The Fix and run it. If you get the error again, make sure ffmpeg.exe is in Program Files and not some folder inside Program files.

If you still get the error, then I don't know what to do.

Samsung SC-MX20 Audio Sync Problem

I continue to monitor the traffic that comes to this blog, always on the lookout for problems that people are having with their Samsung Sc-Mx20. One that keeps coming up that I wasn't sure what to do with is "audio sync". I wasn't really sure what the seeker meant. Is it because they are trying to convert the video and then it's out of sync on the new video? I had that issue and thus I added the option to re-sync the audio to my converter program "The Fix".

But today I was cataloging my videos from 2009, preparing to create DVDs to give to family members when I came across the problem that I think others may be having.

The very first video I recorded with my Samsung SC-MX20 was my three-year-old son's birthday back in March. I had just gotten the camera and I hadn't even had a chance to play with any of the settings or anything. So, I just pointed it and shot. I didn't have any desire to put it on YouTube or anything, so I archived the file to disk and just forgot about it.

Now, not quite a year later, I dug out the file to prepare it for editing and I found the issue.

The clip is about 3 minutes long. At the beginning, the sound is ahead of the video. At the end, the sound is behind the video, and for a little bit in the middle, it seems in sync. This is on the original video that came right out of the camera, no converting, no editing. I thought "that's odd", since I have not had this issue on any other videos. Then I started looking at the other original files and found that the ALL have this issue. Had I not noticed it before?

Being a geek, I have several computers at my house. Being a POOR geek, none of them are the newest latest greatest screaming fast thing, they're all off the shelf, Wal-Mart, Craigslist specials. My desktop computer, the one with the big monitor that I like to use for video, was one of the first to run Vista. I hate it, but it works for most things. It was on this computer that I noticed the sync problem.

I took the birthday party file and tried viewing it on my much older Windows XP laptop. And guess what? It works perfectly (in terms of audio, the original files still have the interlacing and the aspect ratio issues).

So. If you have problems with the video from your Samsung SC-MX20 seeming to be out of sync, and you are using Vista, the problem is probably not with your camera. It's Vista. If you have access to another computer, try playing it on there. The file is fine, it's the way your computer is playing it back.

I'm seriously thinking of getting rid of Vista and going with Linux on that machine. The only issue is, I have yet to find a video editing program that is as simple as Windows Movie Maker.

So How Did You Use Your Camera This Christmas?

What did you record with your camera this holiday season? I've captured several hours of Christmas morning and as a result I've discovered an issue.

When recording for a really long stretch, it results in really large files. Obviously, but what's the issue? Well, on my cheap, off the shelf, Compaq desktop with Windows Vista and 1 gig of memory, the file completely crashes the system, locking up everything and making it impossible to edit it or do anything else with it.

The good news is, my wife's laptop, from Dell, has 3 gig of memory and I am able to edit it into smaller chunks and work with it.

Have you had this issue? It's not really an issue with the camera, rather my computer, but I thought I'd mention it. The best way to deal with this is to utilize your record button to pause recording every now and then. When you do this, the camera quits the file it's creating and starts a new one. It does take a couple of seconds to do that, but with practice you can avoid missing some precious moments.

I'm sorry.

I need to apologize to me regular readers.

When I started this blog I used the "monitize" option in Blogger. I thought, what the heck, I could use a few bucks. I didn't read the fine print and didn't really pay any attention to it after that. I thought just showing the ads I would make like half a penny per view or something like that, I never really expected to see a check.

Well, that's not how it works, people actually have to click on the ads for me to make any money. But that's not the point. I happened to look at my blog on another computer (I use FireFox with an ad blocker on my own) and say that there were some very confusing and offensive ads!

I am so sorry. I have no control over the ads and it was not my intention to mislead you or to offer services that decent people might find offensive.

So I have disabled the ads. This blog is free and will always be so. Content wants to be free, so share it.

If you like what you find here and would like to buy me a coffee or something, I have put a donate button on the sidebar. I won't ever ask for donations, don't worry, but I do like coffee. If I've helped you in some way and you'd like to donate something, it's there for your convenience.

Again, I'm so sorry for the ads. But, they are gone now.