Quick Media Converter Settings

Hi everyone. I don't know if any of you are still out there, it's been so long since I"ve posted.

I know our beloved SC-MX20 has pretty much become obsolete. But those of you, like me, that can't afford an upgrade, we still use it all the time.

I've only recently upgraded to Windows 7. Vista, with all it's updates, became so bloated and slow that doing any video editing on it became impossible. I've also shunned my beloved Dell for an HP. So far I'm very happy with Windows 7's snappy-ness and the HP's speed and responsiveness.

Rather that fight with my program, The Fix, which I am glad so many of you are happy with, I've decided to go with something that I know works. Many of you have tried Quick Media Converter, so I thought you might like to see the settings I plugged in to get the same results as The Fix.

Note that this is in expert mode. I did not put anything in the audio options, but if you need it, you can resync the audio just like in The Fix and that screen is pretty self explanatory so I"m not going to post it.

The bitrate is 7904kbps, copied from the properties of the original mp4 file right out of the camera. Same with frame rate. I set the aspect ratio to 16:9 and I also set the width and height to get the proper ratio that the camera does not set in widescreen mode. W 720, H 405. If you want to get the 1080p size you can put in W 1080, H 608.

In the command line, put in -deinterlace if you want those blocky lines removed.

And that's it. On my HP it's super fast. Hope this works for you.

Depth of Field Effect, can it be done?

You've seen the use of depth of field all over the place. It's kind of an artsy way of presenting something on film. More accurately, it mimics the way your eyes work when you focus on something. What you are focused on is clear, while everything else kind of blurs. This is especially noticeable if you look at something close, like the steering wheel of your car, then something far away, like a truck a half mile ahead. You get the idea.

Here's a definition and an example.

http://en.mimi.hu/photography/depth-of-field.html






Now the question is, can you get that effect with the Samsung SC-MX20? Since this is just a standard definition point and shoot camera, how much can you get away with?

Below is a sample I shot at the park. I played with the manual focus to see what could be done.



The problem with the manual focus is that is isn't really manual. It moves at the pace the camera lets it. But you can see, you can kind of, sort of get the depth of field effect if you play with it enough.

All I did was go into the menu, scroll over to the Focus option (kind of looks like this: [ ]) then chose manual. Now you can use the left and right controls to change the focus. If you push the center button, it lock in your focus and you have to go back into the menu to unlock the controls again. Then just set up your shot and push record. Use the controls to change the center of focus while you shoot.

It's not movie camera quality, but it is kind of a nice effect. There are limits with the Samsung SC-MX20, but with some experimentation and imagination, you might be able to get around them.

Spring is here - time to start your cameras

My first home video of the year is of my son's band concert! He's a drummer, and if I do say so myself, he rocks!




This was, of course, recorded with my Samsung SC-MX20. All the settings were set to "auto", except the white balance, it was set to "Tungsten". Resolution was set to "TV Super Fine" and 16:9 widescreen was on. "Antishake" was also on, but I used a tripod, so it didn't have much to do.

It took about 10 minutes to transfer the MP4 files from the camera to the computer.

Since I wanted to edit the video using Windows Movie Maker, I ran everything through "The Fix". About one gig of video (23 minutes) took 25 minutes to re-encode on a Windows Vista computer with only 1 gig of memory. The settings I used were the widescreen fix and deinterlace options. Also had to resync the audio, since it comes out out-of-sync on Vista by .035 seconds. Still not perfect, but good enough.

On Windows Movie Maker, I cut out everything but the music and some applause, that edited everything down to about 12 minutes. I only used "fade in" and "fade out" transitions and had to cut the final product in half to make two videos due to YouTube's limitations. It was about a half hour of me messing around.

To publish, I used the "DVD widescreen" option; it most closely matched the original without re-interlacing. Each half took about 20 minutes to encode. The final result is 480p, which YouTube used to call "High Quality" or "HQ".

I sent each half to YouTube, upload time was about 20 for each half.

Total: 2 hours, 5 minutes for 12 minutes of video. I'm sure the time could be greatly reduced on a better computer with faster Internet. But the final result is pretty good for a home video. The sound is better on the before-YouTube video than it is online.

Overall, I'm really happy with how things come out using The Fix and Windows Movie Maker. I hear all the time about "you lose quality when you re-encode" and "Windows Movie Maker uses lossy codecs", but honestly, I can't see any difference between the original as it plays on the camera, and the final product that comes out of Windows Movie Maker. (It loses some when you upload to YouTube, but such is the nature of the technology.)

In fact, here is a sample of the original for you to compare, in it's squished, interlaced glory:



To my eye, the color is actually a little more vibrant and the contrast is a little deeper AFTER The Fix and Windows Movie Maker. What do you think?

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.

The Samsung SC-MX20's Three Big Problems and a One Stop Fix

I got the Samsung SC-MX20 for Father's day this year. I had done a little research and had come to the conclusion that this was the best camera for the money we were able to spend. Being a Father of a large family, having a video camera is important, especially when grandmas and other extended family live far away.

So I read the reviews, checked the websites, then went to Wal-Mart and plunked down the money on a brand new Samsung SC-MX20 and a memory card to go with it.

Unfortunately, my research didn't prepare me for the issues that I would have. I was disappointed at first, but I was impressed with the SC-MX20's ease of use, breathtakingly long battery life and just general good looks. (I got the red one, it looks like Iron Man's camera!) But right out of the box there are three big issues that no one bothered to mention.

So, if you just bought the camera and are facing one of these frustrations with Samsung's SC-MX20, then hold tight, I have a fix for you.

Issue 1: Video doesn't work right away with Windows Movie Maker

The Samsung SC-MX20 comes bundled with Cyberlink Media Show. This is an issue in and of itself, but I have covered that in other blog posts. (Conclusion, use the disk as a coaster.) But I have seen many many comments saying the videos from the camera don't work with Windows Movie Maker.

This isn't really a bug, it was a choice by the camera makers. The format used is MP4, which you probably know better as Quick Time. It is a really good format that doesn't cause much distortion.

However, when you plug in your Samsung SC-MX20 and move your files to your computer and try to drop them into Windows Movie Maker, they won't work. For whatever reason (probably because it's Microsoft) they did not allow native support for MP4 files.

So, before you can use the MP4 files from your camera, you will have to convert them to a format that Windows Movie Maker likes. There are many ways to do this. Do a Google for "convert MP4 to Windows Movie Maker" and you will get thousands of hits. I have a personal favorite, but I can't honestly say that one method is better than any other.

However, there are other issues with the videos that come from this camera, and I do have an all-in-one solution, so keep reading.


Issue 2: Videos filmed in wide screen (16:9) format do not play that way on my computer


This is a bug, but one that is easy to overcome. Here's the issue: When filming with the wide screen option on the camera selected, your videos look good on the camera, but when you copy them to your computer and play them with Quick Time, they are squashed and stretched. (To make matters more confusing, if you do use the Cyberlink MediaShow program, they look fine, but then when you save them from there, they are still squashed and stretched.)

So what happened? I don't fully understand the issue myself, but my understanding is that the format has a "flag" that needs to be set in order for your computer to play it in the right format. The designers of the firmware for the Samsung SC-MX20, for some reason, forgot to have the camera set this "flag", leaving your videos squashed and stretched.

So how to fix it? Well, again, there are many ways to do it. As in the previous issue, you can use just about any converter program to re-format your video. But, again, I do have an all-in-one fix coming up. Keep reading!

Issue 3: What's with all these lines? It looks terrible!

When filming in wide-screen format, the Samsung SC-MX20 uses a method called "interlacing" to keep the file size manageable or something. I don't fully understand it, but for whatever reason, it's what they decided to do. As a result, even if you have it appear in wide-screen (see previous issue), it is full of lines.

Again, this isn't necessarily a bug, but in the day and age of high-definition displays, interlacing is not only unnecessary, it's ugly. I don't know why they chose this method for the videos, but it's easy to fix.

Which brings us to what you've been waiting for. How does one deal with all these issues without having to convert, re-convert, and generally degrade the image quality of the videos from the Samsung SC-MX20?

The Answer:

(Click on icon to download)

I created this all-in-one Repairer/Converter for you. It's takes the videos from your Samsung SC-MX20 and fixes all your problems. The best part is, it does it all in one shot!

I have written up a how-to on this post, so go there for details on how to use it. (The newest version of The Answer has an option to re-render your videos in hi-def format too! It's doesn't make your videos hi-def, but it stretches them to that size making them more friendly for that format.)

Hope this helps you! If you have other issues or have any great tips or tricks or samples you want to share, please, leave me a comment.

To interlace or deinterlace that is the question...

Apart from all the other issues the SC-MX20 has, there is the issue of interlacing. If you plug your camera into an "old" style TV (the kind with a tube, which many of us still have) with the supplied cord and play your video directly from the camera, you probably won't notice the interlacing. However, when you transfer your video to your computer (unless you have an "old" style computer monitor) you will see it.

What exactly am I seeing do you ask? What is this interlacing and why is it an issue?

Here's a definition:

Interlacing - Interlacing is a method 'borrowed' from television, for refreshing an image on a computer monitor. Interlacing refreshes an image on the screen by scanning every other line, and alternately scans every opposite line. This allows a faster refresh rate, and less information during each scan. Unfortunately this may cause flickering or noticeable line movements in some situations. - http://www.systemax.co.uk/contentModules/htm/monitors/videoGlossary.htm

In a nutshell, you might see something like this:


Is this bad? Well, no, not really in itself. If you transfer your videos straight to DVD without any editing, and play them on a "tube" TV, then you're OK. But most computers now use a flat screen display and almost all new televisions are flat panel as well. They no longer use the "scan" method to provide your picture and the interlacing will be very noticeable.

So what to do? Here comes my handy dandy tool to the rescue again. The latest version deinterlaces your video, if you choose, allowing for a smoother, sharper image. You can even leave them in MP4 format for working with Cyberlink MediaShow.

You can download the fix here. I'm still trying to come up with a creative name and icon for it, but it does the job. I have given a how-to for it here.

Tutorial - Rendering SC-MX20 video in HD for Youtube - Freeware

I saw other tutorials on YouTube, but many of them told you to download pirated software. And even then, it was something complex and hard to use.

Here's my version. Fast, Free, Easy, and did I mention Free? Not to mention legal.

What can you do to make your videos look good?

This blog is devoted to the issues with the Samsung SC-MX20 and there are many. I do endorse this camera over others in the same price range for the fact that in spite of it's issues, it's still a really good camera (once you figure out how to get around the issues) and others in this price range and below suffer from poorer quality or poorly designed hardware or both.

But there are better cameras out there. Much better cameras. And if you are comparing the image quality you get with THIS camera to THOSE cameras, you will be sorely disappointed. But fear not, part of my mission is to help those of you stuck in this price range to get the most out of this camera.

Three levels

Your Samsung SC-MX20 has three levels of user control that affect the color, contrast, brightness and sharpness of your videos. These levels are not labeled as such in the user manual, but you will get the drift of what I am talking about as I explain them.

First, for the beginner or young user there is the EasyQ level. This mode of the Samsung SC-MX20 is activated by pressing the EasyQ button on the left hand side of the camera (in the space where the view screen folds into. Once in this mode, the camera takes complete control over all the settings on the camera, allowing the user to just point and shoot, but offers not flexibility in adjusting the settings.

In most cases, EasyQ mode will give you pretty fair results. If you are not too picky about color balance and sharpness and just want to "get the shot", this mode is great. It also allows you to hand this camera to someone and say "just shoot" and you don't have to worry about them messing with any settings - because they are locked out.

Now if you want a little more control over how your videos look, there are the iScene modes. At this level you have a little more control without having to worry about how a particular setting works.

There are several of these and I am not going to list them all, but you can consult the user manual or just play with them. These modes adjust the settings to best match the scene they describe. For example there is a beach mode that is intended for you to use in extremely bright situations, walking on the beach or in the desert. The camera then sets all it's settings to take the best picture (in the designer's opinion) in that situation, compensating for the bright sunlight, the reflection off the and and making your subject, presumably a person or an animal, stand out.

Again, these modes to a really good job of getting you the shot that you want. They do a better job of managing the color than the EasyQ mode, but still don't give you full control over all the settings. Think of these as pre-sets (which they truly are) that allow you to quickly choose the environment without having to fiddle with the controls yourself.

Now, if you really want to get all arty and professional, then this camera allows you to do that too. Let's call this the "power user" level.

At this level there are really only three controls available to you. Unlike "professional" cameras that have a lot of settings, the Samsung SC-MX20 was not built for that professional user. But you can work within these three settings to get the picture and color quality that you want. I highly suggest you take the time to learn about them and work with them because this is the best way to get the best results from this camera without a lot of tedious post-processing.

Three controls do all the work

The controls you have available to you are White Balance, Exposure, and Shutter. Now, I am not a camera or photography expert, so don't ask me how these controls relate to F-Stop or ISO or Aperture or Lemon Meringue pie. If you check various online Wikis you might be able to figure it out. But like designers of this camera I am going to keep things simple. As I've said before, this is a Dad's camera, not designed for the professional, but even so you can get good results.

Let's start with the easiest setting. White Balance. White balance is what most affects the colors in your videos.

The idea behind this setting is that you "tell" the camera what white should be. There are some presets that allow you to choose the lighting condition. These are pretty good. Just flip through them until the image on the screen looks as close to what you are seeing in real life. Tungsten works best for home settings, like birthday parties, florescent is better for school plays and such, and there are various settings for outdoor situations.

If you are a true power user, you can even choose what white should be. Choose the manual setting, point the camera at something that is white, and press enter. Be warned, however. While you may know that whatever you are pointing at is white, it may not be "truly" white in the given lighting conditions. However, if you tell the camera that it's white, it will make that shade look pure white in the finished video. Say, for example you point it at a white door, but in the given lighting that's a little shady, the door is actually a shade of gray. In the finished video it will be white, but the color of everything else in the shot will be adjusted color wise as well. Get it? So use this setting wisely.

The next setting is Exposure. This is how much light you are letting into the camera. It's kind of like the brightness setting on your TV, the higher you turn it up, the brighter the picture gets, but if you turn it up too high the colors all blend and you lose quality.

You will most want to play with this setting in very brightly lit situations. It will be easy to lose your subject if the exposure is too high. Also there are times you may want to capture an image that is more dimly lit than something else in range. You can make the dim object brighter while making the brighter object too bright to steal the scene.

The final setting is Shutter. This is how fast the shutter moves to capture each frame. This is not frames per second (which, as far as I can tell, on the Samsung SC-MX20 is set at a constant 30 frames per second) rather it is what fraction of a second the shutter is open to capture each frame.

To be honest, this setting is the most confusing for me. The speed of your shutter also affects how much light is getting into the camera, so you will have to adjust your exposure accordingly. Shutter speed most affects the sharpness of your video. Faster moving subjects will need a higher shutter speed. For example, if you are taping a golf swing, you will want a very high shutter speed, otherwise all you will capture is a blur.

I haven't found a good use for this is "normal" video conditions, but the option is there for you to play with.

There is one more setting that I did not include in these three and that is focus. Everyone knows what focus is. Most cameras, including this one, have a really good auto focus system. However, if you need to focus on something that the auto focus is not getting just right, this option is available to you.

In conclusion let me just say that I have found that the best way to capture a scene that most closely approximates what I am seeing with the naked eye is to use these three settings to make what I see on the view screen match reality. No digital camera is going to give you perfect life-like quality, but you can get pretty close with the Samsung SC-MX20 if you are patient enough.