Finally!

Thanks to a suggestion from blog reader and friend Trikster, I have built a new version of The Fix. Trikster suggested that I improve the way The Fix handles audio. I have done my best with the update to make sure the program does not touch the audio from the original to the converted version. You can download the update here:


https://sourceforge.net/projects/thefix/files/Converter.zip/download

Still Out here

Hi folks. I know it's been a long time since I've posted an update. The only day I have for blogging is Saturday and during wrestling season my Saturdays are taken up by my son's meets.

I've been using my Samsung SC-MX20 a lot over the lasts couple of months. I must have 10 hours worth of wrestling. Once I get it sorted out and pared down, I'll post some good stuff.

I do have some good news. At the request of a follower I have been working on a new version of The Fix that will handle the audio much better - less compression/distortion. I am in the testing phase now and will post it at soon at it is ready.

I'll talk to you all soon! Get out there and get shooting!

Battery Issue

About 10 days ago, I took out my Samsung SC-MX20 to record my son's band concert. It had been a while since I had used the camera, so of course I checked the battery before hand and saw that it needed charging. Plugged it in, filled it up, and off we went.

When we got home, I put it back on the charger so that it didn't use up battery life while I transferred the clips to the computer. By the time I was done, the battery was full again.

This morning, I'm getting ready to go to another son's wrestling match. Out of habit, I got the cameras out and checked the batteries. I was surprised to see that the battery one the video camera was down to 50%!

Now, I know it is the nature of any battery to drain over time, whether it is in a device or just sitting on a shelf. But I was very surprised to see that in 10 days the Samsung battery had lost 50% of it's power. It isn't very old, only about a year, and it hasn't been used extremely heavily, so why should it be losing so much power?

Have any of the rest of you had this problem?

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?

Another way to fix the widescreen - no re-encoding

I found this topic on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/yjul4jv. I used it to shamelessly promote my blog, but he user Cactus has a great fix that doesn't re-encode your videos in case you want to use an editor that is MP4 compatible.

Here's his post:

TLDR:
Use MP4Box to losslessly fix the PAR flag on the MP4 files.
Use the ratios:
16:9 - 32:27
4:3 - 22:25

For example, if I have video file SDV_0004.MP4 that should be 16:9
MP4Box -par 1=32:27 SDV_0004.MP4

Long version:
Get MP4Box. Search the internet for it. To find the Mac version, search for MP4Box and the word Penguin. Copy all your movies over to your computer as MP4 files. Do NOT use any import wizards (like iMovie). Now copy MP4Box into the directory where the videos are stored. Use MP4Box to set the correct PAR flag.

I haven't tried it, so I don't know how hard it it to get done, but not re-encoding is always the best option.

Time Flies

Here's a great video made by a friend to the blog, Pika2001, using the interval record option. I think this is a really great feature that they included on this camera, something you don't see in the lower end price range.



I'm still waiting for the weather to turn so I can get out and have fun with my camera, but, alas, even though I'm in New Mexico, it's still cold. I'd share stuff from around the house, but my house is small and crowded and not terribly interesting.

What do you think are the FAQs?

Even though this blog doesn't get very many hits every day, I like to watch the trends and see what people are searching for when they come to it. Google has this thing where if a site is probably the most perfect match for what you are searching for, it just goes there instead of giving you the results. Interestingly, this blog is coming up more and more when people are looking for answers for their Samsung SC-MX20. I think it's kind of funny that a fan site gets more hits than the manufacturer.

But anyway, I thought I would try to build a little Table of Contents or FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) file for people to see when they land here. For whatever reason, Google isn't indexing all the entries here, so often people just land on the most recent entry which probably doesn't answer their questions. So I thought if I had a permanent entry page with links to the answers to the most common questions, that would go a long way.

Following is a partial list of questions I have put together. I need your help and input to round it out. What questions brought you to this blog? What questions are you still hoping I will post an answer for? Please send me your input through the comments.

FAQs

1.) Videos shot in widescreen mode do not appear in widescreen when transferred to my computer.

2.) Videos shot in widescreen are full of lines or blocky.

3.) I am unable to import my videos into Windows Movie Maker or other Windows based video editing program.

4.) How can I get my videos to appear in HD (720p or higher) when I upload them to YouTube?

5.) Video and audio seem to be out of sync on videos taken directly from my camera.

6.) Where can I download the user manual for the Samsung SC-MX20?

7.) Cyberlink MediaShow (bundled with the Samsung SC-MX20) problems and issues.

8.) I bought a new battery and it doesn't work. (You have to buy a Samsung brand battery.)

9.) Where can I get a fish-eye lens or other lenses for the Samsung SC-MX20?

10.) The night vision doesn't work. (It doesn't have night vision, just a low light option.)

Some of these questions have already been answered directly, others have a short answer and I may have answered them as part of another post. In the coming days I will try to link all of these directly to an answer. Please send me your comments and suggestions for other things that belong on this list.