First, the bad news: This is still in the research stage and won't be available for perhaps a couple of years.

The good news: A new approach to image stabilization appears to give dramatically improved results over current software. The new approach creates a 3-D model of a scene from shaky video footage, then recreates the camera movement to simulate a nice linear or parabolic track.

See the whitepaper and video here and story in New Scientist here.

Dave

It's been quite a long time since I posted anything in the MediaCollege.com blog. I won't bore you with excuses, I just want to let our subscribers know that I'm back and looking forward to posting again.

I'm hoping to do lots of work on the website this year and I have lots of ideas for new material. Unfortunately one of my biggest tasks is to update old material; for example, much of our web design tutorials need updating to include recent developments in the industry.
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Dave

At last! I logged in today to see the long-awaited change. 16x9 videos can now be seen as they were meant to. Older videos appear to either keep the 4x3 player or get pillared inside a 16x9 player. All good.

BTW, if you want to link directly to the high-quality version of a Youtube clip, add &fmt=18 to the end of the URL. For uber-quality add &fmt=22.

Dave

RED's DSMC (Digital Stills and Motion Camera) System is now official. In case you haven't heard, RED is probably the most talked-about and hyped new camera system in years. It's had rave reviews from such notables as Peter Jackson.

The main points are:
- It's an affordable system for those of us that don't have multi-million dollar budgets.
- The quality and specs are up there with the million-dollar versions.
- It's a truly modular system, allowing you to buy...

Dave

Over the last few weeks I've had my first real experience with Adobe Customer Care/Support. Before I get to the rant I'll say that the person who dealt with my case tried her best to help me and ultimately she did - the issue is now resolved. However the experience was less than impressive and left me wondering "How could such a clever company have such an impotent customer support system?"

Here's the story...

Oct 16th: I purchased Adobe Master Collection from the Adobe...

Dave