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View Our Videos in HD on Vimeo!

Posted on January 16, 2011

I’m  so excited to now have Vimeo host our clients vdeos online in HD!
They seem to have the magic formula for encoding videos for the web.
They provide the perfect balance between picture quality and speed.
You can view many of our embedded clips right here on the blog
Or just click on the image below to view them all at Vimeo.

Enjoy!

Our Blog on Your Android, iPhone or iPad with WPtouch Pro

Posted on January 15, 2011

If viewing our blog on your flash enabled Mac or PC, you’ll see the user interface as it was designed to be seen, complete with flash enriched headers and footers.

If viewing our blog on a small touch enabled mobile device, such as the Android, iPod Touch, iPhone or the iPad you’ll see an entirely different interface due to a very cool WordPress plug-in named WPTouch Pro, made by the guys at Brave New Code.  Read all about WPtouch Pro here! Listen to James Woodcock’s podcast as he interviews Dale Mugford, who is the co-founder of Brave New Code  here .

The WPtouch Pro plug-in will deliver an incredibly fast, incredibly smooth internet experience for our viewers using several different touch type devices, not just the iPhone. It works on the Palm Pre, Google Android, Blackberry 9500, Blackberry 9530, cupcake, dream, incognito, as well as the iPhone, iPod Touch and mini WebOS and the Webmate.

Here’s how it Works. When a viewer with one of the above phones enters the blog, the plug-in automatically transforms the blog into a web-application experience.

Viewing Videos on the iPhone. iPod Touch or the iPad. We’ve also just converted all of our video clips to HD videos hosted by Vimeo.  When viewing the blog on the Android or an iPod/iPad you will be able to simply tap on the video and it will stream to your phone directly from the blog post. There’s currently a bug which prevents the iPad from playing the embedded Vimeo clips. Therefore, you’ll need to tap on the Vimeo link under the image to go to the Vimeo page containing the video. It’s a known problem, and  suspect it will be fixed soon.

Professional Blu-ray Authoring

Posted on December 12, 2010

If you’re a videographer or cinematographer currently shooting and editing in HD and are looking to outsource your Blu-ray Disc Authoring, send me an emil using the contact form here on the site and I’ll be happy to get back with you asap.

I use a hardware encoder to encode HD content to H.264 for Blu-ray disc authoring. The major benefit of encoding H.264 files verses MPEG files is the fact that I can put about twice the amount of content on a Blu-ray disc with the same or better quality then MPEG.

Generally, I encode the H.264 files at 20 MBps which will allow me to put approximately 3.5 hours of video on a single 25 GB Blu-ray Disc. When a lessor amount of video is required to be authored to Blu-ray I can increase the bit-rate all the way up to 40 MBps however I recommend to keep the bit-rate at or below 30 MBps to insure compatibility with older Blu-ray players.

I can design the menus using both static button menus with music in the background and pop-up translucent menus. The Content is authored to Verbatim White Hub Printable discs with your label design in full color.

VHS to Digital Transfers

Posted on December 10, 2010

Preserve You Memories. If you’re like me, you probably have hundreds of home movies stuck on VHS tapes.  Over the years those tapes have started to deteriorate and some may not even be viewable any longer.  Or perhaps your old VHS player has been broke for months and you have found that good VHS players just aren’t being sold any longer. That’s because they are obsolete.

So your plan of action has been to transfer these tapes to DVD disc, but you just haven’t found the time to do it or you don’t have the proper equipment to do it right, or you just keep putting it off thinking you’ll get it done some day. While in the meantime, those tapes are deteriorating even more and eventually won’t play at all.

Well I have a better idea. Instead of transferring all of those home movies to DVD which before long will be just as obsolete as your old VHS player, you should have them transferred to a digital format while you still have a chance. Once in a digital format, you can be assured that those precious memories can be preserved not just for a lifetime, but forever so generations to come can view them no matter what future media format is in existence.

We can do all the work for you and save you time and money in the process. We’ll transfer those old analog tapes to an H.264 Quick Time movie format that can be viewed on your computer (Mac or PC) as well as your smart phone, iPod, iPad, or you can even upload them to YouTube for family and friends to view at their leisure. Additionally these H.264 digital files  can be viewed directly on your HDTV via the new Apple TV entertainment center, or your Playstation, or XBox.

If this is something that you may be interested in doing, just send me a message via my contact page on the website.  Let me know approximately how many tapes you have that you would like to have transferred and I’ll give you a written quote. Or if you simply have questions and want to discuss the possibilities, let me know I’ll be happy to answer your questions.

Stream Videos Directly to your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad

Posted on March 16, 2010

iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad Viewers

You can now stream our clients wedding videos from our  BlogSite directly to your iPhone, iPod Touch or  iPad as long as you have a 3g or WiFi connection. Since Steve Jobs in his great wisdom (and I’m NOT being facetious) has decided to NOT allow flash content to playback on Apple’s mobile devices,  and since my clients videos on my flash-based website can not be viewed by anyone via their selected Apple mobile device, I’ve made a command decision.  I decided to provide links to those same videos here on my my BlogSite to accommodate the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad viewers.

Keep in mind, the headers of my BlogSite also display flash content however, if you’re viewing my blog with an iPhone, IPod Touch, Android, or BlackBerry Storm, you do not see these flash headers due to the incredible WPtouch plug-in Im using on this WordPress  based BlogSite.  What WPtouch does is it automatically transforms a WordPress blog into a web-application experience similar to a dedicated iPhone application.   So when surfing my BlogSite with your chosen Apple mobile device , simply tap on any text link labeled iPhone/iPad Video to stream the QuickTime (h.264) video directly to your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.  This may also work on the Android or BlackBerry Storm, but I haven’t tested it, so I don’t know.  If you have one of these non-Apple devices, please post your comments to the bottom of this post to let us know if it works or not. Make sure to tell us which non-Apple mobile device your using.

Here’s how it works.  While surfing the web with your selected Apple mobile device, come here to my Blog-Site and access any of the associated blog-posts containing QuickTime h.264 videos.  Any posts under the category of “Weddings”  will contain videos. In the paragraph heading describing the video, you’ll see  a text link that says (iPhone/iPad Video) simply tap on the link and the video will stream to your Apple device.  In most cases if you have a decent 3G  or WiFi connection, the video will stream uninterrupted.  Below are some example links you can test out, or you can simply tap on the image above and it will stream Courtney & Brandon’s Highlight to your device.

1. To view Courtney’s Bridal Prep Video tap on the following link: (iPhone/iPad Video)
2. To view Courtney & Brandon’s Highlight Video tap on the following link:  (iPhone/iPad Video)

So  tell me, just HOW COOL is that!?!  Come on, you know it’s cool!  The outstanding quality of an  h.264 QuickTime movie beats flash playback hands down, and it does it on your iPhone!.  You know what?  I’m starting to think Steve Jobs is a pretty smart man, what do you think?  Add your comments below, let me know how it’s working for you.

Inclusively HD – We Survived the Move!

Posted on February 25, 2010

We Survived the Move from Standard Definition (SD) to High Definition (HD)

Midway through our 2008 wedding season I decided to make the move from SD to HD.  I’ll have to be honest, it wasn’t the easiest or cheapest move I’ve ever made, but it was by far the smartest!  I basically had to purchase all new equipment.  Everything from new HD cameras to computers and software that was able to handle editing ProRes 422 High-Quality HD.

Nothing is free, there’s always a cost!

Shooting, editing, and mastering everything in HD and then delivering the content to both SD DVDs and HD Blu-ray disc not only involved additional finances, but an additional investment in time.  Initially there was a steep learning curve required perfect the best workflow. Additionally,  it takes twice as much time to transcode HD video footage for delivery to both SD DVDs and HD Blu-ray disc. However, the resulting quality is breathtaking and now that the transition is over, it was well worth the move.

SD Delivery of your HD mastered video

I understand that everyone doesn’t yet have a Blu-ray disc player.  Therefore,  once mastered to HD, the footage must be transcoded down, or down-converted to the standard definition (SD) widescreen format which will enable our clients to watch their videos on their standard DVD player. It’s important to note that even though your video will be in the widescreen format, it will still look just fine on a standard 4:3 television set. However, it will be displayed in a letterbox format which means you will see some black space at the top and bottom of the screen just as you do when watching a widescreen Hollywood movie on a standard TV set.

Viewing SD on an HDTV:

If you’ll be viewing your standard definition (SD) DVD’s on a widescreen HDTV, you’ll see a noticeable benefit in picture quality if playing your videos on an up-scale (or up-converter) DVD player or a Blu-ray disk player since it will up-convert your SD DVD’s for a more enjoyable viewing experience on a large widescreen TV. Now don’t misunderstand me, an up-convert DVD player will not make your SD DVD’s play back in HD, that’s not possible, but it will enhance the SD playback to give you a sharper picture on a widescreen LCD TV screen.

How does all of this benefit the client that doesn’t want HD?

You may be wondering; What are the benefit’s of shooting, editing and mastering in HD if the client is not asking for final delivery in HD?  First of all, your video will be of a much higher quality when shot and mastered in HD versus SD. In other words, SD originating from footage of a higher resolution source (HD camera) is better than SD from a SD source (SD camera) because it doesn’t loose any quality in postproduction.  Another benefit to shooting your wedding in HD is the fact that it allows us to re-author your wedding video at a later date to HD Blu-ray disc when your ready.   In other words, If it’s not shot in HD now, it CAN’T be delivered in HD later, so there’s no turning back.

HD delivery on Blu-ray disc and in the Apple TV format.

Since all of our weddings are now shot, edited and mastered in HD, you can now have your cake and eat it too!  In other words, we can deliver your video in full HD on Blu-ray disc and you’ll also receive your wedding videos in SD delivered on standard DVDs to watch using a standard DVD player, so no worries there!  If you purchase a Silver or better package, HD Delivery on Blu-ray disc is included in the package at no additional cost.  Also, it makes no difference if your getting the Blu-ray disc upgrade or not, you still receive digital copy files which can be played back on your Apple TV via itunes, or you can sync the files to playback on your iPhone or iPod touch, all of which is free no matter which package you purchase!   Oh and just one more program note: You’ll receive digital copy files for all of the same videos contained on your DVD’s.

Wedding Movie Posters Now Offered!

Posted on February 10, 2010

NEW! We’re proud to now be offering our exclusive Wedding Movie Posters free with any Silver or better wedding package booked before the end of March.  These are standard 24″x 36″ poster size (frame not included).  This is a special promotion which will be discontinued  on April Fools Day and will then only be available as an add on option for $250.00.

Previous clients can purchase their Wedding Movie Poster for $150 if ordered before April Fools Day, after that past clients can purchase a poster at regular price.  Non clients can also purchase a Wedding Movie Poster for $300.  Give me a call at 270.312.9760 to book your wedding or order your poster.  You’ll have a chance to approve a proof of your poster design via our website before we go final with printing.

Prospective couples: You can easily customize your wedding package to fit your budget simply by clicking on the “Customize It” link HERE or on any of our wedding packages found on our website.  Once you’ve customized your package, click the submit button and we’ll email you a written proposal which you can then easily and quickly accept by providing an online electronic signature, and submitting the required retainer payment using any bank or charge card. This can all be accomplished in a mater of just a few minutes. No hassle, no appointments necessary, reserve your date today while it may still be available!

iDo on your iPhone

Posted on February 7, 2010