Last Time, Our Blu Hero was…

Last time I made some predictions about the future of Blu-ray, I set some specific targets I saw as the direction that Blu-ray needed to move,  in order to enjoy some success. I said that if there was a $5 difference in the price of media and a $50 difference in the price of players, then it would be a no-brainer for the typical consumer to pay a little more for a jump in quality. I didn’t think people would pay double for better quality, though, which was where we were when I made that prediction. And yet the times, they are a-changin’.

Recently, I was at a store. I won’t say which one, but it rhymes with Bostco. This store often has high-end merchandise, but only high-end merchandise for which there is strong demand. This store doesn’t go in for fads on things like movies, it waits until there is an established market. Blu-rays have been on the market for years, but this store didn’t until very recently sell movies on Blu-ray, although they have sold the players for several years. This store typically sells DVDs of older movies for $10-$12. When I saw that they had Blu-ray versions of some movies for $15, I knew that the price barrier had finally been broken and things were looking up for Blu-ray.

While media is adopting appropriate mass-consumer pricing, its still hard to find a Blu-ray player at a reasonable price. Players can be found for as little as $199, but that’s still a hefty premium over a bottom-of-the-barrel DVD player, as those start at around $50. Blu-ray Players still need to drop another $50-100. If they hit $100 by Christmas, almost everyone will find one under the tree, and Sony’s gambles will have paid off. It’s been a rough road, Blu-ray, but I think you’re gonna make it after all.

MiniDV

MiniDV, or Miniature Digital Video, was a breakthrough for home video enthusiasts. The format used analog tapes, but encoded a digital signal. This is like the old style modems that sent a digital signal over telephone lines. When it first connected, you heard that series of squeals and beeps that was the sound of digital information being communicated in an audible format. These cameras are all able to transfer video to a computer through a Firewire cable. This technology ushered in the era of desktop video publishing. Software to edit video has become a standard feature for operating systems, and many excellent software video editing packages are available at a reasonable cost.

MiniDV is on the way out as a standard format, and the cameras are starting to get rare in stores. But, no other format has emerged which completely surpasses MiniDV in every respect. Every other format that has come out since MiniDV is also digital, but instead of storing a digital signal on an analog medium, the new formats store a digital signal on a digital medium, like a Hard Drive or Flash Memory. This makes a difference, because analog tapes have way more room for information than a Hard Drive or Flash Memory. That means that MiniDV required very little compression to make things fit. It’s able to store video information that hasn’t been shrunk down to a lower quality. Newer formats, because they have less space to work with, need to compress video down to fit onto a digital medium.

Compressed video isn’t a problem if all you want to do is play the video back. But, if you want to edit the video, then that compression means that you have less raw material to work with. When you apply effects and transitions, a compressed signal is not going to produce as nice a picture as raw video. For most people who just want to capture video of the kids as home movies, this isn’t a serious issue, but if you want to make a short film, you might want to pay attention to how much compression your video camera is putting on the video you capture, and what options the camera has to reduce that level of compression if you want video that is higher quality.

MiniDV tapes can stretch or become caught in the camera mechanism, but on the whole it is still a good option for Standard Definition, because it stores uncompressed video on an inexpensive medium, and the cameras are getting dirt cheap…if you can still find them.

Mini DVD

Mini DVD, which annoyingly has almost the same name as MiniDV, is an all-digital format. DVDs are highly compressed, and the minature discs don’t hold a lot of video. This format is most suitable for those who do not wish to edit video at all. If you primarily want to record and be able to watch the video on your DVD player without having to bother with editing it on a computer, then this might be a good option for you.

The primary drawback of this format is that discs need to be ‘finalized’ before they can be played on a regular DVD player. The process of finalizing a Mini-DVD can take up to twice as long as the recording time. This means that if you shoot an hour of video, it could take the camera as long as two hours after you finish shooting to prepare the DVD for a DVD player. Different cameras do better or worse at cutting this time down, but be aware this can be an issue and read some reviews on the camera before taking the plunge. This format is also on the way out, and while the discs are cheap right now, the cameras are getting rare, and are only available in Standard Definition models.

Hard Drive

Hard Drive video cameras are currently the popular choice. A 30-40 GB Hard Drive will store several hours worth of recording, and offloading it is quick and easy. MiniDV transfers video information in real time. This means that if you want to transfer an hour of video to a computer, it takes an hour to copy it over. Mini DVD takes a long time to finalize a disc. The advantage of a Hard Drive camera is that it stores computer files on a Hard Drive, just like the files you would store on your computer, so when it comes time to transfer from camera to computer, it only takes a few minutes to move those files, just like you were transfering a file from one computer to another. Quick and easy.

The inherent drawback of a Hard Drive camera is that the Hard Drive is sealed inside the camera and you can’t swap it out for another when it gets full. If you’re out shooting for a day or two then returning to your computer, it’s no problem, just offload the files. But, what happens when you go on a two-week vacation? Unless you have a laptop, you might run out of space pretty quick.

The answer is flash memory. When 2GB memory cards were the only reasonably-priced option, buying a dozen of those and swapping them out regularly would be a terrible hassle. But, now that 8 or 16 GB cards are getting into a decent price range, buying several of those cards gives you the flexibility to significantly increase the amount of recording time available on a Hard Drive video camera.

The good thing about Hard Drive cameras is that many of them are available in High Definition formats. This means that they can record in 720 or 1080 resolution. The tricky thing is that the abbreviation for Hard Disk Drive is HDD, and the abbreviation for High Definition is HD. So, there are a lot of letters stamped on the side of one of these units and you need to look closely to see whether it’s a HDD unit, yet only Standard Definition, or both HDD and HD. In order to be able to shoot in HD, a lot of these cameras will significantly compress the image they shoot and often will only offer 1080i resolution (interlaced) which alternates lines of video, not progressive, which displays each line each time. See earlier posts for a further explanation of the difference.

Flash Memory

The next step is to entirely skip the Hard Drive, and only use flash memory. As memory becomes less expensive, this becomes a more attractive option. Without a Hard Drive, the bulk of the unit can be significantly reduced and the power required takes less of a toll on the battery. These cameras can often take High Definition still images, and the line between where Flash Memory camcorders ends and regular Digital Cameras begin blurs a little. This is especially true since some regular Digital Cameras are now offering High Definition video as an option.

If I’m just taking a short video that I want to upload to Facebook or YouTube, then I just use a point-and-shoot Digital Camera. It is able to record at Standard Definition, the video responds reasonably well when I put it into a desktop video editor, and the result is more than enough resolution to look good online. If your job is posting to the Internet, you’ll want a real video camera, but if you’re just having fun, a regular digital camera is really all you need. Some Digital Cameras even come with a ‘YouTube’ mode, which records in the format YouTube uses, to make it easier to upload your videos.

Digital SLRs

Some Digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) Cameras have begun to offer video. This is a huge development, because the ability to change lenses and control focus directly is really what separates consumer video cameras from professional equipment, and the price difference is HUGE between the two. Now that DSLR makers have started to add in video, they have been able to offer a product that gives amazing control over video shots for thousands of dollars less than professional equipment.

Early DSLR models that offer video do so with some limitations. The units that have just come out tend to overheat if used too long. The auto-focus these cameras use is often designed around taking still pictures and hasn’t yet been optimized to be effective when shooting video, so manual focus tends to be a better option. That manual focus is possible with these cameras is a real positive, but there are times when you just want the camera to do its thing. DSLR Video is still a very new thing, and some of the limitations that currently exist will soon be overcome, but this is a very exciting development and will soon become the must-have tool for those who are serious about shooting amateur video.

Standard Definition

A Movie DVD contains compressed video at what we refer to as Standard Definition, 480 lines of resolution. DVDs introduced progressive video, which was an improvement over older interlaced signals. Instead of alternating odd and even lines, progressive video presents every line every time. This results in a smoother picture than older television systems were capable of producing.

High Definition

Television has now moved beyond the limits of standard definition. 720p and 1080p dramatically increase the number of pixels displayed on a screen. Screens can display better images, but the medium that distributes the stuff you want to watch lags behind. DVDs are stuck at Standard Definition.

This isn’t the first time that there has been a lag between the ability of a TV to display a better picture and the lack of a medium to store video. VHS (Video Home System), the most popular form of VCR (Video Cassette Recorder)  could only display 240 lines of resolution. I was recently attending a seminar delivered over the course of several weeks, and each week we watched a DVD. There was a problem with the group who had lent the DVDs, and they needed them back. The organizer managed to borrow an alternate copy, but it was a set of VHS tapes. I was amazed at what a difference it made to go back to the old format. Faces were fuzzy and indistinct. I never had a problem with VHS 15 years ago, but once you get accustomed to something better you realize the difference and going back is painful.

The Contenders Vie for the Crown

DVD has not yet been succeeded by another format. HD-DVD and Blu-ray were two new formats that were meant to replace the DVD. One is now defunct, and the other is struggling to gain traction. There is speculation it will never become popular enough to truly replace DVDs. One reason why Blu-ray struggles is that DVDs are really, really inexpensive. This is partly because those who sell DVDs see the end of the line and are rushing to make all the money they can before the gravy train ends. This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense because they’re the same people who want to Blu-ray to take off. Making DVDs dirt cheap changes people’s expectations of what a movie should cost, so the movie industry is shooting itself in the foot.

Fortunately, the people behind Blu-ray have announced plans to lower costs for the new format in the near future to kick-start the transition. Let’s hope that happens.

The Conversion Experience

Upconverting DVD players are the other reason Blu-ray hasn’t taken off. Older DVD players didn’t always look all that great on the new high-resolution screens. This is because the screens are so precise. To illustrate, let’s assume that you have a bar with 4 lights on it. The lights flash according to a pattern. If you want to display that same pattern on a bar that has 8 lights, it’s easy because you just double the pattern, and wherever light number 1 was flashing, both 1 and 2 now flash. Wherever light number 2 was flashing, both 3 and 4 flash, and so on. The pattern translates easily, because it’s just double. But, what if there are only 6 lights? Now, you can’t just double the pattern, you need to make choices about which lights will flash when to best represent the original pattern, but you’ll never get a pattern that identically represents the original pattern because the math doesn’t divide evenly.

One of the great ironies of Digital television is that it is so precise, it shows up flaws. Older, analog TVs could fudge an image and come out looking OK. It is important that that you feed a Digital TV a properly formatted signal so that it displays correctly. The better the TV the better a good signal will look and the worse a bad signal will look. It cuts both ways.

An upconverter improves the way your existing DVD collection looks on your big screen TV. An upconverter doesn’t improve the resolution, it still works from 480 lines of resolution because that’s all that’s available on a DVD, but it takes the original image and stretches it smoothly over the larger space, fudging the numbers to keep things looking smooth, despite the fact that the numbers don’t translate evenly.

To understand the difference, imagine a balloon with words written on it. Before the balloon is blown up, the words are small and clear and you can read them. An old DVD player playing on a big screen TV is kind of like stretching the balloon with your hands to try and make it bigger. The image will be uneven. An upscaler or upconverter stretches the image smoothly, like blowing up the balloon. The even pressure causes each part of the image to be smoothly stretched as the balloon increases in size. It’s still the same image, starting small and stretched big. Nothing new has been added. High definition is like printing in a large font on a piece of paper. There’s no need to stretch the paper image, it’s already as large as the words on the balloon when the balloon is blown up, and it’s going to be a clearer and sharper than the stretched balloon. Even if the balloon has been stetched smoothly by blowing it up, there’s only so much ink to spread out, and it won’t be as crisp and clear as the printed page, but will still be better than stretching by hand.

In addition to smoothly stretching the image, an upconverter can output video via an HDMI cable, which is a digital cable. Older DVD Players are only able to output analog video. This means that the digital signal from the DVD gets converted to analog for the cable, then when it reaches a digital television, it gets converted back into digital. The conversion process to and from analog reduces the quality of the video signal. By using a digital cable, an upconverting DVD player maintains the digital quality of the picture from start to finish, resulting in a better picture, as long as your TV can accept HDMI.

So, an upconverting DVD player provides a smoother, clearer image on a big screen TV by stretching the image smoothly and delivering it to the TV in a digital format.

Buy a bigger Hard Drive

If you have a desktop, then it probably has room for at least one extra Hard Drive, if not more. If you have a laptop, then adding a second Hard Drive probably isn’t an option. Some laptops come with a space for a second Hard Drive, but they’re rare. If you want a bigger Hard Drive for your laptop, it likely means removing your existing Hard Drive and replacing it with a larger one. For a laptop its almost always cheaper to buy extra capacity at the start than to add it later. For a desktop, you get more bang for your buck buying a resonably-sized Hard Drive at first and then adding more later when you need it.

Optical Drive (CD, DVD, Blu-ray)

You probably have a DVD burner on your computer. Burning DVDs of all your files on a regular basis just in case your hard drive crashes or your computer is lost or damaged is a very good idea. DVDs are an easy and inexpensive way to back up your work in case of catastrophe. A Blu-ray drive will also let you back up your system, but with much more capacity, so you can put more on each Disc.

Network Attached Storage

A Network Attached Storage device, or NAS, is a box which you can put one or more Hard Drives into. The real advantage of a NAS system is that better quality units can be set to automatically back up your files. Just like your Word Processor saves the document you are working on every few minutes, a NAS can be set up to backup all your files every few minutes or once an hour as they change. This means that all your important documents can be backed up as they are created or altered. This makes it the most comprehensive and secure form of backup available.

A NAS system can be placed in a separate, secure location. If someone breaks in and steals your computer equipment, all your files would be safely stored in a separate location. You could put the box in a fireproof enclosure, or a separate building, and then it would take a massive catastrophe before you lost your data. If your data is critically important to you, then spending a few hundred dollars on a NAS system may be a worthwhile investment.

Another advantage is that a NAS system can be used with multiple computers. If you have 3-4 computers in your home or small office, then they can all use one device to backup their files. Having only one device for all your computers makes this option more cost-effective.

Online Storage

Like a NAS system, online storage can be programmed to back up your files automatically on a schedule. Instead of buying the hardware, you pay a monthly fee to rent storage. The advantage is that you can back up your files anywhere you have Internet access, only pay for what you need, and expand your storage any time you need to. The disadvantage is that someone else is storing your data. I don’t mean to comment on the reuptation of the companies that offer this service, but some of your files, for legal or privacy issues, may be too important to be let out of your control.

Use Multiple Strategies

However you choose to manage your data, the best strategy is to use more than one of the methods I’ve just described. Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket, as they say.

Social networking sites allow you to easily share and store photos and videos online, usually for free. But, many of them do not store pictures or videos at their full resolution. This means that you can retrieve them if you lose all your other copies, but they won’t be the same high-quality files you started out with, so you may not want to plan on using Facebook or Myspace as your primary means of backup.

Your data, whether its your work, your photos, your tax records, or whatever it is you choose to store, is precious. Take the time to back it up on a regular basis. Once a week, once a month, once a day. Pick a schedule and stick to it. That way you’ll be best prepared for the worst.