Online Surgery Session

Online surgery Jan 13

Session date:

Topics covered during the session

Topics covered included: colour management; video formats for online delivery; portable audio recorders and audio editing software; metadata migration

URLs referred to in the session

http://www.bluemic.com/mikey/
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/helpdesk/

Transcript of questions and answers

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Moderator (Zak Mensah): hi all, today is a open session so you can just fire away with questions

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Maciej: Great, I came with problematic issue which just arose in the project I work on - It is about colour management.

it is quite complex. I got Studio with three cameras Phase One, and One Better light scanner and one Cruse flatbed scanner.

All cameras except Cruse are delivering Tiff Files with Adobe 1998 as a colour profile. Cruse i delivering Tiff with custom ICC.

The question is: Should the custom ICC be converted to Adobe 1998? What is a good practice?

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Nigel JISC Digital Media: If the custom profile is accurate and recent i would suggest using that, if not Adobe RGB or possibly a larger colour space may be a good alternative.

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Paul: I am pretty new to editing and uploading video for online dissemination. What formats or codecs are generally used, and what software is used to convert the files?

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Stephen JISC Digital Media: Video formats used to edit are usually different to those delivered online

Using whatever format your camera produces (perhaps .avi) is fine for editing, then converting those to .wmv or similar would work well

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Paul: @ Stephen Thanks. You probably don't recommend specific software, but... as a general rule is it ok to look for Open Source software for converting files? I have tried stuff in the past which has looked pretty flaky, to be honest

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Stephen JISC Digital Media: Adobe CS4 is a great (if pricey!) set of tools which can be used to do almost anything to video, in my opinion. Check that Premier and Media Encoder are included though. Open source wise there is Handbrake, but this can't be used for editing, only converting video.

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Paul: Great. I will take a look at Handbrake. We support quite a lot of people who are on very limited budgets (in Adult Community Learning)

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Stephen JISC Digital Media: Sounds like Handbrake will be right up your street. Don't forget Windows Movie Maker comes free with XP and is pretty good too.

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Moderator: @Armando Welcome to the session,

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armando: hi there!

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Moderator: Just fire away with any questions you may have

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armando: thanks

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Maciej: In general cameras we use in our studios are delivering digital images in Adobe 1998 colour work space. One of the scanners (CRUSE) has custom ICC. Should it be converted to match the others? What is a good practice? Some image viewers do not recognise it and the image looks like incorrect hues e.g. Irfan View.

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Nigel JISC Digital Media: @Maciej.I think it sounds like shifting to Adobe RGB would standardise the files from all capture devices. I am not familiar with the Cruse scanner, it may be able to fill a space larger than the Adobe RGB space such as Prophoto RGB.

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Paul: Yep already using Moviemaker by the way

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Nigel JISC Digital Media: @ Maciej. How did you create the custom profile for the Cruse scanner?

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Maciej: @Nigel. it is calibrated be cruse engineer. (It is flatbed scanner with fixed lights)

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Paul: Thanks for your help, I need to dip out now. Bye

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Maciej: @Nigel. The problem seems to be with third party viewers which are used by some of the end users and they reported colour issue.

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Nigel JISC Digital Media: @ Maciej. If it is calibrated as regularly as suggested by the manufacturer I would be reluctant to discard the profile.

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Maciej: @Nigel. So you suggest keeping original colour profile as archival. Am I right ?

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Nigel JISC Digital Media: @ Maciej. Are your monitors calibrated, and what about your end users? Do the images from the Cruse look OK on your screens?

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Moderator: @emily Welcome emily

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Emily: hello, happy new year @jiscdigitalmedia!

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Gavin (JISC Digital Media): hey emily - hny to you too

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Maciej: @Nigel. We tested it on different computers. The difference is huge and appears in specific software which might not support custom embedded ICC profiles

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Moderator: @Rob Welcome. If you have any questions just fire away in the chat box

Do you have any elearning/teaching and learning/digital media questions, if so just ask. We run these every two weeks

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Rob Gittins: I came over to see how you use the whiteboard and conferencing facility. I can't say I have any questions now. I use Second Life for meetings.

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Nigel JISC Digital Media: @ Maciej. I would be reluctant to throw the profile away if it is accurate.

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Maciej: @Nigel. Thank you for advice.

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Nigel JISC Digital Media: @Maciej. The image may look very different when viewed on a calibrated vs non calibrated system.

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Maciej: @Nigel. I understand calibrating issue quite well and personally would think that original colour profile should be kept. However, the end user puts pressure to receive different standard. Therefore we are storing files on Dspace dark repository. This is also converting TIFFs to JPGs with wrong colour. As far as I remember uses Image Magic to do that. q: what is causing an error in conversion?

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Nigel JISC Digital Media: @Maciej. I am not unfamiliar with Image Magic, though I know it is widely used and so I assume they would have ironed out colour management problems. Perhaps there is something in the system that struggles with 'non standard' colour. I am reluctant to say this but perhaps you will have to convert to Adobe RGB if this avoids the colour problem at the other end.

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armando: I have a question regarding portable audio recorders.I have been looking into buying one for my personal projects. And have found a few interesting little gizmos, from edirol to zoom and olympus. Can you guys recommend anything?

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Moderator (Zak Mensah): @armando Gavin will be answering with suggestions in a minute

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Maciej: I got another question - very practical about migrating metadata.

There is a library catalog based on Unicorn and librarian wants to create digital image library on the separate server as repository and link it to Unicorn catalog. Question: How to attach description to images (tags, ITCP) and convert it to unicorn to be searchable?

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Moderator: @Maciej regarding metadata please can you email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and we'll get John to get back to you. He is our metadata person but is on leave at present

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Maciej: @Moderator. Thank you I will.

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Gavin (JISC Digital Media): @ armando - i have had good experience of edirol and zoom - probably the best two manufacturers straight off. you might want to look at the zoom Q3 which incorporates a flip-style camera too. there is a new 'blue' microphone for the iphone/ipod too which looks very interesting to use in conjunction with their audio apps

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armando: Yes that is the common opinion that I have been gathering but also heard that the sound on the zoom is not as good. Any considerations on that matter?

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Gavin (JISC Digital Media): @ armando - if sound quality is critical then the edirol probably has the edge on mic quality. haven't heard the blue mic yet but their pedigree is good - hang on i'll find a link...

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armando: @gavin Thanks.

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Maciej: @Nigel. Thanks Nigel. Have you got any recommendation how to investigate colour issue further and what would be priority in making crucial decisions?

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Nigel JISC Digital Media: @Maciej. You could send us an email and I can investigate it further. Perhaps you could send me a scan from the Cruse with the custom profile?

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Maciej: @Nigel. Thank you. That's very kind of you.

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armando: @gavin And what about software? Audacity as been highly recommended any other options worth considering?

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Gavin (JISC Digital Media): http://www.bluemic.com/mikey/

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Gavin (JISC Digital Media): audacity is a capable piece of software, but suffers for its inability to preview /bypass effects and processing. edirol comes with a lite version of cakewalk which is an introduction to powerful bit of software. if you have access to a mac then garageband is outstanding, and logic studio is fully professional at a very good educational price-point - both mac only though

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armando: @gavin Yes I am a Mac user.

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armando: I did try garage band for some experiments and it performed very well

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armando: I was just wondering if the learning curve of audacity is easier one.

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Gavin (JISC Digital Media): @ armando - garageband all the way then - infinitely superior to audacity. logic is the best available DAW imho and compatible with garageband projects too which is a bonus when you want to take the next step

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armando: @gavin Great! Thanks for that!

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Moderator: Does anybody else have a question or is that a wrap until the next session on the 27th?

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Moderator: Thank you all and hope to see you at future sessions. Remember that we have a FREE helpdesk always available at http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/helpdesk/

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Rob: Many thanks ... bye for now.

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armando: Cheers to you. see you soon!