1394 FIREWIRE BASED - MY EQUIPMENT:
CAMERA: These days (2002)only a Sony TRV 15 mini DV camera, TRV 110E Digital 8 DV using hi8 tapes (1999). Any analogue sources must be recorded to the TRV 110 DV camera first, the TRV 15 can be used as an analogue/digital converter and can therefore process analogue to the hard drive as DV. The TRV15 will not accept a svideo connector for use as a converter.
A 16:9 Century Optics adapter for widescreen in 2002. Sennheiser ME40 microphone with wind fluffy, Sony Lapel microphone, Sony DKC-ID1 digital stills camera (1997).
CAPTURE CARD: ADS Pyro firewire card (PCI) - update from analogue for less than 100 dollars US in 1999.
PROGRAMS: Adobe Premiere 6.5 for editing & capture in DV Type 2. Canopus ProCoder for encoding SVCD's.
Adobe Photoshop 7 for still photographs, Hollywood FX.
ENCODER FOR SVCD: My choice for authoring SVCD's is ProCoder.
ENCODING FOR DVD's: Cinemacraft (CCE) v2.5 with avisynth or Cinemacraft (CCE) v2.64 as a plugin for Premiere 6.5.
SVCD AUTHORING: I-Author/Adaptec 4 burning, Video Pack 5/WinonCD burning.
DVD AUTHORING: DVDMaestro only from Oct 2002.
COMPUTER: w95 to Sept 1999, w98SE (to Oct 2002), W2k from Oct 2002, from July 2003 2.4G Pentium 4, MSI 865PE Neo2 motherboard (dual Processor, slower than a similar single processor) with 512M DDDRam, 60G Weston Digital 7200 rpm edi system drive, 80G 7200 rpm Weston Digital edi video drive, Montego II sound card, Voodoo3 3000 (16M), Pioneer 104F DVD with RealMagic Hollywood Plus mpeg decoder card and a Sony CRX145E burner.
FEEDER VCR's: Mitsubishi E82 SVHS and Sony Hi8 EVS 9000
DVD Players: Philips DVD 725 (late 1999), Conia M271 (2003).
DVD Burner: Pioneer A05, all burns made with Gear Pro software.
I have a non video related engineering design background and an uncontrolled passion for photography, video and video editing on the personal computer. As a result of my involvement in engineering I have traveled extensively (Europe and South America) and have made several works related documentaries in 8mm and 16mm cine film and more recently in video.
I have been involved in photography since 1958 taking my first photographs on Kodachrome slide film when it was only 10ASA.
I have years of experience with 35mm and large format cameras and my strongest passions have always been Birds in the Wild and Motor Racing, the bonfire for that was lit in 1967 at the British GP.
In the challenge for birds in the wild I successfully developed a flash gun multiplier that allowed me to stalk with a gunstock and to flash fill the subject up to 20 metres away in broad daylight (practicably burnt the feathers off them at close range).
My personal 35mm camera system covered lenses from 21mm to 600mm and in 1998 I changed to a digital stills camera with a optical zoom lens giving the equivalent, in the 35mm format, of 35mm to 900mm at f2.4 - an unbelievable package with its own set of challenges. Unfortunately it only uses a PAL frame size of 768 x 576 (442,368 effective pixels).
In the 90's I ran a small part time business for 4 years successfully making low budget wedding videos using analogue hi8 equipment and I began non linear editing on the PC in 1994-5. I changed to DV in 1999 and I have a passion for the 16:9 format.
A serious accident in a church put paid to the business activities and these days I provide a part time service to my clients in video production related activities.
I retired from the workforce in October 2001.
THIS SITE:
This site was re generated after the original site was deleted without warning from another provider and at the time I had no backups of what it contained. I thank all those people who provided material from their caches to make it possible to rise again.
The main purpose of the site is to provide information in the authoring of Video CD's upwards based on hands on experience in what I talk about.
I thank you for your support - drive safely and take care in whatever you do.
Cheers
IN TRUTH A HOBBY GONE WILD!
SOME PERSONAL DETAILS:
My Name is Ross McLennan and I live and play in Adelaide, South Australia in the Land-Down-Under.