This is something I just randomally thought about, and I decided to do a trial episode, is this something you'd like to see more of?

I know our mp3 Podcasts have been basically put on hold as of late, apologies for the lack of updates on that front ... is a video type podcast something people would like to see? And if so, what content would you like?


Alpha Episode

You mean like a IGN video review containing footage from the game with our voices running over it? Interesting, but what program would you use?

UPDATE:

Alpha episode now available in first post.

THis is one ideas of the type of content you could have.

:lol:

Its 'Borgster the Talking Hand'! :D

My laptop has a built-in webcam with a microphone. Guess I could use that and we could somehow combine the 2? I couldn't show videos though unless I positioned the webcam in front of my desktop PC

Do it splitscreen, 24 style

Holy crap, you just keep talking!
It's an art :P


My verdict...

shaking fist SHAKING FIST

Awesome idea, but getting decent looking footage could be a challenge.

Thanks for the comments guys :)

And especially for Ninja's rating on YouTube itself! :D

I'm trying to think of what type of "content" we could have, since obviously my talking hand, can only go so far ... <_< also there's the issue of length .. probably couldn't have this sort of thing any longer than 10 minutes, given uploading videos and all that .. but that could be a good thing, short and sweet as they say ..

Also I'll have to figure out a way to get smaller sized videos, the camera I used recorded this couple of minutes file as a Quicktime Movie of 130MB in size! :o

So yeah you could imagine how big a 10 minute video would be .. might be some settings to compress the recording with the camera itself, it's a new one so I'm still learning the ins and outs of it. And obviously with regards to editing the videos etc to make all those flashy things ... well thats something I dont really know anything about :P

Edit it to an .avi?

How would you do that? :P

If you put it through some video-editing software, you'll be able to 'save as' .avi. :P

The only one I have is Windows Movie maker .. and it doesn't support Quicktime movies :lol:

You could send it somebody here or elsewhere that has the proper video editing software couldn't you?

Yeah that could work, but there's still the whole inital uploading issue though! :P

Any other comments/suggestions regarding the content of this Alpha episode/future Vodcasts?

I'm just about to watch the video, but I wanted to say some stuff before I forgot and then I'll post some feedback on the video itself.

So about the length - I think ~10 minutes would probably be good, because one of the main reasons why I haven't listened to the previous podcasts is because I don't have hours to listen to you guys talking about games. (Also, I don't want to have to explain to everyone in the house what it is that I'm listening to, but mostly the first thing) If there was a weekly 5-10 minute vodcast I'd probably watch it, though, because 5-10 minutes is a good length for me.

Also, on the matter of video size. Your camera's always going to record videos in uncompressed format, but you can probably set it to record at a lower resolution to lower the initial filesize (320x240 is youtube video size, I believe, so you'd probably want to set your camera to that res). A much better way to decrease the filesize, though, is to compress the file or re-encode it. There's a free video encoding program called Super that is very powerful and can re-encode videos to most formats. However, if you edit your video in Windows Movie Maker and then save it as a video file through it, it will re-encode it/compress it anyway to wmv, I believe.

If you're going to be uploading the videos to youtube (which is probably a good idea so we can watch them more easily), they need to be under 10MB, so if you're just using Windows Movie Maker as an editing program, you'll probably want to just set it to make the file the best quality to fit 10MB (you can set this when you finalise the video). If you're not going to be editing the video, though, you may as well use Super instead, or some other program, because Windows Movie Maker is not the best program for re-encoding quality...

Anyway, I've said enough about that - I'm going to go watch the video, now :P

EDIT: Two minutes later - I'm liking it - the shortness is good, because as I said, my lack of time coupled with my short attention span means I haven't really listened to any of the longer podcasts of times past.

About the not having anyone else in it - I don't know exactly how you could get around that - but since it's only a hand, maybe you could either record someone's voice from Skype or whatever like you previously did and incorporate it somehow, or otherwise perhaps you could have a webcam chat and possibly find a program to record the webcam stream (a google search would probably reveal something). Both of those ways would probably be a lot more difficult than just using your camera, though, which is a shame. Maybe you can have some forumers visit you sometime to record the podcasts :P

Also, you could basically edit in video clips of games if you wanted to, I think that even in Windows Movie Maker you should be able to edit in another video and have you talking over it - not sure if you'd have to separate the audio and the video of your original talking using some other program first (once again, a google search would probably find something), but it shouldn't really be too hard...

Recording your own game clips would probably be a problem, though - you could easily have off-screen shots, i.e. recording games with your camera, but that's unprofessional and not very nice. It's not too hard for PC games, you can use programs like FRAPS, for example, but for consoles you'd need some special hardware, so you'd probably be forced to use videos recorded by other people, like the internet... Which isn't really the end of the world...

Anyway, if I didn't make sense let me know. I've obviously gotten carried away, sorry about that, but anyway that's what I have to say.

Thanks dave, that was some helpful information, will certainly take that all on board.

And in any future episodes I'm going to keep it below 10 minutes, just something nice and quick, and hopefully entertaining in some way :P

Show your boobs. Wait, that wouldn't be entertaining at all!

Man, doing a video clip sounds like a bucket load of work. I can see the potential but it involves a lot of screwing around. How much would it cost to hire a film crew & Steven Spielberg?

Really? You should just sit in front of a camera, webcam etc. and basically do the podcast. Planning what to say would be the only workload wouldn't it? That and what to wear I suppose...maybe something ridiculous like dressing up as Mario or... Princess Peach! :P This would obviously attract a hell of alot more views, comments, hits etc. which would be cool for evo.

We need Angra here, pronto! :P

Haha then you'd really have a video on your hands. ;) Probably get in the most viewed of the day considering the way YouTube works these days. :rolleyes:

This idea has a lot of potential if done correctly. Many people are drawn to websites and forums via relevant videos posted on YouTube. Evolution needs new blood and fresh ideas if we are to continue to expand and grow. More regular community members alone will provide a richer social mix on our forums.

I've started an Evolution Forums YouTube Channel, and what better way to show others the path to our door than a cool kick-off promotional video displaying what we are all about? If we have any budding filmmakers among us, Evolution is calling you out! :P The video can be anything you choose; comedy, drama, documentary or something entirely new. Obviously displaying the Evolution URL at the beginning and the end would be handy. :)

Sweet idea but i'm useless with video, editing etc. :(

If Angra was gonna dress up she would totally be Samus.

And then Peach. Because Angra's so cool she'll do them both just for us. Or me.

Or not.

Yep.

Okay then.

Zero Suit?

Don't even go there, Nismo may never come back :lol:

Hey I can multitask you know? :P

Episode Beta

Coming Soon

.....

Right Now!
Beta Episode

Darn, I thought you had something to present for a second. Will this 'Coming Soon' feature be screening in cinemas? Is there going to be car explosions and shooting helicopters? Actually if it were an article on GTAIV, it would be :D

Episode now available in above post.

Please excuse the quality and somewhat abrupt ending .. compression software I have at the moment allows a maximum of 5 minutes.

That's a pretty good video :) Your video camera hates the tv though, loss of quality

Anyway you've given me an incentive now to upload some vids of my own! :) I've ordered a PSP>TV cable and will be showing off some games once I get them

Yeah I know .. nothing I could do about it, without some sort of direct feed capturing abilities .. But ah well .. the point was to show what the game is like, and I think that worked out pretty well, Wiimote controls included ;)

Also new, custom title! :P

I believe you need something like this to solve your only being able to show one handed games problem:

:lol: cool stuff guys hope this works out well. :)

:lol:

Dave that could work wonders! :P

These would look more stylish

Ok .. well this isn't a new episode, just me playing around with software trying to get something with a bit more production values I guess.

Anyway .. Enjoy!

Either something is wrong with Youtube or that video ain't loading for me..

Hmm it should work .. as I've viewed it via YouTube myself ..

GBA remakes?!

Pah!

*goes to video NES cartridges*

Yeah I know .. ah well :P