My Video Nirvana

by dwilson on Sep.22, 2009, under personal

I am in the midst of a total video renasance on my home machines. It all started with the addition of NAS to my home network infrastructure. I added two 1.5 TB drives in a RAID 1 (hooray for redundancy) for backup and video storage. This gives me virtually infinite HD video storage (or a few hundred hours if you want to get technical about it) and allows multiple machines to work with the raw HD recordings. This decentralization allows me to work with my video on either Mission Control using Sony Vegas Studio for really complicated video editing tasks (like ‘Unstoppable’), or my Mac Mini and iMovie for simple kid clips like ‘Tumbling’.

I also have found some great solutions for video on the go. I purchased Xilisoft’s iPod Video Converter (http://www.xilisoft.com/ipod-video-converter.html), and can now take just about any video format and copy it to my iPhone for viewing on the bus. Even more impressive, however, is the TiVo Desktop Plus software (http://www.tivo.com/buytivo/tivogear/software/tivodesktopplus.html). This software let’s me browse my TiVo recordings, and easily copy, convert, and add them to my iPhone. What’s really nice about this is I can timeshift to skip commercials on the iPhone. Now I can get my Daily Show with John Stewart and Robot Chicken fix, and I don’t have to pay a dime in the iTunes store (though the TiVo software did set me back $24.95). Finally, for DVDs, I use CloneDVD Mobile (http://www.slysoft.com/en/clonedvd-mobile.html) to rip DVD’s for viewing on my iPhone. With this whole setup, I now have the ability to easily fill my iPhone with videos from file, TiVo, and DVD. My listening time for podcasts and audiobooks may drop sharply, except for while walking about.

I am in the midst of a total video renaissance on my home machines. It all started with the addition of NAS to my home network infrastructure. I added two 1.5 TB drives in a RAID 1 (hooray for redundancy) for backup and video storage. This gives me virtually infinite HD video storage (or a few hundred hours if you want to get technical about it) and allows multiple machines to work with the raw HD recordings. This decentralization allows me to work with my video on either Mission Control using Sony Vegas Movie Studio for really complicated video editing tasks (like ‘Unstoppable‘), or my Mac Mini and iMovie for simple kid clips like ‘Tumbling‘.

The most painful, but essential, part of my video setup was getting the original camcorder software installed on Mission Control. When I first got the Handycam, the software for importing and organizing the AVCHD video from the camera was not compatible with 64-bit Vista. They have since fixed the issue, but installation required several components and reboots. With this new setup I hope to capture and produce more video. This also allows me to transfer back to the camera, and import all my old videos into iMovie, since best I can tell iMovie can’t just up and import raw AVCHD file dumps from a hard drive.

I also have found some great solutions for video on the go. I purchased Xilisoft’s iPod Video Converter, and can now take just about any video format and copy it to my iPhone for viewing on the bus. Even more impressive, however, is the TiVo Desktop Plus software. This software let’s me browse my TiVo recordings, and easily copy, convert, and add them to my iPhone in one shot. What’s really nice about this is I can time shift to skip commercials on the iPhone. Now I can get my Daily Show with John Stewart and Robot Chicken fix, and I don’t have to pay a dime in the iTunes store (though the TiVo software did set me back $24.95). Finally, for DVDs, I use CloneDVD Mobile to rip DVD’s for viewing on my iPhone. This is a great solution for plane travel, since you can just load up a handful of DVDs before a trip and you are all set with just the iPhone, a device that travels with you anyways. With this complete setup, I now have the ability to easily fill my iPhone with videos from file, TiVo, and DVD. I see my listening time for podcasts and audio books dropping sharply, except for while walking about.

I think I have reached near perfection and mastery of video, and am master of my own video domain.