You might have heard before, but in case you hadn't, today marks the last day of DV Guru. We've had a fun time blogging about all things digital video, and while it may be the end of the line for our lil' blog here, don't think it's the end for any of us. Allow me to go on for a minute about everyone, and let you know where some of your favorite bloggers are headed.

Ajit Anthony has been here since day one, and will keep going with his personal project, Squigglebooth. He's been an invaluable asset to the team, and kept the site afloat for a good amount of time with just himself.

Ajit says:
I feel like I have involuntarily graduated the DVguru school of filmmaking. It has been a great ride and a great education. To post here everyday also meant I had to learn on what I was talking about. I feel so much richer from the experience.

I'd like to thank all the people who have blogged for DVguru (and they have been several) and especially all you readers. We certainly are not stopping this because of a lack of readers. If anything, I can safely say we are leaving on a high note. Special thanks to people like Mike Curtis who was a resource in every way. Thanks to Randall who was a constant source of motivation that clearly pushed this site forward.

I am supposed to be blogging for other DV related sites, we'll see. What I do know is that I will be blogging at Ticklebooth and videoblogging on Squigglebooth. Hopefully, you will see one of my films playing at a theater near you. Thank you.

Chris Tew, most notably of PVRWire, is leaving the Weblogs, Inc. fold and partnering with webtvwire.com and webtvhub.com covering the biz of IPTV and internet distribution.

Russell Heimlich, one of our podcast peeps, will continue to contribute to NewTeeVee. In his time here, he did a ton to help our site, including the most trafficked post of DV Guru's lifespan. Yeah, it was the DVD rewinder, but still, pretty awesome.

Erstwhile features writer Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo is in pre-production on the upcoming internet TV drama The West Side. The show won't be premiering until March, however, so for now he can only offer up his solipsistic (his word, not mine...) ramblings at No Film School. We still blame him for the site's demise... but only because he's so awesome, we wish he could have written more, but peeps are busy, and we understand.

Adam Nielson will continue to work at his "real job" in television at KSL-TV in Salt Lake City, but online he'll be working with several projects, including Tech Check Daily, an online show about technology.

Sheila Ward has been a breath of fresh air to DV Guru. In her short time, she brought an awesome amount of content to DV Guru, and I'll always be grateful. She's not heading too far, since she'll be contributing a little to Download Squad with stuff like imaging tips and potentially some video how-to stuff. Besides that she'll be off doing her video business thing.

Brian Liloia, one of the "second generation" of DV Guru-ers, has some of the most interesting post DV Guru plans. This April, he'll be moving to an ecovillage community in rural Missouri, where he hopes to help build homes made out of mud and straw, partake in organic gardening, learn the ins and outs of solar and wind power, and promote a sustainable, low-impact, and self-sufficient lifestyle. While there, he has plans to start up several video/filmmaking projects in the form of some documentary work, and a series of online "TV shows" about the community and the theme of sustainability. Other than that, he'll continue writing a little bit for Download Squad and TUAW.

Randall Bennett, AKA me, has a ton of things going. I'm going to still contribute to some Weblogs, Inc. properties, like Blogging Stocks, but I'm also working on a new project called Tech Check Daily (with Adam Nielson) and continue ruling the world. Still haven't ruled out the possibility of leading another DV blog, but we'll have to see.

I've got to say I've had such an awesome time helping shape this site. All of our writers are great, and expect to see big things out of all of our writers. The other missing link? You. We have the most loyal and interesting readers in the whole world! (*tear*) Honestly, our readers are intelligent and always have an interesting comment to leave. Working at other blogs within Weblogs, Inc., I often dread reading the comments because they're filled with unintelligent drivel, but thanks to readers and comment writers like you, DV Guru has been an awesome place to be. Thanks, and we'll see you in the blogosphere in the sky (or at NAB, whichever comes first.)

Scopes make great eye candy that can impress a client, but they can also be very helpful when you are editing. Here's an excerpt from Larry Jordan's Final Cut Pro 5 Essentials Effects series that explains what scopes are used for and how you can use them in the editing process. It's an excellent video to check out if you are new to the scope scene.

[via FresHDV]

720x480, 640x480, 1920x1080... what is the significance behind these and other aspect ratios we sometimes love to hate? This Artbeats document presents a straightforward introduction to the significance of video aspect ratios, and how video differs when presented on computer screens and televisions, and captured on camcorders. Unfortunately, knowing a lot of these tedious factoids becomes invaluable when working with different format (SD vs. HD, NTSC vs. PAL) video. There's no such thing as a universal pixel aspect ratio, and learning the differences between formats will give you a better understanding of exactly how video is displayed.

(via FresHDV)

The digital revolution has given way to exposing the world to many great things. But there has also been various negative events exposed to the light of day thanks to the growing number of devices that can capture digital video. For instance, the Abu Ghraib prison scandal was exposed due to personal digital cameras. The only footage of the 2004 Asian tsunami was captured by tourists via home video cameras and the London train bombings were documented via cell phones.

The convenience of digital video has even spawned a new human rights group called Witness, which is based in New York. Gillian Caldwell, executive director of the group says, "images have more resonance" which explains the group's motto: "See it. Film it. Change it." Right now they have over 3,000 hours of footage of human rights abuses and they are hoping to create a YouTube like site for human rights. Caldwell said rights groups are increasingly harnessing the "power of images and human stories to motivate change." All thanks to the democratization of digital video.

MacBreak continues in the world of movie magic with some more tricks from Conversations with Other Women. Episode 61 shows how After Effects was used to create a ballroom dancing scene from different pieces of video. There's not a lot of how-to detail (I want the nitty gritty stuff) but it's still an interesting discussion and proof of what today's tools and imagination can produce.

Movie scenes, especially action sequences, are influenced by the sound effects added in post. For example, in a fight scene the punches can be off by a foot or more but what really sells the illusion is the sound effect of a hard, fleshy hit.

Lots of research has gone into placing the right sound effect at the right time, but what if a completely different sound effect was applied? Would it change our perception of what we see on the screen? That is what Adam Ecker and Laurie Heller sought out to answer. What they found was that depth perception is influenced not only by visual phenomena such as shadows, binocular disparity, and object size, but also by sound. Good to know especially for those action scenes.

Steven Mullen at Digital Content Producer takes a hard look at methods of de-interlacing after examining the so-called "Full HD" marketing program used to promote televisions, camcorders, etc. with 1920x1080 resolution and 60p display / capture capabilities. It's a heavy read, but if you want to gather a better understanding of types of de-interlacing, and how they differ from each other, this is a useful explanation. Mullen concludes that a Full HD device must be capable of displaying or outputting a 1080/60p signal.

(via FresHDV)

Within the past month, both HD DVD and Blu-Ray's AACS protection scheme has been bypassed, and now news has broken of a researcher cracking Vista's DRM scheme. Mind you, Vista hit shelves all but one week ago. Boing Boing sums it up very nicely:

"As with previous multi-year DRM development efforts, this one disintegrated like wet kleenex on contact with the general public. Now that Vista, HDCP, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are all broken, it seems like the millions of dollars and thousands of work-hours sunk into these systems was mis-spent. The only benefit that these anti-copying systems confer to the companies that developed them is the right to sue competitors -- and that benefit could have been had by shellacking a one-atom-thick layer of token DRM onto their systems, just enough to be able to invoke the DMCA. Everything else was just gold-plating, wasted money."

So the trend continues. Anything meant to be protected will always be cracked. Researcher Alex Ionesco's hack bypasses Vista's anti-copying technology and allows for full-res, unencrypted high-def video streams. Due to legal concerns, he has not yet released his code. Check out Boing Boing's summary for the full scoop.

(via Hacking Netflix)

Knowing your keyboard shortcuts will take you to the next level in your mastery of Final Cut Pro. For some help with memorization, try printing out this shortcut document and keep it on your desk while you edit. Thankfully, it's nicely organized so you can learn a block of shortcuts at a time. Thanks to Flippant for the tip.

In the growing trend of Hollywood embracing Videobloggers, an Observer article talks about the Hollywood courtship of the biggest videoblogger, Ze Frank. "The Show" is part of my morning ritual but in March, Ze will stop his morning newscasts as he had planned. There have been a lot of talk of what he might do next. According to the article, Ze says feature film will be his focus, though he will "never ditch the web." The article also provides some insight into his daily ritual.

Callbox has released a Tutorial dvd that teaches users how to maximize shooting with a DVX100 and editing in Final Cut Pro. The tutorial is taught by Noah Kadner. If you use the 2-pop forums, you will have surely seen his name or even recieved assistance from him. Topics include: Output for 35mm Film, Cinema Tools, SDI vs. Firewire Capture and, of coure, Advanced Pulldown Removal. Priced at $75.

(via Macworld)

Another valuable interview is up at the Workbook Project, this time in the form of a roundtable discussion with Mark Stolaroff of No Budget Film School and Paul Harrill of Self-Reliant Filmmaking. Along with Lance Weiler, the group approaches the topic of DIY, low/no budget-style film production. Lots of topics are covered, including tips regarding fundraising, producing, directing, casting, and more. A worthwhile listen here.

Here's a fascinating find via Scott Simmons: David Bordwell admits to being a frame counter, and his calculative observations of edited sequences reveals the differences between film and video formats. Bordwell counts exact frames in tightly edited sequences from 35mm/16mmじゅうろくみり film prints and reveals the arithmetical precision used by directors and editors to create a specific rhythm. Watching the same film on different video formats (VHS, DVD, and Laserdisc) Bordwell then observes the differences in precise sequence lengths in frames due to differing video frame rates and 3:2 pulldown. It's an excellent read highlighting the differences between film and video frame rates, NTSC vs. PAL, and interlaced versus progressive formats, and how all of these different factors affect the actual rhythm of film editing.

(via editblog)

At the World Economic Forum on Saturday, Bill Gates forecast the demise of television in five years with the increasing popularity and greater flexibility of online video. "I'm stunned how people aren't seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we've had.." While not exactly an earth-shattering prediction, it is still brave to suggest that TV will be irrelevant. While there is certainly something of a benefit to be had in being able to choose viewing content on the internet, there is still a gap to be bridged between traditional television and online video. In addition to this, online content needs to mature before it can "take over" television, and Download Squad makes a good point in saying that a "convergence device" (read: something like the Apple TV) will be needed to really merge internet video and TV. But then again, there is also the issue of bandwidth. So, maybe it's not that simple... what do you think? What will become of television over the next five years?