change of plan - next meeting 22nd Sep

Hi all

We've had to delay the start of 5th Glorious Year wefcpug due to lack of availability of talent, or at least myself and Richard. The meeting will now be a couple of weeks later, Monday 22nd September, by which time we'll both (plus anyone else who's going to Amsterdam) be able to report back on IBC and the Final Cut World supermeet, or whatever it's called. And you'll be able to share a laugh over the holiday photos.

So see you on Monday 22nd Sept, probably at the Beeb - but keep checking this space for news, reviews and gossip.

Phil

Widescreen playback in Quicktime

Ever come across this problem - you export a self-contained movie which is 16:9, but whenever you view it in Quicktime player, it shows up as 4:3 even though you remembered to keep it anamorphic in the export. And annoyingly (unlike other viewers, eg VLC) you can't change the aspect ratio of the QT player window.

In one sense that problem's gone away with mpeg4 exports, which QT seems to display properly from the outset, but I only just discovered they sneaked an extra feature into QT 7. It's called 'conform aperture' and is accessed through 'Show Movie Properties>Presentation' in the QT player.


The dropdown box, as you can see in the screen grab, gives options not only to display in the correct aspect ratio (Production as opposed to encoded pixels) but also to hide problem edges (from camera cutoff or encoding artefacts). The option is saved with the .mov file, and obviously you need the Pro version of QT to do this. More details in the QT help file.

New Look - serious business

no prizes if you're in the header photo, but caption suggestions are welcome.

Catching up

Your humble scribe is returned from State Visits to the Continent and it's time to sharpen the keyboard and punch the pencils, or should that be the other way round. Either way, expect a short sprinkling of updates and bloggings as I shelter from the rain and tinker with this site over the next couple of weeks (unless better paid work comes in!). I've just put in a Google Gadget on the righthand toolbar, so you'll be able to see the weather in Bath. Not that you need a dynamic feed for that at the moment.

First off, thanks to all who finished off our 4th year (subject to a recount when I get the diaries together and agree a story with Richard) in style with a full house at the Beeb in July. In case your memory is rusty, the next Glorious Year will kick off on Monday September 22nd. (Note, change of date).

The previous weekend is IBC in Amsterdam. So far I know that meself and Richard are planning to go - anyone else for the Supermeet on the Sunday? As the longest established group regularly meeting in the UK, we'll be flying the flag for Bristol and hope to bring back the Gold. Oh no, the Olympics have seeped into my nervous system.

Phil

edited 18th aug to change dates and tenses