This Week on Channel 9: Feb 8, 2008 Episode

The Discussion

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  Damn, that C9 dude sure did look heavy!

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  Great show: short, to the point, funny, with great content.

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  Succinct and necessary. If you guys polish this up, this will really go places. After a busy week one can get the salient details, and your nuggets are excellent (missed Linqpad and the Vista/Sneath stuff - so onto that now).
  
  Well Done!

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  Excellent!
  
  RE: Big 9 Guys. Back in the day, we had them made as part of an internal C9 "marketing" campaign. The idea was to put them in random locations around campus to evoke curiosity from passers-by. Never happened, but it was a good idea. Glad to see them being put to good use!
  
  C

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  Great second show guys.
  
  Love the title graphics and the way Dan and Brian balance each other out.
  
  Most of all I like the fact it's not much more than 20 minutes long.

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  Thanks everyone for the feedback, our goal is to keep it to ~20 minutes every week going forward

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  The show looks like it was shot in widescreen but it plays back in a regular shaped player window so everything's all stretched vertically.

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  dentaku wrote:

  The show looks like it was shot in widescreen but it plays back in a regular shaped player window so everything's all stretched vertically.

  
  
  Whaddaya mean? We're just really tall!
  
  You observed correctly. We had a setting on the camera wrong that we didn't notice until after the shoot. Sorry about that. We'll try to look out for it in the future.
  
  And to echo what Dan said, thanks for all of the positive encouragement! We enjoy doing this so as long as you enjoy watching it we'll keep filming.
  
  Brian

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  Oh and one more thing we already noticed, the font size on some of the slides is too small. We're going to work on that in the future, but in the meantime if you view the download version it seems to work best.
  
  Did I mention that we have zero budget and that I do all of our editing? It's a learning curve!
  
  Brian

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  briankel wrote:

  
  Did I mention that we have zero budget and that I do all of our editing? It's a learning curve!
  
  Brian

  
  
  Really? Are you using one of the Microsoft studios, or whats the deal with the set? It looks rather big!

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  Chadk wrote:

  

  briankel wrote: Did I mention that we have zero budget and that I do all of our editing? It's a learning curve! Brian

  
  
  Really? Are you using one of the Microsoft studios, or whats the deal with the set? It looks rather big!

  
  
  It's not "Microsoft Studios" but it is a studio at Microsoft that our team set up in a building across the street from where Dan and I work. It is primarily used for filming On10 shows but that usually leaves a lot of spare studio time, so we were lucky enough to be able to book a few hours each week with Robert (our awesome camera man and technician who you see during the Benny Hill sequence). The room itself is probably 15x15 feet.
  
  Brian

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  Much better than first time...
  Thx..

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  briankel wrote:

  

  dentaku wrote: The show looks like it was shot in widescreen but it plays back in a regular shaped player window so everything's all stretched vertically.

  
  
  Whaddaya mean? We're just really tall!

  
  
  Or maybe just really skinny

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  If you've won over Irascible Ian, you must have done a really good job

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  Only thing better than Tip of the Week would be Tips of the Week. I'm finding the tips to be potentially very helpful.
  

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  TommyCarlier wrote:

  If you've won over Irascible Ian, you must have done a really good job

  
  
  To quote despair.com "Mediocrity: It takes a lot less time and most people won't notice the difference until it's too late". And while that may be the mantra of the masses, SOME of us have standards and look at the long term and reality
  
  But you're right - they have done a really good job.

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  Sometimes you sound a bit naggy and "old" but I don't remember you ever writing something untrue. You were the one that convinced me that it's not a good idea to just jump on any new technology without thinking, especially when it comes from Microsoft. Just this morning I was curiously looking for news about Acropolis and I stumbled upon an MSDN forum post that stated that Microsoft would not release a new CTP of Acropolis. Just like WinFS, Microsoft will "integrate parts of it in future technologies".

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  Ask A Ninja!
  

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  The audio is a bit obnoxious ("walkie-talkie sound"), but otherwise I like these videos. I don't mind long videos, as long as they're not artificially drawn out.

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  esoteric wrote:

  The audio is a bit obnoxious ("walkie-talkie sound"), but otherwise I like these videos. I don't mind long videos, as long as they're not artificially drawn out.

  
  
  10-4, esoteric. I don't notice the same quality on any of my machines when I play it back but if anybody has ideas for what might be causing the walkie-talkie sound qualities please let me know. As I mentioned I do all of the editing myself so maybe there's a trick I can apply in post-production, or while filming, to improve the sound quality.
  
  Thanks for the feedback and the kind words; over and out!
  
  Brian

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  briankel wrote:

  

  esoteric wrote: The audio is a bit obnoxious ("walkie-talkie sound"), but otherwise I like these videos. I don't mind long videos, as long as they're not artificially drawn out.

  
  
  10-4, esoteric. I don't notice the same quality on any of my machines when I play it back but if anybody has ideas for what might be causing the walkie-talkie sound qualities please let me know. As I mentioned I do all of the editing myself so maybe there's a trick I can apply in post-production, or while filming, to improve the sound quality.
  
  Thanks for the feedback and the kind words; over and out!
  
  Brian

  
  
  For the "walkie-talkie" sound, it sounds like you guys are just peaking - it's distortion.
  
  I don't know what kind of lapel mics you're using, but there ought to be two settings on the things. One is probably the channel your wireless transmitter is operating on, and the other should be the gain.
  
  Just turn the gain down. You can always boost the audio when editing - just use a Normalize effect - but you cant undo the distortion if it's part of the recording. Best to be safe and record at a lower lever than crank up the gain.
  
  For the aspect ratio problem - I did that a few times. But you can save the video by rendering it in a letterbox mode. I don't know what you guys are using for editing, but if I remember, we had a chat about Premiere Elements. I haven't used that package in a while, but I'd be really surprised if there weren't a way to render in 4:3 with a letterbox mode turned on. If you don't see it among the rendering config, it might be an effect you can drag onto the entire timeline.
  
  Yeah. I've been there on both of these things. Hope this helps...
  

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  Rory wrote:

  Hope this helps...
  

  
  
  Hey Rory, nice to hear from you! Yes this is definitely helpful, thanks much.
  
  I don't remember if the lapel mics had such a setting but I'll ask Robert our all-knowing technician to look into it.
  
  As for the aspect ratio Robert did re-render the video in 4:3 for me but obviously there's still some distortion there so either we're missing a setting or it's just an artifact of the transformation which you can't avoid. Moving forward I think we'll just add it to a pre-recording checklist to make sure we've double-checked that setting on the camera rather than try to muck with it in post.
  
  Brian

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  Awesome show guys!!! Keep the Benny Hill sound

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  Very nice show!
  
  But some of you guys REALLY NEED TO LOOK IN THE CAMERA not somewhere else. Otherwise it looks weird

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  Awesome, banana cake and a pen!
  
  Good job, guys. The show is going very well, can't wait to see what it'll evolve into.
  
  If I have to criticize: there was some grumbling online (or maybe just the places I visited) about SP1 having RTM'ed, but not being released until March. (And yeah, I know that that's changed somewhat now.) I would've liked to have heard some sort of comment on that. But hey, can't catch 'em all.
  
  Anyway, it's looking great so far. Can't wait for next week's show. I love the amount of feedback you're giving in these threads, too.

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  Bas wrote:

  Awesome, banana cake and a pen!
  
  Good job, guys. The show is going very well, can't wait to see what it'll evolve into.
  
  If I have to criticize: there was some grumbling online (or maybe just the places I visited) about SP1 having RTM'ed, but not being released until March. (And yeah, I know that that's changed somewhat now.) I would've liked to have heard some sort of comment on that.
  

  
  
  Hi Bas - thanks for the kind words.
  
  My apologies, I did in fact see your question on last week's episode and at the time we filmed I didn't know the answer myself (remember, unpaid interns are a notch higher than Dan and me ). But as of today there is much more information available here and here which explains the delay.
  
  I realize it's not ideal for people who want SP1 yesterday and I would probably feel the same way if I were in your position. But there are some incredibly smart people at the helm of that release and I trust that they have weighed all of the alternatives before settling on this approach. Believe me - nobody wants to get it out to customers more badly than they do!
  
  Hope that helps a bit.
  
  Brian

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  Thanks Ivan, this is *so* me, I think Brian does a better job at this then I do, I'll definitely work on it
  
  

  ivan_ wrote:

  Very nice show!
  
  But some of you guys REALLY NEED TO LOOK IN THE CAMERA not somewhere else. Otherwise it looks weird

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  Excellent show, I'll definately be watching these from now on!
  
  Keep up the good work.
  
  Mark
  http://aspnetlibrary.com
  

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  Wow, you guys got funnier      I like the 20 min format.

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  HilaryPike wrote:

  

  Wow, you guys got funnier      I like the 20 min format.

  
  
  Thank goodness the writer's strike is over! We don't have to write our own material any more.
  
  Brian
  
  PS: Episode 3 coming today... it's just going through the upload process right now.

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  I LOVE the yakety sax set change scene.... classic!