Peter Lehto - Piper's Penthouse

3g iphone scheduled for release in South Africa

piper — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 07:18:45 +0000

This week has been hectic for fans of the apple 3g iphone. Steven P. Jobs, chief executive of Apple, introduced a new cheaper iPhone model on Monday the 9th of June. The new iphone navigates the Internet more quickly, expanded its distribution overseas and displayed a range of new applications and services in order to establish Apple as a major player in the cellphone industry. The most amazing thing that effects consumers is the price, just shy of $200 for the 8g ($199) and the big brother 16g for a shocking $299. This price slashing is nothing new to the apple marketing front, as they did the same price cut for the ipod nano back in 2007.

The most pleasing aspect of the iphone for the South African market is that it will be finally sold here. However, don’t think you can just rush down to digicape or any apple store, No! It is exclusively sold by Vodacom to their network subscribers. But still, with a “projected” price of R4000 for the 8g, thats still not a bad option when a nokia N95 is priced at around R5000.

Fly through Photoshop, Aperture, and Final Cut Pro

piper — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 09:04:31 +0000

Earlier this week I was surfing through smashing magazine’s Beautiful And Original Product Designs of 2008. Featuring the most cutting edge of original and amazing design concepts, like the Nokia 888. However, the design or product that caught my attention from an editing and design perspective was the Keyboard Shortcut Skins for Macs.

This simple skin for your keyboard can maximize your short cut keyboard use for Photoshop, Aperture, and Final Cut Pro. I know, I know…. This is not a new concept and has been around for AVID users for years now, however the thing that distinguishes this skin from the others is that its universal, well at least universal between a few program that I would use, which makes my life a heck of much easier and more time efficient. Also this concept has not been explored for laptop users like me, I use a macbook pro with final cut and photoshop. Having a durable and reliable skin that I can remove quickly sounds really good.

Techno Viking vs Vernon Koekemoer airs on M-Net clipz

piper — Tue, 27 May 2008 06:58:26 +0000

Techno Viking vs. Vernon Koekemoer aired on South African tv station M-Net on the 22nd of May 2008. Clipz is a new show that first made its appearance in April, however, in a short period of time clipz has become a popular tv show with the urban generation. Clipz is a new M-Net Original Production is a 24 minute collection of the best clips and videos doing the rounds on e-mail and the worldwide web from week to week. In other words, you’ll see all those funnies that had people talking and laughing.

Watch Techno Viking vs. Vernon Koekemoer

Presented by Darren “Whackhead” Simpson, from Laugh Out Loud fame, the show includes a top ten list, a focus on classic on-line stars that made the internet famous and the mania of bizarre foreign clips and videos.

Nasty Patrol hits the coast of youtubia

piper — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:19:38 +0000

3 weeks ago I launched the Vernon Koekemoer vs Techno Viking video, which has been well recieved by the majority of its viewers. I posted it on both Youtube Facebook and Blueworld, to date having a combined total of 15,000 views.

For my next concept I was thinking of something sea related and stumbled upon a Aussie show that my friend introduced me to. I found the acting, especially when the drama kicks in to be quite over the top. The facial expression almost knocked me off my seat. These moments help me forge my concept for the Nasty Patrol. The video features pieces from CatchUpTVOnlinel, Sea Patrol and numerous clips edited together with subtitles to make a funny story about the Aussie navy and sea.

Hiro offers ad-supported videos for Mac

piper — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:18:13 +0000

Hiro Media on Tuesday announced the launch of the Mac version of its video download software. The technology lets Mac users watch free, ad-supported video downloads on their systems.

Hiro employs a system that embeds advertisements into video programming. The software’s already available or Windows users and launches on the Mac first in Israel, home of Hiro Media, where it’s being used by “a leading terrestrial broadcaster, several sports and children’s channels.” The company expects the Mac service to roll out to other territories, including the USA and Australia, later in 2008.

Hiro’s technology provides unskippable mid-roll advertisements that are displayed each time a video is viewed. The company claims this enables the video to be distributed over Web sites, P2P networks and other systems without the provider needing to worry about piracy, as the ad revenue is generated, whenever and wherever the content is viewed. It works on both Windows Media Player and QuickTime.

Vernon Koekemoer vs Techno Viking

piper — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:17:25 +0000

The internet has become more of a funny place, where individuals can upload their personal stories etc. How could I put it best: In the future everyone will have their 15 minutes of fame. This is very true for a few “super hero’s” that are taking the internet by storm; Vernon Koekemoer and Techno Viking. In the post Chuck Norris joke days people are finding more and more humour in every day life, this idea made me create a new animation involving the two characters mentioned above. How more appropriate than have them fight for the title of cheese champion on a street fighter style arena. The animation took me a few days to create and has been well recieve by the Vernon crowd. At present the video can be view on many different video sharing websites such as Blueworld, Youtube, and Facebook

Learn more about Vernon Koekemoer click here
Video designed and animated by Peter Lehto

Final Cut Pro 6.0.3 update supports Sony XDCAM format

piper — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:50:33 +0000

I recently had a bit of a problem when I encountered my friends Sony XDCAM and SXS memory. He wanted to capture footage from a shoot that was happening in Cape Town. Being the good friend that I am, I offer to help him transfer the data and make a quick edit on my Final Cut Pro 6.

However, I was horrified to sit for 3 hours trying to capture just the raw footage, I could see the capture names but there was no footage available. This slight problem did bug me for the rest of the day and disturbed my beauty rest that very night. So, the next day I woke up and decided to take the bull by the horns, in other words I went on the Internet and did some research. To my satisfaction I found the answer to my problem, it was the Final Cut Pro 6.0.3 update. This simple update sorted my transfer issue and I could finally rest my weary eyes and mind.

The 6.0.3 update supports editing media in the XDCAM HD422 format. You can now choose the following XDCAM HD422 Easy Setups:

* XDCAM HD422 1080i50 CBR
* XDCAM HD422 1080i60 CBR
* XDCAM HD422 1080p24 CBR
* XDCAM HD422 1080p25 CBR
* XDCAM HD422 1080p30 CBR
* XDCAM HD422 720p50 CBR
* XDCAM HD422 720p60 CBR

For more information about XDCAM HD422 format support, open Final Cut Pro and choose Help > HD and Broadcast Formats.

What’s better for video editing, a Mac or a PC?

piper — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:14:51 +0000

The Mac Experience

* you’ll be seen as cool, as different, as a creative/media type, or as someone who’s too thick to get to grips with Windows
* the unit will be visually appealing. Apple cases are well designed and match the monitors and other peripherals
* you are probably less at risk from viruses each time you go on the internet. Virus writers tend to concentrate their limited attention span on
creating viruses for Windows based machines
* Apple has some good software including iMovie, iDVD and iTunes
* you’ll have to put up with the silly names like iMovie, iDVD & iTunes
* There’s only one butt to kick if your system doesn’t work. No getting fobbed off by the software manufacturer saying the thingymijg is not
compatible with the widgetiwoo and that the third party supplied whatyamaycallit is screwing up the operating system registry
* downside to the one-butt-to-kick principle is that if the one butt is not around you’ll have no butt to kick. That is an inherent weakness in all
proprietary solutions - what happens if the company ever goes bust?
* you can use Final Cut Pro (only available on a Mac)

The PC Experience

* kick-ass speed, kick-ass speed, kick-ass speed. The top PC always beats the top Mac.
* new developments - from dual processor operation to 64 bit computing - come out on the PC first
* better value, wider choice of components, easy upgrade paths
* the huge market share of the PC makes it something that WILL be around for a long time to come.
* a lot of the best video editing products are available for the PC only
* availability of lots of resources from advice, tips, support forums, and manuals to training videos, help, and online discussion groups mean that the
PC user is quite spoilt really
* there’s a phenomenal range of software available for PC users from a wide range of video editing software to special effects applications, format
conversion programs and a range of other suites and utilities
* competition is good. It means that component prices from CPUs to video editing cards are being constantly improved and becoming more affordable
* once you get to grips with the interface, the menu system, right-clicking with the mouse, and shortcut keys you’ll find that you can navigate quite
adeptly around any Windows application

Contour Design’s ShuttlePro makes video editing an extension of your fingers

piper — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:33:56 +0000

On the surface the Contour Design ShuttlePro might look like just another jog control for easy editing, a device that has can be dated back to the pre-digital era. However, the shuttle pro is built around a twin concentric dials, the outer spring loaded and the inner continuous for fine timeline advancement. There are then 15 individual buttons arrayed in an efficient and effective layout around the dials for easy single handed operation.

The ShuttlePro comes with a host of pre-built application keystroke mappings for virtually every major software tool - ProTools, Final Cut, Avid, Premiere, Vegas, Cubase, After Effects and so on. But the real power comes in the configuration controls where each button on the Shuttle Pro can be custom assigned to any given function in the application.

Zeitgeist - the movie that can change your life

piper — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:39:00 +0000

This movie goes into a lot of detail, I found it amazing, it has inspired me to look into and fact check for myself on the information provided. Between government’s and church’s that choose to start wars it shows you how little is paid to humans and the basic needs that we need. If you look thou shall find. Do your research and see if the information leads in the direction of the movie. Then 9/11 I at first could not believe our government could do something like blow down the trade centers but with the officials now that are now in office, I can see it being happening in some back room. If you paid close attention to the trade center buildings you can see a demo effect in the way the buildings collapsed, then wtc 7 wasn’t hit at all and it as while had a demo like effect. Wake up!!

Zeitgeist - The Movie