Sad (to me) article on converting video in Tom's Hardware

[TheInformer]

To me, it was a sad article. The author seemed to have not heard about VirtualDub, ScenalyzerLive, TMPGEnc, or any of the other great tools that we use here to do our conversions. He did excel in spending money on his solution though. I wish I could spend that kind of money.

URL of the article:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/02q3/020928/index.html

[fmctm1sw]

To me, it was a sad article. The author seemed to have not heard about VirtualDub, ScenalyzerLive, TMPGEnc, or any of the other great tools that we use here to do our conversions. He did excel in spending money on his solution though. I wish I could spend that kind of money.

URL of the article:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/02q3/020928/index.html

Some people got the jack, some don't. I don't so I'll be sticking with virtualvcr, tmpg, and other free stuff for the forseeable future.

[Tommyknocker]

*Sniff*

[Thorn]

I was a little concerned about that article too... but I assumed after more than a decade of being an engineer he has enough money not to care that he blew several times what he had to on a capture box. I did, however, consider that maybe someone should write a more insightful article for tomshardware to let the readers know where to really look to learn to capture (here) . Honestly, tomshardware is not a capture or software site, it's a news and hardware information site, so that's not a bad start into the world of capturing... it's just not enough to really educate people.

[offline]

When tom began his website he almost always double checked and had his articles examined by experts before uploading them. He tested using
industry testing procedures and double checked results and conclusions. Thus his site became a good source for reliable info.

However, as
a self taught expert, (he is a dental tech by training) Tom began to use his own ad hoc testing methods and made some interesting conclusions that were not exactly based on scientific methodology. Obviously overworked, he assigned more & more space to sometimes dubious
3rd parties. As a result, the accuracy and efficacy of his once excellent
website has declined greatly imo.

[fourthquark]

Offline is on the money with his comments. tomshardware used to be "at the edge" but is now rather mainstream.
Digital video is not really mainstream yet (getting there) and in situations like this, mainstream authors tend to make some rather glaring omissions. I am reminded of an article done by PC magazine on online auctions several years ago, where there was no mention at all of eBay.

[BJ_M]

man that write up shocked me ...

he forgot 3:24 pm: took a leak, kicked the cat and grabed a beer - now that would be more in line with what i think is real world ...

[BJ_M]

funny at the end it says he worked for intel designing motherboards for 12 years but yet he seemed to really fumble the ball building a system (and didnt buy a intel Motherboard .... hmmm) ...

and his audio was out of sync ...

i sent him an email with a link to vcdhelp.com

[offline]

Hey BJ_M,

about your 900Mhz mp xeon rig. Just wondering what CCE benchmarks
you get with that?

[BJ_M]

Hey BJ_M,

about your 900Mhz mp xeon rig. Just wondering what CCE benchmarks
you get with that?

it is used for compositing - not encoding .. not either cce or tmpgenc use all 4 cpus's only two ..

but i just got a dual xeon 2.8 ibm intellistation m pro yesterday .. all scsi 15k rpm x 6 36gig plus 720g outboard firewire raid / 4 gig mem ... ill but that through the rigger as soon as i get it all loaded up .. and replace the defective ati firegl vid card it came with (not to impressed on that) ..

[offline]

it is used for compositing - not encoding .. not either cce or tmpgenc use all 4 cpus's only two ..

yes I know but I figured with encoding split b/t first/second
cpu's and frameserving on one + extra on die cache you must
be getting a 50% boost with Mhz to spare.

... and replace the defective ati firegl

a dead fireGL ? your assembler must have killed it

[saintbabs]

Unfortunately, I think people didn't understand the intent of the articles. They are not professional articles. They are user experiences, good or bad, unexpurgated, and subject to debate. I didn't want to have a fully edited, professional writer's piece. It's supposed to be real life, again, good or bad.

I would welcome articles from any members of this forum who have their own, perhaps better, experiences to relate. On the next Reader How To I will be sure to explain the intentions of the articles more clearly than I may have originally.

And in case you are wondering why I wrote this: Jim, who wrote the article, is a good guy, and did a great job. It was his experience. I had a couple of emails from people who felt it was appropriate to put him down, and I don't think that was fair. However, we had a great deal more that were positive because, people could relate to the problems that he experienced.

Anyway, I hope that helps to clear things up. Feel free to email me at omid@tomshardware.com if you have any further comments.

Omid Rahmat
Tom's Hardware Guide

[BJ_M]

Unfortunately, I think people didn't understand the intent of the articles. They are not professional articles. They are user experiences, good or bad, unexpurgated, and subject to debate. I didn't want to have a fully edited, professional writer's piece. It's supposed to be real life, again, good or bad.

I would welcome articles from any members of this forum who have their own, perhaps better, experiences to relate. On the next Reader How To I will be sure to explain the intentions of the articles more clearly than I may have originally.

And in case you are wondering why I wrote this: Jim, who wrote the article, is a good guy, and did a great job. It was his experience. I had a couple of emails from people who felt it was appropriate to put him down, and I don't think that was fair. However, we had a great deal more that were positive because, people could relate to the problems that he experienced.

Anyway, I hope that helps to clear things up. Feel free to email me at omid@tomshardware.com if you have any further comments.

Omid Rahmat
Tom's Hardware Guide

in that context - "user experiences" .. yes the writing stands on its own .. but it was not presented that way, which even you noted, but as more a resource guide.

i prefer hemingway'ism to 17th century baroque style of writing for such things .. but then everyone has their own opinions ..

anyway - hats off to the detailed notes on the copious task that Jim was attempting to do.

[Poplar]

Would it be interesting to compare video quality between his $4000 "kick-ass" system and my $400 "cheapo" system :P