Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1: a first look from a videographer’s perspective

When I first heard about the Panasonic Lumix GH1 from my friend Steve (who saw a prototype and actually got to shoot with it at PMA 2009 in Las Vegas), I didn’t think too much about it. I incorrectly assumed that the GH1 was yet one more of those digital SLR photographic cameras that could also shoot HD video, although with more limitations than desired. But after investigating further, I realized that that first assumption was way off. The GH1 represents several steps forward in the ongoing development of truly hybrid photographic/video cameras, since it removes many of the limitations that other D-SLRs have imposed when used to shoot HD video.

Roxio Streamer: a free video streaming client for iPhone/iPod Touch

Roxio (a division of Sonic Solutions) has launched Roxio Streamer, a free application for the Apple iPhone or iPod Touch which allows you to do true video streaming of video files from your Mac to your iPhone or iPod Touch. It doesn’t matter whether you are in the same home or building, or anywhere else on the planet where you have either WiFi or 3G access (3G, only with the iPhone 3G). Unlike downloading, true streaming will not fill up the iPhone’s (or iPod Touch’s) memory with the entire videos you watch. The videos you stream can be your own, those you have recorded with your TiVo, or with your EyeTV.

DVKitchen has become a must-have video encoding & publishing tool

I first bought DVKitchen before it even carried that name. Back in June 2008, DVKitchen had a different name, but wasn’t quite ready yet for me to write an article about it. Times change… and for DVKitchen, the changes have been extremely positive. Like other encoding tools, DVKitchen from DVcreators can prepare your video for the web and other devices… but DVKitchen is unique in helping you to determine your ideal settings for that task very quickly… and unique in saving steps in the process of actually publishing your video on the web, and even writing HTML code for you to get your video embedded in your customized player on your website, blog, or in forums. Even if for some reason you must use another tool to encode your video, DVKitchen is the fastest way to determine the ideal settings in that other tool. Without a doubt, the latest version of DVKitchen represents a quantum leap for video content publishers, whether they are planning to deliver video for the web, AppleTV, PS3, WDTV, or mobile devices like the iPhone, iPod, G1, or Blackberry.

Toast 10 Titanium Pro package: a great upgrade

With version 10, Roxio (now a division of Sonic Solutions) offers a Pro bundle of Toast, which includes a total of 12 applications, most of which are multilingual. As many veteran Mac users know, the Toast application was born way before MacOS X (10.0). Back then, Toast was necessary to do something as simple as burning a CD, since before 10.0, the MacOS didn’t include onboard CD burning. Although CD and DVD burning capability is now part of the MacOS X (with much less depth than with Toast), the Toast application has grown quite a bit to cover many other tasks. Without even going into the bundled applications yet, you may know that Toast 10 can now burn data CDs, data DVDs, and data Blu-rays, and span data over more than one disk. Toast 10 can also do simple authoring of video DVDs and Blu-rays, as well as create “AVCHD disks”, which is HD material burned on a standard single or dual-layer DVD, and is playable on some Blu-ray players, and on the Sony PS3. But I’m only beginning to describe what the base Toast 10 application can do!

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