Foxvideo Productions

Update

14.09.2026 written by: Dave Farrants

So… there’s been a lot going on, and I haven’t even had time to update this page. First, there are several versions of the video from the Philippines to edit and get ready for presentation. The main ‘building’ video requested by Peace and Hope has been approved and is ready for delivery.

Another version, which I’m calling the 50/50 version (or editor’s version!), includes the building work and other events we managed to fit in while we were there. These include the jail visit and the PWD (Persons with Disabilities) conference. This version is virtually ready. It’ll be premiered at Gorsley Chapel Beehive on 30 September and shown again at Western Way Chapel on 8 October.

FreeShow & Worship Player

24.08.2026 written by: Dave Farrants

I’ve been using FreeShow at our Chapel in conjunction with iSing as we don’t have any musicians to play hymns. It’s a system that worked well, project in FreeShow (readings and slides), CMD Tab (or window click) to iSing for a hymn and then CMD Tab (window click) back to FreeShow.

A couple of months ago we were notified iSing would cease and was being replaced by Worship Player. I downloaded the trial version and found out CMD Tab didn’t work (iSing apparently displayed in a full size window). An email to the devs came back with some workarounds and I found out a ‘triple click’ in FreeShow also worked.

Come forward 2 weeks and the Worship Player dev had written some code into Worship Player and it now worked with CMD Tab and FreeShow!

Our service on Sunday now worked perfectly between FreeShow and Worship Player, so if you’ve found this from a Google search your problems should be solved.

Facebook — and the cost of losing it

17.06.2026 written by: Dave Farrants

Facebook began with a simple, brilliant idea, a local online directory for students. It let people build profiles, stay in touch, make friends, and share tips, recommendations, and experiences on campus.

The idea spread quickly. First to other universities, then to a wider audience, and eventually across the world. Once internet access became common, that growth was inevitable. As the platform grew, so did the costs. Advertising became the obvious way to cover them, and I’ve never had a problem with that. It’s business. We still have the choice to ignore adverts or engage with them.

What I do have a problem with is how easily an account can now disappear.

I was suddenly removed from Facebook. I appealed, but the appeal was rejected. Fifteen years of content, connections, friends, and photos vanished. So did the hours I spent administering five other pages.

Here we go again...

15.06.2026 written by: Dave Farrants

5 days on from the Facebook disaster that looked as if I would have to cancel my trip to the Philippines. Thankfully I was able to create a new Facebook account which I'm now being extra cautious with! The next problem was getting on the same flight as the other team members, again thankfully that's now been done. So for the 2nd time (actually the third as I went in 1996) I'm off to The Philippines.

Thanks to Google, I've now got a website to document the trip - https://sites.google.com/view/sindangan2026/home

Facebook Account Disabled, Fifteen Years Vanished Instantly

12.06.2026 Filed in: Facebook |Disabled account written by: Dave Farrants

Facebook Disabled My Account, Fifteen Years Vanished in 2 hours.

I was working on a document when a strange window flashed up on my screen. I barely looked at it, assumed it was an email, closed it, and carried on. Two minutes later, an email from Facebook arrived with an 8‑digit login code. It said to ignore it if I didn’t request it, so I did. Another code arrived a couple of minutes later. Again, ignored.

Ninety minutes after that, I tried to log in to Facebook and was met with a blunt message: your account has been disabled. I submitted the appeal they offered, only to be told it was rejected and I couldn’t appeal again. Just like that, fifteen years of posts, photos, memories, and admin access to church pages, missionary pages, a narrowboat adventurer page and as an admin for a charity providing aid to Nicaragua, Romania and the Philippines were gone.

Tags: Facebook

Røde to the Rescue

18.05.2026 written by: Dave Farrants

I set up to record a sermon at our Chapel using the same settings as last week, audio levels looked fine on the side screen. Ingesting the footage into Resolve 21 Beta 3, I noticed some audio had peaked. I thought I’d deal with it in the morning.

Next day I went to pull some one minute clips for TikTok and confirmed the worst with peaked, slightly distorted audio on the timeline. Time to try out the 32-bit float files stored on the transmitter. I downloaded Røde Connect, plugged the transmitter into my M4 Mac, found the saved file, and imported it into Resolve. Selected the original video and audio with the new audio, hit sync by waveform, done instantly. Deleted the old audio track.

Perfect audio. In sync. No distortion. Problem solved.

Resolve 21 Beta 3

16.05.2026 written by: Dave Farrants

Resolve 21 Beta 3: A Smooth Start…?

I installed Resolve 21 Beta on my iMac for a quick look while keeping a couple of personal projects running in Resolve 20 on my M4 Mini. Thanks to the dongle license, swapping between machines is painless, so it was easy to compare both versions. I also kept an eye on the Resolve 21 Beta bug forum to see what others were running into.

When Beta 3 dropped, I rolled the iMac back to Resolve 20, moved my two small projects over as a backup, checked everything still worked, and then installed Resolve Beta 3 on the M4, my projects still opened and ran just fine.

A while back I bought RiotDQ, an EQ plugin. When the final version was released, I installed it in Resolve 20, then moved it over to 21 to test. The EQ worked, but the dial animation didn’t. The Inspector sliders still applied EQ, but the plugin’s UI wasn’t behaving. I sent the developer a video, and he replied saying it wasn’t something he’d seen before but would look into it.

About That New Photo Page…

I have to say, I don’t really see the point. Resolve is a video editing package. Every user, pro or amateur already has an established, preferred photo editor installed, whether that’s Photoshop, Lightroom, Affinity, or any of the many options out there. So why introduce what feels like a version 1.0 photo tool with limited features and bugs?

Final Cut seems to be slowing down in development and playing catch‑up to Resolve and Blackmagic are clearly gaining users from it. With that momentum, Resolve adding photo editing feels like a step sideways, maybe even backwards when users are still reporting bugs left over from v20.

Do NOT install!

25.04.2026 written by: Dave Farrants

OK, I’ll admit it, I’m impatient. I’m usually first in line for software updates. Most of the time it’s fine, and if it goes wrong, I just roll back to the previous version and move on.

Blackmagic recently released DaVinci Resolve 21 Beta at NAB with some big new features. I was tempted to jump in, but this time I held off. After reading the Beta 21 forum, it’s clear things are not quite there yet. Plenty of users have lost complete projects, and some can’t recover them. That’s despite the repeated advice: never install a beta on active projects. To their credit, Blackmagic has helped some users recover some of the damage. Still, you can imagine the frustration when people ignore the warning.

Beta releases matter, they help find bugs and improve the software. But the rule is simple: don’t install on systems with live projects!

(PS: I did download Beta 21 but only on my iMac, not my main M4 Mini.)

UPDATE - Beta 2 is now out and has addressed many of the earlier reported issues BUT advice still stands - DO NOT UPDATE ON LIVE PROJECTS!

AI is not the enemy...

12.04.2026 written by: Dave Farrants

On Facebook recently, I saw an AI generated image of a guy 'in his happy place' surrounded by things in his life that he thought were important to him, it was in the style of those saucy holiday postcards you see at the seaside.

He was absolutely pilloried for it with negative comments by many people with the comment "stop with the AI', I really felt sorry for the guy who obviously posted it poking fun at himself.

Just recently I've been seeing more and more Facebook and forum posts 'stop with the AI' and similar, even in conversations recently, people have said to me that AI is everywhere and getting out of hand. My own conclusion is that people either do not understand AI or, are actually scared of it.

FreeShow....More

02.04.2026 written by: Dave Farrants

FreeShow – why I’ve switched (and stuck with it)

In an earlier post, you'll have seen I switched from WorshipTools Presenter (free version) to FreeShow. I thought I was pretty settled with our Sunday setup. It did the job, the congregation saw the words, and nothing burst into flames, which is always a bonus! Then I found FreeShow, and things changed rather more than I expected. FreeShow is a totally free, open‑source presentation app aimed squarely at churches, small events and anyone who needs to get words, images and video onto a screen without taking out a second mortgage for software. Think ProPresenter‑style flexibility, but with a zero price tag and a very active community behind it.

Foxvideo Productions

From 9th July until the 30th July 2026 I was on a Mission trip with the Peace & Hope Trust in Mindanao, Philippines. - Trip details here: https://sites.google.com/view/sindangan2026/home