Foxvideo Productions

Audio to Text UPDATE

06.02.2023 Filed in: Audio |Post production |Transcribe written by: Dave Farrants

Browsing a pro video forum recently, I spotted an mention of ‘MacWhisper’, this is an AI based App to transcribe audio to text, similar to the Apps and online sites I tried a week ago to transcribe a badly recorded lecture on an audio cassette.

MacWhisper comes with 2 versions, a free version that included the ‘Tiny & Base’ models or a Pro version for $10 which describes itself as “industry leading transcription quality’. It also states it'll work in 100 supported languages and of importance to some, "no data leaves your machine".

Tags: Audio,Post production,Transcribe

"How do I?"

03.02.2023 Filed in: Video software |Post production written by: Dave Farrants

How do I....? this is a question that often comes up working with any type of digital or audio media. It might be a format conversion from one format to another, it could be an extraction of media to enable it to be edited or it could be 1001 other options you need an answer to.

Tags: Video software,Post production

Audio to Text?

31.01.2023 Filed in: Audio |Post production |Transcribe written by: Dave Farrants

I had an interesting project for a friend recently, a 23-year-old audio cassette from a talk he wanted to put on CD. He also asked if the audio could be transcribed into a text file

Digitising the audio was not a problem. I fed it from a Yamaha audio cassette deck into an Apple Mac using the free software program Audacity and saved it as a .wav file. The tape audio quality was poor as the microphone was too far away from the speaker, you could hear what the speaker was saying, but it sounded distant and wasn’t that clear.

Tags: Audio,Post production,Transcribe

Coincidence or malicious attack?

23.11.2022 Filed in: Websites |Hack attack written by: Dave Farrants

I built and maintain, a website for a good friend of mine www.globalpassion.uk, Tony is a missionary and bible teacher supporting Christians in Serbia. As a ‘one man band’ keeping operating costs down is important and I’ve managed to keep his website hosting costs to a reasonable level.

This year the hosting company raised the annual cost by 37% to £84, another hosting company I use (HostingUK) quoted £63 for two years, essentially half the price I was paying for the same features and benefits…….

Tags: Websites,Hack attack

Rant Mode on..

18.11.2022 Filed in: Websites |Domains written by: Dave Farrants

“Google it” is probably one of the most used phrases in daily use today, when the results are displayed and you click a link to go to a web page, you probably don’t realise what it’s taken to put that page on the Internet. I remember making my first web page in 1995, it was made using Netscape, one of the first popular web browsers, I didn’t own a domain name at the time and I uploaded it to a free account at Force9 (now Plusnet),

Tags: Websites,Domains

A 'hack' that worked!

05.11.2022 Filed in: Audio |Radio mics |Hack written by: Dave Farrants

YouTube and Facebook are full of timesaving, or clever hacks for DIY, cleaning and cooking etc, on the odd occasion I've tried one, it seldom seemed to work for me, until now. Just recently I picked up a bargain wireless mic system from FaceBook, I collected it in a hurry and was assured it worked. When I got it home, yes it all worked but the body pack was very 'sticky'. A search on Google said this was a known problem with some types of plastics, clicking on some of the links, the answers all said the solution was bicarb of soda mixed with a little water and just rub the 'stickyness' away - 15 minutes later the body pack looked and felt like new, so I've finally found a hack that worked for me!

Tags: Audio,Radio mics,Hack

Pond5 👍

03.11.2022 Filed in: Stock libraries |Post production written by: Dave Farrants

I do something most people don’t, (don’t panic, it’s not illegal), I watch the credits on almost any film or TV production when it’s finished, one name you’ll often see is Pond5 for stock footage, archive library film, video clips, still photos or music assets.

I’ve been aware of them for many years but, as I always seemed to be working on ‘inverse budget’ productions, I’d never been able to afford to use any of their assets, even less since I’ve retired and now only do pro-bono work.

Tags: Stock libraries,Post production

I made it to IMDb!

30.09.2022 Filed in: Video production |IMDB written by: Dave Farrants

https://youtu.be/coCvDQRbP9c

This was an eighteen month project for Oxenhall Parish History Group to celebrate the one hundred year anniversary of the sale of the Onslow Estate in Newent Gloucestershire. With an excellent voice-over by Chris John, it was co-produced by Van Goulding and Gwen Tutt and featured local residents of Oxenhall, Newent, Gloucestershire. A book was also produced to go with the DVD.

The DVD was originally produced in standard definition, after finding the edited master in HD recently, I thought it should be uploaded to YouTube. Not quite sure how, but this video got an IMDb entry! - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3956748

I shot most of the early footage on a JVC HD100HD and later, a JVC HM700HD with some footage shot by Van Goulding on a Sony Handycam. It was one of the last projects I edited on Apple's Final Cut Pro 7 before switching to Apple Final Cut Pro X.

Tags: Video production,IMDB

Teleprompter

26.09.2022 Filed in: Video production |Autocue written by: Dave Farrants

The rise in technology is now so fast paced, that with a small financial outlay and a few hours spent watching tutorials on YouTube, it’s possible for anyone with an HD or 4K capable camera, a reasonable quality microphone and streaming hardware (or software) to broadcast a high quality video live to the world.

Having the technology is one thing but being able to talk confidently to your audience without having to look down and refer to notes is another, this is where the use of an autocue or teleprompter comes in.

Tags: Video production,Autocue

Goodbye BT, Hello BT & Lebara

26.08.2022 Filed in: Phones |BT |Lebara written by: Dave Farrants

With the huge rise in the cost of living and inflation going through the roof, we’re all looking to save those extra few pennies.

I’m an avid reader of www.latestdeals.co.uk/ on the web, over the past few years I’ve had some amazing bargains, some of which I can’t believe actually went through the checkout, these include 5 Ltrs of car leather cleaner for £0.99 inc delivery, a set of video / photo lights for £49.00 instead of £180 and many others too numerous to list!

Tags: Phones,BT,Lebara