PXL -Reply

[Myke Carter <MCarter@wng.twc.com>]

Hey Bernard!



> Cant we move onto some other more interesting line of thought?



Yes.



> How about editing a pxl movie?



How about it?  I had a PXL-2000 in 1989 and 1990.  With it I taped a lot of

things.  My PXL-to-VHS masters have been hidden away all these years

until this week.  I subscribed to this newsgroup several months ago and

still haven't chosen to purchase another PXL from anybody else in here

because of the prohibitive prices.  (I'm funny that way, I know.)



I began creating my own style of audio recordings in December 1983.  I

called my creations "Ymphony!s".  You can read more about my

Ymphony!s by visiting my webpage (URL below) and reading "My Life

Story").  Since "Day 1" I have dreamed of having my Ymphony!s available

on disc.  In the beginning, CDs were impossible, so I dreamed of having

my material pressed on LPs.  But that never happened 'cuz I never had

enough money.  In the 90s, however, technology is more affordable and

CDs are possible.  As of this month, after almost 14 years of my earliest

works existing only on cassettes, unedited, unproduced, and

undistributed, I finally have two CDs in my possession which contain the

first official edited and produced versions of Ymphony!s #1-#5 & #7! 

Their original, combined running time was 4hours, 30minutes.  Now they

are only 1hour, 50 minutes combined.  This playing time lends itself well

to the medium of T-120, SP-mode, VHS HiFi videotape!



You see, I asked myself last week why I should settle for selling and

distributing just the 2CDs of this material when I can also marry their

contents to a compilation of material culled from my Pixelvision archives

as well?  And so, I've decided to do just that.  Now, granted, with the

video material being recorded some 6 years after the audio material,

there's will be not be much deliberate synchronization of aural and visual

events when this project is complete - but this fact only heightens my

interest in completing this project because simultaneous yet

unsynchronized video and audio isn't something I've seen very much of

in the past.  I think there's still a lot of untapped potential there.  I've made

a trial version of this tape already - using my 2 VHS HiFi VCRs and my

CD player.  The only thing I don't like about it is the lack of any

introduction, titles, and/or credits screens at the beginning, the end and in

between the four video sequences.  This has led me to create a way for

making such screens before attempting a final product.



> Whats the coolest way to edit a pxl movie beyond using a couple

> VCRs? 



See above.  I've now added a CD player and two CDs of my own audio

material into the mix.



> Anyone found some cool software?



Yes, I have - and just two nights ago as a matter of fact.  I asked "All" in

Delphi's Commodore forum for some assistance in locating some really

good yet really easy to use software with which I could make some title

screens for my video project.  (If anybody in here uses a Commodore 64

and/or 128 running GEOS 2.0 you'd better pay attention!)  Loadstar

magazine (which is a monthly, disk-based publication for Commodore

users) just released in its most recent issue (#159) about three weeks

ago a killer GEOS application which simply grabs full-screen-sized

portions of geoPaint files and creates from them a file which can later be

viewed in slideshow fashion with a special viewer (also included) simply

by pressing the spacebar to advance from one screen to the next.  The

spacebar is used so that neither the pointer nor any icons are needed to

change the screens and thus interrupt the display while the successive

screens are being videotaped.  Up to 62 successive screens can be

contained in a single slideshow file!



You see, with the simplest of connectors available at every Radio Shack,

full colour Commodore video displays can be sent into any VCR equipped

with a standard RCA-type video input jack.  This new piece of

software turns the "lowly and obsolete" Commodore 64 into a  PXL

filmmaker's dream machine!  And I just happen to be a 9 1/2 year veteran

of Commodore computer usage.  So I"m ready to do this today! (Although

I'll probably have to wait until the weekend to find the time I need to

design and prepare the screens I'll ultimately want to use.



Another thing about C64s is that their video display has a border around

it which is very much like the PXLs although not quite as wide.  This will

cause the intro/outro/title screens to appear not unlike the PXL footage I'll

be using.  The colour of the C64 border can also be changed to any 1 of

its 16 available colours which may or may not be something good to use

when juxtaposed with the PXL's dark grey.  (Note: three of the C64s

available colours are light grey, medium grey and dark grey - one of

which may prove to be very useful when I actually begin to edit

everything together.



> Anyone tried colorizing the pxl?



No, but I have seen some .AVI files on the Internet which were made

from videotaped source material.  To me, they look just like colourized

Pixelvision videos - which is another reason why I've not yet been

impressed with "multimedia" PeeCees and their CD-ROM graphics enough

to feel justified in paying the price to get one.  In nearly ten years, there

have only appeared two things in my computing life which I would like to

have that my Commodores cannot provide: colour and sound on the web

(Lynx via remote host is my only browser option) and the ability to create

finished musical compositions digitally with a hard drive and burn that

music onto CDs (I have to get a friend to do that for me right now.).



> Anything?



See above.  Man, you knew the exact questions to ask today!



> thanx



No, thank you!



Myke

http://people.delphi.com/mykec/



P.S. I've seriously been considering the possiblity of submitting one of the

PXL/Ymphonic! compositions from this first official VHS HiFi project of

mine to the upcoming international competition that was mentioned

recently in this newsgroup, but I'm afraid there's not enough time left for

me to do that.  Am I right to believe this?



P.P.S. If you wanna browse my website and check out what I've got to

say about my PXL experiences, just click on "These Are A Few Of My

Favourite Things" and you'll see a menu with a PXL-related item in it. 

Click there and have a lot of fun.  I do have a two-hour concert videotape

available for sale or trade that I made with the help of a friend in early

1990.  So far, I've had no takers on it, but then again, I rarely advertise it!



Bye!