glmtblog

The New Media department of Great Lakes Media was honored to create a digital highlight reel for high school athlete, Lewis Smith. Lewis is the Nephew of Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer extraordinaire, Chad Smith.

The digital highlight reel is a great way for high school athletes to capture the attention of college recruiters. The video is a simple 2-3 minute piece, highlighting the athlete’s abilities and stats. It can be uploaded to youtube, a website, or put to DVD.

The video can be seen here, and is part of our New Media March promotion. We are offering 20% off digital media services. We are now also offering new services, like the digital highlight reel, and encoding for portable media devices.

With my (almost) 3 year old Moto RAZR on the fritz, it was time for me to look into a new cell phone. I checked the offerings of most of the major carriers, but eventually succumbed to the Apple/AT&T iPhone. I admit, I was sucked in by the sleek interface, digital media capabilities, and various applications. My major reason for the purchase, however, being able to combine a iPod-like device with a phone.

After 2 weeks of using the iPhone, I have mixed feelings about it (most are positive). First the positives: My initial fear was that the “phone” portion wouldn’t be that great. I’ve been a AT&T customer for several years, and the reception on my RAZR was ok, but not great.  I’m pleased to report the “phone” in the iPhone has actually been very good thus far. Zero dropped calls and some people telling me that they hear a “major” improvement” in voice quality when they are talking to me on my iPhone.

Another positive is the “all in one” capabilities. It is now my iPod, PDA, GPS, etc. I really like having all these features in one device. I’ve also found that the iPhone is actually helping me become a more organized person (something I desperately need!).

Now for for the negatives: Being constantly “connected” at all times.  I can now check my email, facebook, etc. wherever and whenever. Do I really need access to these things at all times? No. And what’s worse, I can longer use the “I didn’t get you message until now” excuse when tardy on replying to messages (ha-ha).

At this point, I’ve used my iPhone as a iPod first. Followed by a messaging device, phone, www, and (lastly) apps. I’ve only scratched the surface with “apps” and I will blog some reviews as I discover and use more of them. I will also blog on the camera and video capture capabilities at a later time. Thus far, these features are quite impressive.

If anyone else has an iPhone, Blackberry, or any other “smart” phone, please feel free to comment on your experiences.

Just when you thought it was safe to buy a new HDTV: Sony and Panasonic have just announced plans to release three-dimensional TV sets in 2010. ESPN is testing 3-D production, promising to “have football players appear to jump out of the screen”. Of course, special glasses would be required when viewing.

The new 3-D sets won’t come cheap, and some critics argue that there is not enough bandwidth available to broadcast 3D programming. No surprise there, considering that there still isn’t enough bandwidth available to broadcast true 1080p HD content.

These new televisions would be able to play shows in 2-D or 3-D, and 3-D video games.

Blu-ray has also said to be working on a product that would play three-dimensional movies at home.

The Digital Entertainment Group has just issued a press release stating that Blu Ray sales are up 91 percent in the first half of 2009.

“Although consumer spending on sellthrough packaged media was down 13.5 percent in the first half of 2009,” the release says, “this was partially offset by the growth of Blu-ray (up 91 percent to $407 million) and digital distribution (up 21 percent to $968 million, which includes $196 million for electronic sellthough).” Additionally, rental spending was up 8.3 percent for the first half of 2009, “boosted by an increase in Blu-ray rental spending, which was up 62 percent.”

720p, 1080i, Oh My..

There seems to be much talk and confusion regarding certain resolutions of HDTVs. CNET.com has posted this article that really helps to explain this. I personally have a 720p/1080i set, and I think it is just fine. If I had a bigger HDTV, say 50″ or larger, then a 1080p set would make more sense. Frame rates also come heavily into play, with Panasonic recently introducing a true 24 fps plasma HDTV. 24 frames per second most accurately captures the “cadence” of film.