Community Feedback Requested: xPat's PCO Videos

[Jay]

Re: Community Feedback Requested: xPat's PCO Videos

My hunch is that when the cost pressures get great enough, there will be ample opportunity to work out CNG safety issues. Just a gut.

[jk]

Re: Community Feedback Requested: xPat's PCO Videos

Clearly direct would be more efficient in terms of energy loss, but the question I don't even begin know how to answer is, "Which would be more practical - development of a CNG distribution system for vehicles, or upgrade of electrical power generation and distribution grid to deliver the same energy through electrical transmission?"

Seems to me that one of the biggest issues will be safety of CNG. Not just the crashworthiness question (just imagine the Ford Pinto debacle repeated with CNG), but also the issues of delivery to filling stations, leaks at filling stations, retraining fire rescue personnel for CNG challenges, etc.

I would think that electrical would be the safe/easy way to go. The question in my mind is how MUCH less efficient is it in terms of percent energy contained in the NG making it to the drive wheels vs. the indirect electrical path.

xPat

i think an abstract analysis of efficiency is not germane. the question for me is whether there is a pathway of plausible incremental changes to get there from here. cng works for commercial fleets: buses, taxis. it's hard to see where the capital comes from for a new, widespread distribution system beyond centrally dispatched fleets. otoh, there is already in existence a distribution system for electricity, and there is already movement towards electric vehicles. seems that the electrical outcome is a lot more likely. the other thing that's more likely is a gradual reduction in reliance on the automobile in any form at all.

[Jay]

Re: Community Feedback Requested: xPat's PCO Videos

i think an abstract analysis of efficiency is not germane. the question for me is whether there is a pathway of plausible incremental changes to get there from here. cng works for commercial fleets: buses, taxis. it's hard to see where the capital comes from for a new, widespread distribution system beyond centrally dispatched fleets. otoh, there is already in existence a distribution system for electricity, and there is already movement towards electric vehicles. seems that the electrical outcome is a lot more likely. the other thing that's more likely is a gradual reduction in reliance on the automobile in any form at all.

Since there is already a system for commercial fleets, a gradual expansion out from urban areas of the existing CNG system seems likely, especially if the economics are much stronger than electric. I agree on your last point though, driveways full of cars are a thing of the past. This will push CNG even further, there will be less cars and more centralized transportation and busing.

[xPat]

New version (Final Draft?) available

Ok, I think I finally got a version that will play with reasonable graphic quality. Here's the new link: http://www.archive.org/details/PeakO...ndDraftRelease

I added some graphics to video #1 but still need to completely re-edit #2 to add more graphics and get rid of the disclaimer at the beginning about the graphics. Expect the final drafts to be posted here by the first of next week.

xPat

[lektrode]

Re: Notes on my Production Woes (in case anyone here can help)

I've learned that the iTulip community is extraordinarily diverse and multi-talented, and the Pythonic Cow was even rumored to have the ability to write interrupt-reentrant operating system kernel code while hanging upside down from a trapeze in another thread...

whoa.... really?
(and with that kind of an intro, where has the cow been, anyway?; his posts are _always_ interesting)

So I'm going to cross my fingers and hope someone here is an expert in online video production and can coach me...

I also don't know where/how to host the files most efficiently. Youtube doesn't allow videos >15 minutes in length, ....

havent got the time at the moment to wade any further into this one, as it will be best left for an extended tulip session - but would seem that youtube would still be your best bet, as it appears to be very easy to use (even me mother can do it) and if your goal is wide-disemination? couldnt imagine how to get more exposure?

and while i dont know much about this topic, (and why i'll be lapping up every word, since i'm very interested the thread) it occurs to me that perhaps using shockwave/flash might make sense for segments that wont require full-motion video?

[FRED]

Re: New version (Final Draft?) available

Ain't so easy making videos, is it?

We recommend hosting on Vimeo to avoid the YouTube 15 minute limit.

To your PM, the answer is yes.

Ben Bernanke's Impossible 2011 Inflation Challenge from iTulip.com on Vimeo.

[Thailandnotes]

Re: Community Feedback Requested: xPat's PCO Videos

i think an abstract analysis of efficiency is not germane. the question for me is whether there is a pathway of plausible incremental changes to get there from here. cng works for commercial fleets: buses, taxis. it's hard to see where the capital comes from for a new, widespread distribution system beyond centrally dispatched fleets.

Years ago I got in a bright pink cab at the Bangkok airport. Ten minutes later it stopped for gas. The driver got out, popped the trunk, and ran a hose to the natural gas tank. The conversion work looked slightly jack-leg. When I got back in the cab, I said to my wife, “Hopefully, we won't blow up on the way home.”

I figured the trend would end with taxi fleets and government cars, but Thailand just kept rolling it out, making the incentives more enticing. I have four or five friends who have purchased brand new cars in the last few years. All did the research on NGV's and all bought one. Four years ago, you had to know where the NG stations were. Now, they're everywhere.

18-wheelers running on NG are a common site here. Mercedes is making NGV's in Thailand.

Here's an overview (PowerPoint). It's simple and old, but living here, it is interesting to look back and see how they got things rolling.

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=...lCwCHm_g&pli=1

[xPat]

Re: Notes on my Production Woes (in case anyone here can help)

Production Update 2/7/11:

Executive summary: It ain't good, and I'm basically giving up on the graphics at this point. Sorry.

Zoog, thanks very much for taking the time to share your advice. I agree completely with your logic - start with a fresh square pixel project (768x576), and then capture the powerpoint at that resolution so there is no conversion. But as much as that makes perfect sense, it didn't work very well. Premiere still blurs the powerpoint, and I think this version may actually look worse than the widescreen version. Good news is that I was able to make the graphics a little more readable by going thru the powerpoint and increasing font sizes and making them bold.

At this point I'm giving up. I've already spent more time on this project than originally intended. While I would like to make it look more professional, I have no commercial incentive to spend more time on it, and it's very frustrating. Premiere doesn't seem to allow one to export sequences from one project and then import them to another, so changing the screen resolution means manually re-doing the entire editing process, which takes a full day for each video. I've done it several times now and don't have energy to screw with it any more.

Zoog, thanks again for trying to help. I appreciate the thought if nothing else.

On Jim Puplava's advice, I'm also going to make a shortened version of each video, that cuts out the non-essential commentary. I'll post all four links (2 full length, 2 shortened) as soon as I can get everything rendered and uploaded.

xPat

[xPat]

Re: Notes on my Production Woes (in case anyone here can help)

Finally, I think I have the production quality problem under control. Should have new versions with clean graphics in a couple of days.

The central problem has been that my circa 2004 version of Adobe Premiere Pro can only generate circa 2004 video codec output. A friend here pointed out that I can download a free 30 day trial version of Premiere Pro's latest version and re-export the videos using the latest and greatest FLV/F4V output codec. I'm on the case...

xPat

[xPat]

The Good, the Bad, and the .F4V

Well there's good news and bad news.

The good news is that after re-generating MPEG-4 Flash Video (.F4V) files, the graphics look great and the whole presentation works as originally intended.

The bad news is that you'll only get to see the good quality version if you download the ~300MB MPEG4 source files. If you use the embedded players, the graphics are better than they were in the draft release, but still on the blurry side.

This is the best I can do. Thanks for your understanding.


Enjoy,
xPat