2019 Channel Review

Another year, another review video

On January 17th, Facebook reminded me that the previous 2 years I had uploaded a recap of sorts video talking about either new equipment or just what the year was like in for me and the channel. I wasn’t planning to upload a recap this year, as I’d rather spend that time working on more meaningful videos, but then I thought it might be fun to be able to look back every year at all of the reviews on the same day so I sat down to try to release one for 2019 in one day.

It should be noteworthy that, although I started at 11 a.m., I ended up missing my deadline and there for the whole endeavor is kind of worthless in terms of January 17th being release day. I probably could have got it released if I hadn’t had plans for 4 hours at night, but still. Despite my claim at the start of the video that it would be lightly edited, I ended up spending more time than i expected.

Regarding the year though. This was a very busy one. The list of noteworthy events that happened are:

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My view at 13,000 feet on top of a mountain

• I trained to climb a mountain and lost 25 pounds

• I went to Las Vegas

• I went visited the Oregon Trail

• I climbed a 14,000 foot peak

• I climbed a 13,000 foot peak

• I got married

• I went to the Dominican Republic for 10 days

• I put on 25 pounds being lazy after all of that happened

You read that last one right. Yeah, after nearly 8 months of hard work, I undid all of my efforts and am almost right back to where I was before beginning training. Let it be a lesson that healthy is a life style choice, not an event. Taking time off because “It’s the holidays” is a bad idea.

I’m happy with the videos I put out this year. I ventured into uncharted territory with the camping and hiking videos. I have a lot of plans to talk more about that. I just felt like I needed to get the documentary out to give me enough “trail-cred” before anyone would take me serious. It’s hard to talk about things you used while camping when people haven’t even seen the camping videos yet.

I’m most proud of the 2 travel vlog/adventure videos that I released. The first was “A Modern Adventure on the Oregon Trail” where I went camping out in western Nebraska and visited some of the iconic stops along the way while getting swept up in my own adventure along the way.

The second was the “Las Vegas Travel Vlog”. I’ve learned some shots that I know I need to produce good Travel vlogs, lots of B-Roll, and I recorded so I had a lot of footage to work with. I was editing it, everything just fell into place. From the music to the flow of the story, it was the best Travel video I’ve made in my opinion since the Seattle Trip.

Tutorials and product reviews are always good earners. People want to know how to do something or how it something works. I buy quite a few products, but I tend to only do reviews when I had trouble finding information about a product and want to make it easier for someone else.

As far as the tutorials are concerned. I just let my curiosity guide me. If I find something interesting, I share it with the world.

The new gear I bought this year is as follows:

• Fujifilm X-T3: https://amzn.to/2RiQeLB

• Fujinon XF16mmF2.8: https://amzn.to/375M6nf

• Zoom F6: https://amzn.to/3aq4qJM

• Google Pixel 4: https://amzn.to/2NCgiyA

• Atomos Ninja V: https://amzn.to/2DMSrHe

• GoPro Hero8 Black: https://amzn.to/2R6FK1G

• GoPro Max: https://amzn.to/3ajQkcZ

• Sennheiser e935 Microphone: https://amzn.to/2X26dOZ

• Aokeo Professional Studio Recording Shield: https://amzn.to/2Q6k1qy

• Rode Wireless Go Microphones: https://amzn.to/2XrQPyd
  

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Fujifilm X-T3 in Silver

I’m really pleased with my decision to go with the Fuji X-T3. I did run into an issue with it and my Ronin-SC gimbal. Companies always invest in the most popular ecosystems in this case Sony and Panasonic for mirrorless cameras, so the interface between the Ronin and the X-T3 isn’t as fully developed as the other 2, but it still works. I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what it is capable of. I hope to update my 4 year old monitor to a 4k HDR capable one this year so that I can start experimenting with LUTs and other color grading options.

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I haven’t used my GoPro Hero8 Black enough to know if it is much better than the Hero7. I know they’ve added more manual options and having the GoPro mount built into the housing is nice (thought you have to replace the whole camera if one of the prongs breaks). I’ll probably do a full review when the 3 accessories, the microphone, light and flip screen, comes out.

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GoPro Hero 8 accessories

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GoPro Max

I can say for sure that the GoPro Max is much nicer than the GoPro Fusion. The max only requires 1 SD card instead of 2 and the footage doesn’t need to be processed by a high powered machine before you can work with it. It does use a proprietary file format for the videos like the Insta360 One X, but the conversion to H.265 is much less intensive and it’s easier to store a single file than the complex file system of the Fusion. Having the built in touch screen is also great. It lets you see yourself if you want to use it like a vlogging camera, not as a 360 camera, giving you twice the functionality, which is always a bonus.

In 2020, I plan to continue to roll with the ground work I laid in 2019. I can see a lot of opportunities for the channel to grow while still keeping the topics interesting to me. I never want to feel forced to do a certain type of video just to get views. I want to make things interesting to me. I can definitely tell in the final result when I was excited by a video. This year we’ll continue to look at Video Editing and Video Equipment, Tutorials, Hiking/Adventure videos, Travel Vlogs, the occasional product review and we’ll add some small bicycle talk into the mix as I prepare for and go on my 190 mile bike ride across northern Nebraska.

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Cowboy Trail that I plan to complete this summer

The channel did well in terms of growth. I expect it will continue to grow at a slow, but exponential rate; the more people that subscribe, the more videos will be shared with others. Eventually I know I’ll hit a saturation point of people who are interested in what I do, but I hope to possibly be doing this full time long before that happens.

As far as the numbers go, here’s 2019 vs 2018:

• New Subscribers

  • 2018: +71

  • 2019: +223

• Total Views and watch time in hours

  • 2018: 30.7k views. 1.4k hours

  • 2019: 78.5k views. 3.9k hours

2019 Audience

• Top Countries

  • United States 35.4%

  • India 4.8%

  • United Kingdom 3%

  • Canada 1.6%

• Gender

  • Male 87.5%

  • Female 12.5%

Overall, I’m pretty happy with 2019. I “lost” time due to some life events, but I learned a lot about myself and what I want in life. It should help me focus in and do even more for 2020. This year I’m doing what I love. Get out there and do what you love.

Google Street View Tutorial - Insta360 One X

Google lets users update the Street View shown on Google Maps provided you use a certified camera to do so. Reasons why you might want to do this are:

• Google Street View has never visited an area

• New houses or buildings have been erected since the last time Google drove by

• The information shown in Street View is out dated

In a previous post, I showed you how to update Google Street View using a GoPro Fusion 360 camera. The process was plagued with uncertainty and required the use of a computer and a separate program called Trailblazer. Overall, it was far from an ideal solution. The one benefit is that it let you map a variety of thing, such as streets, trails, flights and sailing.

But the GoPro Fusion isn’t the only consumer camera capable of updating Google Street View. Another popular choice is the Insta360 One X. The benefit of using this camera over the GoPro Fusion is that there is no computer required. Everything is done using your phone.

When I started out testing this camera, I thought it was the clearly obvious choice for general mapping because in the Insta360 App, there was a convenient Google Street View (GSV) setting and my first 2 attempts at mapping went smoothly.

You simply record a video with GSV turned on, copy it to your phone and share to Google Street View and that was it. It wasn’t until I started recording this video that I started running into issues. It seems the camera/phone solution doesn’t like sharp curves and was just as prone to unexpected errors (if not more so) than the GoPro Fusion.

Also, while the Insta360 One X does do away with the need for a computer, it requires you to have an active connection to your phone, with the phone screen turned on, the entire time you are recording because it gets its GPS information directly from the phone. This drains the battery on the Insta360 One X very quickly due to the constant wifi connection.

As it is, I do still recommend giving the Insta360 One X a try for straight mappings, but if you plan to record winding roads, either drive really slow (I suspect that the GPS Polling is slower than expected and causes jumping around) or record it multiple times to make sure you have a good copy.

Curious which is faster, Android or iOS, at processing the recorded videos? I put 2 of the top of the line devices (at the time of recording) against each other to find out.

(If you didn’t feel like watching, the iPad Pro 2018 beat the Pixel 4 XL by over 20 minutes)

Here are the steps to upload to Google Street View using the Insta360 One X

1. Verify your Camera as at least firmware version 1.17.15

2. Make sure you can pair your camera to your phone wirelessly using the standard process

3. Switch the camera to Video mode

4. Adjust Settings

   1. Set resolution and framerate to 5.7k 24 fps (24 fps makes the file size slightly smaller than 30fps)

   2. Turn on GSV (located all the way to the right)

5. Record the street section. Drive 20 mph or slower (especially if not driving straight)

6. Stop Recording

7. Transfer the video to your phone. Use the included cable for increased speed and better battery life

8. Once the video is on your phone, Select the video

9. Click on the 3 dots in the upper right corner then choose “Optimize Stitching” to improve quality.

10. Close settings and Click the Share button. Select Google Street View from the Export options. Turn off “Post to Insta360 community” if it’s turned on

11. Click Share. The video will begin processing and then upload to Google Maps.

12. Once done, you can go to the Google Street View App and view the progress of your video under Profile.

After a few hours, you should start seeing your mapping show up on Google Maps. It will continue to process over the next couple of days depending on how long of a stretch you recorded.

Here are the locations I mapped for this video:

• https://goo.gl/maps/gUctfvD1HEYk38838

• https://goo.gl/maps/cTz2VdrvSPz46zgL8

Here is the equipment I use to mount 360 cameras to my car:

• Insta360 Pole: https://amzn.to/39glAcs

• GoPro Car Mount Suction Cup: https://amzn.to/2SthWpF

• GoPro Mount to 1/4" adapters: https://amzn.to/2EYj7Fu

As you can see in the video, the process isn’t perfect. When it warms up, I’ll try to iron out the bugs and create a guide to ensure more reliable mapping. Bookmark this website or subscribe on YouTube to know when that video comes out.

Aokeo Microphone Shield

In a seemingly never ending quest to improve my workflow and allow me to record videos faster, I’ve now turned my attention to voice overs. As I state in the video below, I don’t have a quiet studio or even a quiet room to record videos in. Our house was not designed to be sound proof. As such, just about anything the missus, one of the pets, or an neighbor outside does can be heard throughout the house.

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Aokeo Microphone Shield Front

This is why you often see me recording introductions outside of the house at random locations. I love doing that and feel it gives my channel some uniqueness so I don’t plan on stopping that, but sometimes it’s necessary to record inside as well.

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Aokeo Microphone Shield Back

My biggest issue is not being able to go back and do voice over, either to add more explanation or to adjust what I said because the quiet times are few and far between. With that in mind, I went looking for a microphone shield. My first stop was the local Guitar Center, but as expected, they were expensive and probably overkill for my needs.

A quick look on Amazon uncovered the Aokeo Portable Vocal Booth. At the time of my purchase it was $39.99 which is right in the impulse buy zone for equipment so I purchased it and a day later it arrived.

After trying it out for a while I have nothing but good things to say about it. The construction is good. The included adapters and accessories are reasonable and useful and it does what it advertises. The 3 different mounting options (sitting on a table, screwing onto a microphone stand, clamping onto a pole) give it a diverse range of uses. It makes it more of a one size fits all device.

I can’t weigh in on the quality of the sound foam because I have no experience with others, but to my ears in the audio tests, I can hear a reduction of echoing. Download the unedited audio samples to check yourself: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1om2qb9FUzSkKNz98qVtGdgpaPV0V3Oyf/view?usp=sharing

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Etubby Suspension Arm

Just keep in mind that you may need to get creative with the microphone mounting if your mic setup is larger than what I used in the video. A great, inexpensive microphone arm that I reviewed and use is the Etubby Microphone Suspension Arm. You can see the video for it here.

Las Vegas Travel Vlog

In April of this year, my fiancé’s family and I went to Las Vegas, Nevada to see Aerosmith at their residency in the Park MGM Casino. I was a little hesitant to do a travel vlog around her family. I’m still always weary of getting on people’s nerves with all of my filming, but I’m glad I decided to record. I think this travel vlog is one of the best since the Seattle Trip.

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Time Lapse at Caesar’s Palace

For the most part we just relaxed and went wherever we wanted. My fiancé, Wendy, and I aren’t really into gambling so we took in some of the many other attractions that Vegas has to offer. (I did gamble 20 dollars in slot machines and lost all of it in about 15 minutes)

I’ve been to Las Vegas 3 times in my life, but the last time was about 25 years ago when I was 11, so there was plenty of new stuff to catch up on.

Some of the activities that didn’t make it into the final video were riding the roller coaster at New York, New York, visiting the Coca-Cola Store, and of course the Aerosmith Concert.

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The New York, New York Casino Entrance

The roller coaster is SO NOT WORTH THE MONEY. I think we paid $25 per person to ride it once. The line took about 45 minutes and the ride lasts less than a minute. The price gets slightly more reasonable if you plan to ride it more than 3 times, but unless you have a bucket list to ride a roller coaster in every state, I’d spend your money elsewhere.

The Coke store was just what you’d imagine, a store full of various coke products. They do have a tasting of Coke flavors from around the world that seemed popular. We tried a few, but I can’t remember if they were good or not. :)

Finally, the Aerosmith Concert. It was only their 6th show of their residency at the theater when we saw them. You’d think by then the technicians would have all the kinks ironed out. The theater was awesome. There were various “mascots” walking around before the show dressed as notable characters from their albums. Aerosmith performed as great as you would imagine. The problem was the the audio. The only way I can describe it is as if the sound person grabbed all the sliders on the mixing board, screamed, ‘This is a rock concert, turn it up to 11!’ and proceeded to slide every slider to the max.

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It hurt my ears and it sounded like absolute crap. Everything was muddled together. Even Steven Tyler was having troubles with the audio. Twice he went over to the sound booth and more or less yelled at them because he didn’t like the sound of his in ear monitors. I’m happy to say I got to see Aerosmith, but I wish I’d seen them some place else. Hopefully by now they’ve gotten the sound sorted out.

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Entertainment at the Linq Promenade

We spent quite a lot of time at both the Promenade at the Linq (yes, that is what it is officially called. I was struggling pretty hard to understand without seeing it written down anywhere, lol) and sitting outside the New York, New York casino. The Promenade had just a lot of various things to look at, while the New York, New York street area usually had a good musician or two to pick from. That’s where we were at the very end of the video.

Finally, we have to talk about cost. It’s expensive to visit Vegas. Wendy and I each ended up spending about $800 not including hotel rooms or tickets to Aerosmith. What cost so much? Everything. You can see me get excited by a drink that cost $7 being ‘cheap’ in the video.

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The High Roller

That being said, the best fun for the money was the High Roller Wheel. Yeah, it’s $50 dollars for 30 minutes, but it’s a very fun 30 minutes and if you are inclined to drinking, it’s the cheapest place to go to get a good amount of drinks (I ended up with 9). If you’re friendly to the bartender, they’ll even let you walk out with more than 1 (1 is usually what they give you).

In this exclusive, website only video, you can see how much you can do in 30-45 minutes. (For the record, I wasn’t hung over in the morning. 😉)

We also went to Fremont Street which is in the old north part of Las Vegas. There’s a lot of history there (it was generally known as the sketchy part of Vegas) and it’s great that they are trying to revitalize it. However, like I said in the video, you may want to think twice about brining your children. There were lots of people protesting things or asking for petitions to be signed. There was also a lot of skin, more than what you see just walking on the strip. Think pasties and male thongs. You can see in one scene that I had to blur out a nude buttocks and a sign in the background of the video.

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East end of Fremont Street. Feel the nostalgia.

Overall, it was a great trip. If you don’t like to gamble, there’s a load of things to keep you busy. We could have spent another 2-3 days with the amount of things we would have liked to do. The 2 things I enjoyed the most however are:

1. Bobby’s Burger Palace - That was amazing. I sent my parents there on their last visit and they both loved it too.

2. The Titanic Experience. - Yeah, it’s sobering and a quiet way to spend an hour and a half, but if you’ve ever been interested in the Titanic at all, you’ll find something interesting there.

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Bobby’s Burger Palace Menu

With that, I’ll leave you to watch the video! Let me know what you think and share some of your favorite things to do in Las Vegas in the comments section below. Please share this with your friends as well if you enjoyed it.

Slow Motion A.I. Tutorial

Artificial Intelligence has come a long way. Now days it can be used for all kinds of things related to Videography and Photography. From automatically removing unwanted things from pictures in Photoshop to putting your face right into a movie clip via the Deep Fake A.I., it’s uses are only going to continue to grow

One such use intrigued me after I saw it in action. A group of programmers developed an A.I. called Super-SloMo using the PyTorch framework which allows you to take normal footage and believable turn it into slow motion. https://github.com/avinashpaliwal/Super-SloMo

This is challenging because the A.I. has to predict what should fill in the missing frames. If you convert a video at 30 FPS to 240 FPS, the A.I. has to auto generate 7 extra frames between every real frame, which is no small task.

My desire to try it out was limited until I was editing some footage from my recent mountain climbing trip. I had done a motion time-lapse video that involved taking a photo every 2 seconds for 10 minutes as it panned across a valley. The shot, below, is cool enough, but it got me wondering if I could use this A.I. to smooth out the motion.

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Time-lapse that I wanted to smooth out

So I ran this video through the A.I. and was so amazed by the results that I had to share the process with the world so that other’s could use it. The first video below is a comparison between slowing the video down as shot and what the A.I. was able to do.

See the video below to learn how to do this yourself.

Here are the typed instructions:

1. Make a folder to keep all of the Slow Motion files together. Call it slomo

2. Make an Input and Output folder in your slomo folder.

3. Install a Python Distribution. I’m using Anaconda Distribution. Available for Windows, Mac and Linux - Download 3.7 64bit https://www.anaconda.com/distribution/

4. Download the Super-SloMo project from GitHub Repo - Click Clone or Download, Download ZIP https://github.com/avinashpaliwal/Super-SloMo

5. Extract Super-SlowMo Project into a folder. Rename superslomo

6. Train the model (if you want). Or use a pre-trained model here - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IvobLDbRiBgZr3ryCRrWL8xDbMZ-KnpF/view

7. Place that model in the superslomo directory

8. Download FFmpeg Video Converter - Download the stable version, the correct architecture and choose the Static Linking https://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/

9. Unzip that in your slomo folder. Rename it to ffmpeg

10. Open Terminal (Mac) or Anaconda Prompt (Windows)

    1. On a Mac, this requires using bash, not the zsh default that comes with Catalina. You can check what version you are using by typing: echo $SHELL. It will either say /bin/bash or /bin/zsh. If it says /bin/zsh you must change your shell. To switch to bash type: chsh -s /bin/bash. Then you must restart terminal. To change back to zsh after you're done with this project type: chsh -s /bin/zsh and restart terminal.

11. Get the correct command for your setup - Choose Stable, Pick your OS, Choose Conda, Choose whatever version of Python you downloaded, Choose None for CUDA unless you have an External NVIDIA GPU https://pytorch.org/get-started/locally/

12. Copy the command in the box labeled “Run this Command:” and paste it into your Python Terminal. This will download and install all the files and and environments you need

13. cd into the slomo/superslomo directory

14. Adjust the following script to match your computer setup

    • python video_to_slomo.py --ffmpeg /Users/user/slomo/ffmpeg/bin/ --video /Users/user/slomo/input/mountain_timelapse.mp4 --sf 4 --checkpoint /Users/user/slomo/superslomo/SuperSloMo.ckpt --fps 119.880 --output /Users/user/slomo/output/mountain120.mp4 --batch_size 1

    • Definitions of terms in script

      • sf = multiple of the frame rate

      • fps = target frame rate

      • batch _size = how fast it will run, limited by your computer’s hardware. 1 is default

15. Take the finished footage into a video editor and slow it down by whatever multiple your sf was to see the magic.