I’m working on editing a video of our Instructor Conference for ProTrainings.  The video is very long, and the audio and video are different speeds and yet run the same length. I’ve spent that last couple of days trying to figure out this problem, and I finally came across an explanation that worked for me.  So, now I’m going to share that solution with you.  We’ll start with the post that helped me to find the solution.  It was posted by someone called mpiper on the videohelp.com forums:

I am not sure what caused the problem, but here is a solution I have used for similar issues in the past. as long and the change is minor, no one will notice.

First, find a FRAME-ACCURATE marker on the video track at the start. Perhaps the start of the first word from the lead singer.

Then, find a second Frame-Accurate marker at the end of the video track.

Write down the EXACT time difference between the start and stop markers in minutes, seconds and frames.

Now, Find the exact same start and stop markers on the audio track.

Write down the exact time for it as well, also in minutes, seconds and frames.

Now, divide the time of video by the time of audio to see the difference. For a simple example: 5.25 minutes for video and 5.0 minutes for audio gives a difference of 1.05 or 5% longer video. (I normally convert everything into total frames and use 9440 / 8991 = 1.0499 for 5% change!)

With this difference, change the speed of the audio (or video) by that percentage so they are exactly the same length. Now you have a match!

With Premiere Pro, you can stretch and shrink time on audio and there is a checkmark to maintain pitch, so everything sounds perfect.

Solution: Now I’ll explain exactly how to do this with Adobe Premiere Pro.

The first thing that I did was I took the 44.1 kHz mp3 files into Adobe Audition and resampled them to 48000 kHz wav files.  I’m not sure how necessary this step turned out to be, because it didn’t alter the speed of the vocals in the video at all, but when I accomplished the sync, it was with the files I had made with this.

I made sure to line up the audio file with the audio that is in the video.  That’s given, but I figured it was worth mentioning for the sake of completion.

Quick Tip: When you are filming, if you can do so, I recommend using a clap board to mark the start of a shot, and if you regularly run into this issue, also do the same at the end of the shot before you stop all of the recording devices.  This can be very helpful in lining up the audio when using multiple cameras and recording audio separately.

Now, what we’re going to do is pretty simple.

First, start with the timecode, hold Control and click it until it becomes a solid number.  This is the frame number.

Next, we’re going to make sure that the frame number lines up on any and all audio tracks that you’re trying to line up, toward the beginning of the track, and put a marker there.  Make sure to write down the number of the frame that you have set the marker at.  In my case that is frame 16181.

After that, we’re going to head down to the end of the audio and video that you’ve lined up on the timeline.  Find a keyword or the clapboard marker on the timeline, toward the end of the files and mark each with a marker in the same way as before.  Take down each frame number.  In my case, these numbers were 66139 for the video’s audio timecode and 66163 for the separate audio file.

Next it’s time to do some simple math.

We’re going to subtract the first frame number from each of the second frame numbers.

66139 – 16181 = 49958

66163 – 16181 = 49982

That’s not a very big difference.  In fact, in my case it’s only 24 frames different, but that makes up nearly a second of audio.

We’re doing to divide the frames to get a percentage.

49982 / 49958 = 1.000480403538973

Important: Move the decimal two spaces to get the percentage: 100.0480403538973%

That means we have to change the speed of the separate audio file by 100.0480403538973%.  This will then appear as 100.05% if you look at it again.

Now the audio should be lined up between the video and the separate audio file.  On mine, after it all lined up, for whatever reason, I had to grab the end of it and stretch it all the way to the end, but everything stayed put and was perfectly aligned.

Now, play back your audio with all of the tracks turned on and marvel at the synchronized sound.  Turn off the audio tracks connected to the video, and leave the clean separate audio file, and you’re good to keep editing at will.

Let me know if you have any questions.  I hope this helps you as much as it’ll help me in the future when I run into this again.

Thanks to all of the people that attempted to give me a hand with this.

Kindle Textbooks

What do you think?

They have also developed a number of add-on translation packs, such as Pirate and Redneck.  One of the developers tells me that there are more packs to come.  The application is new to the Android Marketplace, and is sure to entertain you and your friends for hours.

I’m also told that in a future update to the application, you’ll be able to update your Facebook Status and Tweet from the app as well.

Get Say What?! today!

You can get the various expansion packs here:

Pirate

Redneck

Gary Vaynerchuk knows his stuff, as he has proven time and again.  The stories in the book will inspire you, and can apply to anything in all areas of life.

Reading this, you’ll learn the importance of blogging, and other social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter.

Every person I’ve recommended this book to has come back with a thousand ideas and wanting to talk about what they can do to build their personal brand, which is what the book is all about.

Get this book, read it, be inspired, and then Crush It!

Then I found something that I was surprised to find, but also very happy to find: FlatPress.

Cutenews, as you may know, works with flat files. Very quick for accessing data, and requires no database to do so.

FlatPress is the same, but also looks and works like WordPress (2.x).

What I did was found a conversion path from Cutenews to FlatPress. I believe it was a cutenews importer, and may have been built in to FlatPress.

Then I found a FlatPress to WordPress converter, and made sure to look at all of the data before I added it to the database. There were some times when the data may not have lined up with the new database, that would have caused a lot of problems. So as long as you are careful with it, you’ll have a shiny new database with all of your news, imported from Cutenews or even FlatPress if that was your system of choice.

To those using Cutenews.RU, sorry I don’t have a way to do that, and haven’t had to do that, but if you find a way to do it, feel free to comment about it.

Sorry about the lack of detail for what to look for.  I did the conversion a couple of years ago.  I’m pretty sure that it’s all still very possible.  In fact, it’s likely that more tutorials exist for how to move from one system to another at this point.

Previous Story: Cutenews to WordPress Conversion

If you happen to stumble here somehow, feel free to post questions about things you’re interested in learning about, regarding fan sites, communities, challenges and important things to do when you are starting a community today.

From Friday through July 11, consumers in the U.S. will be able to buy an upgrade copy of Windows 7 Home premium for $49 or Windows 7 Professional for $99. That offer is good for both XP and Windows Vista PCs, regardless of whether someone has been trying out the pre-release version of the operating system. That matches the details in a memo from Best Buy that leaked earlier this month.

[...]

When boxed copies of Windows 7 go on sale on October 22, Microsoft plans to charge $119 for Home Premium, $199 for Professional and $219 for Ultimate. The Home Premium upgrade is down $40 from the product’s original price, although the Vista product had already gotten a price cut along the way. The Professional and Ultimate versions are priced similar to where Microsoft was with Vista. The upgrade prices apply to those moving from a previous version of Windows to Windows 7, but only those from Windows Vista will be able to upgrade without doing a clean installation of the product.

The full versions of Windows 7–the editions for those without a copy of Windows–will be priced at $199 for Home Premium, $299 for Professional and $319 for Ultimate. The Ultimate and Professional editions are again on par with their Vista counterparts, while Home Premium is down from the $239 that Microsoft had charged with Vista. Microsoft also plans to offer the operating system in an easier-to-open box.

-via CNET

I didn’t spend a lot of time on this.  I meant to do more to match the lighting on Aang, but with limited time to land a joke, I just quickly threw this together.  The sources are the first picture of Aang from The Last Airbender, and a picture I found of Lex Luthor from Smallville.

I’ve been researching camcorders to fit the following specifications:

• Less than $600 (Prefer around 500)
• 3CCD
• Great Picture Quality
• Editable in Premiere CS4
• Records to SDHC Memory Cards

This is for a series of youth group videos, and I was thinking of getting 2 when I thought I could spend about $400/ea. but research has been more than confusing, as people generally have so many various views of great cameras, and in certain budgets they compare a $600 camera to an obviously superior $1100 camera.  (Duh, the higher priced camera is going to be better… it’s nearly twice the price!)

I’m not looking for anything TERRIBLY high as all the videos will end up on YouTube and perhaps DVDs to give to the kids after the summer.  I also want something that’s slightly future-proof.

Anything from Panasonic? Canon?

I found the Panasonic HDC-SD9 that seems to fit the specifications, some reviews I’ve found have scared me a little.

Sony uses their own super expensive MemoryStick Pro cards… don’t know if that’s really within budget.

Anyone have some insight?  What would you do?

You can either comment here, or at Videomaker.com, or at Amazon.com

In my search to convert the flat file format of Cutenews over to the database driven WordPress, I came across a plugin that someone was creating.  This news transfer tool is called Other-Ext-WP.

I was pretty excited to find it, as I want to move two of my websites off of Cutenews and into the more secure database driven format.  It worked okay when I tried it out to see what it would do.  It did pull in the stories as well as some of the categories and the dates.

However, there are a number of issues with the importing, however, that have been reported by others as well.

1) The Categories don’t transfer correctly.

2) The Full Story doesn’t transfer, just the short story field.

3) You can only attribute the stories to one user.

4) It strips out all mark-up.  In both stories and comments.

I’m not too worried about moving the uploaded pictures over, as that can be fixed later.  But I would love to have a working script to run that will properly convert things.

The latest WordPress version that the creator says that it works in is 2.3.1, so I tried that to see if it worked, and that’s where the issues came in.  The person developing it appears to have given up on the plugin, so I’m asking for anyone that has some spare time to help out if you can.

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Other-Ext-WP
Plugin URI: http://www.nexterous.com/scripts/otherextwp.php
Description: This useful plugin allows Cutenews users to transfer their Cutenews installation into WordPress, including categories, posts, and comments.
Version: 1.0 Beta 2
Author: Daniel
Author URI: http://www.nexterous.com
*/

/*  Copyright 2007  Daniel  (contact: use form at www.nexterous.com)

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA
*/

// Hook for adding admin menus
add_action(‘admin_menu’, ‘display’);

// Add the page first
function display(){
add_submenu_page(‘plugins.php’, ‘Other-Ext-WP’, ‘Other-Ext-WP’, 10, ‘extwp.php’, ‘display_options’);
}

// Function to control what is displayed or activated
function display_options(){
if(isset($_POST['submit'])){

// Start the functions of the transfer
// Begin to set all the variables: $option, $path
if($_POST['add_comments'] == ‘yes’){
$option = TRUE;
} else {
$option = FALSE;
}
if(empty($_POST['path']) OR ($_POST['path'] == ‘enter a different path’)){
$path = $_POST['pathorigin'];
} else {
$path = $_POST['path'];
}

// Check the path & report error if not correct
$dp = opendir($path);
while($file = readdir($dp)){
$filearray[] = $file;
}
closedir($dp);
$checklist = array(
1 => ‘data’,
2 => ‘inc’,
3 => ‘rte’,
4 => ‘skins’);
$checkarray = array_intersect($filearray, $checklist);
if(empty($checkarray)){
?>
<div class=”wrap”>
<h2>Error</h2>
<p>Are you sure you have the correct Cutenews path? Please go <a href=”plugins.php?page=extwp.php”>back</a> and try a different path.</p>
</div>
<?php
exit;
}
$path = $path . ‘/data/’;

// Clear all the categories before beginning
$result = mysql_query(“TRUNCATE TABLE `wp_terms`”);
$result = mysql_query(“TRUNCATE TABLE `wp_term_taxonomy`”);

// Define all functions necessary
// Read the file and retrieve the each line into a separate row in an array
function read_cn($file){
$fp = fopen($file, ‘r’);
$read_array = file($file);
fclose($fp);
return $read_array;
}

// Take each row and explode it into another array and return back to a master array of all values
function return_entry($read_array){
foreach($read_array as $key => $data){
if($data == ”){
continue;
}
$array[$key] = explode(‘|’, strip_tags($data));
}
return $array;
}

// Get the information from each row and send it to the database using the post_wp() function
function send_post($array){
define(‘CONSTANT’, 18061);
foreach($array as $key => $data){
list($date, , $title, $post, , , $categories) = $data;
$title = mysql_real_escape_string($title);
$post = mysql_real_escape_string($post);

// Convert Date
$date = $date + CONSTANT;
$date = date(‘Y-m-d H:i:s’, $date);

// Separate Categories
$categories = explode(‘,’, $categories);

// Set-Up Post
$user = $_POST['user'];
$post = array(
‘post_author’        => $user,
‘post_date’            => $date,
‘post_date_gmt’        => $date,
‘post_title’        => $title,
‘post_content’        => $post,
‘post_status’        => ‘publish’,
‘post_type’            => ‘post’,
‘post_category’        => $categories);

// Send the post
wp_insert_post($post);
}
}

// Add category to the database
function add_category($category){
$cat_edited = mysql_real_escape_string(trim(strtolower($category)));
GLOBAL $table_prefix;
$terms = $table_prefix . ‘terms’;
$term_tax = $table_prefix . ‘term_taxonomy’;
$query = “INSERT INTO `$terms` (`name`, `slug`) VALUES (‘$cat_edited’, ‘$cat_edited’)”;
$result = mysql_query($query);
$id = mysql_insert_id();
$queryrel = “INSERT INTO `$term_tax` (`term_id`, `taxonomy`) VALUES (‘$id’, ‘category’)”;
$resultrel = mysql_query($queryrel);
}

// Set all the new categories
$url = $path . ‘category.db.php’;
$categories = read_cn($url);
$categories = return_entry($categories);
foreach($categories as $key => $category){
$category = $category[1];
if($category == ”){
continue;
}
add_category($category);
}

// Set all the posts
$url = $path . ‘archives/’;
$dp = opendir($url);
while($dirarray = readdir($dp)){
if($dirarray == ‘.’ OR $dirarray == ‘..’){
continue;
} else if(eregi(‘(comments){1}|(index){1}’, $dirarray)){
continue;
} else {
$url2 = $url . $dirarray;
$array = read_cn($url2);
$array = return_entry($array);
$result = send_post($array);
}
}
closedir($dp);
$url = $path . ‘news.txt’;
$array = read_cn($url);
$array = return_entry($array);
$result = send_post($array);

if($option){ // Check for comment option

// New Feature as of v.1.0 Beta 2: Transferring comments
// New functions must be defined due to the nature of the comment set-up on Cutenews
// These functions are only defined and used if you select “yes” on the comments option

// Get all the comments and format them correctly
function cn_getcomments($file){
$array = array();
$rawarray = file($file);
foreach($rawarray as $key => $data){
$blogtime = substr($data, 0, 13);
$data = substr(strip_tags($data), 13);
$comments = explode(‘||’, $data);
foreach($comments as $key => $comment){
if(md5($comments[$key]) == ’81051bcc2cf1bedf378224b0a93e2877′){
// This checks for a blank comment; cannot use empty() because of the way comment is formatted
continue;
}
$array[] = $comment . ‘|’ . $blogtime;
}
}
return $array;
}
function cn_addcomments($array){
foreach($array as $key => $comment){
$newarray = explode(‘|’, $comment);
list($date, $author, $email, $ip, $comment, $blogtime) = $newarray;
if(empty($comment) OR $comment == ’81051bcc2cf1bedf378224b0a93e2877′){
// This checks for a blank comment; cannot use empty() because of the way comment is formatted
continue;
}
$author = mysql_real_escape_string($author);
$email = mysql_real_escape_string($email);
$comment = mysql_real_escape_string($comment);

// Try quick spam protection – sets most of them to need approval
if(eregi(‘(http://)|www|(?p=)|(?pid=)’, $comment)){
$status = 0;
} else {
$status = 1;
}

// Convert Date
define(‘CONSTANT’, 18061);
$date = $date + CONSTANT;
$date = date(‘Y-m-d H:i:s’, $date);
$blogtime = $blogtime + CONSTANT;
$blogtime = date(‘Y-m-d H:i:s’, $blogtime);

// Change Email
if($email == ‘none’){
$email = ”;
}

// Check Entry
GLOBAL $table_prefix;
$wp_posts = $table_prefix . ‘posts’;
$result = mysql_query(“SELECT `ID` FROM `$wp_posts` WHERE (`post_date` = ‘$blogtime’)”);
while($array = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
$postid = $array['ID'];
}

// Set-Up Comment
$comment = array(
‘comment_post_ID’ =>        $postid,
‘comment_author’ =>         $author,
‘comment_author_email’ =>     $email,
‘comment_author_url’ =>     ”,
‘comment_author_IP’ =>        $ip,
‘comment_date’ =>            $date,
‘comment_date_gmt’ =>        $date,
‘comment_content’ =>        $comment,
‘comment_approved’ =>        $status,
‘comment_agent’ =>             ”,
‘comment_type’ =>            ”);

wp_insert_comment($comment);
}
}
$url = $path . ‘archives/’;
$dp = opendir($url);
while($dirarray = readdir($dp)){
if($dirarray == ‘.’ OR $dirarray == ‘..’){
continue;
} else if(eregi(‘(news){1}|(index){1}’, $dirarray)){
continue;
} else {
$url2 = $url . $dirarray;
$array = cn_getcomments($url2);
$array = cn_addcomments($array);
}
}
closedir($dp);
$url = $path . ‘comments.txt’;
$array = cn_getcomments($url);
$array = cn_addcomments($array);
}

?>
<div class=”wrap”>
<h2>Congradulations!</h2>
<p>You have now finished converting your Cutenews installtation into WordPress. Don’t forget to delete this plugin now since it has no security besides basic plugins. For more scripts and goodies, check out <a href=”http://www.nexterous.com”>Nexterous.com</a>.</p>
</div>
<?
// Start the functions of the application
} else {
?>
<div class=”wrap”>
<h2>Other-Ext-WP</h2>
<p>Other-Ext-WP is a WordPress plugin that allows the user to transfer there Cutenews installation into WordPress. It supports categories, blog entries, and comments. To set up the transfer, check the options below. Please see the <a href=”http://www.nexterous.com/scripts/otherextwp.php”>instructions and help</a> before beginning. </p>
<h2>Notes</h2>
<p>This plugin takes a while depending on the number of posts and comments (if you select it) you have on your Cutenews installation. This plugin is recommended for use on a fresh installation of WordPress. It does wipe all the categories when it begins the transfer. Also, this script automatically files any comments with a link into moderation because most spam originates from that. </p>
<h2>Begin…</h2>
<p>Select the options that you would like to apply to the transfer. Please also make sure that all the configurations are correct. <br />
<em>Note</em>: This plugin automatically detects the path if it can find it. If not, it will present an input box. After you click “transfer”, it will check the path for certain directories to make sure you have the correct path.<br />
<em>Warning</em>: If you click the transfer button, the process will begin. </p>
<br /><br />
<form action=”plugins.php?page=extwp.php” method=”post” id=”searchform”>
<fieldset>
<legend>Add Comments?</legend>
<select name=”add_comments”>
<option selected=”selected” value=’yes’>Yes – Add All Comments</option>
<option value=’no’>No – Do Not Add Comments</option>
</select>
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend>Select User for all Posts</legend>
<select name=”user”>
<?php
GLOBAL $table_prefix;
$table = $table_prefix . ‘usermeta’;
$result = mysql_query(“SELECT `user_id`, `meta_value` FROM $table WHERE (`meta_key` = ‘nickname’)”);
while($array = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
$id = $array['user_id'];
$nick = $array['meta_value'];
$combo = $id . ‘ – ‘ . $nick;
print “<option value=’$id’>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; $combo &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </option>”;
}
?>
</select>
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend>Path to Cutenews</legend>
<?php
$path = ‘../../’;
$dp = opendir($path);
while($file = readdir($dp)){
if(eregi(‘^(cutenews)$’, $file)){
$path = $path . $file;
echo $path . ‘&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; OR &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;’;
print ‘<input type=”text” name=”path” value=”enter a different path” />’;
print “<input type=’hidden’ name=’pathorigin’ value=’$path’ />”;
$lock = TRUE;
break;
}
}
if($lock != TRUE){
print ‘<input type=”text” name=”path” value=”enter the path to cutenews (where ../ is one directory up)” style=”width: 400px;” />’;
}
?>
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend>Click to start!</legend>
<input type=”submit” name=”submit” id=”submit” value=”Start Transfer” class=”button” />
</fieldset>
</form>
<br style=”clear:both;” />
</div>
<?php
}
}
?>
I have also found the blog of a man named Mark that was able to pull all the cutenews data with MySQL queries.  I’m not sure how it works just yet, but you can find it here: Migrating from Cutenews to WordPress

Resources:

Plugin Other-Ext-WP Plugin
Wordpress 2.3.1: zip | tar.gz | md5
Cutenews 1.4.6: Cutephp