Comments on: Episode 112: Two Candles

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:49:08 +0000

Selective Noise Reduction with GIMP — Repairing Noisy Skies
“Rolf from meetthegimp.org treats this in his podcast”…
http://blog.wbou.de/index.php/2009/08/10/selective-noise-reduction-with-gimp-repairing-noisy-skies/

By: Grummfy

Grummfy — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 16:08:59 +0000

hello,
the torrent files have a 403 code …

By: ta

ta — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 08:31:26 +0000

Tons of positive feedback to the new format and the screencast itself from Spain.
I’m a big fan of GIMP since I follow your tutorials. Thanks!

By: Trevor

Trevor — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:35:58 +0000

I tried to download what ever copy was availabel via the iTunes podcast list on August 7th.

By: Rolf

Rolf — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:25:00 +0000

Please check the file date, Is it from August? If not, reload.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:15:18 +0000

Like Marian iTunes crashes when downloading episode 112. This is with 8.2.1 (6) on Mac OS X 10.4.11 (with all the latest security fixes).

By: Gerha

Gerha — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:49:56 +0000

two years “Meet the Gimp”, two long years and just past.
Rolf, I wish you many new ideas, and I hope for more shows.

You have made a great work!!

Gerhard

By: Bob Mrotek

Bob Mrotek — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:38:45 +0000

Rolf,
I tried it with Quicktime and now it works fine. Thanks!

By: Rolf

Rolf — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:50:48 +0000

Marian, just wait a day. #112 will be newly rendered and iTunes compatible tomorrow.

By: Marian

Marian — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 07:52:31 +0000

Unfortunately my iTunes 8.0.2 crashed every time when I download episode 112. I’ll try to get the file manually and remove it out of iTumes, hope that will fix it.

Marian

By: Rob Ville

Rob Ville — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:37:07 +0000

Hi,
that was really a good tutoril.
I’m from Brazil and l’m a begginer at GIMP and the tutorials of these web site are helping me a lot.

Good work and good bye!

By: Bob Mrotek

Bob Mrotek — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:14:46 +0000

Rolf,
I switched to the VLC viewer and now I have no problems. Thanks, and please keep up the good work. You are a great teacher.

By: Stefan Peter

Stefan Peter — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:02:21 +0000

Hi Rolf
The new format is just awesome. I hope, the troubles with the non-linux viewers did not spoil your enthusiasm. Sooner or later, these problems will be solved (o circumvented). Keep up your good work!

By: Rolf

Rolf — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:24:37 +0000

@sebalin: That sounds like a lot of fun, but is perhaps more work Ivo is prepared to invest. The trouble aside…
But you can do a lot when you put the art sticker on it.

By: Rolf

Rolf — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:57:50 +0000

Michael, THANK YOU!

“This was a small step for Micahel, but a big leap for the MTG viewers!”

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:22:50 +0000

I am unable to view the HD podcast using iTunes. I hear audio but only see black. iTunes is using Quicktime 7.6.2. I also have perian installed which adds support for many other codecs and video packages. I have opened the file in VLC 1.0.0 and have experienced similar jumping as has been previously reported.

VLC identifies the video codec as avc1, so after doing a little searching I found avc1Decoder 0.8.1 available from http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23875/avc1decoder. I installed the plugin following the directions in the readme file, and the podcast now plays in both quicktime and iTunes. (Just don’t forget to close the programs and then reopen them after installing the plug-in. I spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out why it was now playing in Quicktime but not iTunes. I soon discovered that I had iTunes open at the time I installed the plug-in and had never restarted it.)

So people who want to use iTunes will need to enable avc1 support in Quicktime. I do not know if a more universally supported codec is available for encoding on your end Rolf, but that maybe another option.

By: sebalin

sebalin — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:44:57 +0000

Hmm, wouldnt it be easier and more fun to simply get a bunch of local mtg fans, through in some autozine fans if ther isnt enough, go there, take a blow torch and move the letters? The too much can just go in the water. Nobody will see. Friends did this 2005 with the big einstein formel letters in berlin and tell the police its art. They got no problems but they needed a crane, they were only 5 guys and the letters were more like 2t.

By: Max (schrottplatz)

Max (schrottplatz) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:10:06 +0000

the “m” destroys everything D: : http://www.picpaste.de/mtg_2.png

By: Max (schrottplatz)

Max (schrottplatz) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:36:02 +0000

it is still WIP

By: monoceros84

monoceros84 — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:26:04 +0000

Wow, great work! But don’t forget the reflection in the water. Very unconvincing if there are letters in the mirror and none on real.

By: Philippe Demartin

Philippe Demartin — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:56:25 +0000

Good Max, the “t” is to big and dirty, and the “a” is a bit in the air, but over all it’s impressive

By: Max (schrottplatz)

Max (schrottplatz) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:35:00 +0000

thats what i have so far: http://www.picpaste.de/mtg_1.png

By: nachbarnebenan

nachbarnebenan — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:34:08 +0000

@rolf
I’ve heeded your advice and your are right. Until now I used my p&s cam for closeups since it’s smaller and, well, you don’t have to lug around so much. And it has a minimum distance of 3mm or so. Today i tried it with my 55-250 lens and even from a distance of about 80cm, the quality is much better. I’ll add an example to the photogroup, that i used the selective sharpening method on.
So, thank you very much for the advice, all i need now are some good photo opportunities…

By: Matthew

Matthew — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:19:31 +0000

No problems with the mobile version in VLC or QuickTime. Full video, no jumping.

By: nachbarnebenan

nachbarnebenan — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:40:38 +0000

@monoceros84
do
export MPLAYER_VERBOSE=9
then start mplayer from the same shell and look through the messages (will be a lot) for errors
I use this version and it works: “MPlayer dev-SVN-r29116-4.3-openSUSE Linux 11.1 (x86_64)-Packman (C) 2000-2009 MPlayer Team”

By: Rolf

Rolf — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 10:30:39 +0000

I hope this is fixed now. A symbolic link went bad.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 08:14:02 +0000

Sadly I use Apple Quick Time to view the video, so I cannot watch this episode.

I was going to try the mobile version in the hope that you used a codec that Apple support but you need to update the link as it doesn’t point anywhere at the moment (09:15 GMT 27.07.2009)

By: monoceros84

monoceros84 — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:57:47 +0000

Hehe, nice placebo effect with the antennas

The video is playing smoothly with VLC and avidemux under Ubuntu 9.04. I only experience some shaking image parts and black flashes from time to time.
And mplayer is not showing anything at all. The sound plays but the picture remains black and some error messages are flashing on and off (so fast I could not read them). But the terminal said:

Playing meetthegimp112.mp4.
Quicktime/MOV file format detected.
[mov] Video stream found, -vid 0
[mov] Audio stream found, -aid 1
VIDEO: [avc1] 1280×720 24bpp 25.000 fps 0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
xscreensaver_disable: Could not find XScreenSaver window.
GNOME screensaver disabled
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg’s libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264)
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
Forced audio codec: mad
Opening audio decoder: [faad] AAC (MPEG2/4 Advanced Audio Coding)
FAAD: compressed input bitrate missing, assuming 128kbit/s!
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 128.0 kbit/9.07% (ratio: 16000->176400)
Selected audio codec: [faad] afm: faad (FAAD AAC (MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Audio) decoder)
==========================================================================
AO: [pulse] Failed to connect to server: Connection refused
AO: [alsa] 44100Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Starting playback…
[h264 @ 0x8972330]non existing PPS referenced
[h264 @ 0x8972330]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x8972330]no frame!
Error while decoding frame!

By: nachbarnebenan

nachbarnebenan — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:14:14 +0000

> I suspect that mencoder is not outputting a real mp4, but an avi with an mp4 extension.

mplayer tells me:
LAVF_check: QuickTime/MPEG-4/Motion JPEG 2000 format

and file says:
Meet the GIMP – Episode 112 – Two candles.mp4: ISO Media, MPEG v4 system, version 1

So it seems like a real mpeg4 file to me.

By: Tavo

Tavo — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 03:59:24 +0000

Miro uses a different backend on each OS. In linux it uses gstreamer or xine, that’s why it works. Perhaps on OS X uses quicktime.
I’ve tried using handbrake and quicktime can decode the files it outputs. You could try using it to encode the HD version too. (but I think you didn’t use it because it crashed once).
I suspect that mencoder is not outputting a real mp4, but an avi with an mp4 extension. That could be confusing quicktime.
As for the jumping around. I noticed something on vlc, but not on xine, mplayer or gstreamer based players

By: Rolf

Rolf — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 22:29:09 +0000

I have tested it with Miro – no problem. Neither with VLC. It seems to be a problem of different Codecs on different OS Versions.

By: Jason Oster

Jason Oster — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 19:48:14 +0000

Rolf, great show you have. I’ve been watching for a month or two with Miro on Mac OS X, but the move to HD format with this episode does not play in Miro. Audio works but video is black. Same results with Quicktime and iTunes. Others have mentioned this as well.

Matthew described the video in VLC “jumping around” which I see also. This is a 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo, with 4GB of RAM, so it shouldn’t have any trouble decoding HD video.

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:08:35 +0000

Yes, I deleted the file in the command line. I watched the video with the VLC player. As you suppose, the reason for crashing was the preview option, but explorer crashed when it was deactivated and I just clicked on it to mark it, too.

By: Un peu plus de fleur: retouche d’image | tlog

Un peu plus de fleur: retouche d’image | tlog — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 10:45:48 +0000

[...] du podcast MeetTheGimp[en] et ressemble beaucoup à l’une des techniques expliquées dans le dernier épisode[en] justement1 . Un masque de calque isolant les [...]

By: Rolf

Rolf — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 10:20:14 +0000

Sorry, the hiss is also in the source sound file. No idea how that happened – I’ll check more carefully with the next show.

By: Halfdan

Halfdan — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 09:23:06 +0000

Wonderful new HD format Rolf!! It’s great to have a video this size for viewing details in an image and the results of your post processing. I had no problems viewing the video on Win XP, with Firefox 3.51. The video runs smoothly in KMPlayer with no jumps or jerks whatsoever. After the music faded and the audio switched to your microphone I experienced a more or less constant hiss in the background, sort of like amplified signal noise. Is this just on my setup, or did anyone else hear the hissing noise?

Anyway, a wonderful improvement to an already great show!

PS: Those of you with playback problems on Windows may want to give the free and very good KMPlayer a try: http://download.cnet.com/The-KMPlayer/3000-13632_4-10659939.html

By: Norman

Norman — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 18:31:28 +0000

Great stuff and what an interesting comparison between episode 1 and this, your latest offering. Detail and clarity were very good indeed and I look forward to watching future developments. The only thing I have difficulty in coming to terms with is the layout, having two panels, one either side of the image, where tool selection and layer usage and so on are displayed. From episode 1 onwards you had only one display panel and I modelled my layout on that system which I find very convenient, so the new approach takes a bit of getting used to. Technically, as you know, I run Ubuntu 9.04 and it was a surprise to see the computer select Avidemux to display the video instead of the usual Movie Player.

By: Tavo

Tavo — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 18:06:05 +0000

To all with windows and problems with this video, try installing the k-lite full codec pack:
http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm

By: Rolf

Rolf — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:41:24 +0000

@Tavo: thank you for helping with this encoding stuff. We’ll manage the rest too!

By: Rolf

Rolf — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:38:45 +0000

Chris, I don’t have windows. But I think you should switch off the video preview option, so that Explorer doesn’t try to open the video.

Or you use the command line.

Or you install the missing codecs for x264, then you can play the video.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:21:05 +0000

I have big problems with the video. When I just open the folder where the file is saved, Windows Explorer crashes! I can’t even delete the file… New start doesn’t solve the problem.

By: Tavo

Tavo — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:13:20 +0000

Great video, Rolf, and congrats for the 2 years!
Regarding the itunes (and quicktime) it seems that quicktime implementation of h264 is incomplete, so it can’t decode them if some special features are being used to encode the film. I will look into it when I have some time. For now, you could try the options used by Handbrake in the Apple presets.
I watched it using miro (with gstreamer backend) and worked perfectly (everything but that grey noise when you did alt-tab, can you confirm that it was in the final encode when that appeared?)

By: Rolf

Rolf — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 13:45:50 +0000

This was shot by chance – I came along the garden where they were milling around. And I could not disturb them, because the garden fence kept me away. 200mm on a APS-C DLSR gives you quite a range. Distance about 50 to 75 cm.

By: nachbarnebenan

nachbarnebenan — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 13:37:02 +0000

>@Richard: I use cinelerra for editing – and when this runs stable I’ll blog about the process – either written or in video.

That’s gonna be interesting, seeing you editing the video while still recording and commenting it. Kinda reminds me of that old sf movie where they watched the tape to figure out which planet to comb…

@Rolf Thanks for the show, the individual/selective sharpening tip is really great and now in hd it’s even greater! But how did you take this photo, just a snapshot or did arrange it? Usually butterflies fly away when I try to get near enough to even see them, let alone take a shot.

By: Rolf

Rolf — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 13:18:50 +0000

Is there somebody able to watch this with iTunes? x264 is really a standard encoding these days.

I can not see the jumping around here that Matthew described.

At 13 minutes there is an issue with the recording – areas that should have been updated after the darkening of the screen were not updated. I’ll use the task bar instead.

@Richard: I use cinelerra for editing – and when this runs stable I’ll blog about the process – either written or in video.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 11:37:43 +0000

Really enjoying the HD but as others of said, no hope with QuickTime and thus iTunes. VLC will play it but there are some issues. The audio sounds fine but the video seems to jump back a 5-10 frames every 2-5 frames, it’s watchable but there is a lot of jerking around. Something also seems to be going on around the 13 minute mark when you use the app switcher which could be related to the screen recorder or to keyframes.

I’m no expert but I thought I’d try and describe what I was seeing!

Great show, keep up the excellent work!

By: Joseph

Joseph — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 11:06:25 +0000

Wow ….
That looks GREAT! Now I can finally see what Rolf is talking about with sharpness.

By: Nico

Nico — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 09:08:39 +0000

Great show, even greater now in HD!!

Thanks a lot for it!

No problems to view the video with VLC.

By: Eric

Eric — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 08:13:48 +0000

I’ve just discovered this site and the video was very interesting. The quality is superb when viewed with VLC. But with QuickTime, I could not see the image… I don’t know why. Via iTunes, as the engine is QuickTime, it didn’t work either.

Thanks for this website!

By: me

me — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 04:17:53 +0000

@Bob Mrotek

Did you try some other player?
Try using VLC. It worked fine for me.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

By: Richard Querin

Richard Querin — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 02:30:10 +0000

Wow.. nice job! I found the quality to be great. I’m really surprised that at 30min in length it was only 60MB. I guess there’s not a lot of motion so that helps. No problems viewing on Totem in Crunchbang linux.

What do you use for editing together all your stuff (titles, music, etc..)?

By: Wazoo

Wazoo — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 02:29:55 +0000

The increased size and resolution makes it so much easier to follow your lesson. Great improvement! Keep up the progress.

By: jgack

jgack — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 02:17:34 +0000

Great!
..format, and topic job, as usual.
~jim

By: Bob Mrotek

Bob Mrotek — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 01:47:17 +0000

Rolf,
I’m sorry but I can’t see the video. All I can see is a black screen even though I can hear the audio. I am using Quicktime 7.6.2. I have not had any problems viewing the video up until now. I hope it isn’t something serious. I also hope that you got a good night’s rest

By: Nipuna

Nipuna — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:20:14 +0000

Congratulations!
This is the best screencast I have followed so far.
You have done a grate service to the Gimp users and the Open source community at large.
Also it is very good that you switched to HD. The size difference is not much which is even better.

I would like to wish you all the best on all your future endeavors!
Long live meet the gimp.