Create High Quality Flash Videos in Ubuntu
I recently got a nice new camera that can shoot HDTV videos, and the only way to show off the awesome quality to the world is by creating flash videos by myself. Here is an example:
I use Ubuntu, so this tutorial won’t work on Windows. I have encoded the video into the H.264 format, left the original resolution at 848 x 480, and the framerate at 30 Hz. I use constant quality setting because then the video look very good even when the camera moves quickly, and it uses less bitrate when not needed. The disadvantage is that the required bitrate is uneven, so make sure youre buffer is large enough before you start playing.
Here is how to do this:
- Encode your video with mencoder (click to install). It has to be x264 for video (0 or 1 bframes), and faac for audio.
- Convert the result into an mp4 using mp4creator (click to install), as described here.
- Now you have an mp4 file that can be played with JW player. Download it, have a look at the readme.html, and follow the example described there.
- The player requires 20 pixels in height, so add this to the SWFObject creation.
I have written a small ruby script to convert any movie to a MP4 file. The first parameter is the input file, second parameter is the framerate. Save this file as e.g. convert2mp4.rb.
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Via Ferrata Teufelsteig
This sunday I was on a fabulous via ferrata (german translation is “Klettersteig”). Here is a video of it:
The via feretta is called Teufelsteig which translates to devli’s steep road.
Walking through difficult terrain, close to the peak
A view around to nearby peaks and chines
Finally, after about 4 hours hiking and climbing, we have reached the peak of 1822m and enjoy the view 
ActionCam Damberg Kriterium
On 29th August, we went on a cool mountain biking trip around the Damberg. Here is a map of the famous Damberg Kriterium. It is about 43 km, and 850 meters in altitude (bikemap overestimates 1040m). It was a fun trip, thanks for Jürgen (who was NOT the organizer) for organizing this! Here is the route:
I got a brand new Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5, which is an absolutely excellent compact camera. It can record HDTV 16:9 videos, so I did what obviously everybody should do: mount it on a cycling helmet. The construction seems adventurous: I use the camera’s, one cut-off mini tripod, one rubber band, my cycling helmet, the camera’s wristband as a safety backup, and a healthy dose of good faith. That’s it! The whole construct may look a bit fragile, but simplicity is the key; it is actually very sturdy, because of the simple design there is almost nothing that can go wrong. The camera position is excellent too. Jürgen has made a really cool remix of the videos:
If you want the the videos in all their length and glory, I have encoded the clips with very high quality for your maximum viewing pleasure. You need a fast computer, an up-to-date flash player, and a fast internet connection (press play and then pause to start caching the whole clip if the connection is too slow.).