Someone Just Did a Video Review Exactly Like Mine! :)
Oct 9th, 2007 by Charles
Why did I use HyperCam Over Camtasia?
I was talking to Hyperionics (HyperCam Staff) about the unclear video quality in YouTube. You all know that the vision was quite blur. Here’s what they replied:
It will not be perfect however, as online video uses “lossy compression” - it loses some of image quality to make file smaller and download faster. Lossy compression works well with real life movies, with a lot of smooth color transitions, but not as well with sharp computer screen captures.
In fact, HyperCam staff had seen me using their software and even gave me some suggestions:
YouTube limits the size of the video - the size of video frames actually, as expressed in pixels, width by height, to about 420×320 pixels. If you record a large portion of the screen, like the movie I found on your main page today, everything must be resized smaller, and stuff like small fonts becomes unreadable. If you would like to make it readable, record smaller fragments of the screen. That way the frames will have to be resized less (or ultimately not at all) and the image will be more clear.
I was probably going to switch to use Camtasia when I saw a guy doing a blog review using Camtasia. That has further confirmed what Hyperionics have told me, and I decided to stay on using HyperCam since it’s much more affordable since I am doing a review business here out of their software. Just take a look at the quality of using Camtasia which is ported into YouTube.
Of course, you would say that Camtasia surely has an edge by having features such as zooming in and out. Just imagine paying $299 over $39.95 which can do almost the same effect in the end…
And if you don’t wish to use YouTube, let’s just look at Alex Wong (one of my own reviewees, boy when did he start that? 
) and his first video review. The loading of the Camtasia can really kill the patience of mine… Moreover, it’s using his limited shared bandwidth which caused the slow loading of Camtasia even though it has a much better effect than YouTube. And in the end, I didn’t have the chance to see the full review at all.
It’s my ascent again
Oh well, I have been speaking mixture of Chinese and English in Singapore. Carl gave me a lot of encouragement and he said “Just a little more practice”… Yes, I need a little more practice! It’s fun to review other people’s blog. But because of ascent, some of the readers (especially from UK) might have difficulty understanding what I am trying to say. While over at Singapore, we are able to understand what they are saying because of the variety of UK and US movies we have watched as part of our entertainment here… I think Singapore movies might not be available at UK and US, am I right?
Back in Singapore, we tend to say all the “hor”, “la”, “yah”, “hana” and a host of many words which are probably only recognizable by Singaporeans. I wonder how did all these extra “spices” come about in Singapore…. And the “Singlish” language was born out of nowhere…
Should I review English words in US or UK?
Back in Singapore, we normally use UK style of English words. UK words such as “recognise” and “colour”. I have been reviewing in US words as much as possible since I am focusing my blog towards the US and international more than for Singaporeans. In fact, I didn’t expect to get to know Singaporeans along my blogging career… But I must tell you that I find a kind of “home sweet home” feeling when I managed to connect with some of them. And Alvin is one of them. That’s where we tend to use the familiar Singlish inside while I am trying to write accurate English in my blog when my grammar police - Cash Quests - caught me red-handedly! John Cow is still quite a fun guy who is more lenient with me in my English when he appreciated my video review with his blog… Thank you Cows!
Feedback from some bloggers out there
I have got a few feedback, either from email, comments or in their own blogs, with regards to my ascent and the video software I am using. I hope I have been able to address the same questions all in one blog post here. I am glad to have known many bloggers out there as a four-months-old business blogger. I am keen to improve more along the way! Keep your letters in!
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt of smooth color transitions, but not as well with sharp computer screen captures. In fact [...]