Something very
strange has happened - the latest version of
the forecast hasn't really changed to that in
the screenshot shown above.There is an
occasional 10% chance of some sort of rain,
but most of the time it is less than 5%. There
could be a sunny interval at 11am, and then
more of them between 1pm and sunset. 15° C is
a degree or so cooler than yesterday, but
should still mean just shirtsleeves if I was
walking, and feeling quite warm if walking
during one of the sunny intervals. (
What is
the difference between an interval, and a
spell ?) At the moment tomorrow is
thought to be several degrees cooler than
today, and it will be a cloudy day, but dry
until after dark.
Yesterday was all about transferring
analogue video to my PC (and laptop). As
I wrote yesterday, The first thing I did
yesterday was to go shopping in Aldi. It took
a while until I had eaten a naughty breakfast
of a roast beef and horseradish sandwich, and
had a rest, before I got out the new video
capture box that I had bought, and had been
delivered on Sunday. I was curious as to what
my Linux PC would think of it when I plugged
in it's USB connection.
I was very happy to see the box
instantly recognised as a video capture
device....or if I recall correctly, a video
camera. It meant I could view the video using
VLC player,
and if I could view it, VLC player could save
the stream as a recording onto my hard disk.
The one thing it fell down on was the sound
connection. I could not get any sound through
the capture box, but I could when using the
line in socket on my PC.
Bypassing the video capture box may
have introduced a delay into the sound, but
for my test it did not matter because the only
speech, where lip-sync is very important, was
an off screen commentary. There was one other
problem too. The box presented the digital
video as 30 frames per second - the American
and Japanese standard (and other places to)
instead of the more universal (in civilised
countries) 25 frames per second. It gave the
finished video a hint of jerkiness to some
movements. Despite all that it was most
pleasing that it worked as well as it did.
The source of my test video was the
mini Samsung camcorder on the left of this
picture. The video capture box is on the
right. I placed them both on standard sized
beer mats to give an idea of the size of the
items. (The beer mats are about 3 inches
across). The camcorder is a digital camera
recording onto DV tapes, and as well as
standard analogue outputs it has a firewire
port to transfer video digitally - if you have
a Firewire (IEE1394) port on you computer - my
new one doesn't have on !
The camcorder is a neat, dinky little
thing. Unfortunately it is crap. The front
lens seems really bad, and like a lot of
Samsung cameras, the auto focus, and auto
white balance is very touchy, and easy to
confuse. I know for definite the autofocus
does not like moving trains ! It was
still worth the £35 I paid for it in a second
hand shop because while it's recordings my be
crap, it's digital playback of tapes from
other camcorders is perfect, and using it
takes the wear off my other two DV camcorders.
At least that it the general idea, but with
all of my DV cameras being just standard
definition in 4:3 aspect ratio, I no longer
really use them.
The digital out put became important in
my next experiment. I set up my old HP laptop
to try the Windows software that came with the
video capture box. I didn't get to try that
because I suddenly remembered that laptop has
a firewire port. I don't think it worked when
booted into Linux, but it certainly did when
booted into Windows XP. The ancient video
editing program on there, "Edit Studio", saw
the Samsung camcorder, and was able to control
it, and capture from it perfectly.
I captured the same video, played from
the Samsung camcorder, as I captured on my
Linux PC, but captured via the firewire
(digital) connection. It was better quality,
but only by a tiny bit. It would never be
pristine because the original video was
transferred from a VHS tape to my bigger (and
better) Samsung digital camera - that has the
facility to record external video instead of
just from it's camera.
When I do finally
install the software for the video capture
box I am hoping to find the box can be
configured to work with standard 25 frames
per second video, and in higher resolution
than the poor resolution of VHS tapes. One
of the first things I want to test it with
is the Sony Hi8 camcorder in the picture
above. Hi8 recording use the same
resolution as DVDs, although only in 4:3,
non widescreen size.
That ancient (30 years old ?) Hi8
camcorder is basically in working
condition, although the batteries are now
very dead. If it has one problem it is
that the video heads clog very easily on
some of the ancient tapes I try and play
on it. I have quite a few old tapes with a
few minutes on each of some interesting
video, that I would like to digitise. If I
ever get that done I have quite a few VHS
tapes that need the same treatment.
Most of the rest of yesterday is a
bit of a blur. I do remember dinner. It
was a couple of Aldi own brand curry ready
meals. One of them, a chicken jalfrezi
with rice, was a nice little snack. Part 2
was an alleged King Prawn Bhuna. They
seemed to be very small king
prawns.... I really should have had it
with some rice to give it some body. I
think it was quite commendably very fat
free. The bhuna sauce seemed to be water
based, and was quite thin by itself. Both
were pleasant, but the first was the more
enjoyable.
I think I had a pleasant evening
eating, watching a bit of TV, and reading,
and on the phone to friend Kevin. It was
Kevin who phoned me. It was the first time
we have talked for something like 6
months. The last time I saw him was on the
last night before the original lockdown
232 days ago now. We did have one chat
where we discussed the possibility of
meeting for a quick pint when that
lockdown ended, but it seemed we both came
to the conclusion that pubs were soulless
places with all their pandemic measures in
place. We both agreed that the new rules
made them even worse, although of course
all the pubs are now shut again until 2nd
December - if it isn't extended to even
later than that.
My sleep was a lot like the
previous night, minus the frustrating
dreams. I know I dreamed about something,
probably a lot of things, but evidently
none were significant enough to remember.
I seemed to be asleep for most of the
night, and I probably just about got my 8
hours, although I wonder if it was less. I
guess it was enough because I seemed to
wake up even earlier this morning.
This morning I am in one of those
half and half states. I feel fine unless I
do anything. I have just cut up a few
cardboard boxes to put in the recycling
bin, and fighting with the biggest brought
forth a few complaints from my chest -
particularly when I went out to put it all
in the wheelie bin. It is not cold out at
the moment, but neither is it warm. It
seems OK to leave my bedroom window open
for a few minutes to air the room, but it
is now starting to feel a bit cool.
This morning my blood glucose has
dropped to 7.8mmol/l after being 8.0
yesterday. The best thing about that is
that after what I think I ate yesterday, I
expected it to go up. I would much prefer
it to be less than 7.5mmol/l, but 7.8 is
good enough. One thing that is up is
my blood pressure. It is now as high as
anyone else's "normal". This is bad only
in as much as it doesn't leave much room
before it is officially high. It is
probably my own fault. I was trying to
relax while reading some news about
Brexit, and of course that is guaranteed
to raise any normal persons blood
pressure.
Today I am expecting at least two
parcels, and possibly another 2 after
that. The two expected today are the most
exciting. One is the two crates of
"continental" beer I ordered on Sunday
night. The other is two bottles of
Jameson's Whiskey, matured in stout
barrels, that was on special offer on
Amazon. I have only tried this version of
Jamesons Irish whisky, matured in stout
barrels, once or twice, but it was very,
very nice. I needed one for my collection,
and one to drink now....well, over the
next few weeks or months (or days).
The other two deliveries are coming
via Royal Mail, and they haven't got a
predicted arrival day, let alone a time.
Both are a bit mundane, but useful. One id
a couple of memory cards, and the other is
a big bag of cod live oil capsules - Cod
Liver Oil, the only thing that keeps my
legs working these days (but for how long
???). If the booze should come early
I could possibly go for a walk if it truly
is sunny this afternoon, but I suspect I
will be too busy playing with video stuff
today to do much else.
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