Coaster show on the National Geographic Channel

I have regular cable and currently have the National Geographic Channel because my cable provider has one channel where they preview channels you can only get through digital cable. The previews last about a month, so I've been able to watch several channels I normally wouldn't be able to get.

My favorite part of that special was when they tested the Power Tower cable to the point of snapping it. made me think of the cable incident on TTD.

Great Lakes Brewery Patron...

-Mark

The show has been on for the past few weeks. I saw it on Dec. 20 or somewhere then. It is very good. It starts with S:TE, Swat, Oblivion, Air, X, Power Tower, and TTD. I liked the imformation given on the show, but the final POV of TTD made the ride look out of control and wild. It's due a person manually holding a camera, bad idea on a ride going that fast.

Lord Gonchar,

When it comes to recording video, I am a bit of a quality nut. I no longer have my VCR hooked up to my TV either, unless I am going to watch an old video or something. I have been slowly trasfering some of my old VHS stuff to Mini DV, then, like yourself, putting it on DVD. I also have a collection of coaster shows now on DVD.

gomez,

I wasn't at the TTD shoot for that particular show, but I have been to other shoots that CP has done and they never (from what I have seen and heard) allow someone to just hold a camera in their hands. They usually have some sort of helmet with a camera attached where the rider can look left and right or they have the camera bolted down tightly to get some stable shots.

When doing a play-by-play with a cell phone, they even attach the phone someplace on the rider where it won't leave and make the rider wear a headseat that won't move around very much.

-Sean

What ever way they did it, it didn't look good.

gomez,

I recorded the show tonight and had a chance to look at it again. I learn something new every day. Not only did the TTD shoot take place on a crowded day (shoots usually take place before the park opens) but it does look like some sort of hand held camera device was used for the POV shots.

At first I thought this was just a forced perspective thanks to a nice wide angle lense, but if you watch the Oblivion segment you may notice that the play by play from John Wardley is shot from two different angles. One angle is from a rider sitting next to John, while the other angle is from a static cam facing back to look at John and you can clearly see that the rider sitting next to John isn't wearing a head device.

From looking at the TTD stuff again, it does look like the crew used the same set-up. I am really surprised Cedar Point allowed someone to hold a camera, (even if it was taped or tightly secured) and on a busy day at that. My guess is whatever set-up the crew was using, it passed inspection by the Cedar Point folks.

Who knows?

Unike gomez, I think the shots they got with that camera really make the ride look incredible. You can even see the effects of the nice lateral jolt while going through the sprial. =:^)

-Sean

Sean Flaharty said:
I have been slowly trasfering some of my old VHS stuff to Mini DV, then, like yourself, putting it on DVD.

Yeah, I'm trying to transfer a ton of old VHS stuff but I never seem to have the time. Luckily, the Sony Mini DV cams have a 'passthrough' feature so I don't have to transfer from VHS to DV in real time, then do it again from DV to hard drive.

coasterimage - lordgonchar

Before I had a Mini DV camera, I used to shoot a lot of footage with a Hi8 camera. When I decided to make a coaster video in 1999, I knew I wanted to edit it digitally. The only problem was that I had to find a way to transfer my analog video to digital. I tried all kinds of different programs (anyone remember the Omega Buzz?) before I ended up purchasing a Sony media converter. It did what I needed it to do but had some limitations.

Once I picked up a Mini DV cam, I was amazed at how much easier it was to capture and transfer video. Just recently I went back and looked at my old Hi8 masters from the coaster video I made and decided to put the video on DVD for the heck of it. Since it was shot in Hi8 the quality did suffer but I was able to add things like musical subtitles, chapter points, and a separate audio commentary track. Yea, I know. What a geek. =:^)

I want to eventually make a series of DVDs that have some of the most funny moments I have captured on video while on coaster trips. Finding time to do this is the biggest factor right now as I know I have a lot of stuff that could fill up quite a few DVDs.

-Sean

What a geek. =:^)

Same boat. I used an ATI All-In-Wonder card to capture from Hi-8, just got into DV about a year or so ago.

I'm transferring mostly old home videos (from 1991 to getting DV - that's like 12 years of raw footage) and tons of crap I have on VHS. Biggest plus to me is the ability to add chapter markers. Quality doesn't matter much for the old stuff, it wasn't great to begin with as long as it stays the same at worst. I've also been able to clean some otherwise dreadful video up a bit so in some cases it's a plus. I just like the convenience of having a gazillion DVD's vs VHS tapes. Plus, it'll be easier to transfer to the next big medium (which will most certainly be digital) when the time comes.

I guess I'm a geek too. :)

coasterimage - lordgonchar

My friend showed me this the other night. On Demand could be very addictive. After we watched the coaster show, we watched part of a Crystal Method concert, then learned how to play Disturbed's "The Sickness" (ok, so neither one of us had a guitar in hand, but it was cool to see someone teach the parts one by one. We kept making that stupid vocal noise when he would get towards that part:)).