Sony’s Action Cam… in action (video)

Sony's Action Cam in action video

We’re quite familiar with ruggedized camcorders here at Engadget, be they from GoPro or Contour. However, Sony recently entered the extreme video fray with its Action Cam, and we got the chance to do a little POV recording with one. The videos produced were on par with what we’ve seen from the Action Cam’s competition — a nice wide view and decent quality. While we’ve seen other such cams have trouble with color balance, the Sony’s was accurate both indoors and out and it adjusted to transitions from dim to bright environments quickly. And, while the SteadyShot image stabilization tech didn’t eliminate all the shakes in our videos, it did noticeably reduce them. That said, you don’t have to take our word for it, head on past the break and see the results for yourselves.

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Sony’s Action Cam… in action (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 21:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tesco recruits Andy McNab’s e-book firm Mobcast to help win the Supermarket content war

Tesco recruits Andy McNabs ebook firm Mobcast to help win the Supermarket content war

Hot on the heels of purchasing Blinkbox and Peter Gabriel’s WE7, Tesco has purchased Andy McNab’s e-book publishers, Mobcast. It seems clear that the British supermarket heavyweight is currently engaged in a phony war with rival Sainsburys, which snapped up Rovi, Global Media Vault and Anobii for its competing online content service. McNab’s company is rather small, only offering around 130,000 titles in the UK, but like the earlier purchases, its infrastructure and resources will most likely be cannibalized to boost the company’s forthcoming digital platform.

Continue reading Tesco recruits Andy McNab’s e-book firm Mobcast to help win the Supermarket content war

Tesco recruits Andy McNab’s e-book firm Mobcast to help win the Supermarket content war originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Sep 2012 11:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Red posts high frame-rate video demonstration to smooth out misconceptions

Red posts HFR demonstration to smooth out misconceptions

If you’re still unsure about what you’ll be getting into if you see the 48fps version of “Hobbit,” Red has jumped into the fray with an article on its website and, most importantly, high quality HFR (high frame-rate) videos. It delves into all the aspects of the tech, starting with a primer on the minimum frame rate required to perceive motion, illustrated by a pair of clips to show the threshold. From there it details “judder” when panning at 24 fps versus 60 fps, motion blur, the possibility of brighter projection with HFR in 3D and of course, action at slower versus faster frame speeds. Finally, it demonstrates the hated “TruMotion” soap opera-esque interpolation method on modern TVs, and why that’s different from true fast-frames. Sure, Red has a vested interest in seeing upcoming HFR films from its Epic camera succeed, but a little education might be what’s needed to break old habits.

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Red posts high frame-rate video demonstration to smooth out misconceptions originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Aug 2012 08:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Comic-Con fans go crazy over Hobbit teaser, but not the 48fps version

DNP Jackson wows ComicCon crowd with Hobbit preview, clarifies 24fps screening decision

Two different audiences and two very different screenings. After unfamiliar 48fps Hobbit footage was pretty universally panned back at Cinema-Con, Peter Jackson decided to play it safe and show Comic-Con fans the traditional low frame-rate teaser. Their response? They loved it. Which would, you’d think, give the head hobbit a clear message: his film works better without the wacky frame rate, but that’s just not how he sees it. Writing on his Facebook page, he said “I’ve always been happy to bet on myself” and the 48fps version of Hobbit is “something really special” when you watch the entire movie. In other words, he’s sticking to his orc sword, and in the meantime we’re left to wonder what would have happened if the Comic-Con crowd — who are perhaps more his kind of people than Cinema-Con goers — had been shown the tricked out footage.

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Comic-Con fans go crazy over Hobbit teaser, but not the 48fps version originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jul 2012 06:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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