I'm in the process of implementing a Wiki on this site. That means that there'll be a place where anyone who wants to can collaborate on articles about Church Video and Graphics news, perspectives, tips & tricks. Paul

If you have a good internet connection and either Windows 2000, XP, OS X Panther, OS X Tigers, and some Linux builds, you can download either Skype.com or GizmoProject.com . They're both free for all computer to computer calls. There are even some solutions that allow you to make calls via handsets that make it feel more phone-like. In general, this is a great solution both quality-wise and for people that have family deployed to the Persian gulf region, for example. Paul

Okay, so it's really Kentucky...and prerecorded, but it's up. Episode 9 is ready to download. I'm a little low on bandwidth for the month, so sorry for any problems that might cause. On this week's "Tech, No Babel", invading a person's world during the week, shooting for edit, and choosing a video editing program. Links: Hollywood Jesus.com Final Cut Studio Final Cut Express Avid Free DV Premiere Elements Premiere Pro Sony Vegas Paul

I only had 30 minutes to record this week's episode today. I had a bit of a glitch as I decided to try and record via Audacity and it quit. As such, I'll try again tomorrow. Until then, feel free to let me know the answer to the following questions. Should I break up the weekly episode into it's individual segments and release it on like Monday, Wednesday, Friday in about 10 minute segments? Next, should I do a monthly videocast? It might be small at the beginning, but I'd start with a tour of my church's new location. Paul

If you need a moderate length VGA cable, this DIY solution might save you a bundle. It's not as good as either a high-end cable w/ boosters or a Balun cat-5 combination, but for distances over the 10 feet and less than 50 (or so) this might just work. Here's what the discription on Digg.com says. "It's possible to send a VGA "video" signal down an ordinary Cat-5 ethernet cable. This is possible for two reasons: only about 8 wires are actually necessary to send the VGA signal; and we can use the magic of twisted pair to push the analog VGA signal further than spec." Paul

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I never had a lot of comments, but I thought they'd dropped off recently. I've tried to leave a couple myself and they haven't shown up. Oh well, something else to fix. Paul

I got this comment via email and thought I'd share it: I ENJOY THE SHOW , IT'S A GREAT CHRISTIAN TECH SHOW ONE BIG PRESENTATION TIP THAT MANY PEOPLE SEEM TO FORGET IS THE USE OF THE PROPER FONT. SAN SERIF FONTS ("ARIAL" FOR EXAMPLE) ARE BEST FOR THE USE IN PROJECTED SOURCES. THESE FONTS ARE DISPLAYED WITH A EVEN THICKNESS THOUGHOUT THE TEXT WHERE AS SERIF FONTS ("TIMES" FOR EXAMPLE) ARE BEST FOR THE USE IN PRINTED MATERIAL. THESE FONTS ARE DISPLAYED WITH AN UNEVEN THICKNESS THOUGHOUT THE TEXT. -- Daniel Hook Thanks Daniel. I was going to save that tip for a future show as it was my longest show so far w/o adding anymore. In addition, I'll add a word of caution about using fonts that seem "cool". The primary use of a font is to be readable, second is design. The best designed slide in the world that isn't legible is useless. Don't always default to Arial (as I tend to). There should be thought given to the best font for communication, but most times that's a sanserif like Arial. Paul

Tech, No Babel Episode 8 On this week's "Tech, No Babel", using Powerpoint in the sermon and worship, scanning stills for video, turning an old pair of jeans into a valuable production tool, and much, much more. Links mentioned: ChurchMedia.net TechPodcasts.com QuestCommunity.com Del.icio.us Digg.com Paul

This week's episode of "Tech, No Babel" will be a bit delayed. I'm burning my sister-in-law's wedding to DVD. Here's what I'm planning on doing in the next episode: -Tips and tricks for using PowerPoint in sermons & worship -Scanning stills for video -Turning an old pair of jeans and some sand into a valuable production tool Paul

I've been intentionally vague about my church and all that's going on there because I think that my audience like the audience is like the audience for the Dave Ramsey show. This is podcast and blog about doing video and graphics in a church, but it it relevant to any low-budget producer. One of our church administrative types has a blog that goes into more detail about the stuff God is doing there. Sandra's blog is written by a self-described, former "angry atheist". She's made lots of money, lost it, been homeless, and lived in expensive homes. Now she's working at a church in Lexington, KY, but making a real difference. I'm going to put a link to her blog on the right. Trust me you want to read what caused the change in her life. Paul

I found this article on a $99 computer. This reminds me of when I got a free computer from the now defunct "myfreepc.com". The great thing is that I got the computer and had it for a month before they emailed me and told me they'd been bought and I could keep the computer. Maybe soon this type of thing will happen again. I need a new mac. ;) , but I won't sign up for AOL to get it. Paul

I found a blog from a guy who goes to a cutting edge church. The name is, perhaps, unfortunate, but what he means is that his church goes all out to reach out. In modern slang, something that's "Pimped" is extravagant. The title is also a reference to an MTV show called "Pimp my Ride", which is a show that takes beat up cars and renovates, restores, and refurbishes them, then takes them over the top with things like cappacino machines and refrigerators. In general, my church's building started as an entertainment complex. We've renovated it, but it someways it's better than it was. Our kids' wing could be considered to have undergone a quite transformation. It has a beach theme with surfboards and a dock (did I mention we're in Kentucky, so a beach theme is unusual). The youth room has a 75% lifesize Rhino. In the big room, we've got theater seats, cup holders (for the free coffee), and a total of five video screens (two side projectors, one center screen, and two projection tvs on-stage. Each series has it's own stage set. The next is a six-week series about movies. Read about other such churches at PimpMyChurch.com Paul

I'm utterly confused by this, but at Vividas.com you can watch the first nine minutes of "Serenity", the new movie based on the "Firefly" television series. I don't know if this is some sort of publicity stunt or if it's illegal, but what I've read says that this was put out by Universal, but take it with a grain of salt. This strikes me as a milestone in movie marketing. Think about the implications for your church. It might be mainstream soon to deliver high-quality full-screen video via the web. Imagine if people surfing on your church's site could be greeted by an on-demand full-screen welcome from the pastor or an overview of the services. The possibilities are limitless. Paul

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"Comparison images showing the difference between buying a fullscreen dvd versus a widescreen dvd. In these Star Wars screenshots, over 40% of the image is not shown and it really takes away from the movie." I've been trying to convince people of ages that the letterboxed version of any movie shows more of the image. This site shows proof from one of my favorite movies. Paul

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Apple's latest version of Quicktime uses a codec (compressor/decompressor) to squish higher quality video into smaller sizes. The codec is called H.264. Here's a fun wiki article about it. Paul

You might have noticed that the site's look has changed a bit. I really hated the stock template that Blogger provides, so I decided to change. I knew I'd have to do some tweaking, but what I've done has taken me _hours_ longer than anticipated. If you checked the site between Friday night (Oct. 7, 2005) and Saturday night (Oct. 8, 2005), I apologize for the "work in progress" that you saw. I'll try to get this stuff ironed out BEFORE I mess with the whole site. Boy I'm glad I it's done w/ CSS now and I don't have to edit every page individually like I used to in the old days. That was hard! BTW, a new show is coming soon (in the next couple of days). Keep those i.d.'s coming in. Paul

TNB051003 On todays "Tech, No Babel", social bookmarking with Del.icio.us and Digg.com, improving your shot composition, I test out the Griffin iMic, and much, much more. Show notes: Social Bookmarking sites: Del.icio.us Digg.com Simpy.com Wikipedia Article on Social Bookmarking My hardware: Griffin iMic(thanks Jeff!) iBook Behringer XM8500 Tascam M-35 (old mixer that I got for free) Shot Compostion: Definition of the Rule of Thirds, head room, nose room, lead room, and framing. Special thanks to Joel Osborn from WI for the i.d. Paul

To the right you'll see this: If you click on it (if you have iTunes open, that is), it will take you to the page to subscribe in iTunes. Just a way to save you some time with subscribing to my podcast. Paul

Gotta sleep now, but the iTunes one-click link is coming soon. Until then, click the title of this post to subscribe in iTunes. Paul

I talked to my friend again, the one who told me about her fiance. It turns out that his name was Paul. He had the same birthday that I do. One of his traditions was to look for people having a bad day and give them a shell. It's on these little shells that he wrote, "Luck from Paul". When he died, his family placed a basket of these shells on his tombstone. Today, my friend picked up a couple of those shells. She brought it back to me. Inside was still, "Luck from Paul". It's a funny thing, we were nice to him, nothing more. This simple act of treating him as we'd like to be treated, the act of realizing that he, too, was someone that had value, it was this that made him rethink what he'd thought about God and church. Luck from, Paul