We  have news pouring in...
Thanks for all the offers to help with all the new DV cams for my son's 
wedding in Kauai Saturday August 10th...   Looks to be a good time
and it looks as though we will get some images up here on these new
camcorders...          as well as some First Class feedback as well.

MofH Leisha * Groom Michael * Bride Sarah * Best Man Dave
my two sons on the beach of South Pacific scene of 'Gone to wash that man out of my hair'

OLED... would you just know it... ANOTHER break through just came in...
You already knew that when we throw electricity into an OLED array we
get back color images... bright, razor sharp, High Definition, fully 
saturated and crisp colors... well, the scientist at Princeton, MIT and 
a few other prestigious locations found out that when you throw Light
at the OLED you get back... WOW... Electricity.  Now that means this
new TV does NOT even have to be Plugged In !!!!     Imagine That...
OLED UPDATE @ http://www.supervideo.com/NAB.htm

The amazing chuckmeister UFO... Dual Hub....
I did not decide to call this the 'UFO' because it looked like an X-Files 
Flying Saucer but rather the convoluted Sony 'VAIO' term as in USB /
FireWire integrated Operation ! achem. 

YES, it Does have SIX FireWire ports and they are the newer Powered 6 pin
type and Yes it comes with an adapter so that you can use 1 or even all 6 as
a standard camcorder 4 pin Sony, Canon, Pana & etc  FireWire port.  Yes,
this Dual hub has FIVE USB ports and 4 of them are the popular Receive & 
One is the rarer Send port for USB cables.  This unit is the size of a Standard 
CD or DVD and is only about 3/4 of an inch thin and Yes it can operate alone 
or what we call Passive Mode... BUT, if you want to use the Powered properties
of FireWire where you could actually power up a Camcorder then you can
plug in an optional A/C adapter...  that in My Case IS included.      e-mail me   

OK... let's see what Santa brought us to this glorious spot over looking the Bay
here at Hana-lei... yup... same spot Puff the Magic Dragon dwells in the song.
Opening the goodie boxes we have a DVX100, a GL-2, TRV950... the PD10
version is a MIA.... and a JVC Streamcaster... Folks, you can't go wrong, these
are all fine pieces of Pro-sumer camcorders and you will do no wrong no matter
which you choose. They all feel and handle just great... you are all going to 
have to get your keester's down to August Videomaker in Jersey, WEVA in
Vegas or a big city professional products dealer this holidays and wrap your 
hands around these puppies yourself. Seeing in this case IS Believing.  They
each bring something unique to shooting and taping that will appeal to each 
of us differently.  This 24p will get your foot in the door for High Definition sooner
rather than later... and I can see why Sony is having a hard time with either a
VX2000a up-grade or a VX3000 make over... I seriously do not think price
will matter as they all look to be in the same ball park and they seem on first
look to be worth a LOT more than they will sell for... I am going to HAVE to
use the same brand and version DV tape, and play back monitor as the 
images look very clear and crisp under a bright blue Hawaiian afternoon...
I can not make out appreciable differences in saturated colors like the green
in all the vegetation , blue in the sky or the subtle colors of the water, beach
and sail boats I see from the bluff here.  If I get a close up from 30 feet away
of a young Island Girl... the flesh tones appear to have some differences...
they are all acceptable but when compared together.... I get a cooler tone
on the TRV950, warmer tone on the JVC and GL-2.  DVX has two formats...
the better of the two is the 24p but that has to be the frame rate giving a 
deeper clearer image than the DV and this is all on playback.  I like the 
GL-2 image in the GL-2 view screen but on playback I am loosing some
thing... The TRV950 is not as sharp as the JVC or DVX... that's for sure...
We will get some diverse opinions once the gang arrives, and also some
indoor with and without lighting results as well.  I can get no e-mail here...
sorry, just the way the cookie crumbled.  These are really good times gang,
you have a wonderful selection of choices... finally and all of these will do
your image and production proud.  I got it... buy one of each... hmmm!
More...     

                             

Canon GL-2 is NOW shipping!   $2499 GL-2 & $1999 TRV950    Anyway, Contact me HERE.    This Canon XM2/GL2 MAY BE AT the Kauai wedding! And YES... Flight II Editing Video Laptop will also be there!         Sneak Peek... See Specs At Bottom Of This Page 24p Now here in 30 days! Meisters.... read my lips, The Above Cam... is the finest DV Camcorder ever made available to pro-sumers... TO DATE !   Period. You go to your favorite video camcorder source this Holiday Season and see a Canon XL-1s, Sony DSR-PD10 or a TRV950 or even the new JVC GY-DV300... and you say to your self... what is the best damn cam for the bucks today?  What has the best image, best sound, looks the  most professional, works best with ANY computer, can transfer to the  best looking customer tapes be it wedding VHS or DVD demo for my  company's image or even "can be transferred directly to motion 35mm film?"   24p my meisters... it is a s simple as that and you don't need  to take my word or any other reviewer's  word... just see for your self, it's  as simple as that... seeing will be believing in this go around.  Even Your family or Your customers will think you spent boo-coo bucks. If you  ever switch to a Digital TV screen... even YOU will be amazed at You !   Amen to that...   This just in... Effective midnight July 1st my     program "So You Think You Know Phones..."        Just gained Another 12000 Monthly Free Minutes!    In addition to a free World Cell Phone with a        protective button flip out cover in gold, such as   This unit is the  size of a credit card and only about 1/2" thick.    How does Free Phone sound?  How about 2 phones as a           minimum to start out with and if you want to include family &        relatives and friends you can add another Free 3 phones to      share Thirteen Hours (800 minutes) a month.  Works in 147     countries! How about Unlimited?  As in weekend minutes        which works out to about... 11,520 minutes per month, Free!    No matter where you are and no matter where they are, you   are not charged any minutes from your Voice Stream cell      to not only your family of five phones but anyone else that     has a Voice Stream phone... that works out to an incredible   43,300 minutes a month! The entire 50 states is your Local  Calling Area.       No other company can even come close ! It gets better...   from Only your meister here you Also pick  up another Free  12,000 minutes a month with unlimited in  bound OR out bound calling to Any one    or from Any one 9 pm to 7 am from the Caller's time zone...      Weekdays!  I had 11,200 minutes on my 5 Family phones last month &    using the guide lines above our total chargeable minutes            came to only 3 hours 20 minutes... since you get 800 minutes        or 13 & half Hours to share we wasted or did not even use             10 hours of anytime minutes of prime chargeable time! Hmm.  e-mail me for details & contacts... My Gadget of the Month Club...   To go with the Fly-Light... How About a New Fly Fan ! Uh, YES... that's my 1/2" thin Muramasa Laptop Above!

Want a peek at the future in camcorders... say a year or two ? OK dv-meisters... There IS a proto-type camcorder floating around the Beta Test circuit... it is NOT by any of the majors like Pana, JVC or even Sony... it has little or NO moving parts... here's why. It has a 3 to 6 hour storage... it does not Need a battery, unless you call a watch battery a battery! So you do not need to charge it every five  seconds or worry about running out of precious battery, it's capable of charging in about an hour & last a day, charge in a day & seemingly last a week... really. It has no motors, no tape, no spinning disc or  spinning anything... it is all solid state... a sort of... flash memory chip. It's High-Def,  but it does have in addition to a single FireWire port  a USB in and out pair of sockets, an S-video socket and a BNC socket. It comes without a lens.  I was told 'C' mount types will eventually  be fitted. It tested with a Fujinon lens but I was told there are also other options available such as Leica, Zeiss and even Century that will also work!  Weighs only a few pounds.  It had a bronze chromatic finish  BTW and it was said to only cost about $3400 with OUT the lens.   It Will come packaged with the 'C' mount adapter.  Can be hand held  with a new never seen before stabilizer of some sort, shoulder mount  with an optional adapter and has the ability with another optional   accessory to automatically reload itself with a new 6 hour chip  "On the Fly memory!!" I was told two to two and half years away  from mass distribution but the plant looked like about a year away...  but what the hell do I know about plant assembly lines? I was told by  3 individuals three different expected prices from $1499 to $3499,  take your pick !  More here later...  cm       Maybe an OLED to hang on your living room or Video editing wall this holiday?  I have been told three company's are ready! Read Below..                                     .

Here Come The 2002 OLED TV's !!!!! Tokyo June 15th Reuters:  Sony & Samsung announced today the beginning production of TV set OLED's for 2003 Holidays.  This was  on the heels of yesterday's Epson/Cambridge announcement of OLED third quarter 2002 for Laptop / Notebook screens up to 14". Cooler (no heat) and lighter (one ounce for every pound a Plasma screen) and far cheaper ( 1/8th to 1/9th the price) OLED's will be marching over the display landscape to over take all tube, all plasma and even all projection sales four years into production the Samsung spokesman said.   Several manufacturing giants, including Sanyo Electric, Samsung Electronics and a unit of Pioneer, are working on OLED screens using so-called "small molecule" technology developed by Eastman Kodak. Cambridge Display has an alternative polymer technology that, while still less developed than Kodak's, could overcome cost and size hurdles posed by vacuum deposition used in the small  molecule process. Sanyo and Kodak began making OLED screens with small-molecule technology at a plant in Japan earlier this year and have already begun  shipments to customers (1st quarter 2002). Sanyo plans to use the screens in cell phones this August. Motorola has had it's first OLED cell phone on the market five months now and Sony's begins next week with Nokia to follow next month in a test market. Unlike LCDs, however, OLEDs emit light directly and do not require a back light, allowing a lighter-weight display that is barely thicker than a credit card.  meister says... "Thus a cell phone could drop in half it's weight and a Laptop go below a half an inch thick for the first time.  Imagine a 2004 Laptop @ 4 lbs running over 4GHz, 2GB RAM & storage for a 1,000 GB's (1 tera-flop) ! Oh, @ $1999 ! " Its brighter colors and faster response time also make it a promising choice for televisions and any other product that displays moving pictures. Initially, OLED screens will likely be limited to cell phones and other mobile devices in which space is at a premium. In the longer term, Sony & Samsung SDI are among those betting that OLEDs' better picture quality will make them a hit for TVs & computer screens. Sony, which currently plans to use small-molecule technology, hopes to have TV-sized OLEDs in mass production by the end of next year. And most expect that OLEDs and LCDs will co-exist  with the overall market. As technology improves, prices fall and consumers become increasingly keen on sleeker, less space-hungry screens, analysts and executives expect the markets for all major flat-panel technologies, including LCDs, OLEDs and plasma displays, will see double- and triple-digit growth rates for years to come

The August Wedding and Event Videographer's show in Vegas will have all your  favorite 3 CCD camcorders on display for you to see, handle and a Shoot Out to compare the camcorders against each other.... Bally's Casino & Convention Hall. This WILL include the 24p but Not the MX5000, both Sony TRV950 consumer  and the pro-sumer PD10 version,  Canon MAY Introduce a New GL-2 !! I want to see what happens 1st July  New GL has improved battery life, 2 Channel manual over ride audio & MMC card. Still nothing on a improve XL-2 pro model surprise from Canon... just yet despite what the reps are saying; also the new JVC Stream Caster is running into flak from first owners...  http://expo.weva.com/

This section is for my NON usual readers, the newbies that just arrived here on the Cyber Surfer express & also my non believers....  I said above despite Canon reps statements to the contrary there will more than likely be NO new Canon DV camcorders at the WEVA expo this August meaning no XL-2 & GL-2 for 2002.... It's apparent some do not understand the wisdom and history of the chuckmeister. Just because we have been told there will be a new XL series for the new millennium; over one and half years ago! Does not mean it is so.  Seen any XL-2's laying around? Don't think so.  Just because Canon could have brought out their GL-2 to compete with Sony's TRV950 does not mean it will happen.  There is a lot of red ink bleeding in the video industry back home in Japan where the economy is in the virtual 'TANK' and looks like will continue to at least first quarter 2003 according to the Tokyo Economist.  When I say there Will Be No MX3000 by Pana USA or Canon will NOT launch a new replacement... I am in fact using the bully pulpit to encourage the EXACT opposite... it is called 'saving face' and most American Businesses haven't a clue as to what that non Enron term means.  I could care less if I am proved wrong and Canon all of a sudden brings out a GL2 or XL2 because...   We WIN! So why didn't Pana 'Get It' with the missed golden opportunity of the MX3000 or  Now the MX5000? Simple... Market stupidity and stubbornness on a now fired ex - Japan based white collar employee.  Happens all the time.  Where is our promised Sony PC series 3CCD DVC-PC3000 ? On the ash heap of fail opportunities and market miscalculations.  I said it was a good design, little heavy but very compact and a great competitor to their Pana Palmcorder 3CCD MX3000... seen any Sony PC3000's laying around? Stupid, stupid, stupid. I was once told over ten years ago that the reason Japan got color viewfinders and none were being sent to the states was 'the foreigners would not go for that kind of concept!'   Go figure with that mentality.  Want a more recent example?  Interchangeable lenses.  We can't have any of THAT, " look how bad the XL-1 Canon sales have fared."  Could not have anything to do with a five thousand dollar price tag... oh nooo! More stupidity ! This is all Classic comedian Bill Cosby's statement of Brain Damaged children! The next time I say This will not get over here or we Won't be getting This or a That, instead of e-mailing me 'boy meister you sure are wrong on this issue' just take the time and cut and paste my wild & crazy pontifications and yell at the US camcorder companies and complain and whine and demand some action... they may not have the guts to complain back to the Japan home office, but they will gladly send your statements back home since they'll not get fired for what You have to say Ok?   Lesson over.               New Azden DV cam wireless mic's for great Digital AUDIO ! extremely well with the new DV Digital 3CCD cams in Digital Audio capture !

The latest on Editing Video Laptop Computers: ALL HERE  Really! Memory Stick, Remote Control, 15.7" UXGA, 4 USB & 2 S-Video ports   ( One In and One Out! ) And DUAL COMBO DVD / CD-RW Burners ! FLIGHT II Editing Laptop Dual DVD/CD-RW Drives !! HERE Specifications:   Processor: Intel Pentium4 Northwood 2.4+ GHz Memory 1GB 266Mhz DDR SDRAM  512KB On-die L2 Cache Bios 4MB Flash ROM BIOS 2 GB Flash Memory cardu Disk Storage Hard Disk Drive: PCI Local Bus Interface Detachable 2.5” 9.5mm Hard Disk Drive Supports Ultra DMA HDD for High Speed Access Floppy Disk Drive Removable 3.5” 1.44MB Floppy Disk Drive Display:  15.0 UXGA TFT 1600x1200 64MB DDR SGRAM AGP 4X ATi Mobility M7-P (Radeon7500) Dual-View Display Capability CRT Resolution up to 1600x1200x16M DVD/CD-RW Combo drive Can Hold TWO !  ATAPI Interface Audio System: Built-in 3D Sound System S/PDIF Digital output(5.1 CH) for DVD content Audio DJ Access Front Panel 1 Built-in Microphone 2 Built-in Speakers PCMCIA Slot: PCMCIA 3.0 Standard Compliant 1 Type II PCMCIA Slot Pointing Device: Integrated Trackpad With Scroll Up/Down key Keyboard: 107-key Membrane   2 Hot keys Integrated with Hot Keys for LCD Brightness, Suspend, Panel/CRT Display 3 Hot Keys for E-Mail, Web Browser. And AP-Key Interface: Infrared Communication, FIR, SIR and ASK Compliant 1 Parallel Port, with ECP/EPP Support 1 External Keyboard Port 1 External CRT Port 4 USB Ports 3 Audio Jacks for Microphone-in / Headphone out / Optical S/PDIF out 1 RJ-45 LAN 1 RJ-11 Modem 1 Mini-IEEE 1394 FireWire TWO S-video TV ports          In & Out ! Power System 4hr Lithium-Ion Battery Full Range Auto-Switching 100V/240V AC Adapter Power Management System Management Mode (SMM) Suspend to HDD / DRAM Full features of SMI Power Management, Doze, Sleep, Suspend/Resume Mode Physical Characteristics: (H) x (W) x (D) : 1.7"x13"x11.4" Weight: 6.9 lbs SmartBay Options: Second Battery Second CD-Rom Second DVD-Rom Second CD-R/RW Second DVD/CDRW Combo !! Standard Options: Numeric Keypad external IEEE 1394 HDD

More to come, I'll be changing and up dating daily throughout the summer... [Return to Top]

More to come...

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