Metacafe

OK, to be fair, have just received an email from Miri at Metacafe admitting a "mistake".

Still can't figure out why they need more than ten "reviewers", but such is the way of this world.

Comparison - P40 Kittyhawk

OK, have just uploaded the same clip into youTube. The upload took 95 minutes.
P40 Kittyhawk

(addition - Jan 1 2007)
Am slightly unsure of the background, but it most probably belongs to Alan Arthur.

This aircraft was constructed from a New Zealand P40 (NZ23125) at Wangaratta and Deniliquin over the past five years. The Allison engine was reconditioned in the USA. The entire project was shipped to Pioneer Aero Restorations in New Zealand for completion and was finished just in time for the Wanaka Airshow this Easter.

It was then brought to Australia, and the Jamestown Airshow was its first public appearance in this country

Curtiss P40 Kittyhawk

Metacafe are giving me the irrits at the moment. Apparently there is some sort of "review" system before a video gets released to "the public". Have just received notification that the "Inverted aircraft .." video in the post below has been "rejected" as one of their "reviewers" has " seen it before" .. so there is a "duplication" and the video has been withdrawn from "public" view. This is a whole load of crap as there is only one, and it belongs to me.

When I first uploaded them, the videos "hung" under "review" for several days. There is no information as to how many "reviews" it needs, nor how long, nor what they need as a rating, so had to email them to find out how long it would be before they were released. I did, however receive a very nice email from one of the staff, and the videos were relased soon after. Am a little bemused, considering some of the crap that makes it into their "public space".

So far youTube has the best management system. (and no bloody "review"system. When it's finished uploading .. there it is, available for "public" view and embedding.)

Actually, now that I think of it that may well be the problem with the Metacafe system. The URL was available to me shortly after the upload, so I put it into this blog. Unbeknownst to me it was not actually "available" to the Metacafe viewing public but was also being distributed to the "reviewing community". In the meantime, someone must have found it on this blog .. or something.

I sent an email of enquiry this morning, but have heard nothing back. Meanwhile, this is probably the only place where you can access it.

So, am still experimenting. This one has been uploaded to photobucket. Am not all that impressed with them, either. They apparently organise and handle "still" photos extremely well, but the "video" section is new, so the "management" screen for the upload is a pain in the proverbial. The upload took just under an hour.
This clip is 1 minute 38.

The quality of this one, while still a compromise, plays and looks quite good on my Windows Media Player, but am not now sure of the quality of replay here, as photobucket have changed the file extension. It was originally rendered and uploaded as .WMV with the setting "Windows Media 8 best quality based VBR for broadband" whatever that means. I did try several experiments with rendering it into AVI and MPEG4, but the playback in the Windows Media Player was crap, so went back to what seems to work best.

Jamestown Airshow (3)

Chris Sperou and Warren Stewart do some "close quarter" flying. Just over 2 minutes.

Chris Sperou Aerobatics - video powered by Metacafe

Chris Sperou. Ribbon cut, Inverted. 1 min 12.

Inverted Aircraft cuts ribbon - video powered by Metacafe

Jamestown Airshow (2)

Haven't really had time to write up the whole day, but here are a few pics. They all flew (except the tank :-), which actually got "blown up" several times with some speccy pyrotechnics), but anything actually in the air is on video. Am trying hard to edit stuff (i do have a 'day job') so have only managed a couple of short clips which are now on METACAFE, but probably not available to the public just yet, as they have some sort of "review" system. Will include the links in a further post.

General Grant tank
T-28 Trojan

P40 Kittyhawk

T-6 Harvard (one of three)

CA-18 Mustang
(background)

DHC1 Chipmunk (there were three)

Tiger Moth (one of several)

Douglas DC-3 (was supposed to, but didn't fly)

Stampe

(Dunno)

Jamestown Airshow (1)

Well, made it there and back in one piece. A very enjoyable day. Have just over an hour of footage, including some speccy aerobatics by Chris Sperou in his Pitts special. Other aircraft include a Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk, CA-18 Mustang, Chipmunks, T-6 Harvards, YAK-52, T-28 Trojan and a surprise visit from an FA-18 Hornet which did three low level fly-pasts. Did my best to keep it in frame - but those things are FAST!

Will have to do a series of short clips, so will take a week or so. In the meantime, have fun.

New challenges

Am off to the Jamestown Airshow this weekend. 450Km round trip. Given the unpredictability of motor vehicles and road trips - if I make it back, should have something interesting to post... later.