[ubuntu-us-nm] Projects and questions

Research at Lawlearners research at lawlearners.org
Mon Jan 11 00:02:08 GMT 2010

Thanks for all the replies and info.  I didn't intend to cause a 
political uprising but that happens when you've got a lot of 
personalities and egos in the mix.  To me, it's all good.  I'm open to 
all perspectives.

Now, to the issue at hand...

My goal is to slowly eliminate all dependence on MS and all of it's 
interwoven associations.  For some of you that have no Windows 
experience, the problem seems so simple, but often times it is not.

For instance, one of the businesses I support has me printing graphics 
directly to ink jet printable DVD blanks.  The printer is an HP brand 
and the software doing the graphic design and managing the proprietary 
graphic files already knows all the particular settings and layout of 
the HP printer.  All I have to do is design and print.

The printer is an all-in-one type device where you are forced into 
installing a monster management set of programs that suck up resources 
all the time whether you're using it or not.  As you know, many of these 
hardware corps have "exclusive" contracts with MS to only allow access 
by the Windows OS drivers and refuse to make tech info available to the 
open source community.

Now that I have done hardware upgrades on all of my desktop computers, 
I'm anxious to start migrating the production work over to Linux, 
specifically, Ubuntu because I've already spent many hours over the last 
year learning it's functionalities.  I am wanting to avoid any 
involvement in the Windows 7 world and I fell like a train wreck is 
coming, as far as my ability to work, which I have no control.

The first project involves video editing.  I have several instructional 
videos that I am responsible for updating and maintaining DVD masters 
for mass production.  When these videos were originally created, they 
were edited with a paid copy Adobe Premiere 6.5 and a MPEG encoder add 
on.  This version of Premiere will not run on Vista or 7.  The raw video 
is in AVI format which includes the audio tracks.  All of the titles, 
cuts, fades, still frames, etc. are in Premiere native proprietary 
files.  If I were to switch to a open source product, as far as I know, 
I would loose all of the years or work that was done in Premiere and 
would have to start completely from scratch.  Also, many of the fonts I 
used to create titles were only available inside Premiere and don't show 
in the Windows OS fonts folder.

Premiere just deals with fat AVI file editing.  I have to use several 
other programs to author DVDs and extract video from other sources.  
These days it's rare that I would fire-wire video from a camera but I'd 
like to have that capability at a later time.

If I want to rip video from an already burned DVD, I use Nero 9 and the 
Nero Vision component which allows me to convert segments to MPEG 
compressed video files and then export to fat AVI if I need to insert 
into a Premiere project.  The version of Premiere I'm using only likes a 
specific type of AVI file so my options are limited.

The third step of authoring DVDs utilizes a program called Ulead MyDVD 
2.0 which allows me to create menus, chapters and add pre-compressed 
(MPEG) video segments.  I usually burn to ISO files first because all of 
my masters are on a networked media server.  Again, existing projects 
are stored in MyDVD proprietary files.   All that work would be lost.

The second project involves the 64 bit delema.  I've been told that if 
you install a 64 bit Ubuntu, 32 bit software won't work.  Vista  and 7 
seems to not have a problem.  Adobe Flash is 32 bit only, right?  You 
can't install on a 64 bit Ubuntu.  I've tried this myself and all the 
Youtube videos show as missing plugin blocks.  So how can I have Firefox 
functionally on a 64 Ubuntu?

Also, is there any advantage to having my video work files stored on a 
Linux formatted hard drive vs. NTFS?  Is the Linux file format for a 32 
bit OS the same as a 64 bit?

My ultimate goal is to be running on Ubuntu 64 and have the ability to 
edit video, author DVDs and burn directly to ISO files.  Also note that 
for now, all our videos are in 4:3, SD format.  We do not have any plans 
to get into the HD or BluRay world.

Input appreciated.  Actual working knowledge is more helpful than 
opinions of what "should be", as in, "this should work".



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