Recent content by Terry E. Toller

pipe dream in a box... I'm looking for one person who can do everything. If you're used to having other people do stuff for you, don't bother applying. This gig is for a project that will make me millions, or at least thousands of dollars, but don't think for one minute I'm going to give any of...

Somewhere in America, I just know there are some things sitting in a dusty box just waiting to see the light of day. I am looking for an old style Sylvania Sungun. Not the metal one. I need the plastic housing with a deep reflector. Looks like a funnel with a handle... I am also looking for an...

I have been in this business for over 38 years and have recently heard of something I have never heard of before... There is a station in town where the assignment editor decides what goes on the air. Not the producers, the AE... And here I thought you had to fail an IQ test to be an AE...

Back in the day, commercial breaks were two minutes long. Today it seems that they are around five minutes and maybe longer. MORE COMMERCIALS! Why then are all the stations complaining about budgets?

I bought a little dash camera with a built in DVR that mounts on my dash for $69. That was a couple of years ago, today I think they are less than $50... It is mpeg1 video so it isn't great quality but I have recorded some interesting video with this little jewel... It is amazing to see just...

I just know that somewhere in this country, there is a junk box with something I have been looking for for years... I need to find a comrex wireless mic transmitter and receiver. If you don't remember them, here is what they look like: Two identical aluminum boxes about six by three by one...

I am considering working with a California lawmaker to rewrite 409.5 of the CA penal code. The supreme court made it somewhat worthless by ruling that if a police officer “thinks” there “might” be a crime, he can declare a crime scene and bar the media. A few years I had a cop try that...

Does anyone know an engineer named Jim Brady? I used to work with him and would llike to make contact...

After nearly 39 years in the business, I am giving up on teaching assignment desk people that "FLAMES ARE NOT THE NEWS AT A FIRE!" I covered a fire at a rest home once where passersby got out of their cars, ran into the building charged with smoke. I went inside and got these wonderful...

thank you everyone for your input about my problem with fcp and .mts files. Turns out, there was NO problem at all! The editor I made first contact with just doesn't know as much as he thinks he does.... I met an editor yesterday morning who is a real pro and he opened my files and they looked...

I am still having problems with the .mts format from my panasonic camera. tried to read my card on a newscutter system in sacramento but it didn't work... what formats will newscutter take? .mov, .avi, mpeg4? so far I have had to make dubs to betacam and it seems stupid to go backward...

I bought a Panasonic AG HMC40 High Def camera. It is listed in their pro line... I can't sell my video to the stations!!! Avid News cutter will not open the MTS files nor will final cut pro. I have a converter program that turns the files into .mov files but it takes FOREVER and looks bad.

I think i bit off more than i can chew when i went HD. shot a fire the other night and had to resort to making a dub via composit video to a 4:3 format. My camera is a panasonic and shoots in AVCHD format. Final Cut Pro and Avid's News Cutter will not recognize the files. I have a file...

I was just watching a telethon for the Red Cross here in Sacramento and got to thinking. There are many wonderful people opening their wallets and helping in a big way. But the Red Cross? It seems that people don't know how they work... Did you know that for every dollar that is given in...

I just bought a new HD Panasonic camera. it records in about ten formats. most of them i understand. I= interlaced, P= Progressive, 1080, 720 and so on. But they are all preceeded by HA, HE and HG. I have no clue! can anyone tell me what those mean? When I get going again, what format would a...