The Dummies Guide to Capturing YouTube Videos

Everyone has heard of the ubiquitous YouTube, although it is but one of many websites that host videos. The Internet is stuffed full of video clips that can, with a bit of careful thought, be of huge value to the preacher or worship leader. But how do you get those video clips from YouTube (or wherever) to your computer?

Most video sites use a technology called Streaming Video, which allows very large video files to play across the internet with minimal delay. That's great, but it does mean that if you want to download that video file to use when you're not connected to the 'net, you can't just right click and "download file" as you could with a still image.

There are three ways to go about this:

1. Using special websites
2. Using a Firefox extension
3. Using commercial programs

We'll look at each of these in turn.

Special Websites
There are several websites that offer the ability to download and convert streaming videos - probably the best known is keepvid.com. This is pretty straightforward to use - here are the steps:

• Go to YouTube (or wherever) and open up the video you're wanting to capture.
• Copy the URL (the address of that webpage) from the browser address bar. For example, the URL for the video of the World's Largest Water Balloon Fight is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfJLh-dwNeI&feature=related
• Now go to the Keepvid website, and paste the URL you just copied into the blue box at the top.
• Click on the box marked "Download" on the right hand side of that box.
• After a few seconds, you should find a series of "download links". The first three are in 3GP format, which is designed for mobile phones (not a lot of use to you in this context). The second two are FLV format, which is the native format used by streaming videos - again, unless you have a special FLV player, these aren't much use. The one you want is the final one: MP4. Click on this and your video will be download to your computer.

(Incidentally, if you have any concerns about playing different video formats, be sure to read the article called "Essential Tools: VLC".)

The advantage of using a site like keepvid.com is that it is quick and free. However, if you want to download several videos, or you want them in a format other than MP4 (WMV or MOV for example), or if you want to ensure that you download the highest quality version, then you're rather limited.

Firefox extension

Fire what? Shame on you - Firefox is one of the most popular web browsers available today, and is available here. Among the many nice things about Firefox is its ability to use extensions - add-on programs that allow you to do a wide variety of different things more easily. One of these extensions (available for both PC and Mac) is called Video DownloadHelper - available here.

Once you've installed the extension, here's what you do:

• Go to YouTube (or wherever) and open up the video you're wanting to capture.
• If the video has the option of different resolutions, make sure that you choose the highest one available. For example, in the video mentioned above (World's Largest Water Balloon Fight), you will see at the bottom right of the video window a setting marked 360p. Click on that, and you can choose (in this case) 480p or 720p instead. The bigger the number, the higher the resolution (which is good because it will look better when projected).
• Now, next to the title of the video, you should see an icon with three balls (red, yellow and blue). Click on the little down arrow beside that icon, and choose "Download and convert".
• The first time you do this, you'll be prompted to download a converter as well - just follow the prompts and you're done.

This method offers a more versatile range of download and conversion options, although the settings in DownloadHelper can look scarily technical. Give this a try, but if it's too off-putting, or you want even more tools in your toolkit, consider the third option:

Commercial Programs

There are several software programs available that are designed to download, convert, and manipulate streaming video. Some are free, but don't offer many advantages over methods described above. However, if you're willing to shell out a bit of money, others boast a wide range of features. One such is Replay Capture Suite (£49 at time of writing), which is a set of programs that allow you to capture video and audio from almost any source, including DVDs or Powerpoint Presentations as well as YouTube like sites, and convert it into usable format files. You can download and try a demo version of this before you actually part with your money.

Whichever option you choose, don't forget the golden rule of using technology in church: try it before you need to use it, on the computer that you're going to use it on!

Essential Tools: VLC

Anyone involved in playing media files from different sources will sooner or later (probably sooner) encounter the problem of file formats and video codecs. Put simply: video and audio files come in many different flavours, and each one often requires its own program to play it. Flash, Real Video, Windows Media, MP4, Quicktime Movies, DVD, Video CD - all of these (and many more) are different, and installing the right software to be able to play all of them would be a challenging task. That's especially the case if you're moving between a PC and a Mac.

The solution to this problem is surprisingly simple: it's a widely used free program called VLC. Versions are available here for PC, Mac and Linux. It's one of a short list of programs that I always install on any machine I use, because (to quote VLC's website) "it plays everything!"

Installation and use of VLC is straightforward (although if you want to tinker under the bonnet, you'll find a very complex configuration menu). Two quick tips are worth mentioning for distraction free use:

• By default, when you start showing a video clip VLC displays the title of the video file on screen. That's unnecessary and annoying - but thankfully you can turn it off. Go to Tools - Preferences - Subtitles & OSD, and untick the box marked "Show media title on video start".
• When you're projecting a video with VLC, you don't want any of the menus and toolbars to show. Just press "F" as soon as your video starts playing, and VLC will switch to full screen mode.

Simples!

Top Mistakes for Sermon PowerPoints

Whilst these tips may not turn you into a technological Rembrandt, they may help you avoid some of the more glaring blunders possible. Remember: the point of this is not simply to be "slick", but rather to help you to communicate more effectively.

You may find it helpful to download this file (PowerPoint slideshow, 4.6Mb) to see some examples of what I'm talking about.

1. Too many pictures. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but that doesn't mean that five pictures are worth five thousand words. Less is more. Unless you're doing something unusual, stick to just one or two images on a slide, or you simply reduce the impact.
2. Pictures too small. Tiny images just won't be seen - and if they have to be that small to make room for the text, you've got too much text.
3. Pictures stretched/distorted. When you shrink or enlarge a picture in PowerPoint, drag the corners and not the sides - otherwise you end up stretching the picture. Some people don't seem to notice this at a conscious level, but for others it can be incredibly off-putting!
4. Poor image quality. Very often, images on websites have been reduced in size and quality to make them load more quickly. Make sure you source pictures are high enough resolution to bear projection, especially if you're increasing them in size.
5. Too many fonts. This is one of the most basic design rules for any document. Stick to just one font, or maybe two if you need something different for headings. Whilst we're on the subject of fonts, avoid anything too wild and weird, but you'd also do well to avoid really boring fonts like Arial or (heaven forbid) Times New Roman.
6. Fonts not embedded. Following on from the previous point - if you use any font that isn't absolutely guaranteed to be on the computer that will be doing the presentation, embed your fonts. See this link for how to do that.
7. Too many colours. You want to make an impact, but you don't want to give people a headache. Try to keep to a set colour scheme.
8. Not enough contrast. People with less than perfect vision will struggle to read text unless it is on a well contrasting background. Choose your font colour/background colour combinations carefully. For the same reason, be cautious of putting text over an image.
9. Text too small. When people say "I know you can't read this, but...", I want to shout "then why are you showing it to us?" at them. If you have so much text on screen that people can't read it, you've just got too much text. The point of your slide is to illustrate or emphasise certain points - it's not to display your entire talk! A good rule of thumb is to keep text at 30 point size or bigger.
10. Slides for the sake of having slides. If you've got nothing worthwhile to put on screen, don't put anything on the screen. Duh. Use a blank (black) slide in between others to avoid distracting people.
11. Pointless motion. Custom animations in PowerPoint are great - up to a point. Don't go over the top, and try to stick to the same effect throughout the document. The same applies to slide transitions - a nice simple fade through black between slides is great, but a succession of random wipes and sparkles and blinds are just annoying.

The golden rule that applies to all these is: less is more.

Found this on cartoonchurch.com and couldn't resist it...

Eight Reasons to Use Technology During Worship - What you ought to consider before bringing multimedia into the sanctuary.

The following excellent article by Quentin J. Schultze is taken from FaithVisuals, and is well worth a read.


A lot of churches have started to use multimedia technology in their services. But what often gets lost in the rush to have "the next great thing" is the question "why?" What will necessarily be gained and lost by incorporating multimedia into our services?

1. We want to keep our young people interested in worship.
In our survey, three-quarters of churches said they began using visual media technologies in worship to achieve "better relevance" for youth. But who are we kidding when it comes to the average congregation keeping youth involved in church by importing flashy presentations into liturgical practices? Most of our productions will be second-rate compared with popular culture—unless we limit our efforts to what is appropriate for worship and what we can do well.

To the extent that presentational technologies are fitting for parts of your liturgy, why not involve congregational youth in the planning, training, and use of such technologies? Some young people have skill and experience when it comes to designing computer graphics, editing videotapes, and using presentational software. One of the strengths of high-tech churches is that they tend to be more open to the gifts and talents of younger members.

2. It's time to boost the quality of congregational singing.
Contemporary worship music is melody driven and relatively easy to sing. I have heard repeatedly from advocates that this music, when projected on a screen, stimulates congregations to sing vibrantly. So far this probably has been the greatest benefit of using presentational technologies in worship.

If the rest of the liturgy is untouched, however, will members sing more enthusiastically just because words are on a screen and hands are free to be raised? Not always, because each congregation has its own, long-existing culture influenced by ethnicity, neighborhood, age, and the like. We should use new music when it is doctrinally sound, leads people to praise God, and helps to form the parishioners into Gods obedient people.

3. We need to change with the culture or we will lose members to other churches.
It's time to embrace the twenty-first century, or so the argument goes. Churches that fail to adopt new worship technologies will become dinosaurs—extraneous to the broader culture. High-tech is the future, whether we like it or not.

Since some people prefer worship that includes more technology, this is probably a legitimate concern. Nevertheless, each congregation has to discover its route to faithfulness, given its distinctive history, local community, and available gifts and talents. The twenty-first century will not look the same for all congregations. Nor should it.

4. We have to create more powerful worship experiences.

An overly enthusiastic desire to use technology to create a powerful worship experience can too easily lead a church to a darkly utilitarian view of worship. Simplistic ends—like an emotional high or a feel-good experience—do not justify technological means.

Worship is not meant to hinge on individual or collective experience, but to focus our attention on what God has done, is doing, and has promised to do in the world. Ultimately, liturgy is the work of God's grace in our lives, not our techniques for creating experiences.

5. We want to let visitors and members know that we are a first-rate church.
This rationale rightly suggests that believers ought to attend to the impression that their worship facilities, services, and technologies give to the wider world.

A goal of being first-rate technologically, without a commitment to worship per se, is not a sign of godly progress. If a church brags about its investment in presentational technologies, but its presentations could be done almost as well with hundreds of thousands of dollars less, something is fundamentally wrong. Why not impress people with the quality of worship and the richness of congregational life—with or without high-tech methods?

6. Without using new technologies, we will not be able to increase the size of our congregation.
This is a knotty rationale to address, because larger, wealthy congregations often have all kinds of other things going for them: greater word of mouth (the best church "advertising" there is), higher visibility locations, a less threatening environment because of being able to visit anonymously, a larger and more skilled technology staff, paid worship leaders and sometimes even musicians, psychological momentum, and more.

Smaller churches are not as likely to use advanced technologies well, partly because they do not have the resources or expertise and partly because they sometimes overestimate their own capabilities.

Numerical congregational growth is a thorny criterion. Depending on what else comes with it, it could be blessing or bane to good worship.

7. Presentational technologies will allow us to expand our worship space.
This rationale carries considerable weight, because all churches should consider the visual and aural aspects of worship space. If a church is growing numerically, a time will come when its existing worship space will not be adequate.

Technology can expand the spatial scale of worship with enhanced visual and aural clarity, but technologies cannot guarantee that congregants will be a church, only that they can do church. Regardless of how much presentational technology a congregation implements, a church has to use the technology to counter mainstream culture, which defines public events in terms of consumption rather than participation.

8. New technologies offer us a means of serving members of our congregations who are hard of hearing or have difficulty seeing.
This alone is a solid argument in favor of incorporating presentational technology in worship. As followers of Jesus Christ we need to think seriously about how new technologies can serve those in our churches who have special needs. To bring them more fully into corporate worship is a laudatory goal.

It is one thing to improve only marginally the quality of worship for everyone in a congregation and something far greater to include in the liturgical dialogue people who are otherwise unable to participate well or fully.

—Quentin J. Schultze, High-Tech Worship (Baker, 2004). Pages 53-60. Used by permission of Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group, copyright © 2004.

Multimedia traps to avoid

The following edited extract is taken from Computers in Bible Teaching: Video Projectors in Church by Terry Taylor. It is included here not as an argument against using technology, but rather as an exhortation to use it well.



As large screen projectors get increased use in the worship service, teachers and leaders are able to do things that were previously either difficult or impossible to do. Many of the things that technology provides for us result in improvements. We should be careful to realize however, that new problems are presented to us as well.

Multimedia Traps To Avoid

• The Eye Candy Trap: Every image used should have a reason to be presented. Don’t just fill the big screen and peoples minds with useless “eye candy.” Doing so just lessens the impact of the important messages that you will want to convey later. Although we want our messages to be heartfelt and enjoyable, avoid getting trapped in simply entertaining the viewers. Some lessons are better done without video projection. At other times, it is better to just turn the projector off and encourage the people to interact with one another. When it is time for people to visit with each other in fellowship and discussion, you certainly don’t want to distract them with a fancy 10 foot screen saver — even if it has a religious theme.

• The Multiplied Lies Trap: If a picture is worth a thousand words then is a deceitful picture worth a thousand lies? Just as we shouldn't deceive with our words or actions so should we be careful about what we say with pictures. We should also be sensitive about how we present our message graphically and not use images to improperly bias our audience. Images can carry emotional messages that do not fit the context of our spoken message and we should make sure that the image fits the information being presented.

• The Technology Dependence Trap: Always have a back up plan. Equipment and software have a bad habit of failing at the worst time. Don’t become so dependent on your equipment that you have to cancel because of “technical difficulties.”

• The Money Trap: Although prices are dropping, multimedia equipment can still be very expensive. Be good stewards of your resources. It may not be time for you to spend money on media.

• The Time Trap: Using technology can be addictive. Don’t let technology rob ministers and other church leaders of their time with people. Instead, use your multimedia ministry as a way to get new people involved in your church activities. You may be surprised at who you can get interested in helping with a new multimedia ministry.

• The Closed Bible Trap: Projecting every scripture used in a worship service can result in people becoming dependent on the projection system. Sometimes, it’s better to simply list the reference on the screen and ask people to turn to it in their Bibles. Think of creative ways to encourage people to open up and use their Bibles so that you don’t let your congregation fall into the “closed Bible trap.” Utilize the technology to encourage people to use their Bibles more — not less!

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