Side by Side!

[johnyandell]

Tennisplayer Subscribers,

Have you wanted to use the videos in the Stroke Archive to view your strokes side by side with the pro players? (If you haven't thought about that, think about it now!)

Well, that is now easily possible thanks to David Hill of pdsoftec who has created a great piece of analysis software called Motion Pro. You can download the coaches version for FREE. That will allow you to capture yourself from your digital video camera AND then do the side by side.

David will be posting more here on this soon. The only catch is that you need Quick Time Pro to download the Tennisplayer clips so you can watch them in Motion Pro. That's a $30 online upgrade from Apple and well worth it.

Right! With QT Pro you can download and save ALL the Tennisplayer Stroke Archive files--and use your favorites as models to pattern your own strokes in
Motion Pro.

You can get QT Pro here:
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...ore=D3381Z%2FA

What if you are on Mac? You don't need Motion Pro. You can use imovie which is already on your computer to do do the same thing: capture your own strokes, and then open two QT windows to look at yourself side by side with the pros in the Stroke Archive.

More on this from David and also from myself later on.

John Yandell

[DavidHill]

Dear friends,

I'd like to invite all of you to try the free MotionPro! Coach's Edition demo. You can get it from here:

http://www.pdsoftec.com/downloaddemolicense.htm

If you want to view quicktime movies in MotionPro! you will also need a free Quicktime codec for Media Player, which you'll find toward the end of our download page.

With this demo you can display side-by-side videos. You can also create new movie files (avi), record and trim movies from your camcorder, and much more. Of course, this is a demo and as such it limits a few things, but you should be able to do a great deal with the demo for free.

An important note on Quicktime movies and MotionPro:
MotionPro! is designed to work with AVI files as it's native format. So you may find that your quicktime files are not "so quick" when played in MotionPro!. If you'd like to convert the files into AVI simply use the video export feature, and export the quicktime movie as a new movie file. MotionPro! will automatically convert the clip into AVI and you will get much smoother performance.

I invite your comments, questions, or suggestions for improving the software. You can comment here in this forum or directly to me at david.hill@pdsoftec.com.

Thanks and warm regards to all,

David Hill
President

https://www.pdsoftec.com

[DavidHill]

Converting Quicktime to AVI using Quicktime Pro

I just noticed that Quicktime Pro has an integrated file conversion feature, which works very well (better than MotionPro's...). So rather than doing the file conversion within MotionPro! I recommend simply using the Quicktime Pro "File/Export" feature.

Here's how to do it:

1) Open a .mov file you've downloaded from Tennisplayer.net in QuickTime Pro.
2) Click "File/Export". This will open a dialogue where you can select the AVI format for your new movie. Choose "Movie to AVI".
3) Click on the "Options..." button and set the video settings to use "DV/DVCPRO - NTSC" for the compression type. You may also want to slide the quality bar all the way to "Best".
4) Click OK and save the new movie.

That's it! Once the conversion takes place you can open the .AVI file in MotionPro! You will find the smoothness and responsiveness of MotionPro! to be excellent when working with these files.

I hope this helps.

Dave Hill

https://www.pdsoftec.com

[vmiller]

Sounds good! It's nice to hear there's software available to nuts like me who just want to look at their own swings. The other software out there is way too expensive for that!

So what does this software have to offer that is better than going frame by frame in two separate quicktime windows? Does it allow you to advance the frames of both clips at the same time? And does it allow more than two clips?

I think I could be dangerous with this thing.

Thanks,
Vin

[DavidHill]

Vin,

Yes, MotionPro! will allow you to advance both videos simultaneously. You can "align" the two videos so they both have a common starting point, and then control them together with our simple player controls or with the arrow keys on your keyboard.

It also provides a number of drawing tools, a timing tool, etc. (some of these tools may not have as much of an application to tennis as to other sports (golf), but you guys try it out and let me know!)

If you are comparing a lefty to a righty you can "mirror" one video, thus making them both the same apparent orientation. You can also grab quick still shots (use Ctrl-C) which can be saved as JPGs, or printed as full page printouts.

Another neat feature is the ability to break the entire sequence into a filmstrip as shown below.

Anyway, why not download the demo and see what you think!

Dave Hill

https://www.pdsoftec.com

[jayfro]

Sounds good! It's nice to hear there's software available to nuts like me who just want to look at their own swings. The other software out there is way too expensive for that!

So what does this software have to offer that is better than going frame by frame in two separate quicktime windows? Does it allow you to advance the frames of both clips at the same time? And does it allow more than two clips?

I think I could be dangerous with this thing.

Thanks,
Vin

I received my motion pro software yesterday and have been tinkering around with it pretty much non stop. And for the price there is simply no other software program that I've found that can even come close. Not only that but the customer service was probably the best I've ever received. Thanks again David.


Jason

[DavidHill]

Sample tennis video lesson from MotionPro!

Folks,

Jason Frausto has produced a nice tennis video lesson using his new MotionPro! Digital VCR Software. We've posted a highly compressed copy of his video lesson on our website for those who may be curious as to what the Digital VCR Software can do.

You can view the lesson at http://www.pdsoftec.com/tennis1.wmv

Please keep in mind that this video is greatly compressed and size-reduced. The actual video that would be burned to CDROM is of much higher video and audio quality.

Warm regards to all,

David Hill

https://www.pdsoftec.com

[johnyandell]

I checked it out--that's a pretty cool piece of software! nJason, your backhand looks pretty darn good too--a little better than your brothers...

[jayfro]

I checked it out--that's a pretty cool piece of software! nJason, your backhand looks pretty darn good too--a little better than your brothers...

I don't think big brother would want to hear that but thanks. I had a two hander until about two years ago and I switched because I lost the two hander for some reason. Hopefully it comes back again in the future, I've been monkeying around with some things and we'll see what happens. I just sent in a few clips of my forehand and backhand so feel free to have a little fun with those.


The MotionPro software is really nice, not only for helping my students but for analysis of my own strokes. I've already seen a few improvements in a rather short period of time with my mechanics because of this software. Tell me what you think of my wacky forehand. Took two lessons in my life and it shows! Now I teach tennis.............go figure. Thanks.


Jason

[johnyandell]

OK I'll check it out when it gets here!

[jayfro]

OK I'll check it out when it gets here!

I hope you got them, I sent them to you via email.


Jason

[johnyandell]

Nope. Try again. Use this one: videotennis@metricmail.com

[DavidHill]

Video Analysis Software is now MotionView...

The software is no longer available from PDSOFTEC. Please visit www.allsportstec.com to get the latest version, now known as MotionView!

Warm regards to all,

David Hill
President

https://www.allsportstec.com