camcorder reviews, news, how-to and more
Out with the old…
Welcome to the new-look SimplyDV. It’s been a while since the last major restyling of the site, so a couple of months back I decided to start almost from scratch with a site that’s as much a social networking portal as it is the camcorder news and reviews site it’s been since 2002.
However, I ought to point out that it’s far from complete. Although I’ve managed to port across a lot of existing content from the old site I’ve also decided to leave a lot legacy stuff where it is. That means that camcorder reviews published before 2008 have now been discarded. I know a lot of people still trawl the web for reviews of previously-owned kit and therefore find our older reviews handy, but there’s too much work involved in cutting and pasting such stuff that receives quite low page hits. The traffic just doesn’t really justify it.
The new-build site is built around the hugely-popular and successful Wordpress engine and provides huge potential for the inclusion of multimedia assets into posts and pages – so expect a lot more video and audio based news, information and how-to tutorials.
What about forums?
As a result of some major technical problems arising from a migration of the whole of SimplyDV to a new web host, the forums were put on the back-burner at the beginning of October ‘09. Lots of people have asked if I intend to bring them back and the answer is firm “yes”. However, there are still some niggly problems that need to be resolved given that I’ll be using a different forums engine – one that’s compatible with Wordpress. There’s still some work to do so watch this space for news (subscribe to the RSS feed for updates!).
To-do list
Some of the jobs that have to be done very quickly:
- Repair some inactive page-links (such as on section index pages)
- Add dynamic Google Adsense ad blocks (important when it comes to paying the bills)
- Add Review Specification and Conclusion blocks to each of the camcorder reviews
- Anything else that leaps out and bites me whilst browsing
Comments and Suggestions?
I welcome constructive (emphasis on the word constructive) comments and suggestions about what we could add to the site are always welcome, so please use the moderated comment button below or use the Contact page linked in the header.
So, with that may I wish you all the best for 2010 and hope that you’ll find the site of interest and value!
- Colin
Related posts:
about 2 months ago
If I can add my 2p’s worth and wish you all a Happy New Year. Robin and I have been conversing via ano site but it’s not been the same.
about 2 months ago
Welcome to the (new) fold, Ray. Hopefully you’ll be able to communicate with Robin and others right here very soon! Watch this space….
Colin
about 2 months ago
Hello Colin, I’m using my free time to look in all corners of “our site”, because they are very curious, and I found myself to watch the video: “Destination Benalmadena. I really like (although, unfortunately, is spoken in English, and I do not understand it). I thought immediately that you have made with a Panasonic videocamera: In one scene the sky has a slight greenish hue. Typical of the Panasonic. I was wrong? The video is very well packaged, well done, but tell me which camera you used?
I’m starting to get familiar with the site, and by the time I updated my profile, when I learned to good use all the features I can add my avatar, where now there is only a figure of gray. This site very much, I can not wait to see it finished!
Thank you and greetings to all.
Virginio
about 2 months ago
Virginio – thanks again for your kind comments! With regard to the Benalmadena video, you are absolutely correct to assume that it was shot with a Panasonic. In fact, it was the HDC-SD20 single CMOS camcorder. I took it with me to Spain as a review test (something I often do as it provides me with the perfect opportunity to test a product in the same manner as would a true customer) and I found that it performed excellently.
The clips were then imported into Adobe Premiere CS4 and edited natively as AVCHD prior to outputting as 720p for YouTube.
Very soon, I hope to be able to incorporate a new set of forums into the site but there are a few other problems I must attend to before I can do that as it is a major modification that must be done properly.
Colin
about 2 months ago
Ok well I’m late at arriving at the party as usual but Ive managed to log on and try and navigate my way around the site and Ive found mty way here and am typing my first post on the new site.
Well first its good to see that there is a simply DV site back up and running. I’m using Internet explorer to view the site and its a far from painles experience. That might be the briowsers fault or it could also be my own fault in not understanding how to navigate . either way I’m sure things will improve .
So heres wishing Colin every success with the new venture and also a happy new year to all members.
about 2 months ago
Dave – I still need to tweak the iPhone “autodetect” settings so things won’t be perfect. My aim is to be able to deliver content – video tutorials and general “how to” stuff particularly – to mobile devices so it’s worth the time and effort.
By the way, SimplyDV never went away – it was/is only the forums that were switched off (through necessity). I’ve now decided upon a pretty good forum application that works within this main site structure (unlike the old forums, which operated separately) and will use the same login you’ve set here.
I’m being super-cautious at the moment because I’ve had one or two database-orientated glitches (as Martin sussed yesterday) and I want it to be right. The big pity is that it looks unlikely that I’ll be able to import and convert all the old forum registrations and posts content, but never mind.
Colin
about 2 months ago
Hello Colin,
As you see I have logged in and here I am, I see that your website (sorry, I can now say OUR SITE!) is very beautiful, even in graphics, in fact very much! Congratulations Colin, yes I know and understand that it is not yet complete, but you are a great and will do it. Expects to be able to participate in the forum as soon as possible. (But for now I do not see the link in the forum). When it’s ready, this site will be even more beautiful! I hope that the CES in Las Vegas will bring many gifts to the videomakers. I mean many novelties in the field of Consumer Camcorders top-of-the-line AVCHD.
Colin, I hope you already know something about the Panasonic. Waiting for the successor to the TM300, (here in Italy is not TM350).
Happy 2010 to you Colin, but also to all visitors and friends of this new website!
Virginio. (vibicchi)
about 2 months ago
Hi Virginio – I am pleased that you have managed to log in successfully at last!!!
Yes, there will be some interesting product announcements at CES, although we will have to wait a few more weeks before learning about several Summer 2010 additions. I will bring you a selection of product announcements as CES progresses – it’s one of the reasons I aimed to get the new site format online by this time!
Colin
about 2 months ago
Ahhhh, good stuff. Looks good. Who’s been a busy boy then?
To business! I have some errors on loading the page:
Warning: fopen(/home/simplydv/public_html/uk/wp-content/themes/mystique/style.css) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/simplydv/public_html/uk/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3580
Warning: fread(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/simplydv/public_html/uk/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3583
Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/simplydv/public_html/uk/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3586
Also, the banner graphic in the slider is ever-so-slightly too large and spills under the featured content in Safari. Not sure about FF (v 3.5.5) because it is getting stuck loading something (or several somethings) and the banner doesn’t load.
It’s all fun and games until the code don’t load!
about 2 months ago
Hi Martin – I’d got everything all ticketyboo until an update a few hours back. It’s stuffed the CCS a bit and I now have to roll back! Bear with me……… I have a fab plugin to install soon but have to sort this out first.
Good to see you around, anyhow! – Colin
about 2 months ago
Ah… there you are!
Happy new year Colin (and Robin!)
Think I’m going to need some stronger sunglasses to view this new incarnation.. all a bit overwhelming for us luddites!
Glad to see you back though — it’s all very interesting out there in ‘DV doctor’ land , and ‘Video help’ land, etc, but it’s not been the same!!
about 2 months ago
Thanks Robin – welcome back! (And a Happy New Year to you and yours, too).
Colin
about 2 months ago
Colin,
Respect!
(and a Happy New Year to you and Sylvia.)
The new SimplyDv simply looks stunning!
Great to see it -and you- back again.
Regards,
Robin