PH member's commentary drives.

[Benbay001]

WhoseGeneration said:

Not available without a login.

+1

[tulloch]

Sorry about that, I confused private with unlisted. Should be fine now.

[Benbay001]

tulloch said:

Sorry about that, I confused private with unlisted. Should be fine now.

Thats brave, doing a paralel park infront of PH, or maybe im just st at them?
Can we expect a commentary from you tomorrow? Your set up worked well, i look forward to it!

[tulloch]

Benbay001 said:

Thats brave, doing a paralel park infront of PH, or maybe im just st at them?
Can we expect a commentary from you tomorrow? Your set up worked well, i look forward to it!

Given it was not the best one I have ever done, I agree.
IIRC on my driving test I had to park between two cars, not behind one as they do to-day.
Planning a country road drive in the morning and if I think the commentary sounds good enough I may muster the courage to upload it.

[Pontoneer]

tulloch said:

Been busy to-day. Not many cradles on the market designed to allow phones to be used for video but managed to get something that works. Did a short test on the way back from the shops and uploaded the results. There is no commentary (yet) but the phone did pick up me chatting with a colleague very clearly. I've removed the chat so the test vid is silent. I'm quite pleased with the quality given it's a phone but 4 mins equates to over 400 meg and that took about 30 mins. to upload.

Here's the link for anyone interested in what an N8 can produce. Feel free to slaughter my driving. In 720 the quality is good enough for full screen.
http://youtu.be/AUfQA5o6eM0

The quality looks decent enough , video footage can use up a lot of storage even for short clips - I compressed mine from something like 3.8 Gb down to 295 Mb before uploading ( I did it in Toast Titanium although iMovie also offers various options ) but this does result in a noticeable reduction in quality . I had left the full res version uploading since teatime but only got about 30% done before I had to stop it just before midnight since the process keeps fans running on the computer and disturbs others in the household - I will start it again in the morning and hopefully will get it uploaded by tomorrow night .

You must be quite local to me since I recognise the roads you were on in EK . On second video run this morning , I came in through Eaglesham and drove part of the same route past the Crooked Lum before turning left down towards the Whirlies !

Looking forward to your video and , hopefully , a few more will be encouraged to contribute .

[tulloch]

Pontoneer said:

You must be quite local to me since I recognise the roads you were on in EK . On second video run this morning , I came in through Eaglesham and drove part of the same route past the Crooked Lum before turning left down towards the Whirlies !
Looking forward to your video and , hopefully , a few more will be encouraged to contribute .

I thought you would!

The video is made and I'm happy to share it. It's uploading as I speak but it started at 12:15 and is now 27% complete. The file is around 1.2 gig and just under 40 minutes long. We need more outgoing bandwidth from the ISP's.

Having thought about it, I reckon it's too long, not many, if any, people are going to watch a 40 minute video (I did watch yours). I'm going to limit future ones to around 10 minutes as I reckon there will be more chance of some good feedback. If nothing else check out the overtake at 23 minutes.

Having passed IAM twice I am now working towards ROSPA. I'd like to get a good grade and feedback in that context would be very welcome. My observer thinks I am currently somewhere between bronze and silver standard (driving not commentary).

Due to the time the upload is taking and my need to go out I'm afraid it will be tomorrow before I can post a link. Might manage later, depends on how long I stay in the pub.

[tulloch]

Here we go.
http://youtu.be/luMHPvB9N3o

[Benbay001]

tulloch said:

Here we go.
http://youtu.be/luMHPvB9N3o

I enjoyed that (although didnt watch it all, i need bed)
Ill do another, tomorrow, if things dont change

[Pontoneer]

Here is my drive from Friday morning . I initially tried to upload it at full resolution but it took all morning to do about 5% , so I then compressed it , this time to about 900Mb , and have just finished uploading since teatime .

Tulloch , I tried to watch yours after I spotted it , but it would not play smoothly for me while I was uploading . Since it is now after midnight , I will wait until morning .

Here's the link

http://youtu.be/kFthvCuZMMU

[tulloch]

Pontoneer said:

Here is my drive from Friday morning . I initially tried to upload it at full resolution but it took all morning to do about 5% , so I then compressed it , this time to about 900Mb , and have just finished uploading since teatime .

Tulloch , I tried to watch yours after I spotted it , but it would not play smoothly for me while I was uploading . Since it is now after midnight , I will wait until morning .

Here's the link

http://youtu.be/kFthvCuZMMU

Just after you turn onto the Kingsway and pass through the first roundabout you are looking to confirm the limit and mention that it was 40. I'm not so sure that is correct. Is there a short section of 40 after you leave the Queensway at the Birniehill roundabout? If there is I've never noticed it.

What on Earth have they done to the Eaglesham Moor road? They've tried to turn a two way road into a single track road with paint? The twin cycle lanes are obviously well used.

Regarding YouTube file size limits I finally found out what they are. The maximum file size is 20 gig, at least on my account. That's more than enough. If you go to the upload page you should be able to check your own. Should be the same.

[tulloch]

Pontoneer said:

I had left the full res version uploading since teatime but only got about 30% done before I had to stop it just before midnight since the process keeps fans running on the computer and disturbs others in the household - I will start it again in the morning and hopefully will get it uploaded by tomorrow night .

YouTube supports resumption of interrupted downloads if you are using one of the supporting browsers. See information on the upload page.

[tulloch]

Benbay001 said:

Cheers!
1. It was a cradle, but its on a long bouncy arm which worsens the movement i want an in car cam but cant afford one at the moment, and, if im honest, i worry it will catch me doing something i shouldnt and get me into st, but it would be ideal for things like this.

I used one of these mounted on the dash using the supplied "Smartpad"
http://www.maplin.co.uk/universal-phone-in-car-cra...
If you have an iPhone there is a specific version for that.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/in-car-iphone-cradle-38869...

[Benbay001]

tulloch said:

I used one of these mounted on the dash using the supplied "Smartpad"
http://www.maplin.co.uk/universal-phone-in-car-cra...
If you have an iPhone there is a specific version for that.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/in-car-iphone-cradle-38869...

Thats a good idea, but i think i will put some felt under the arm of the current one if i do similar again, and let it sit on that.

[Pontoneer]

tulloch said:

Just after you turn onto the Kingsway and pass through the first roundabout you are looking to confirm the limit and mention that it was 40. I'm not so sure that is correct. Is there a short section of 40 after you leave the Queensway at the Birniehill roundabout? If there is I've never noticed it.

What on Earth have they done to the Eaglesham Moor road? They've tried to turn a two way road into a single track road with paint? The twin cycle lanes are obviously well used.

Regarding YouTube file size limits I finally found out what they are. The maximum file size is 20 gig, at least on my account. That's more than enough. If you go to the upload page you should be able to check your own. Should be the same.

Hi , re the 40 limit , I think I got that wrong . It is not a road I drive that often but had it in mind it was a 40 for some reason ; looking back at the video I see no signs so that whole stretch of DCW must be 50 .

The Eaglesham Moor road was turned into a single track road in its entirety a few years back , then when construction of the windfarm commenced it was turned back into a two lane road as far as the works entrance . I always thought it crazy as most folks either ignore the cycle lanes altogether , or else sit doggedly in the middle at 30 or 40 mph and refuse to move over to be overtaken .

Thanks for the info about YouTube , I will look further into it .

[tulloch]

Pontoneer said:

or else sit doggedly in the middle at 30 or 40 mph and refuse to move over to be overtaken .

And that will be why they did it.

[MC Bodge]

Pontoneer said:

The Eaglesham Moor road was turned into a single track road in its entirety a few years back

Madness! At least in the Highlands the single track roads have signs telling people to pull over to allow faster vehicles behind to pass.

I had a mate who lived in East Kilbride a few years back and I personally 'discovered' the Eaglesham Moor road (2 lanes at that time) on a trip to Ayr. Admittedly, it did lend itself to making good progress, especially on the way back.

[MC Bodge]

I've been inspired to do a bit of talking to myself whilst driving and riding.

As I've spent time trying to improve my observation and had a bit of training, I don't think I'm bad at noticing things and responding to them and certainly riding the bike on a winter commute requires a lot of concentration, but talking makes you think more consciously about the task.

For me, the difficult part of giving a commentary is, having scanned the scene mentally, filtering the content so that I can say it in time.

I vaguely remember Roadcraft or the IAM book mentioning something about 'attractive pedestrians'... so I'm not sure whether I should or shouldn't remove their mention from my commentary

Edited by MC Bodge on Tuesday 22 November 12:07

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Pontoneer said:

Here is my drive from Friday morning . I initially tried to upload it at full resolution but it took all morning to do about 5% , so I then compressed it , this time to about 900Mb , and have just finished uploading since teatime .

Tulloch , I tried to watch yours after I spotted it , but it would not play smoothly for me while I was uploading . Since it is now after midnight , I will wait until morning .

Here's the link

http://youtu.be/kFthvCuZMMU

Superb commentary - I really appreciate you sharing this with us, and I also feel inspired to start commentating again.

I've noticed one curious error in your interpretation of road signs, though. In a previous commentary I think you made reference to reading multiple signs "bottom-up", but I'm fairly sure they're intended to be read top-down. At about 2 mins 55 seconds in the above commentary, there's a multiple sign for a staggered junction and a crossroads, which you interpret as being "crossroads, then staggered junction" - but I think the correct interpretation is the other way round. And sure enough, the staggered junction does indeed appear first, followed by the crossroads.

Other than that, I can't fault it!

Edited by Dr Mike Oxgreen on Friday 25th November 10:18

[Pontoneer]

Thanks for the kind remarks .

The teaching I received always was to read multiple signs from the bottom up : the reasoning being that if the pole was flipped backwards it would appear as a map of the hazards ahead , with the lowest sign representing the first hazard .

I agree that on the example you brought up ( A737 Beith bypass ) the signs do seem to be the wrong way round , but normally reading bottom up does work .

[ScoobyChris]

Pontoneer said:

I agree that on the example you brought up ( A737 Beith bypass ) the signs do seem to be the wrong way round , but normally reading bottom up does work .

It shouldn't do!

Chapter 4 of The Traffic Signs Manual said:

1.28 Where two or more warning signs are
erected together, the sign relating to the hazard first
encountered should be placed uppermost

Chris