Instructions to Improve Viewing of Videos on YouTube and Some Other Thoughts about this Whole Effort

Here are some notes to help improve the viewing experience on the "Discovering America on 2 Wheels" videos on YouTube that are accessed from the links provided in the posts.

Please do the following things when the YouTube Video Screen comes up:

1. Move your cursor to the "360p" on the right side of the toolbar at the bottom of the video window.
2. Select "480p".... this will ensure that you view the video at the highest resolution available.
3. To enlarge the video screen, select one of the icons to the right of the "360p"... the 2 arrows will enlarge it one size and the 4 arrows will take it to full screen.
4. If you go to "full screen", click on the "X" on the Ad or Music Credit bar at the bottom to close it if it appears and then don't move your mouse or the video tool bar will come up at the bottom and may temporarily block the text on the slide being viewed.
5. Turn up the speakers and enjoy.
6. If you want to return to "Normal View" mode, just hit the "Esc" button at the top left of your keyboard.
7. You can pause the video at anytime by hitting the pause button - "ll" - at the left of the video tool bar.
8. You can then resume with the Play button - ">".
9. You can search for other "Discovering America on 2 Wheels" videos on YouTube by locating the "Search" window at the top of the YouTube screen.
10. Type in my YouTube Username "WillsOnWheels" into the search window and the list will come up.

There are a couple of segments of videos on YouTube where there are 2 versions:

• Leg 1 - 510 miles - Lake Jackson to Fort Worth Tx
• Leg 2 - Part 1 - Fort Worth Tx to Lake Mineral Wells State Park

As I said in an earlier post, I've been learning and experimenting with different ways to get the images and commentary on them into a video format that gives the best quality and viewing experience on YouTube.

The initial versions were done in PowerPoint and then converted to a video format.

I picked this path initially because I was familiar with the use of PowerPoint and thought that was the right direction..... but there are many time consuming complications to embedding the music and timing the music and the slide advance times....

I also experimented with image resolution vs file size and came to the conclusion that I have to maintain the high resolution quality of the original images and just make the number of images match to the maximum file size and length allowed (limited to 100 MB on Blogger.com - no problem on YouTube - it's 2 GB but limited to 10 minutes).....

So I ended up with a Leg 1 Lake Jackson to Fort Worth version done with Powerpoint and one down with Windows MovieMaker...

and a Leg 2 Fort Worth Tx to Lake Mineral Wells State Park version done in Powerpoint with "compressed" lower resolution images and one with the higher resolution images.

At this point, I've decided to leave these versions on YouTube because it has records of the numbers of views and ratings that I don't want to remove by deleting the original version of the videos.

Sorry for any confusion this has caused but as I've said before....this whole effort is a Discovery... doing something new.... learning something new!

I've learned more in the last 2 months about this country, the people and places in it and the technology of bringing those images and experiences to the viewing public, than I had learned in my whole previous 47 years.

And you're right there with me... through the struggles and the triumphs.... it's pretty much raw and uncut.

Am I doing this whole thing the Best Way? the Right Way? the Way it Should be Done? the Way it was Meant to Be? the Easiest Way? the Safest Way? the Way I Would Recommend Other People to Do It?

I think the answer to all the above is "No"..... I'm doing it My Way....

and that's one of the great things about America....

As long as I don't violate any Local, State or Federal laws, I've got the God-given, Constitutionally Protected Right to....

Do it My Way.... to Live and Die by my Own Sword.... to Crash and Burn.... to go where No Man has ever gone before....

OK.... I'm getting a little carried away.... but you get the point.

When you think about it....

"Discovering America on 2 Wheels" is a microcosm of what America is all about.

You have something you love to do.... your real passion.... and you want to share your passion with others....

And in the end, you want to continue to do it it.... and so you turn it into your profession.

Hmmmm.... sounds like America to me.