This is my first experiment with strapping the Sony on top of the old Volvo, after trying out the same deal as for my Polaris. I was so impressed with the result that I may just stop there while I am ahead.

The result was obviously helped by conducting the experiment on arguably one of the best bits of scenic coastal road in the world [depending on your taste]. For sure I have been on many such roads around the world and although I have now driven this stretch 500 times or more, I never tire of it. In the movie I feature the Southbound journey from Port Douglas turnoff to Wangetti [Rex Lookout] - maybe 15 kms of the 102 kms I drive regularly from Wonga Beach to Cairns.

I decided to slant the Sony towards the "beach" side rather than straight ahead and that seemed to work well without need for adjustment. I also settled on 4:3 rather than 16:9 so people with a "normal" PC monitor [LCD I hope] can watch full screen if they wish in the correct aspect ratio [ie so them cars don't look overly wide]

As usual, I captured the movie via firewire as DV AVI, did my edit and saved at 1,500 kbps for my own use on my PC. I then junked the DV AVI to save space on my PC [but I still have the tape]. Then I ran the 1,500 version through once again and saved at 345 kbps to put on the web [this version].

But then I needed to choose the audio and firstly the video audio was heavily influenced by wind noise so I decided to mute it completely and rely purely on music - but WHAT music. I was initially thinking of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath by Black Sabbath but really wanted something more powerful and uplifting so I decided on Beethoven.

I then decided the Seventh Symphony [First Movement] was the way to go. Ludwig composed this on a "rest cure" in the country in 1811 and, like the Sixth, it is hard NOT to feel the power and "freedom" of the country in the work. My first version was in 1973 on vinyl of course which was a 1972 recording by Vienna/Bohm, and although I later bought the Berlin/Karajan rendition, I always liked Bohm version the best, so it was fortuitous that when it appeared at my CD shop in 2000 as a CD it was in fact the Bohm version I bought [my expensive record player having long since died].

So the CD got "ripped to MP3" for IPod and it is that same 128 kbps that is part of the 1,500 kbps on my PC version of this movie. This web version cuts the quality down to 32 kbps [of the 345 total] so because there are massed violins [the ultimate audiophile test] it will sound a bit screechy on the high notes but really not too bad at all considering the pops and crackles we had to put up with 35 years ago.