Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with video and digital

Prosumer Digital Video camera bought in NY to take to Middle East. Problems with video formats even in 2009?

xetere — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:01:15 -0800

Prosumer Digital Video camera bought in NY to take to Middle East. Problems with video formats even in 2009? Our director of Middle East Operations wants to go to B&H and go back with a prosumer digital video camera to record interviews and the like.

This will ONLY be used to create streaming video for our Web site/Intranet and DVD.

Still I wonder in this context whether or not NTSC/PAL still makes a difference.

I searched the archives and took a look at this thread and it seemed that the answer is "yes", but that was three years ago.

So is this still so in 2009? Can you set the format in modern Digital video cameras when you set up your camera for the first time?

(I seem to remember on my home one asking me for video format.)

They'll be using something like Vegas Video and 95% of output is for the Web, with a possibility of making DVDs.

Part of me thinks why can't they pick on up in Cairo - Consumer wise, it ain't the Gulf but it is *Cairo!*, but who am I to argue? I am charged with making it happen.

Oh yes, of course we know about different electricity standards and differing plugs, we can plug in the charger to a universal outlet they have. The computers in the office come directly from the States.

Maybe I do really want to direct.

miss lynnster — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 08:57:51 -0800

I want to teach myself to be more professional at digital video production. Are there any classes/seminars (online or in L.A.) that you'd recommend? If I could live in my dream world, I'd get to take the Travel Channel video course but without spending $2000 I don't have and having to drive to Santa Barbara for it. Thoughts? Yes, my questions have had a theme lately, but you guys have been helping me so much with making my new web site better that now I'm just goin' to ya for everything! :)

Where do people go for B-roll?

bryanjbusch — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:56:44 -0800

I'm thinking of shooting and uploading some b-roll for sale to others who might need it, with locations and keywords and all. Is there a marketplace for this? When people are putting together news clips (or any kind of video, but mostly news), they usually shoot some extra footage that they can use to cover up jumpy edits, or for voiceovers. They call it B-roll.

Is there a marketplace for b-roll that you haven't shot yourself? Let's say you're doing even yet still another story about obesity in America and you need a shot of heavy people with no heads. If you're not sure you can go shoot some b-roll of this before the deadline, could you buy some online?

Action Research Video Footage?

yellowcandy — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 10:14:07 -0800

Designing an action research class for teachers and need lots and lots of footage of real classroom activity. Here is what I would love, in a perfect world: 5-40 hours of raw, digitized video footage of classroom activity. Longer is better, in order to give users a chance to select a sample set of classes/sessions from the data. Bonus points if it's all the same classroom and/or students, shot over several days or weeks. What happens in the classroom doesn't have to be particularly good or bad--the footage will be used as the raw dataset for a graduate course, so the grad students will be choosing their research focus and deciding what to do with the digitized video.

We can't film this ourselves, as videotaping minors comes along with a whole host of legal and IRB issues that we do not have the time to sort through on our own. What we're looking for is a free or proprietary dataset of digitized footage that we can use without having to worry about clearances, etc. Since this will become a text (of sorts) for a course, we are willing to pay a vendor for this, if we can find someone who sells this sort of thing. If it's free, great. If not, that's OK too.

Best Bang for the Buck in an Inexpensive Digital Video Camera

Alabaster — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:51:17 -0800

Best bang for the buck in an inexpensive digital video camera? I'm looking to replace a 10-year-old Sony MiniDV camera which was lost. My wife (a teacher) uses it primarily for making film projects with her students. These are burned to DVD for the students and sometimes projected onto a large screen.

We're on a tight budget and are looking for a consumer-grade camera, preferably in the $2-300 range, although this could stretch to $500 if absolutely necessary).

-Video quality must be roughly equivalent to the MiniDV (or better).
-Storage must handle at least 1-2 hours of video at this quality (compression isn't a problem unless it's noticeably degrading to a non-expert's eye).
-Must have decent zooming capabilities
-Storage medium is negotiable. She's accustomed to MiniDV but I think flash/card/hard drive storage storage would be faster/more convenient for sorting through footage and transferring to PC.
-PC interface is also negotiable -- firewire, USB, memory card, or DVD would be acceptable -- again, convenience and speed for transfer and editing (in Premiere Elements) are priorities.
-Built-in mic is necessary, but the option to connect an external mic would be appreciated.

Any suggestions on a small camera that will give us the most bang for $2-300 bucks? Thanks

Do you know of a digital frame that can play high quality video well?

austinlee — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:15:57 -0800

Do you know of a digital frame that can play high quality video well? I'd like to exhibit a video artwork in a show and I am trying to find a nice digital frame to use. The footage will be looped and I am shooting with a Canon HV20. It's HD footage but I'm not sure if any of these things would be able to play that back. I would be willing to compromise quality a little for convenience as long as it still looks pretty decent. Audio would be an extra bonus but not 100% necessary. Any suggestions?

Connect Canon HG10 video to Mac os X

willep — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:02:20 -0800

Mac osx/canon hg10 cannot get stills off camera. Video yes, stills no. We're supposed to have a baby any day now and this sucker ain't behaving (the camera-mac connection). I haven't had this kind of problem with a mac in 10 years. I can get iMovie to find my Canon HG10 thru USB cable but not Final Cut Pro of iPhoto or Image Capture. That would be fine except that iMovie does not download images from still mode.

I have everything Canon has for download, I have iPhoto, etc. I have another Canon still camera that works fine in all programs.

I saw this thread was closed.

I've looked: no one else seems to have this problem and Canon isn't aware of it... thank you.

Recording critters at the zoo, need a good recorder

krisjohn — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:57:13 -0800

I need recommendations for a digital video recorder designed for multiple video inputs, including sound, (four cameras point at an animal enclosure at a zoo) that's designed to allow for easy access to the videos recorded. Networkable would be really great, or standard removable storage (USB/SATA). I'd prefer it if the device recorded directly in a standard video format so no conversion from a proprietary format is needed.

I'm looking for the least-expensive camcorder I can get my hands on.

Quidam — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:07:38 -0800

I'm looking for the least expensive camcorder I can get my hands on. As previously stated, in a few months I'm going on a road trip with a friend. I'm thinking it would be cool to have some sort of camcorder to record the highlights of the trip. What we're going for here is "cheap", and maybe "durable" - doesn't need to be high-quality or have a lot of features.

I'm intrigued by the Flip Video - simple, looks like it would get the job done, only records half an hour of video at a time, but if I dumped it onto my laptop every night, that space would get freed up again, right?

Does anyone have experience/feedback on the Flip Video? Am I going to find anything cheaper than $120? Any other suggestions?

Video Stabilization on a Digital Camera - Same as Image Stabilization?

passtehbrainz — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:22:36 -0800

Will image stabilization on Digital Cameras stabilize the video recording as well? I have a Canon Elph, which does not have IS. I was looking at the Canon SD700 IS, but only if it worked for recording video too. I have an older Sony TRV-22 handicam that has steadyshot, but I find using the digital elph much more convenient. Great photos, and nice video quality too, except the obvious lack of video stabilization.

Digital camera movies into an iPod?

keijo — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 01:47:16 -0800

When movies taken with a digital camera have been transferred to iPhoto, how to get one out to one's iPod to show around? My dad has a Canon Digital IXUS 950 IS, and syncs the camera with his Mac with his photos and the occasional movie ending up in the iPhoto library. Now, he would like to transfer a couple of these movies to his video iPod. I know you need to do this via iTunes, but i cannot even make the movies show there much less transfer them over. Help the poor iPodless son.

Why won't my Canon let me upload my .avi movie?

arielmeadow — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 19:26:06 -0800

I recently shot an 8min .avi video with my Canon point 'n' shoot (SD800 IS). Now, I'm unable to upload the file onto ANY of my computers (pc, macbook, ibook). Is the 1gig .avi file just too big? I get an different error on each machine, with the PC saying there's not enough room to import the file (despite hundreds of gigs of room), the Macbook saying the import failed, and the ibook simply stalling out.

I can play the video on the camera, so I know it's ok. I can import other photos and video from the camera, so I know that the USB connection is ok. So why can't any of my computers deal with this file?

Operating Playback on Digital Video Camera.

goalyeehah — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 20:58:00 -0800

How do you get playback to work on a JVC Mini Digital Video Camera? I borrowed a friends camera to film a project this evening. He did not leave me operating manual and I am unable to roust him by phone. I need to see what I've filmed before I show it to writer/client tomorrow AM.

Yikes!

Which digital video recorder for a helmetcam?

unSane — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 19:49:23 -0800

I am putting together a helmetcam system for mountain biking. Which digital (flash or HD based) video recorder should I use? OK, I'm going to use a camera simlar to this one with 520 line resolution.

I need something which will record the video.

I don't want a DV camera because of the pain of having to digitize everything in real time, and the likelihood of severe shocks when I fall off the bike.

So that leaves either a flash-based or HD based recorder. I think flash would be a better choice for me. The cheapest option appears to be the Aiptek MPVR which I like because it will record third-person video as well and is cheap enough not to worry about.

What other options are there for better quality in a similar form factor with or without lens? Do any other of the new HD/Flash-based camcorders offer video-in (which is the sine qua non here)? Bonus points for (a) a lens (b) toughness (c) quality (d) toughness (e) mac-friendly output format (eg .mov) (f) remote.

Obviously it must fit in a camelback and have a battery life of >1hr while recording.

Bringing vintage VHS material into the digital world.

phaedon — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 14:43:18 -0800

Turning VHS into digital. So I used to rent this storage space near my house. And one day, as I was moving a couple of things in, I noticed two employees emptying out the contents of somebody else's storage space and throwing everything directly into the garbage. What a waste - so I stopped them and asked if I could have a look through a few things, and to my amazement I found, box, after box, after box, full of VHS tapes, that contained recordings of things that aired on television during the mid to late '80s and early '90s. I don't know what came over me, but I took 'em all.

So now I want to go about the business of converting many of these tapes into digital format. Some of the stuff is very Youtube-y. I'm looking for an affordable and simple solution that I can incorporate with existing things in my entertainment / computer system. All suggestions welcome - this project has to be done.

Right now I have these basics:

a macbook (with separate screen)
a dvd/vcr combo with a television screen
a separate "closed circuit" monitor (stored away, if need be)

The macbook doesn't appear to have any video inputs (has firewire). Anybody have any suggestions, products or solutions that they've already explored?

best digital "video" frame

deep_sea_diving_suit — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 06:28:01 -0800

I'm looking to acquire a digital picture frame that is going to be used to play videos. What is the "best" one? (Best = cheapest, easiest to use, most minimal, etc.) This is going to be used as "art" and the only thing I care about is video playback.

The Coby DP-772 looks like it'd work, but it says that it "Plays Most MP4 and AVI Video Files from Digital Cameras." The video will be edited on my computer and then made into an MP4 or AVI file. Will it work? It's not "from my digital camera." Any experience with this one or any others?

No budget short film tips

strangeleftydoublethink — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 11:47:39 -0800

I need tips and suggestions for shooting a short film on DV at night, mostly in a car. I'm using a Canon XL1 and am primarily concerned with getting good contrast. I'll be shooting at night without access to electrical outlets and mostly in a car. I've found flourescent and LED lights that run on batteries and car lighters. What filters, manual settings, etc. would help me achieve good contrast and a somewhat film look?

Amateur video, ideally closed captioned.

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:13:13 -0800

Playing it safe in the digital age-- how can I record and store very private video of myself and him together (for us to enjoy together), but reserve the right to rescind access if the relationship ends? I'm not a stranger to recording and enjoying private moments, but I have yet to do it in such a way that I haven't regretted it later. All signs point to the current relationship having more integrity and potential than any thus far, but I've been burned enough to want to play it safe. I understand he's the other half in this scenario and could ostensibly have the same concerns, but for the sake of this AskMe I would posit that it would be far worse for me (the female) if my father or employer were to come across such video than if his were-- that's just the nature of the game. While that's an entirely different topic (and diatribe), I'm interested in solving the immediate "issue".

So: how to share intimate moments in a recorded, re-playable fashion but still have control over the use/reproduction/distribution of the contents? Should I record it myself and upload it to a password-protected site so that if things go south I can change the password? Seems a bit paranoid. Anyone have any ideas that are smart and subtle?

Direct digital video extraction

donpardo — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 08:39:19 -0800

I need to purchase a digital video camera for research into compression algorithms. The professor would like to extract the raw video stream from the camera, before it goes through any post-processing. The budget is thousands, not tens of thousands. Any suggestions? Ideally there would be a data stream directly from the CCD to the output. If that's not possible, he'd like a camera that exports in as many formats as possible.

Video killed the radio star?

philsi — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 11:45:29 -0800

I've got (what I think is) an original idea for a video podcast, however I have a few quick questions. Inevitably, there's I'm a poor student, and have the facilities to capture decent digital video, but not to edit it. I have a reasonably high spec laptop (2gig of memory, 120 gig hdd, Intel T2300 1.66ghz etc), but am totally clueless in the video editing stakes.

1) What software (preferably free) is best to use to edit and mix footage together?

2) I was also thinking of inserting youtube videos, would this be possible? (I already know how to download them to my hdd, but would it be possible to edit these into my main podcast?)

3) Some audio podcasts have "chapters" on them. Is it possible for me to do this on a video podcast, on a windows machine? The only software I've found for audio chapters is mac only, and I'm using XP.

Thanks for your help guys!

Suggestions for a Digital Camcorder

Rictic — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 09:39:26 -0800

What's a good camcorder-like device that can take video and quickly dump it to a computer to post online? I'm going abroad and want to reassure my parents that I haven't died with periodic videos of the trip. I'm going abroad, and I would like to take video to remember the trip by and to post online periodically for the benefit of friends and family. My preferred method of using the device would be to take video, dump it to my laptop, and then dump that to a server. As such, one of the primary requirements is that it be easy to get the video onto the laptop, and that the media in the device not be write-once.

After that, priorities go: portability, video quality, and then probably image stabilizer.

My laptop is a Macbook if that's relevant, and I'm willing to pay up to $300-450.

Many thanks for any suggestions, I've never really taken video or owned anything like this before.

How to get Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 to do what I want?

ollsen — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 08:47:22 -0800

Video files (.avi) don't play properly with Adobe Premiere 3.0. Picture jumps back and forth in rapid jumps. Why? I want to edit video clips that I recorded with my digital pocket camera. It's a Canon PowerShot SD400 / Ixus 50 and it records .avi files of 640x480 px with 30 fps and sound.
So I bought myself Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 to edit them. When I load one of my video clips from my Computer into the program and try to play it, the video playback is all warped: It seems like it has a severe hiccup or stutter, always jumping back and forth a couple of beats (a behaviour similar to that of 80s virtual TV host Max Headroom). The sound runs smoothly, though.
Any video experts in here / out there that know why and how to fix it?
Could it be that my Computer is too lame (2 yr. old notebook with 1.5 Ghz Intel Centrino, 1256 MB memory and enough discspace to handle the low res clips that I am dealing with)?
Thanks!

Where can I process and digitally transfer my 8mm film?

tev — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 22:00:08 -0800

I have two rolls of exposed, undeveloped super 8mm film in my freezer right now. I want to have processing and a digital transfer done. I've done a bunch of research online, yet I can't seem to find a place that I would feel comfortable sending my film to that isn't astronomically expensive. Where can I have this done? Bonus if its in or somewhat near Chicago.

How do I get video off of a digital camera onto my mac?

commasplice — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 18:22:32 -0800

I'm attempting to take video off of my Canon SD200 digital camera (note: not camcorder) and put it onto my Mac PowerBook G4 so I can edit it in iMovie, but I can't figure out how to do it. If this were a PC, I'd have no issue, but my PC is nearly 7 years old, and probably can't handle video, let alone video editing. Do I need a program? Do I need to get my mac to register that the camera is connected? Help?

What's the best hard drive type for HD video?

wubbie — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 23:48:28 -0800

What are the best hard drives these days to work with high-def video files? The last time I was remotely involved with digital video, you went SCSI or you went home. Standard def digital video files ate up enough capacity as it was, I can only imagine raw high def files needing an order of magnitude more.

I'm going to be purchasing a new Mac Pro and will be working with HD video. My current plan is to get a "stock" Apple drive installed for apps, etc., but then add a 2nd or 3rd drive for digital video files.

I've lost track of all the new acronyms and their seemingly endless varieties (ATA, IDE, SCSI, RAID, Enhanced-this, Ultra-that, etc.) What's the latest/best/fastest hard drive tech? A new flavor of SCSI? I'd like to mount the drive(s) internally if possible, but am not completely opposed to external enclosures if they're recommended for reasons other than portability (which I don't need.) Specific brand/model recommendations encouraged.

I understand that the best drives will have high marks in interface type, RPM (10,000+) and capacity.

This is a "prosumer" environment, budget is open, but not unlimited.