Camcorder Formats

Myrtha:

Really enjoyed your site and mini video suggestions; especially on video formats. But if you are using .AVI format, how much storage space on your computer you should allocate for saving/editing the footages? I am currently looking to buy a new camcorder but really confused about which one I should buy for image quality, convinience, portability and simplicity to edit on my laptop.

Thanks,
Mike

Dear Mike,
You picked up well that high quality translates to large files. 5 minutes of video in .AVI format takes up 1 Gig. An hour of video is almost 13 Gig. I have 160 Gig on my PC, I also bought a 120Gig external hard drive from Costco for less than $100 that plugs right into my USB port.

About choosing a camcorder, if you plan to do any editing, and quality is important for you, go with a mini-DV camcorder. Read the guide on http://simplevideoediting.com/buy-camcorder/
It talks about the three steps: 1. Narrow choices 2. Read Reviews 3. Find Best price.

Dear Myrtha,

Thanks for the comments. One issue remains - if 5 minutes of video on .AVI format takes up to 1 Gig, the 50 minutes of .AVI video will takes 10 Gigs. How I can burn the standard 4Gig DVD single disk using my laptop for this footage?

Thanks,
Mike

When you burn the video on a DVD, the DVD-writer software (I choose Roxio MyDVD because it comes free with most computers) compresses the AVI file into an .mpeg file so that a 4Gig DVD can fit about 2 hours of video.

Though this .mpeg file is 'compressed', it looks great on TV and PCs but not for video editing. As a rule, I save the .AVI video file just in case I want to edit that further or incorporate that into another video at a later time.

Hope that helps.

Myrtha,

I recently bought a DVD camcorder and have found editing to be extremely difficult. If I am looking for very simple editing and we will only be using the camcorder for home movies, is an HHD recorder a good option. I obviously want good image quality, but would be willing to sacrifice a bit of it for simple editing.

Thanks,
Jake

Hi Jake,
DVD camcorders are great for when you don't plan to edit. Insurance companies buy it for documenting damages, home owners buy it to document their assets, or folks who want to shoot, and send the dvd away unedited.

The HDD (I think you meant hard-disk-drive) is a much better fit for you if you plan to edit. Many benefits: first of all, you can delete video footage you capture you don't like, just like you delete a picture on your digital camera. When you want to edit, just plug the cable to your computer, and your computer recognizes it as another hard drive, similar to when you plug
in a thumb drive.

You can also use Windows Movie Maker -free software - to edit your footage. Here's link to a HDD camera. I'm not promoting this camear, I want you to read the COMMENTS because you will learn a lot. The Amazon page has a long
url, so I shortened it for you: http://www.snipurl.com/hdd_camera The link will take you to the amazon Review page
for a Panasonic HDD camera, where you will see long detailed stories of how hdd cameras work.

Good luck.
Myrtha
p.s. If you are looking for a quick way to learn Windows Movie Maker, check
out my site at: http://www.makehomemovie.com

Myrtha,
I am about to shoot some green screen footage for a project. I took care of the lighting, now i just need to know the best camera to use. I have access to HDD,MiniDV, and DVD. Does green screen use affect my choice of camera?

Thanks
Oscar

Dear Myrtha,

Found your web solutions very interesting and useful. I bought a Sony Handycam dcr DVD605 two years ago, assuming that its going to be very user friendly. I was also supplied with Nero DVD burning software with this machine. I use Sony DVD - RW 2.8GB discs (two sides) to shoot the movies. I need advise on how I can transfer the video data from both sides of the disc to a standard DVD disc. I tried to transfer the files in to two different directories (one from each side of the disc) on to my computer and burn them onto a standard disc using Nero s/w. While copying Nero finds both directories having same file name, and want to overwrite the existing one. Even changing the file name in each directory did not work.
Both Sony and Nero are not helpful in suggesting a solution.

I hope only a wizard like you can show me a way.

Many thanks for reading my story.

Regards,
Sudesh.

Did you find a solution to this?
Thanks,
Kathy

Found your site of great interest. I use Ulead Video studio as my editing software. When using a Mini dv based camera, although the capturing of the source material is slow as it is in real time, the quality as you point out is of the highest standard, and I find the editing is straightforward and quick. When using a HDD based camera, while the capturing to PC is quicker, the editing is much slower and while previewing an individual clip of a project plays normally, I find that the preview of a project is very jerky. Is this a normal phenomenon with HDD or is it something to do with Ulead software?

2 potential reasons for your jerky viewing experience:
1. Your PC does not have enough memory.
or
2. The source file MPEG2 format is not ideal for editing. When you capture a Mini dv through your computer, you get AVI files, 1 hour is about 15 Gig. The HDD captures video in MPEG2 format, the same 1 hour video is about 20% the size, so that gives you an idea the compression. There are new HDD cameras coming up that records in MPEG4 video. Those will be comparable to AVI.

What is your computer memory? At least 3 gig RAM? That's what you need for video editing.

4gb RAM memory - I think it may just be a quirk in the Ulead software as when set for individual clips, they play perfectly; but when I then select the Project tab to preview, the same clips are jerky - when making the final video file, however, wverything is fine. I don't have the same problem with minidv captures. Even tried a more powerful PC - same experience. HDD captures are quick but jerky in Project preview mode and even inserting transitions there's a slight delay in the drag and drop process whereas with minidv projects, instant drop in of transition effects.
Thanks for your reply.