discount/used digital video- your thoughts

[Gary Allan]

Okay, there are some things that I do here that are hard to articulate/describe/document. Many happen in real-time and some transitions are difficult to grasp via the written word. My filter/bypass valve experiments are one item that I would have LOVED to have video documented and put up on YouTube for everyone to see.

It not only unloads me from typing a whole bunch ..but, pretty much, eliminates the "cough-cough" skeptic factor from those who just don't want to shake long term "beliefs". If nothing else, it validates the evidence that I use to draw my conclusions.


So, there are lots of cheap video cameras with enough capacity for 1/2 hour of recording ..and true quality isn't really an issue. Probably low light capability would be nice ..since many times my trial runs are at night when traffic is very low.

What would you suggest ..or more importantly ...what would you avoid? There are plenty of cheap offerings on ebay and elsewhere for obsolete stuff.

I'm way beyond the kids thing on documenting every Tai-Kwon-do event and ballet ..and really have little use for this beyond this distraction/hobby. That is, leading edge isn't in my vocabulary regardless of the level of enhancement above the mundane. I'm an upgrading from 256 meg to 512 meg of ram type of guy ..in a "1 gig is a must do" type of world that many of you appear to live in.

Old Coot and I share many characteristics

Your thoughts?

 

[Quattro Pete]

What is your budget?

 

[Master ACiD]

hp photosmart 735 with a half a gig memory card holds 35 minmutes of video. using windows movie maker i can compress it down to about 15mb with no loss in audio or video quality.
the photostart 735 is also cheap when bought used on the ebay. probably $50 or so.

 

[Quattro Pete]

35 minutes, 15 MB, and no loss of quality? What resolution?

 

[Master ACiD]

not very high. i think 320 240. maybe 600 400. i havent used it in a while :/

 

[Gary Allan]

My budget is always small/low. I have no need for ultra high definition or fidelity. Master ACiD appears to be in the range I'm look at ..basically "has been" salvage. It looks like I can get a complete (enough) ensemble (1 gig card and accessories) for around $100+/-.

What I don't want to run into is some lame formatting or other not yet apparent obstacle to putting it up on YouTube (or other like hosting site). I do have MovieMaker (I looked).

I've fallen so far behind on most evolutions in electronics. I just don't have the need anymore. When my son was just born, I had THE PREMIER VSH Stereo HI-FI deck available at the consumer level. When I was "loaded up" ..I could have done an audition for Ghostbusters. I had auxiliary battery packs ..lights. The camera itself was the best you could buy at the time. Automatic weapons with large magazines are smaller these days. Tripods ..w/dolly ... Heck, the only thing I was missing was a SteadyCam. The next gen of full sized VHS were the cam-corders. They were much easier to handle ..but had far less features for the user. Eventually bought an 8mm after many generations of 8mm came and went. Never saw the need for another one after it quit after the wife taking it to Bermuda. Never worked for her there (too high humidity) ..and never worked again

It was at the point that we didn't need it anymore ..so we never bothered replacing it or getting it fixed/checked out.

Thanks for the input so far.

 

[Master ACiD]

the 735 uses industry standards. heck it even uses aa's as opposed to an expensive battery pack.

 

[eljefino]

The .mov format cheezy little still cameras with movie mode is a series of rapidly progressing JPEGs, each individually compressed.

The .mpg and .wmv formats, and presumably flash (that runs youtube) are sequentialized-- that is to say, one frame counts on data from the previous one.

Going from one format to another will lose a chunk of quality. But if you shoot at "max" then let youtube do the compression you could be ok.

If you already have the camera stuff, a capture card is super cheap-- $25 for an ATI Video wonder (?) or $45ish for a USB dongle that does everything and works with laptops etc.

 

[Gary Allan]

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If you already have the camera stuff, a capture card is super cheap-- $25 for an ATI Video wonder (?) or $45ish for a USB dongle that does everything and works with laptops etc.

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(adapted from Longshanks): Who is this who speaks to me as though I have a clue of what they say?

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If you already have the camera stuff

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Can I assume that you mean if I have some video source that can be seen on a computer already (web cam, etc.)? Otherwise, I don't see my even older non-video capable digital working in this capacity. I have two laptops ..so I had wondered if there are USB web cams that would work in the available light with a decent refresh rate not to be too choppy.

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a capture card is super cheap-- $25 for an ATI Video wonder (?) or $45ish for a USB dongle that does everything and works with laptops etc.

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Although I didn't dig deep, these items showed up as having a $100 before the 25 and 45 in a quick search ..but that's probably my lack of time invested in the search.



Let's start off from a different perspective:

I can assume that there are legit video cameras that store in a digital format that don't have the liabilities of the adapted digital (still) camera? Can I also assume that they've been doing this recording, in the preferred modalities, for several generations of consumer acceptance? Can I also assume, like anything accept SLR/digital cameras, that people chuck them out the window when the new stuff arrives ..just like everything else?

I thank all in advance for making allowances for my ignorance. Normally, I'd just read a few "So, you want to make electronic videos" type articles and move from there. What I've found, however, is that someone here ..many someones...have already trampled the exploration to death and have much more sensible advice.

This time, I'm asking in advance.

 

[Master ACiD]

alot of cameras dont need capture cards. the 735 for instance has a usb port. most cameras have usb or firewire. you just download the movie (in mpeg format) to youre computer, compress it with wmm, and go.

 

[Gary Allan]

Ah-HA!! I do thank you all for your input. I've trumped the whole thing...

Saw my son today. He'll let me use a demo mini-DVD from work. He also offered his digital tape video camera. I didn't think he was that up to date since he rarely uses the thing.

Since I'm not putting out cash, I can live with any liabilities that show up down the road. The last thing I wanted was going cheap and paying double in hassle because of it.

Thanks again!

 

[eljefino]

OK now you need a firewire port/card and cable.

Best buy etc are ridiculously expensive, as their goal is to give you the razor and screw you with the blades.

Newish laptops have a port, also called IEEE 1394. IDK about desktops. Macs are more likely to have 'em standard.

You can get cards on ebay for a couple bucks, probably makes sense to get a cable too from same vendor to save on shipping.

PC should come with windows movie maker; tolerable for what you're going to do.

 

[Gary Allan]

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OK now you need a firewire port/card and cable.

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Help me out here. Let's say I used my son's digital tape video recorder. Why would I not use his USB cable to transfer the video data? Or are we talking about some real time transfer to the laptop while recording??

Or ..assuming that I use the borrowed mini-DVD recorder, what's my hold up with just placing the mini DVD in my DVD drive and copying it to the HD ..editing ..uploading??

I'm here to learn. Simple minds need "the rest of the story"

 

[Anduril]

Most digital video cameras use firewire, rather than USB, to transfer video.

 

[Quattro Pete]

FYI... JVC MiniDV camcorder for $149.

 

[The Critic]

Don't you have a digital camera? Most have a video mode on there that is good for such uses.