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Camcorders: Looking at purchasing a Hard Drive Video Camera
Looking at purchasing a Hard Drive Video Camera
by melanth - 9/18/07 10:11 PMI am looking to purchase a Hard Drive video camera. I have found 3 brands - no too sure which one to go for. JVC, Sony or Panasonic? I am looking at the cheaper models of each brand. Using it for home videos, holidays kids etc. I have a lap top that is Vista and a desktop that it windows. Not going to be using it for still photos. I am interested in adding titles and music and photo slide shows to dvds so i would like one that i would do this with with little effort - do they come with software? Should i purchase software? if so which one? PLease help!
(NT) Why do you think a hard drive camera is what you want?
by boya84 - 9/19/07 6:16 AM In reply to: Looking at purchasing a Hard Drive Video Camera by melanthPurley for ease and convenience.
by melanth - 9/19/07 4:05 PM In reply to: (NT) Why do you think a hard drive camera is what you want? by boya84I have a sony dvd handy cam and want the ease of no tapes or dvds etc. I am looking to upgrade.
I agree that moving from a DVD based camcorder to
by boya84 - 9/19/07 4:21 PM In reply to: Purley for ease and convenience. by melanthhard drive based will be an "upgrade" but for easiest editing with best available video quality, miniDV continues to be king. The lower end hard drive based machines are not very good.
Whizkidd's the hard drive camcorder person on these boards... I suspect he'll point you away from the SR42 and SR82... SR200 may be of interest to you, but we don't know what your budget is. Suggest staying away from the JVCs.
Our purchase
by mikeandleslie - 9/21/07 5:11 PM In reply to: Looking at purchasing a Hard Drive Video Camera by melanthWe researched, like you are, and settled on purchasing the Hard Drive Sony DCR-SR300. We are very happy with it. The software that came with it was not compatible with our Vista IE7 machine. I tried to update/upgrade the software VISO (? on spelling), but without success (it always crashed my machine). I ended up using the program that came with Vista Home Premium - Windows Movie Maker. It works just fine. You can do some fun things with WMM. However, I wanted a little bit more power with my video software, so purchased Video Edit Magic 3. I am very pleased with both the price of VEM3 and its capabilities. I have no regrets.
Along with the camera, I purchased several lenses, an external mic, an extra battery, etc for the camera. I saved about $1000 by not purchasing these from Sony.
Hope this helps.
A quick question...
by whizkid454 - 9/21/07 6:13 PM In reply to: Our purchase by mikeandleslieHow did you exactly get your videos from the camcorder directly into WMM? Did you install a codec before hand? Did you convert the files? Please post back. I'm interested in how you accomplished that. Thanks.
Camera to Computer to Video Editing SW to DVD
by mikeandleslie - 9/21/07 11:16 PM In reply to: A quick question... by whizkid454First, let me say, I am fairly new at all this. For me, the newbie, it is all pretty easy:
With Vista Home Premium, it is easy: Plug in the camera via the camera shoe. Plug shoe into the computer. Select the on-screen camera prompt for uploading to your computer. VISTA recognizes the camera and sees the media and asks where to save it. When it sees the camera, it will automatically install the driver. No need to install the driver that came with the camera. (This is one of the advantages of Vista.) Once uploaded to the computer, I start the video editing software. Tell the SW that you want to work with the video file you just uploaded. Follow the SW prompts for editing. Save the work as completed. You can save using various Codex formats.
Before filming, tell the camera if you want wide-screen or normal recording - for eventual output to a TV(s).
The camera shoe has a one-touch feature to send the video recording straight to a DVD, but I have not used this feature. Why? Well, I want to be producing teaching videos that will be quality enough for DVD or Internet distribution. I wanted the ability to add subtitles, voice over, blue/green screen backgrounds, video in video, and DVD introduction menus, etc.
Videos are memory hogs. Therefore, I purchase a 500gig external HD for $125 from Staples on sale. I send all my videos in the raw and as finished products to the external HD.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the info, but...
by whizkid454 - 9/22/07 5:29 AM In reply to: Camera to Computer to Video Editing SW to DVD by mikeandleslieUsually, WMM doesn't work well with raw MPEG2 files. There must be a conversion somewhere in between which was why I was asking how you did this. I use Vista and a Sony SR100 and could not use the MPEG2 files directly in WMM without installing an MPEG2 codec. Just wondering how you were successful at that step. Thanks.
Sony hard drive video cam + Ulead VideoStudio 10
by lewisinde - 9/21/07 7:39 PM In reply to: Looking at purchasing a Hard Drive Video Camera by melanthWe purchased the Sony 40GB DCR SR200 very reasonably from a well known online electronics retailer in NY. We needed to tape a family event that lasted about 100 minutes. The minidisk and DVD don't allow that amount of taping without changing the disk. The camera was mounted on a tripod and we set it, started it and didn't have to worry about changing tapes. Please note: the quality of the video is fairly good but not as good as if one used a disk or DVD to record on, but it was good enough for us. It was easy to transfer the video from the camera to the computer and then, using the Ulead VideoStudio program to edit the video, add special effects, and then burn DVDs to send to family members. This saved us a fortune over having to use a professional photographer and pay for professional editing. We often tape our daughter's ballet classes, edit them, burn on DVD and send to family members. They love them.
Thank you all for this information
by melanth - 9/22/07 4:17 AM In reply to: Sony hard drive video cam + Ulead VideoStudio 10 by lewisindeThanks to all - can anyone tell me whether Unlead Video Studio 10 works with Vista and is compatible with the Sony DCR SR 300?
Here's a link...
by whizkid454 - 9/22/07 5:33 AM In reply to: Thank you all for this information by melanthhttp://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1175714229272
Instead of using VS10, here's VS11. As it says "DVD camcorders" in the supported camcorders list, that is a general reference to MPEG2 files. HDD camcorders record using the MPEG2 format. So yes, the SR300 would work with VS11 and it's Vista compatible.
Multiple Webcams
by pattyadam - 9/22/07 6:24 AM In reply to: Here's a link... by whizkid454I know I may be asking a lot here, but I would like to be able to monitor my house and dogs from work using multiple cameras into oneview? Is that possible? what would be a simple way to do that? I am willing to get a DVR Hard Drive if necessary
Thank you
Video Surveillance
by mikeandleslie - 9/25/07 7:06 PM In reply to: Multiple Webcams by pattyadamYou might try this link. Scroll down to "Video Surveillance" on the left side. They have two selections.
http://www.deskshare.com/
Does that include JVC?
by Mr.RumPig - 9/24/07 10:00 PM In reply to: Here's a link... by whizkid454I was just wondering, because I borrowed a JVC HDD camcorder once, and it's files ended with an extension I've never heard of. (Wish I could remember what it was!) The only way I could work with these files was by using a version of Cyberlink Power Director, which came with the camera as no other program I had would recognise the file format. I found this program on the net which was supposed to convert the files to mpeg but I think all it really did was rename the file with an .mpg extension.
The proprietary JVC file extension is ".mod"...
by boya84 - 9/25/07 6:07 AM In reply to: Does that include JVC? by Mr.RumPigand the app does a little than rename the file - it makes the file a useful format for non-JVC provided video editors.
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