Re: need advice on HDD camcorder


"Sandra" <sbea@xxxxxxx> wrote in message news:BJqdnVkmR7m6m23YnZ2dnUVZ_tGlnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxx

"PTravel" <ptravel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:55a323F22tstuU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The amount of compression isn't the only problem. The data bandwidth is also reduced but, most of all, mpeg2 is temporally-compressed, i.e. earlier frames determine how later frames are compressed. This is best done with 2-pass analysis which, of course, can't be done on the fly.

Ah... you sort of lost me a little with the 2-pass analysis. Basically you are saying
that mini-DV is the best way to capture video??

While not necessarily the best way, it will result in better quality video than an mpeg2-based consumer camera, e.g. a hard-drive or DVD camcorder. Also, you mention further down that you edit in Premiere. If you're doing anything beyond the most simple cuts-only editing, mpeg2 is the wrong format and will be difficult to impossible to work with.




However, there are trade offs for everything.
With my mini-DV camera I have to use the LP setting to get 90 minutes of play from it (reduced quality right there)

Also, transferring to my computer is in real time. It is easy, but a pain also. A hard drive camcorder would eliminate all of that.

So would connecting the 1394 output of a camcorder to a laptop. That's what I used to do when I didn't want to change tapes.

OK.. I can see that, I'm just a little fuzzy on exactly HOW to do it. I have a 1394 connection
on my present camera, and would then need a laptop with the same connection. I use a firewire
cable to transfer from camera to computer.

1394 is sometimes called "Firewire." If you computer doesn't have a connection (and most do), you can get an add-on card for around $15 (a little more for a laptop). You need one that is 1394 OHCI-compliant, but almost all of them are these days.

I use Adobe Premier 3.0 as my editing software.

I assume that's Premiere Elements. Premiere is at 2.0.

When I then turn on the camera... what? Do I have to set it up somehow?

Use a program like Scenealyzer Live. It will capture the video in realtime from the 1394 port and save it to a file (oir, if you want it to break it up by scenes, to multiple files) wherever you specify. Then it's just a question of telling Premiere to add the video to the project and editing as you normally do.

Go through some
software? Is this sort of a "real time" capture?
This looks like a good solution and perhaps I should be looking for a lap-top as
Richard suggested?

I used to produce a 5-camera real-time-switched show once a year. I ran the output of my board into a miniDV camcorder and then ran the output of the 1394 port to the 1394 input on my laptop. I used scenealyzer live to capture -- it worked great.


What camera do YOU use?

I use a Sony VX2000 for shooting video. I keep an old Sony TRV20 around for transferring video to my computer (less wear-and-tear on the good camera).

As I asked from Richard, what would YOU look for in a camcorder
used mostly for indoor videoing of speakers/teachers and music programs lasting from 1-2 hours
at a time??

It depends on how good you need your video to look. Particularly for indoor shooting, my minimum would be a VX2100, which has extraordinary low-light performance and puts out better-than-broadcast quality video. The BBC uses them for ENG (electronic news gathering). If quality doesn't have to be that high, I'd consider the high-end consumer Sonys or Canons -- sorry, I don't have a specific model in mind.



Sandra




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