Hard Drive Video Cams

hybrid · 4 Jul 2006 at 11:02

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone could give me any advice when it comes to Hard Drive Cameras.

Basically I work in a school where we do a LOT of media and video editing.
Does anyone know if these cameras will auto bookmark the videos.

For example... a student uses the camera for about 12:30 mins, then gives the camera to another student who uses it for 3:30... would it split the video into sections/files so it can be easily downloaded?

Also, what file format do the videos get recorded in? Is it just a case of copying them from the camera to my HDD?

Cheers.

philio16 · 4 Jul 2006 at 15:01

I can't answer most of the questions but I would presume it breaks the files down into seperate recordings automatically...not doing would just be silly right?

alexakasloth · 4 Jul 2006 at 19:44

I would have thought that if the camera was stopped then that section would be one file, i.e

Camera is used for recording from let's 2:30 till 2:32 for a few takes of a shot, then it is used on a different shot from 2:35 till 2:38, both of these shots will be different files.

That how I imagine it will be, though I haven't used one.

Buttons · 4 Jul 2006 at 20:09

Keep in mind that mini-DV does the same and are cheaper with much better quality footage!

All shots with different times come across firewire as separate clips.

fanger · 5 Jul 2006 at 15:56

hybrid said:
Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone could give me any advice when it comes to Hard Drive Cameras.

Basically I work in a school where we do a LOT of media and video editing.
Does anyone know if these cameras will auto bookmark the videos.

For example... a student uses the camera for about 12:30 mins, then gives the camera to another student who uses it for 3:30... would it split the video into sections/files so it can be easily downloaded?

Also, what file format do the videos get recorded in? Is it just a case of copying them from the camera to my HDD?

Cheers.

If you're using the camera in a static position (studio space) you can do a lot worse than capturing direct to the HDD on your computer in situ. Long firewire cable required!
I do loads of talking heads in our studio and we capture direct to our vid editor PC. Obviously it captures as raw dv @ 4.3 megs/sec to svcd or svd codec depending on sony or another cam maker.

nomore · 5 Jul 2006 at 18:25

Keep in mind that the problem with HDD camcorders is that they record in MPEG2. This will really slow down the editing process due to the fact that there are only a few I frames amongst lots of P and B frames. The editor will have a hard time creating the frames between the I frames, thus bringing the computer to a crawl.

MiniDV is still the best option because each frame is recorded containing all the information for the picture.

fanger · 5 Jul 2006 at 18:33

nomore said:
Keep in mind that the problem with HDD camcorders is that they record in MPEG2. This will really slow down the editing process due to the fact that there are only a few I frames amongst lots of P and B frames. The editor will have a hard time creating the frames between the I frames, thus bringing the computer to a crawl.

MiniDV is still the best option because each frame is recorded containing all the information for the picture.

Absolutely correctmundo nomore.

Forgot to mention this as being reason to capture direct to edit PC - if space/ practicalaties allow - or laptop for that matter (the process ain't cpu heavy as it's streaming it direct to disk without encoding on the fly)