I'm looking at upgrading my camcorder. I want to record my grandpa and some of his hot rodding stories to share here. There are also a couple of hot rodders that I want to interview and share with you guys.......and when I go dumpster and barn diving I can share here... Anyway, say I want to record my grandpa telling tales and share them here. Do I copy them to my HD, reduce the quality and then upload them to a video sharing site like others have done? Is there something specific I should be looking for? Are the new Hard Drive camcorders REALLY worth the extra price?
I got a little Sony camcorder earlier this year. it uses miniDV tape. Seems to work...comes with Nero which is a pretty good program, but I also have TMPGE which is a freeware program that converts video files from one format to another, so I can turn the AVI into a smaller MPEG file. I have trouble paying more than a hunnerd bucks for anything electronic...so this one's gonna have to last me a while. I don't know about the hard drive camcorders, sounds like they could have some advantages? tapes are a pain to deal with, since you have to have them in the camcorder to play them back anyways.
After having three talented kids go through school involved in band, vocal music and theater, I finished many upgrades with a Canon GL-1 that uses mini-DV tapes. I use the Studio 9 AV/DV setup with Firewire card and included software to make dvds or mpegs or avis or whatever. It allows me to edit and add transitions and pretty much get studio level results. Camera was $3000, though. Just the Bogen/Manfrotto tripod with fluid head was $450. The dual shotgun mikes were another $350. (This kind of purchasing extends to my hot rod and my guns. I tend to stay broke.)
I have had my digital camcorder for a few years now, It's a Sony TRV-340. It's a great camcorder and digital camera. I paid about 350 or so. I've yet to find dvd buring software that I like. I must have 6 on my computer right now and the last dvd I burn was with Windows Movie maker.
I recommend buying a camera that has the little DVD in it. That way if you want to just make copies without editing the video you just burn it. Otherwise you have to put in on your computer and then burn it. Also (and this is important) make sure that it has a seperate memory chip for taking pics. The ones that store the pic on 5 seconds of the video are annoying. Just my 2 cents....
Thanks for the info..... Regarding the miniDVD's do they skip easily? I know they have a delaty or cache but still.........
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