[WEB4LIB] camcorder VHS-C: can I use it for web files?

[Richard Wiggins]

"Video" and "small in size" (as in on disk) are mutually exclusive.  You pretty much have to do streaming for broad Internet distribution of video.

There are three main contenders for video streaming: RealMedia, Windows Media, and Quicktime.  Personally I would only consider Real.  There are (fierce) advocates of the other contenders but I think Real still has the largest installed base of users with the required plugin.

You'll need to capture the content on a computer.  You'll need a video capture card.  VHS-C is just VHS which means pretty low quality but for streaming it may not matter much.  An ATI All-in-Wonder card would do fine.  With older ATI cards you plug the video into the ATI card and audio into a sound card (e.g. Soundblaster) and software brings it all together (hopefully in sync).  Newer ones come with a small breakout box for audio and video.  

You can't expect your raw footage to be usable without editing, unless you are going into C-Span mode. If you plan to do a lot of editing, you'll want an editing workstation.  You could buy an Imac (and use its built-in video and audio ports; ignore ATI discussion above) and use Imovie or Final Cut Pro software.  Or you could get Adobe Premiere for a PC.  You'll need RealEncoder to convert from a native AVI or Quicktime to Real.  You can also encode directly to RealMedia using RealEncoder.

If your editing needs are light, there are simple editing tools in the RealProducer bundle.

You'll need a streaming server.  You might consider outsourcing this if a cooperating ISP or library consortium already has one.  It can do real time or archived events equally easily.  Start with non-real-time.

The folks at Real have good doc online. For overview, see:

http://www.realnetworks.com/getstarted

Their online manuals in PDF are very good.  Very good explanations and diagrams and they're free.   I suggest printing them off and reading them.   See: 

http://www.realnetworks.com/devzone/howto/producingserving/smilproduction.html

Real.com will also try to sell you various bundles that offer a lot of power for content creation, distribution, and playback.  I'd stick with the free stuff until experienced or unless money is no object.  Like a casino hotel, their Web site takes you to the expensive stuff first.  There are free tools for content prep and for streaming (up to 25 streams). This chart helps:

http://www.realnetworks.com/products/servers/feature_comparison.html 

Of the software you mention, Photoshop can be useful for preparing titles and other graphics.  Look for educational/gummint pricing for Premiere or other tools.

When you shoot your video, pay attention to audio.  Get lav mikes and use them.  Your camcorder probably has automatic gain which means it'll adjust for peaks (and also pick up the air conditioning when folks aren't speaking).  Listen over headphones while videotaping, and/or sample the audio quality when you do a mike check.

Good luck...

/rich

[Hmmm -- are lots of libraries looking at streaming video?  Maybe this'd be a good article?]

------Original Message------
From: Joan Graham <grahamjo at oplin.lib.oh.us>
To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Sent: January 3, 2001 3:03:14 PM GMT
Subject: [WEB4LIB] camcorder VHS-C: can I use it for web files?


Dear group:

Spouse and I received an RCA camcorder VHS-C, model CC6363, for
Christmas.
I'd like to use it to make audio/video files for our library's web site,
but they must be either small in size, or streaming somehow.
Possible many of you are already doing this. Can you advise me:
what camera settings to use to record for this purpose?
what hardware and software should be on my computer (I have Photoshop 4
and Dreamweaver, also Flash 4)?
how do I keep the user's waiting time to a bare minimum?
what if I also decide to do a live web camera setup?
Thank you for any aid.
Joan Graham, Webmaster
Stark County District Library
Richard Wiggins
Consulting, Writing & Training on Internet Topics
www.netfact.com/rww         wiggins at mail.com
517-349-6919 (home office)  517-353-4955 (work)  
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