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Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

Last post 08-23-2008, 10:06 PM by Roy Dietsch. 85 replies.
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  •  12-03-2007, 10:10 PM 275881 in reply to 275665

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    Fastmike:

    Wow! I really like that brightcovetv.com website. Quality looks pretty good. Much better than Google or Utube stuff.

    Thanks!
    FM



    Another good site to post vids is putfile.com.  If you use the link to the player on their site (w/ads and other spam), your vid plays at ~ 640X480 (or 640X??? in HD format).  If you use the code to put the embedded player on your site, the window is smaller, but you can resize it in the code, the quality is less, but still OK.  Putfile also supports HD stuff, a lot of the professional stuff they host is very, very good quality.  The vid is converted to rm format, but its the best I've found so far (for free) and I've looked into 20+ different sites.  
    Here is a video I took of a friend driving his roadster a few weeks ago Andy-68-Datsun-2000
    I co-drive the car, quite a bit of fun.  I took the vid with my Sony DSC-H1 still camera, it records in 640X480 native for video.  I use it and also a mini dv cam to do incar vids when I am autox'ing my 'Stang.   Putfile has large file size limit (200MB) and another cool thing is the url for the video is straight forward, i.e. the link for the previous mentioned video is http://media.putfile.com/Andy-68-Datsun-2000-SCCA-Solo-Autocross-111807

    Dennis

    '91 LX 5.0 - '88 Coupe 5.0 - '88 Coupe 5.0
    AutocrossPictures.net
    SCCA TX / ERSCC
  •  12-10-2007, 2:51 AM 276487 in reply to 275012

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    broadcast video has 2 fields for every frame (interlaced) to get above the roughly 45Hz human "flicker fusion frequency".  Film projectors have a way of interrupting the light in the middle of each frame at 24fps, so it appears to us as 48fps.
     

    cheers,

    bruce

     

    mattm:

    Fastmike:
    This cheapo one is still a little bit "choppy" at 30 frames per second. FM 

    Broadcast video (actually consumer, too) is 30 fps. I wonder if the camera is halving the number to 15 fps. Even 35 mm film is 24 fps.

  •  12-10-2007, 4:44 AM 276489 in reply to 276487

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    Thanks Bruce. You learn something new everyday!
    FM
  •  12-10-2007, 10:26 AM 276504 in reply to 276487

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    leggwork:

    broadcast video has 2 fields for every frame (interlaced) to get above the roughly 45Hz human "flicker fusion frequency".  Film projectors have a way of interrupting the light in the middle of each frame at 24fps, so it appears to us as 48fps.
     

    cheers,

    bruce

    You might want to check your sources.

    NTSC video is 59.94 fields (1/2 the scan lines in a field, by every other scan line) at a time, refreshing the entire frame 29.97 times every second.

    Movie projectors display 35mm film at 24 full frames per second, and they don't "interrupt the light in the middle of each frame."

    IMAX movie projectors display 70mm film (twice as wide, twice as high, 4 times the visual information) at 24 full frames per second, and keep the shutter open 20% longer, so more light is projected through the film.

    Personal (as opposed to professional) video cameras and recorders generally record only 30 fields per second, which is one reason why home video tape recordings look so bad.

    The human eye starts to perceive individual frames at between 12 and 15 frames per second. 


    Glenn L. Austin, Computer Wizard and Race Car Driver
    2005 Ultra Yellow Nissan 350Z Track Model
    2007 Packwood ProSolo "first loser" (0.081)
    2007 SCCA Solo National Championships - 10th place
  •  12-10-2007, 11:53 AM 276515 in reply to 276504

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    Glenn L. Austin:

    NTSC video is 59.94 fields (1/2 the scan lines in a field, by every other scan line) at a time, refreshing the entire frame 29.97 times every second.

    Beat me to the punch Glenn (and with a much better answer).

    NTSC = Never The Same Color

    PAL = Pulsing, Annoying, Lousy

    SECAM = System Essentially Contrary to American Method (French TV standard)


    Matt Murray

    I am perfectly capable of learning from my mistakes. I will surely learn a great deal today.
  •  12-10-2007, 11:56 AM 276516 in reply to 276515

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    And lifted from a TV forum:

    Colin Barrett
    July 22nd, 2004, 01:31 PM
    The "Never Twice the Same Colour" was an expression that emanated from BBC Television vision engineers in London who were dismayed at the quality of VT recordings coming over to Europe from the US in the 60s (before the UK and other European countries like Germany had yet agreed and implemented a common standard that was to be PAL 625).

    Originally, transmission masters came as 2" Quad or 2" Helical reels in NTSC, and BBC Engineering in Wood Norton developed a "black box" that enabled a signal of one standard to be fed in one end and a converted signal of another standard to come out of the other. This was the first Standards Converter. Trouble is, shows like Dallas started to come over having been converted from NTSC to PAL and the quality was abysmal. Much argument and negotiation ensued.

    At its root, the problem stemmed from the fact that NTSC TV sets had (still have??) a "Hue" control which if used casually can wreak havoc on pictures. PAL receivers have never had this, hence the relative stability and consistency of the pictures by comparison.

    Colin
    http://dvinfo.net/conf/archive/index.php/t-29324.html
     
    Was that a thread hijack? Smile

    Matt Murray

    I am perfectly capable of learning from my mistakes. I will surely learn a great deal today.
  •  12-16-2007, 1:42 PM 277244 in reply to 276516

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    Have you guys seen the new 300 fps camera Casio is coming out with?

    http://world.casio.com/ngdc/en/features3.html



    Personally,  I can't wait for this thing to come out.  Hopefully it's not too expensive. 


    2007 Mazda MX-5 MRS (C-stock)
  •  01-13-2008, 5:22 PM 280184 in reply to 275591

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    Got to do a little more with the Aiptek A-HD this past weekend at a Las Vegas Region event. 

     

     Outside car, pointed at tires -- http://blip.tv/file/596663

     Inside windshield, aimed at driver -- http://blip.tv/file/596708

    Inside windshield, looking out -- http://blip.tv/file/596754


    *Banned Again* Permanently
  •  01-13-2008, 7:40 PM 280198 in reply to 280184

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    For whatever reason, it looks like 3 fps on my computer rather then 30 fps.  I tried both flv and mov formats.  I really like to clarity of the shots, it just needs better fps but it just may be the host service.
  •  01-13-2008, 8:27 PM 280204 in reply to 280198

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    Peppler33CS:
    For whatever reason, it looks like 3 fps on my computer rather then 30 fps.  I tried both flv and mov formats.  I really like to clarity of the shots, it just needs better fps but it just may be the host service.

     It's not the host service or the camcorder, it's your computer.  My laptop does the same, it is a memory hog to run these HD files in Quicktime, so it appears choppy or slowed-down.  You need a really fast processor and 2GB of RAM to view them properly Sad.  On a "real" computer they look fine, as do they do when burned onto a DVD (downconverted).

    YouTube craps it all up, but it "looks" smoother because of the smaller file, even in FLV format.....at least Blip.tv and Brightcove.tv gives you nearly full clarity.
     


    *Banned Again* Permanently
  •  01-13-2008, 8:39 PM 280205 in reply to 280204

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    Thats good to hear, I have 1/2 gig memory running on Athalon 2200 (Computer=Snail).  I've been meaning to buy new parts, but I always wind up spending it on car parts.

    I'm way interested in this camera then, just gotta figure out how to mount it in a non-roll-bar miata.

  •  01-13-2008, 8:43 PM 280206 in reply to 280205

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    I am using a version of this-- , works great with this lightweight camcorder, only a tiny amount of shake.  You can mount it to the rear decklid and get the driver and outside shots as well without getting in your way.

     

    Note to Moderators-- I do not sell, promote, endorse, or otherwise engage in any business with the above photo/contents/supplier and only use it as an example to answer a poster's question. 


    *Banned Again* Permanently
  •  01-13-2008, 10:53 PM 280219 in reply to 280206

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    That looks great.

    What resolution is blip TV?

    Is it 1280x720 or is it chopping it?

    FM

  •  01-13-2008, 11:15 PM 280223 in reply to 280219

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    Sorry, but it looks like wide-screen YouTube to me.   I think you should try converting the file to something like WMV and posting it somewhere that doesn't reformat into Flash like BlipTV and YouTube does.


    I bet the original files look great!  :) 


    2007 Mazda MX-5 MRS (C-stock)
  •  01-13-2008, 11:21 PM 280224 in reply to 280219

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    Fastmike:

    That looks great.

    What resolution is blip TV?

    Is it 1280x720 or is it chopping it?

    FM

     Screensize is reduced, but it's still 16:9 per the original video (widescreen/typical flat panel-HDtv).  Not sure on their resolution, but it looks very clear.  If YouTube is showing 30% of apparent original quality, then Blip.tv is probably 80%, but some of that is probably lost in sizing and viewing on an LCD monitor....YMMV.

    The A-HD shoots 1280x720, 30fps, H.264 MPEG4 compression in 16:9 format.

     
    EDIT-- now that I watch the Blip.tv file, it appears to be getting worse!  I don't know if this is an effect of their hosting, but when I uploaded it this afternoon it looked very clear, much like the original.  An hour later I showed it to a buddy on my laptop, and it still looked good.  Now that I watch it again, it looks grainy and pixellated.  Could it be because of the number of views/downloads?  Can someone download a copy of the original (just off the lower RH corner of the video) and see if there is a difference?  Thanks!
     


    *Banned Again* Permanently
  •  01-14-2008, 12:29 AM 280233 in reply to 280224

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    Watch the YouTube version here for comparison -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGe5Tu6h6tA

    *Banned Again* Permanently
  •  01-14-2008, 12:35 AM 280234 in reply to 280233

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    I started to download and play the original Quicktime file but Firefox would freak out and shut down.

    I might be able to do a "save as" and open in Quicktime?

    Quality was very good and it was full screen until shutdown...

    FM 

  •  01-14-2008, 9:53 AM 280259 in reply to 280234

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    I downloaded the QucikTime version of the in-car out the front window version. (you have some crap on the bottom center of your lens).   The resolution looks great!  If you open the info panel in QuickTime (Control + I)  you'll see all the details.  

    This file was encoded at H.264 which is a great codec, but unfortunately it's very processor intensive.  In the information window you can view the frame rate.  The best I could get on my laptop is 10 fps.   I don't know what the original file format was.  Did BlipTV convert it to H.264 or is that the file format the camera records in? (that would be cool!)

    I did notice that Hitachi has a new consumer camera out that records directly to mini-Blu-Ray discs that you can drop directly into your Blu-Ray player.  Unfortunatly the reviews say the quality of the picture isn't very good.  But once the manufactures get that figured out it might be a good way to go.

     http://www.hitachi.us/Apps/hitachicom/content.jsp?page=products/camcorders/blu-ray/details/DZBD70A.html&level=4&section=products&parent=details&nav=left&path=jsp/hitachi/forhome/ubcg/


    2007 Mazda MX-5 MRS (C-stock)
  •  01-14-2008, 10:42 AM 280271 in reply to 280259

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    I must admit that the first clip that someone posted looked good.  The angle didn't seem to be very wide but that may just be dependent on where it was mounted.  I bought an Aiptek SD camcorder/DVR very similar to the new HD model. 

    It worked for a little while and then crapped out.  The screen turned all white and none of the function buttons would work.  The manufacturer does not respond to RMA requests and their automated phone system puts you on hold for 30+ mins then hangs up.  I think I'd rather spring for something that has good support for $300+ next time as my current Aiptek is now a $100 paperweight.


    -2006 Lotus Elise- SS
    -2000 Honda S2000- AS
    -2009 Mini Cooper S- GS
  •  01-14-2008, 11:15 AM 280275 in reply to 280259

    Re: Bought an HD camcorder for $119+$30 for SD card for autox clips.

    mitchman:

    I downloaded the QucikTime version of the in-car out the front window version. (you have some crap on the bottom center of your lens).   The resolution looks great!  If you open the info panel in QuickTime (Control + I)  you'll see all the details.  

    This file was encoded at H.264 which is a great codec, but unfortunately it's very processor intensive.  In the information window you can view the frame rate.  The best I could get on my laptop is 10 fps.   I don't know what the original file format was.  Did BlipTV convert it to H.264 or is that the file format the camera records in? (that would be cool!)

    I did notice that Hitachi has a new consumer camera out that records directly to mini-Blu-Ray discs that you can drop directly into your Blu-Ray player.  Unfortunatly the reviews say the quality of the picture isn't very good.  But once the manufactures get that figured out it might be a good way to go.

     http://www.hitachi.us/Apps/hitachicom/content.jsp?page=products/camcorders/blu-ray/details/DZBD70A.html&level=4&section=products&parent=details&nav=left&path=jsp/hitachi/forhome/ubcg/

     

    Crap was on the windshield, it was only mounted <1" from the inside of the window.  Originally shot at 30fps and in H.264 , so looks like some of that was retained, but not frame rate...something's got to give, I guess. 


    *Banned Again* Permanently