Re: HD movies and recorders
Hi all WA Muggers I would like to thankyou all for some great feedback and advice on the various video cameras and software available now. I will digest it all over the coming weeks when I get some time. Hope your Easter was a good one with the great weather. I was certainly packed down here and I wondered who was left up in Perth! Kindest regards and thanks so much. chris On 10/04/2009, at 11:38 AM, Peter Fowler wrote: On 08/04/2009, at 7:53 AM, Chris Burton wrote: Hi Mugs I have just received an email from Elgato advertising their 'Turbo . 264 HD' device that will do ' high quality conversion from HD video files and AVCHD cam corders that can be played on the mac, iphone etc' which does sound really interesting. However, being a complete novice in this field I wouldnt have a clue what a AVCHD cam corder is and I have been contemplating going into HD recording for my whale work. I want to use it for whale identification and behavioural purposes. I have used an early version of iMovie, some years ago, with digitised footage from a small format movie camera and imagine that imovie will be the way to go? Have any of you guys experience with this part of our great Mac experience and can point me in the right direction? Im keen on a HD good quality recorder (that may even have underwater housing capability) with the view to getting footage that I can use on my mac as well as my HD tele? From some of the advertising down here in Busso I have noticed Sony, Canon and JVC etc have some HD recorders.but which one!!? Kindest regards and best wishes for a safe and relaxing Easter. chris . -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au Hi Chris If you don't have any of the Elgato products they are worth it just for the great features they have with digital TV and what you can do with it. As for being able to convert AVCHD from a camcorder to the mac sounds even better. Just remember the higher the quality, the larger the file size and the longer it will take to convert/edit. Which camera, from personnel experience don't get JVC. I bought a GZ-HD7 a little over a year ago and they are not compatible with Mac. You mentioned whale work so I am guessing you may get a little wet at times. The Sanyo that Martin has suggested would great for working on the surface but if going a little deeper than that you will need a proper underwater housing and for that I would recommend Sony. If you drop in to the local dive shop in Busso and pick up a free copy of the Dive Log magazine you will find lots of ads for camera equipment. Be prepared though the cost of the housing will be 2 or 3 times more than the cost of the camera good luck and I hope we get to see some great whale shots regards Peter F -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au
Re: HD movies and recorders
On 08/04/2009, at 7:53 AM, Chris Burton wrote: Hi Mugs I have just received an email from Elgato advertising their 'Turbo . 264 HD' device that will do ' high quality conversion from HD video files and AVCHD cam corders that can be played on the mac, iphone etc' which does sound really interesting. However, being a complete novice in this field I wouldnt have a clue what a AVCHD cam corder is and I have been contemplating going into HD recording for my whale work. I want to use it for whale identification and behavioural purposes. I have used an early version of iMovie, some years ago, with digitised footage from a small format movie camera and imagine that imovie will be the way to go? Have any of you guys experience with this part of our great Mac experience and can point me in the right direction? Im keen on a HD good quality recorder (that may even have underwater housing capability) with the view to getting footage that I can use on my mac as well as my HD tele? From some of the advertising down here in Busso I have noticed Sony, Canon and JVC etc have some HD recorders.but which one!!? Kindest regards and best wishes for a safe and relaxing Easter. chris . -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au Hi Chris If you don't have any of the Elgato products they are worth it just for the great features they have with digital TV and what you can do with it. As for being able to convert AVCHD from a camcorder to the mac sounds even better. Just remember the higher the quality, the larger the file size and the longer it will take to convert/edit. Which camera, from personnel experience don't get JVC. I bought a GZ- HD7 a little over a year ago and they are not compatible with Mac. You mentioned whale work so I am guessing you may get a little wet at times. The Sanyo that Martin has suggested would great for working on the surface but if going a little deeper than that you will need a proper underwater housing and for that I would recommend Sony. If you drop in to the local dive shop in Busso and pick up a free copy of the Dive Log magazine you will find lots of ads for camera equipment. Be prepared though the cost of the housing will be 2 or 3 times more than the cost of the camera good luck and I hope we get to see some great whale shots regards Peter F -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au
Re: HD movies and recorders
Chris, you may want to check out the software available from Shedworx: http://www.shedworx.com/ VoltaicHD lets you convert your AVCHD footage into a format that you can edit in on a PC or Mac, using your movie editing software. Voltaic comes in both a PC and Mac version. RevolverHD lets you convert, burn and then display your own edited HD movies, on a HD TV, using a compatible Blu-ray device. This is very popular software worldwide, the team that wrote it are based in Nedlands. Glenn. 2009/4/8 Chris Burton c...@it.net.au: Hi Mugs I have just received an email from Elgato advertising their 'Turbo .264 HD' device that will do ' high quality conversion from HD video files and AVCHD cam corders that can be played on the mac, iphone etc' which does sound really interesting. However, being a complete novice in this field I wouldnt have a clue what a AVCHD cam corder is and I have been contemplating going into HD recording for my whale work. I want to use it for whale identification and behavioural purposes. I have used an early version of iMovie, some years ago, with digitised footage from a small format movie camera and imagine that imovie will be the way to go? Have any of you guys experience with this part of our great Mac experience and can point me in the right direction? Im keen on a HD good quality recorder (that may even have underwater housing capability) with the view to getting footage that I can use on my mac as well as my HD tele? From some of the advertising down here in Busso I have noticed Sony, Canon and JVC etc have some HD recorders.but which one!!? Kindest regards and best wishes for a safe and relaxing Easter. chris -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au
Re: HD movies and recorders
Hi Chris In terms of software use it will really depend on what you want to do with your video. If you simply want to convert your video into a different format to save HD space then the program Handbrake would probably be very useful. If you want to edit your video recordings then iMovie might be a good choice. iMovie might be a bit easier to use in comparison to other editing programs but I'm not really familiar with the market. If you do plan on using iMovie I'd recommend getting the latest version from iLife 09. When it comes to video editing and encoding your processor power is very important (unless you don't mind waiting for very long periods of time). I use a single processor 1.8GHz G5 tower to convert recorded EyeTV movies into x264 format with handbrake. For most movies it takes around 20 hours of CPU time to complete the encode. x264 is very processor intensive but is also considered to be the best for good video quality file compression. The Turbo .264 HD device can help with encoding if your computer is old like mine but some people have reported slower encode times when using it with newer computers. It's restrictive in the output formats it allows but that tends to be more of a problem for people that want something very specific. Regards Ruben Hi Mugs I have just received an email from Elgato advertising their 'Turbo . 264 HD' device that will do ' high quality conversion from HD video files and AVCHD cam corders that can be played on the mac, iphone etc' which does sound really interesting. However, being a complete novice in this field I wouldnt have a clue what a AVCHD cam corder is and I have been contemplating going into HD recording for my whale work. I want to use it for whale identification and behavioural purposes. I have used an early version of iMovie, some years ago, with digitised footage from a small format movie camera and imagine that imovie will be the way to go? Have any of you guys experience with this part of our great Mac experience and can point me in the right direction? Im keen on a HD good quality recorder (that may even have underwater housing capability) with the view to getting footage that I can use on my mac as well as my HD tele? From some of the advertising down here in Busso I have noticed Sony, Canon and JVC etc have some HD recorders.but which one!!? Kindest regards and best wishes for a safe and relaxing Easter. chris -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au
Re: HD movies and recorders
If you're looking at the cheaper end of the scale, I'd recommend going for one of the Sanyo Xacti HD cameras which are available in waterproof versions (up to 720P resolution) which might be useful for your Whale work: http://sanyo.com/xacti/english/products/vpc_wh1/index.html or http://sanyo.com/xacti/english/products/vpc_ca9/index.html Or you could go for one of the Full HD 1080P resolution versions: http://sanyo.com/xacti/english/products/vpc_hd2000/index.html As I have posted in the past, we've been very happy with the dozens of Sanyo Xacti HD1010 video cameras that we've purchased over the last year or so. These record onto 16 or 32GB SD cards in Quicktime H.264 formats which can play directly in Quicktime Player and import fairly quickly into iMovie. In contrast, AVCHD cameras record in a less compatible format (AVCHD) which will not play in QT Player but which can be imported into iMovie 08 or later for editing. (you do not require 3rd party software for this. -Mart On 08/04/2009, at 7:53 AM, Chris Burton wrote: Hi Mugs I have just received an email from Elgato advertising their 'Turbo . 264 HD' device that will do ' high quality conversion from HD video files and AVCHD cam corders that can be played on the mac, iphone etc' which does sound really interesting. However, being a complete novice in this field I wouldnt have a clue what a AVCHD cam corder is and I have been contemplating going into HD recording for my whale work. I want to use it for whale identification and behavioural purposes. I have used an early version of iMovie, some years ago, with digitised footage from a small format movie camera and imagine that imovie will be the way to go? Have any of you guys experience with this part of our great Mac experience and can point me in the right direction? Im keen on a HD good quality recorder (that may even have underwater housing capability) with the view to getting footage that I can use on my mac as well as my HD tele? From some of the advertising down here in Busso I have noticed Sony, Canon and JVC etc have some HD recorders.but which one!!? Kindest regards and best wishes for a safe and relaxing Easter. chris -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au
Re: HD movies and recorders
Hi Chris, AVCHD is a standard for high definition that seems to be used by most high definition camcorders now. Its compatible with iMovie now, but can take some time to process. The little Sanyo high definition camcorder that Martin Hill recommends is very Mac friendly, if you do a search of the WAMUG archives you will find information on it. iMovie imports over USB, so you no longer need a firewire video camera. JVC has traditionally had their own version of high definition, and they only provided software for Windows. I don't know if it is still the case, but that is the only brand I would not recommend. With Canon, Sony and Panasonic it really just depends on what you want to do with it. I think the recommendation to go to a camera shop (such as Digilife or Camerahouse), rather than a department store, is good advice as you need to talk with someone who knows about cameras and can help you to choose a camera that is suited to your needs and budget. cheers, Susan. On 08/04/2009, at 3:26 PM, Dark1 wrote: Hi Chris In terms of software use it will really depend on what you want to do with your video. If you simply want to convert your video into a different format to save HD space then the program Handbrake would probably be very useful. If you want to edit your video recordings then iMovie might be a good choice. iMovie might be a bit easier to use in comparison to other editing programs but I'm not really familiar with the market. If you do plan on using iMovie I'd recommend getting the latest version from iLife 09. When it comes to video editing and encoding your processor power is very important (unless you don't mind waiting for very long periods of time). I use a single processor 1.8GHz G5 tower to convert recorded EyeTV movies into x264 format with handbrake. For most movies it takes around 20 hours of CPU time to complete the encode. x264 is very processor intensive but is also considered to be the best for good video quality file compression. The Turbo .264 HD device can help with encoding if your computer is old like mine but some people have reported slower encode times when using it with newer computers. It's restrictive in the output formats it allows but that tends to be more of a problem for people that want something very specific. Regards Ruben Hi Mugs I have just received an email from Elgato advertising their 'Turbo . 264 HD' device that will do ' high quality conversion from HD video files and AVCHD cam corders that can be played on the mac, iphone etc' which does sound really interesting. However, being a complete novice in this field I wouldnt have a clue what a AVCHD cam corder is and I have been contemplating going into HD recording for my whale work. I want to use it for whale identification and behavioural purposes. I have used an early version of iMovie, some years ago, with digitised footage from a small format movie camera and imagine that imovie will be the way to go? Have any of you guys experience with this part of our great Mac experience and can point me in the right direction? Im keen on a HD good quality recorder (that may even have underwater housing capability) with the view to getting footage that I can use on my mac as well as my HD tele? From some of the advertising down here in Busso I have noticed Sony, Canon and JVC etc have some HD recorders.but which one!!? Kindest regards and best wishes for a safe and relaxing Easter. chris -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au
Re: HD movies and recorders
there we are, I hadn't read my emails as far as Martin's email. On 08/04/2009, at 3:49 PM, Martin Hill wrote: If you're looking at the cheaper end of the scale, I'd recommend going for one of the Sanyo Xacti HD cameras which are available in waterproof versions (up to 720P resolution) which might be useful for your Whale work: http://sanyo.com/xacti/english/products/vpc_wh1/index.html or http://sanyo.com/xacti/english/products/vpc_ca9/index.html Or you could go for one of the Full HD 1080P resolution versions: http://sanyo.com/xacti/english/products/vpc_hd2000/index.html As I have posted in the past, we've been very happy with the dozens of Sanyo Xacti HD1010 video cameras that we've purchased over the last year or so. These record onto 16 or 32GB SD cards in Quicktime H.264 formats which can play directly in Quicktime Player and import fairly quickly into iMovie. In contrast, AVCHD cameras record in a less compatible format (AVCHD) which will not play in QT Player but which can be imported into iMovie 08 or later for editing. (you do not require 3rd party software for this. -Mart On 08/04/2009, at 7:53 AM, Chris Burton wrote: Hi Mugs I have just received an email from Elgato advertising their 'Turbo . 264 HD' device that will do ' high quality conversion from HD video files and AVCHD cam corders that can be played on the mac, iphone etc' which does sound really interesting. However, being a complete novice in this field I wouldnt have a clue what a AVCHD cam corder is and I have been contemplating going into HD recording for my whale work. I want to use it for whale identification and behavioural purposes. I have used an early version of iMovie, some years ago, with digitised footage from a small format movie camera and imagine that imovie will be the way to go? Have any of you guys experience with this part of our great Mac experience and can point me in the right direction? Im keen on a HD good quality recorder (that may even have underwater housing capability) with the view to getting footage that I can use on my mac as well as my HD tele? From some of the advertising down here in Busso I have noticed Sony, Canon and JVC etc have some HD recorders.but which one!!? Kindest regards and best wishes for a safe and relaxing Easter. chris -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au
HD movies and recorders
Hi Mugs I have just received an email from Elgato advertising their 'Turbo . 264 HD' device that will do ' high quality conversion from HD video files and AVCHD cam corders that can be played on the mac, iphone etc' which does sound really interesting. However, being a complete novice in this field I wouldnt have a clue what a AVCHD cam corder is and I have been contemplating going into HD recording for my whale work. I want to use it for whale identification and behavioural purposes. I have used an early version of iMovie, some years ago, with digitised footage from a small format movie camera and imagine that imovie will be the way to go? Have any of you guys experience with this part of our great Mac experience and can point me in the right direction? Im keen on a HD good quality recorder (that may even have underwater housing capability) with the view to getting footage that I can use on my mac as well as my HD tele? From some of the advertising down here in Busso I have noticed Sony, Canon and JVC etc have some HD recorders.but which one!!? Kindest regards and best wishes for a safe and relaxing Easter. chris -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au
Re: HD movies and recorders
You can have a chat to Peter the our resident filmaker who subsidises his addiction to filmaking by working at Team Dig. We are building up a range of Cameras other film gear. 9328 3377. On 08/04/2009, at 7:53 AM, Chris Burton wrote: Hi Mugs I have just received an email from Elgato advertising their 'Turbo . 264 HD' device that will do ' high quality conversion from HD video files and AVCHD cam corders that can be played on the mac, iphone etc' which does sound really interesting. However, being a complete novice in this field I wouldnt have a clue what a AVCHD cam corder is and I have been contemplating going into HD recording for my whale work. I want to use it for whale identification and behavioural purposes. I have used an early version of iMovie, some years ago, with digitised footage from a small format movie camera and imagine that imovie will be the way to go? Have any of you guys experience with this part of our great Mac experience and can point me in the right direction? Im keen on a HD good quality recorder (that may even have underwater housing capability) with the view to getting footage that I can use on my mac as well as my HD tele? From some of the advertising down here in Busso I have noticed Sony, Canon and JVC etc have some HD recorders.but which one!!? Kindest regards and best wishes for a safe and relaxing Easter. chris -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au
