Mods, I know this may be a bit off topic, but it's the guys here that will be able to answer my questions!

I've enjoyed watching the in car vids that many of you have posted resently from VIR, etc. I've just begun to upload some in car video onto a harddrive and edit it using Pinnacle software and have some questions about the best way to view it online. I'll probably just upload it to Google Video and link to a simple web page. What is the best format to save it in as far as quality vs. size? I'm having alot of trouble keeping the quality of the video intact when I try and convert it to other formats other than DVD quality.

How are you guys doing it? Any tips for a beginner?

Any advice would be appreciated, including any special setting you use for the camera while shooting in car video. I have a newer Sony DV camcorder.

Thanks!

Craig

Google video sucks. Actually, it would have to improve to suck.

I'm still learning how to edit for size. It seems that QuickTime (.mov) files tend to be smaller, but I hate the idea of proprietary formats.

Use the "Sport" setting for your camera, which will help smooth out the bumpiness. A piece of electrical tape over the mic cuts down on wind noise. Use FireWire to dump the camera, not USB, and shut everything down that you can. I even disconnect from the net and turn off my f/w and a/v s/w. The faster your PC, and the more RAM, the better the capture.

My $.02:

FWIW, I've been using the 'stock' Windows program MovieMaker to do my video downloading, editing, etc... Pretty easy:

1. 'Import' video from camera to MovieMaker using USB connection...
2. MovieMaker allows basic editing features -- I just cut the video up, add my little text comments (configured as 'Sub-titles' so they're on the bottom of the screen) and use the 'fade-in' and 'fade-out' features where I've interrupted the action...
3. Save the 'final' cut with the following settings: File type: .wmv; Bit Rate: 512 Kbps; Display Size: 320x240; Aspect Ratio: 4:3; Frames per Second: 30 (MovieMaker doesn't really allow you to customize this stuff, not that I'd know what to do with it anyways...)
4. FTP the 'final' cut to web and share w/ friends, students, etc.

Cheers all,

Mike

Google video sucks. Actually, it would have to improve to suck.

I'm still learning how to edit for size. It seems that QuickTime (.mov) files tend to be smaller, but I hate the idea of proprietary formats.

Use the "Sport" setting for your camera, which will help smooth out the bumpiness. A piece of electrical tape over the mic cuts down on wind noise. Use FireWire to dump the camera, not USB, and shut everything down that you can. I even disconnect from the net and turn off my f/w and a/v s/w. The faster your PC, and the more RAM, the better the capture.

Any other cheap sites to host files that you would recommend? Google is a PITA, but at least it's free and unlimited. Guess I get what I pay for!

I'll have to try the electric tape over the mic. The wind noise doesn't bother me, but my car sounds like a bucket of bolts.

Craig,

I use a big chunk of foam over my camera mic to cut out the wind noise. Think back to the music mics of the '70s and 80's . . . .

I have had good success using the DiVx codec to save my videos. Good speed for my machine (laptop) and size is quite reasonable for the excellent quality that you get out of DiVx. If you are having problems with capture quality, I second the suggestion of shutting everything you can to divert CPU power to the capturing process from camera to HD.

BTW, I met a buddy of yours from Pittsburgh on Friday at NORPCA's MidO friday lapping day. White '95 M3, was it Kevin? (can't recall his name now). He had a bit of bad luck, loosing his stock radiator cap neck by mid morning, ending his day. We scrambled to find him a replacement, but in the end he decided just to limp home. Hopefully he got home ok. We had a blast for the three days. It was a very experienced group at the school and the A group played very well together, everyone was very fast and folks actually watched their mirrors. I wished I could put down the power of some of those modded 944's. It sucks to work so hard to catch up only to get burned down the straights. If only I had cams . . . . and maybe not the full tread toyos that I was fighting with this weekend. I forgot how much they sucked! I am contemplating running them on my street car just to get some more rubber off them before the end of the month when we head back down to Mid OHio for the 3 day Buckeye school.

ben

So far I have seen there's a panasonic codec that has amazing quality and great compressin (i.e. smaller file size).

Probably the best web site for info on video stuff is:
http://www.videohelp.com/
They have a very comprehensive Tools area, How-To Guides, and Forums. Pretty much anything I know about video stuff (and the tools I use) was from that site.

Probably the best size vs. quality trade-off will be some kind of MPG encoding. This is what I do. There are 2 versions of MPG that are generally used MPEG-1 which is used for VCD applications (a CD that plays in a DVD player, for example). There are several free encoders that will do MPEG-1 (I used TMPGEnc). Here's an MPEG-1 video clip:
http://www.jimbassett.com/videos/Turn10-miss-short2.mpg

The other is MPEG-2, aka DVD-quality. In general, this will be better than MPEG-1, but the good encoders are NOT free (I bought TMPGEnc Plus 2.5). I don't at the moment have an MPEG-2 clip at the moment to compare.

Feel free to email me or PM if you have any specific questions. I've been fiddling with this video stuff for a couple of years now, so maybe I can keep you from banging your head against a wall :)

Cheers,
Jim

Craig,


BTW, I met a buddy of yours from Pittsburgh on Friday at NORPCA's MidO friday lapping day. White '95 M3, was it Kevin? (can't recall his name now). He had a bit of bad luck, loosing his stock radiator cap neck by mid morning, ending his day. We scrambled to find him a replacement, but in the end he decided just to limp home. Hopefully he got home ok. We had a blast for the three days. It was a very experienced group at the school and the A group played very well together, everyone was very fast and folks actually watched their mirrors. I wished I could put down the power of some of those modded 944's. It sucks to work so hard to catch up only to get burned down the straights. If only I had cams . . . . and maybe not the full tread toyos that I was fighting with this weekend. I forgot how much they sucked! I am contemplating running them on my street car just to get some more rubber off them before the end of the month when we head back down to Mid OHio for the 3 day Buckeye school.

ben

Yep, that was Kevin. He got home alright. He really appreciated you & Nora helping him out up there. I was going to go to the BMW event at the end of the month, but I have to be at a conference in Pittburgh that weekend:( . Looks like I won't be getting back to Mid Ohio this year. I'll be at Nelson's the weekend before though.

Probably the best web site for info on video stuff is:
http://www.videohelp.com/
They have a very comprehensive Tools area, How-To Guides, and Forums. Pretty much anything I know about video stuff (and the tools I use) was from that site.

Probably the best size vs. quality trade-off will be some kind of MPG encoding. This is what I do. There are 2 versions of MPG that are generally used MPEG-1 which is used for VCD applications (a CD that plays in a DVD player, for example). There are several free encoders that will do MPEG-1 (I used TMPGEnc). Here's an MPEG-1 video clip:
http://www.jimbassett.com/videos/Turn10-miss-short2.mpg

The other is MPEG-2, aka DVD-quality. In general, this will be better than MPEG-1, but the good encoders are NOT free (I bought TMPGEnc Plus 2.5). I don't at the moment have an MPEG-2 clip at the moment to compare.

Feel free to email me or PM if you have any specific questions. I've been fiddling with this video stuff for a couple of years now, so maybe I can keep you from banging your head against a wall :)

Cheers,
Jim

Thanks Jim,

That's a great little clip! Definitely better quality than any clips I have tried to do. I check out that site you listed and PM you if I have any questions (which I'm sure I will have!)

Craig

Thanks Jim,

That's a great little clip!
Yeah, nothing like soiling yourself at ~90mph :eek:

Just to round out the video discussion, here's the HW & SW I typically use:
- Canon ZR-80 MiniDV camera (although that video clip may have been shot with a friend's ZR-10)
- WinDV for "capture" via Firewire (free tool)
- previously: TMPGEnc MPG encoder (free)
- currently: TMPGEnc Plus 2.5 (pay), now that I have a DVD burner in the new computer :)
- VirtualDub: occasionally use this to edit the AVI from the camera and/or add rudimentary titles (free)

My web host (Aplus.net) allows me 2GB storage and 50GB transfer, IIRC, for <$10/month.

Cheers,
Jim