Hi, i want to make a HD video for my parents from where i live and to do that, i need to buy equipment.
Since i am out of the market for so long, i have no plan what to look for.
First i need a HD camcorder. Nothing to expensive (just for hobby) but still good enough so it can work with Linux.
Then i need to see about software. What will be good to make cuts and edit the video?
I am a canon guy (love their stuff) but i don’t mind to buy something else. What matters is, that it works and is easily to operate and the quality should be ok too.
Hope someone does similar things there and can maybe share a thing or two.
On Thu, 23 Jun 2011 23:06:03 +0000, JoergJaeger wrote:
> Hi, i want to make a HD video for my parents from where i live and to do
> that, i need to buy equipment.
>
> Since i am out of the market for so long, i have no plan what to look
> for.
> First i need a HD camcorder. Nothing to expensive (just for hobby) but
> still good enough so it can work with Linux. Then i need to see about
> software. What will be good to make cuts and edit the video?
>
> I am a canon guy (love their stuff) but i don’t mind to buy something
> else. What matters is, that it works and is easily to operate and the
> quality should be ok too.
>
> Hope someone does similar things there and can maybe share a thing or
> two.
>
> Thanks for any info.
Not sure on software, but for HW, you might look to see if you can find
one of the Cisco FlipVideo HD cameras. Since Cisco is shuttering that
division, you might get a good deal on one.
I’ve got one of their SD cameras and for the little I use it, it works
well enough. The embedded software is all for Windows or Mac, but on
Linux, it mounts as a storage device, so pulling the files off is a
breeze.
How old is your parent’s PC ? Note only the newest PCs will play HD video properly.
Typically when they talk about HD video they refer to 1080p or 720p. 1080p typically is 1920x1080 resolution at a high bit rate. 720p is typically 1280x720 resolution at a high bit rate. Dependent on the bit rate, and also on the CPU speed, the graphic card hardware, and the graphic driver and on the playback application your parents may or not be able to play an HD video.
Find out EXACTLY what hardware (cpu, graphic card) your parents have on their PC, find out what media player they use on their PC, and if possible find out what graphic card driver they have on their PC.
So some research will go a LONG ways there. Don’t ‘just assume’ they will be able to play an HD video as they may not be able to.
Now, editing HD video is not easy, and its only very recently that the free open source GNU/Linux movie editors are capable of doing this. When you say ‘cuts and edit’ the video, what do you mean ? If it is just crude chopping, then avidemux can do this. If you want basic transitions between multiple clips, maybe some text, then you will want a NLE (non-linear video editor).
I use kdenlive as my NLE of choice and I typically edit at 720p, as 1080p is FAR too demanding.
Indeed avidemux can. I use it if I want to ‘tune’ a video to try to improve the quality. But if I want to make a home video from many short clips, then I use an application that is designed for that such as an NLE (such as kdenlive). IMHO avidemux is designed for tuning videos, chopping out sections of videos, for encoding to different formats, etc … but its not designed to compete with an NLE.
I see avidemux and kdenlive like apples and potatoes. They do different things by design. Both are necessary tools (IMHO) for anyone in GNU/Linux who is in to multimedia editing.
Well, my parents do not use a computer. It is for their tv. So computer issues will fall out of the picture and are only restricted to me as i edit the movie on my pc.
So what i want to do is, record a movie in HD (perhaps widescreen) and edit the video, cut some parts and put some music into it. Lastly burn it on a DVD a send it with mail to their home.
As far as camcorder goes, flipcam might be an option. But i consider also one of these entry camcorder from canon. I checked them yesterday.
On the software side, i have no plan really. So i will use whatever i get recommended and see what happens. I have no favorite so far, so i would try out the two applications and see what you can do with it.
Any camcoder that uses a memorycard should work in theory i think. Although there are some new memory types i never heard about it. Like a Xmemory (SD card with 64GB). Does Linux read them?
720p is ok since i am not even sure if my parents have a 1080p, its perhaps only 1080i. I don’t even have a 1080p. So 720 will be the choice for me.
If its a DVD (say PAL in Europe) then the resolution is 720x576 which is significantly lower than 720p. So 720p will be more than adequate.
Does Linux read an Xmemory card ? No. Linux is an operating system. It is not a card reader. Not wanting to be critical, but think about the question. We need to know the hardware.
If your hardware card reader will read a 64 GB SD card, and if lower spec cards can be read by Linux, then Linux will likely support reading the 64GB card from the card reader.
If your camera has a USB interface, then Linux will likely support reading via the camera’s USB interface.
I use a 32 GB SD card with my Canon HF S10 and Linux can read/copy via the Camera’s USB interface the image data on the card fine.
You should check whether the camera in question needs the card to be formatted with exFAT, though; Tuxera is developing an exFAT-driver for (embedded) Linux, but for now it’s not supported.
Great info. I will check on the canon site and see what they are saying, if they say anything at all. And yes, its XCSD (or the other way) and regular SD.
The Canon HF S10 was expensive, and one of the better Canon Camcorders at the time. The 1080p 25MB/sec videos it produces can be easily played back on my Intel Core i7 920 desktop (with a nVidia GTX 260 graphic card) but can not be smoothly played back on my Dell Studio 1537 laptop with a P8400 Intel Core 2 Duo processor with Radeon HD3450 graphics with GNU/Linux (but it can on that laptop with Windows7). On this Dell laptop vlc in GNU/Linux comes close to playing back smoothly but smplayer/mplayer both fail to play back smoothly.
Also the 1080p @ 25 MB/sec give all NLE software (ie video editing software) a hard time, even on the Core i7 920, so I have a script I run that converts all my 1080p (in a directory) to 720p. I keep my backup original videos as 1080pm, but I do my processing/editing in 720p.
I think the Canon HF S10’s videos are very good. When I did my comparisons a couple of years ago when purchasing that Camcorder, the big competitors were a top of the line Sony and a top of the line Panasonic. The Sony IMHO had the edge in stabilization, but I felt the Canon better elsewhere. The Panasonic was also good, but again I preferred the Canon. This is all very subjective.
One thing I like about the Canon HF S10 is it is smaller than an SLR (although an SLR can produce similar (possibly better) HD videos IF camera/camcorder held perfectly still. I think the Canon IMHO has superior stabilization than an SLR. And stabilization is very important.
I think your model is out of my range, unless i get it on the second hand market.
$400 is the most i can or will spend, but i agree on Canon. My camera is now 5 years old and works still. Make in Japan. Well, that might not proof anything really, but its quite quality.
The only thing is, i am not sure in what format the movies are. I read a while ago that Panasonic for example, stores the videos in a special format for what you need the software they provide. So i really need to do some research before i buy it.
This is just for a project i always wanted to do. Making a movie for my parents to show different facets of the life here. Not sure if i am the next cameron, but i want to make it nice and to get a least some quality. Especially since it gets on a big tv set.
I have no favorite so far, so i would try out the two applications and see what you can do with it.