Digital Virgin

[CotoChris]

<font color='#0000FF'>Last October I brought a digital camera (Canon S40), for work actually, then at LIDS i thought it would be good to get a camera case. &nbsp;Well on times I've taken the caemra in the water the pictures came out really well - well not for photo comps or anything but great for memories and share with fellow divers. Now, last week I tried to use the video section if the camera and was surprised how good the video was, it actually lied because it seemed that the viz was a lot better than what i remembered it to be! &nbsp;After all this I have some questions I hope someone can help:
1) The video shots I can only view with quick time, i think the video is saved as .avi . Why can't it be viewed with other programmes such as real? Can I save the videos as another file?
2) What software can I use to compile the many short video snaps? I know the camera is not really a video camera but would like to collate the individual shots as one video.
3) How often should I grease the O-ring of the case?

And sods law now means that whenever I don't take the camera I usually see something great, i.e two weeks ago seeing a massive octopus and great viz -but does anyone else believe me -nooo!

[Andy Phillips]

Hi,

1) If it is a *.avi, then the MS embedded player should read it, when you install Quicktime it ask you to specify file association my guess is you told it to read *.avi. Real player looks at MPEG and M-JEPEG files. As for other formats, check the camera but the answer is probably no.

2) There are quite a few packages out there, the one I use is Adobe, Premier.

3) I was told to regrease very lightly every time you open the case, in truth I have done it once since I bought the first housing, which is to say once in 18 months,

Andrew

[CotoChris]

<font color='#0000FF'>Is there a way where these videos can then been seen on a TV? Would this be by saving it on a DVD disc -somehow I can't imgine a cumputer DVD to work on a tv system but then technology is moving faster than my brain....

[Andy Phillips]

Hi,

Yes, a DVD read/write for your PC is about £200.00, I can't remember houw much the media is. You can get a graphics card which will output PAL or SVHS directly to your video, I know ATI do one and I belive NVidea do also, these are around &nbsp;£150.00 retail. If you want to do it properly you will need software, again, the best bet is to pop into PC world where they have one of everything.

Andrew

[Dundee]

Only trouble with PCWorld is PCWorld prices!

Expect to pay about 25% more than anywhere online. Try DABS.com, they supply just about everything at very competitive prices.

Also, The S40 video clips are lower than PAL (TV) resolution so thay would display pretty badly on a TV screen, best to keep them on a PC.

There is a bit of freeware available callind &quot;Bink&quot; that will allow you to convert most digital video formats. go to www.radgametools.com

[And]

Hi

Why not use VideoCD format as they are good for an hour or so. You can write them using a normal CDRW and they play on virtually any DVD player.



Hope that Helps

WL

[Mark Scott-Simons]

I'd also recommend the VCD format as virtually every DVD player will be able to read it unlike DVD-R etc. Costs a lot less too. IIRC you can get up to 74min on a CD in the VCD format

DVDRHelp is a website that will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about recording video to disc

VCDEasy Home Page

Scotty

[Rogbear]

For software try &quot;Pinnacle Studio 7&quot; really excellent editing facilities and as it has now been superceded PC World are selling it at £19.99.

Others include:
ULEAD Videowave, Cyberlink Power Director Pro

The Cyberlink software also has the benefit that it will create a DVD for you and ensure that it will run in any DVD player. &nbsp;Alternatively you'll need to buy something like Nero to write the DVD or CD.

All of the above will accept AVI files and convert them to the more popular MPEG format ready for writing to optical media.

On the subject of writeable DVD, I have found that DVD-RAM is superb. &nbsp;The media is a bit more expensive but I have sourced them at £15.00 for a pack of five. &nbsp;The main point is that they are re-writeable guaranteed re-write 1,000,000 times. &nbsp;There are two types of drive for DVD-RAM ones that take a cassette enclosed disc and ones that take just the disk, however all DVD-RAM disks are supplied in a cassette which has a flap in the bottom to enable removal of the disk. &nbsp;The cassette acts as the disc case. Two formats available 4.7Gb and 9.4Gb (you have to get the drive to match i.e. you can't use a 9.4 disc in a 4.7 drive etc.).

DVD-RAM is generally accepted as being the format that will be the dominant format and that DVD+R will go the way of Betamax video.

[CotoChris]

<font color='#0000FF'>Many many thanks for your help. I'm taking this info in and will try it whenever I get some time. Yesterday I took a great short video of an octopus grabbing my torch and playing with it. Unfortunately as I have the Canon S40 it only records 30sec maximum, anyway it was enough.