Can I email a short video taken with a digital camera?

[burnselk]

I have a Kodak C653 digital camera which allows me to take short video shots.....maybe 20-30 seconds in length. The camera is intended (of course) to be used to take still digital images.....but this digital video feature is neat.

I'd like to use this video movie feature to show my two grandson's their batting stance during their little league baseball games.....without having to buy an expensive video camera.

My questions are:

1. Can these short videos be shared with my grandson's via email?
2. If so, what do I have to do to them to get them ready for email?
3. Can I burn a group of these short videos onto a DVD? If so, how?

I found the following video capturing specs at the Kodak site (which I had not seen before):

Video capture
Format QUICKTIME MOV with audio recording available
Quality VGA (640 × 480) at 10 fps, QVGA (320 × 240) at 20 fps
Length < 80 min. continuous based on memory capacity
Review options play, rewind, pause, fast forward and rewind, forward and rewind by frame
Editing trim, make picture from video (1, 4, 9, 16-up)

Thank you very much for your assistance.

[smok3]

1. depends on their size (how big is their mailbox, what is the limitation of the size per mail, and similar)
2. just attach them...? and add a requirements text, in this case that would be either quicktime, VLC or some sort of mplayer based distro, like MPUI.
3. videoDVD or data DVD?

[burnselk]

I suppose it would be best for me to add all of the short videos to a "video folder" then select each short video and burn them all to one dvd......is that what you're thinking might be the best solution?

Good question since I've never tried it....."data dvd" or "video dvd"? What's the difference....do they both use the same type dvd like dvd-r?

I'd think video dvd but that's just a guess.....will QuickTime burn it (It plays good in QuickTime but will it be watchable on a computer or television)?

I looked at the largest video I have and it was 11.4MB in length.....I doubt I can send that size via email (I use Yahoo and Gmail). I can forsee them being a bit longer because the specs say it's depending on the size of the SD memory card.....that's what I gathered from reading the camera specs.

Do you agree with me on this? If I put in a 2GB or 4GB SD memory card, I could possible burn a fairly lenthty video....do you agree with this thinking?

I think a group of these short videos added to a dvd (would dvd-R work) would be the best route to take. What say you?

[unskinnyboy]

To keep it simple, why not just upload them to a file hosting site and give them the link? See here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=96362) for a list of good sites. Or upload them to YouTube or any of its alternatives (http://techkeyla.com/some-really-good-youtube-alternatives/).

[smok3]

"data dvd" or "video dvd"? What's the difference....do they both use the same type dvd like dvd-r?
yes, same media can be used, videoDVD would have a possibility to be played on any/most standalones (but i'am not sure that is worthed to do, since 10fps is not really that great to start with...)
(i would just burn them as data, so they can be watched on computers...)

it was 11.4MB in length.....I doubt I can send that size via email (I use Yahoo and Gmail)
12MB should be sendable from one gmail to another (no idea about yahoo)

If I put in a 2GB or 4GB SD memory card, I could possible burn a fairly lenthty video
it appears that way (looking at the camera specs)

I think a group of these short videos added to a dvd (would dvd-R work)
sure.

would be the best route to take
asking what is best is against forum rules ;)

[cdanddvdpublisher]

My sister lives in Guatemala and she is always sending us videos of her little boys. She takes it with just a regular digital camera and then uploads it onto youtube and emails everyone in the family the link for it. It works really well and it means that we don't have to worry about how much space its taking up.

[blizard]

First of all, every change where you use a lossy compression will mean that you reduce some data which in most cases will not be visual or audible if it is done with care. A transcoding from MOV container towards compatible DVD container like MPG or VOB would mean that you also need to change compression from MPEG-4 (which is part of MOV) towards MPEG-2 that are used for DVD.

The difference between Video DVD and data DVD is that V-DVD is meant to be read by hardware player that must follow some standard and this force some limitation towards what kind of resolution, frame rate pr second (FPS), PAL/SECAM/NTSC standard and interlace/progressive as different option that must be considered for a Video DVD to be read by all kind of DVD-player connected to a Standard Display TV for output.

You will probably keep most quality by either stay with MPEG-4 compression, but change toward a MP4 container (here sound could be problem if it is encoded in AMR mono; you need to convert sound to AAC which is part of MPEG-4 standard or it might work to use mp3, but is not really a part of MP4 containers standard). MOV is part of Apple licence, so what is inside this container might or might not work without transcoding. YAMB is a very good tool for MP4 container (can also change from AVI container into MP4 and v.v.).

A Data DVD means that the file system on a DVD media will be treated as any other file system and you can store every thing like MOV directly on DVD-R (=R stand here for ROM which is a read only media; there are different type where you can rewrite on the same media again called DVD-RW). You can make use of another container like MP4 which is often used for portable player like Ipod and cell phone (=standardization and hardware limitation is the strongest argument to use this container).

You could use MediInfo (http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en) which let you see "inside" a container and what setting have been used for a particular encoding of sound and for video. Set from menu: debug>advanced mode this will let you see most detail about encoding type.


You could also have use to look up AVIDemux (look into that forum section here on doom9 which is for video editors or use search to find it). This tool can both split a video to smaller parts (or the opposite). You can make use of Auto>Ipod (look in menu) if video are in a container that is open source based (MOV is not ASFAIK, but could be changed to one of the open source based), this will set MP4 as container and make some basic setting for video (Xvid which is part of MPEG-4 ASP) and best is to manual set to AAC encoder (sometime it will stay on mp3 or COPY if it is already in mp3) to be sure it will be detected and played on hardware player which have a limited type of player support (like it will not accept mp3 inside a MP4 container, even if it can play mp3 audio by itself).


As you can see there are many different way to send/store your video. Personally I would always make a double copy direct from your video cam. One for permanent storage as data DVD without any change on DVD-R (don't finalize DVD and you can later add more content; read up on how to use DVD burner to be sure what you do). A second to work on later, but just as a master copy which is easy to access. The real work copy should be the third one which you use and that it will not matter if you must delete for some reason as you have another on your hard disk for fast access. This way you will not have to be sorry if you would have some hard disk trouble or your DVD suddenly will not play any more (quality on DVD medium can be up and down) due to scratches or other problem with reading surface.

Make a structured work flow for how to save your material which you feel is comfortable and safe. It is very easy to unintentionally delete files or that hardware (incl media) can have a failure, so for important work like captures that you can not re-create it is best to have too many copy and delete them when you are finished. Remember that all USB and Flash based media (incl SD) actually need re-charge from time to time and is not intended for long time storage.
This goes also for hard disk as long time storage device. Magnetic surface is not intended for a long time storage and can be changed by earth magnetic field (although this would probably take long time) or other strong magnetic fields. In short: don't trust just one type of media for long time storage, use several to be sure, if this is worth keeping.


____
Just one tip!

Add a software player like SMPlayer or MPlayer which can be run from one windows folder without any need to be installed on system for decoding of your video on DVD. This is so you later can be sure that in the future you have a player with built in codec and support for what you stored. Development in encoding and containers can make it harder to play these kind of files later in the future.

The size of a pure MEncoder/MPlayer (no GUI) is rather small, so it should be no problem to add this as one file on a DVD.

[cdanddvdpublisher]

To keep it simple, why not just upload them to a file hosting site and give them the link? See here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=96362) for a list of good sites. Or upload them to YouTube or any of its alternatives (http://techkeyla.com/some-really-good-youtube-alternatives/).

My suggestions were going to fall in line with that too - or, if you have your own web site (these days plenty of folks do) consider sharing them there.

[toytown]

Remember that all USB and Flash based media (incl SD) actually need re-charge from time to time

That is completely false information, flash based media is non-volatile and needs absolutely no power to retain the information on its chips. Therefore the idea of recharging it, is completely without merit.

Also taken from the flash based wiki

Flash memory is non-volatile, which means that no power is needed to maintain the information stored in the chip

If no power is needed, there is no charge needed to maintain it.

[setarip_old]

@burnselk

Hi!

(Just kidding) Most importantly, make sure they:

1) Keep their elbows out and

2) Don't "step in the bucket"

[2Bdecided]

I'd use Youtube or Facebook to share the files, but if your email and their email can handle 12MB happily, you have no problem. If you want longer files, you'll have to re-encode them yourself or use youtube/facebook/whatever. That's what these sites are for.

Cheers,
David.