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General discussion

How to send video home with my students?

Dec 14, 2010 5:42PM PST

What I would like to do, is to record my sports students in class when it's their turn, then send each of them home with the video to look at later, to be able to remember what we worked on and to analyze their technique.

I really want to avoid any file copying, or down-load/post-production - that's going to make it major unlikely to be workable.

I thought about using a DVD camcorder, and just switching out the DVD. Biggest concern is playback on frontloading/non-tray dvd player, since you can't get the miniDVD to DVD adapters any more.

Is there anyway to directly record to a thumbdrive? That would be the ideal, even if I had to do it through my laptop (pre-class set-up is okay, but I can't be spending time with it during or after classes.

Ideas? Suggestions? Help...

Discussion is locked

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Re: thumb drive
Dec 14, 2010 5:48PM PST

Thumb drive is unlikely to work, but a SD card would be fine. Quite a lot of laptops and desktops come with a build-in SD-card reader. And if your desktop doesn't have one, it's easy to built it in or use an external reader.

Kees

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maybe!
Dec 14, 2010 7:06PM PST

That might work! I will have to poll my students, and figure out if they could manage that (doesn't manner what works for me, it's all about what works for them!).

Having only used tape and HD camcorders, would they have to do anything besides clikcon the file to get it to play? I assume it would save it to an easy format - .avi or such?

Now I just need to find a camcorder that works well in low light and uses SD cards...

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Re: video's
Dec 14, 2010 7:18PM PST

Two important things to take into account:

1. Quite a lot of camcorders have their own proprietary video format that needs conversion into something else to be useful without their own proprietary software. Have a look into other posts in this forum. A very common question (and a very popular subject for spammers): how to convert x to y.

2. Video's generally are much too large to mail. And even if you could mail them, they might be too large for the receivers mailbox to be received. It's far better to put them somewhere on the web, so they can be downloaded. Let me mention 2 services: dropbox or yousendit.

3. It's still better to convert to those video's to something that can be streamed such as flash, and put those on the internet, or use another format that can be streamed into Windows Media Player or such.

4. Note that some of your students might want to see the video on their iPad or Mac. So the format you use should be compatible with those devices also, preferably.

So all in all, I'd recommend you contact the IT-department of your school (assuming it's a school and not a club) and ask them for advice.

Kees

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I think I wasn't clear in my question
Dec 14, 2010 7:54PM PST

1)The proprietary format is a concern. It seems very hard to find out what format the video is saved in, without going to the owners manuals.

2)&3)The reason I am asking this is to find a way to AVOID downloading, editing and uploading. I could use *any* camcorder if I was willing to go that route.

I guess I wasn't clear. I am looking for a way to get the data to students without me having to spend lots of time downloading the files, editing them and uploading. If that's the only way to do it, it won't be happening.

Hence the idea of DVD camcorders, where each student could have a miniDVD(s) and take it home with them.
Biggest concern there is that you can't get the miniDVD to DVD adapters anymore, so anyone with a mac is out of luck.

If students had their *own* SD cards, and we just swap cards as we record, then I think that would be one approach.
But it's wouldn't work well if they needed to have X software to get the files.

So if I went that way I would need a camcorder that recorded in one of the easily read formats (.avi is probably the easiest I would think...)

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If you used miniDVD recorders you would
Dec 15, 2010 3:44AM PST

Scream as you find out they don't play in players without the FINALIZE step being done in the camcorder. To add more pain, all the miniDVD recorders I used will only FINALIZE when I have the AC power adapter connected (which is all fairness is how they avoid the brownout, dead battery during finalizing problem!)

More screams as you find a miniDVD that has gone south. Too many times.

Try those newer record to flash memory card models and if the student has trouble playing the video, tell them about VLC PLAYER.

-> Yes this area is full of big potholes.
Bob