Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

record to .wmv from camcorder

Jun 30, 2007 9:03AM PDT

Hey all,
I am a researcher and the program we use to view/edit videos online requires that the video be in .wmv format. As I'll be working with several classes of students that will record themselves, I'd love to find a camcorder that allowed video to be recorded to .wmv format to begin with. In the past, we've used JVC Everio camcorders and had to convert the file to .wmv. We don't need a very high quality recording (recommend that our students record on "economy" settings and then have them convert the file to a 256 Kb streaming .wmv file).

Does anyone know of any camcorder that would allow you to record to .wmv format to begin with?

That way our students would not have to convert their files and could immediately upload them to our website for review.

Thanks in advance!

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
JVC Everio file extension-Need to E-Mail and YouTube
Sep 25, 2007 2:31PM PDT

Can you explain how you were able to convert the JVC Everio file extnesion to something that can be uploaded to Youtube. Also, no one is able to read my e-mailed videos with Windows XP. Can you explain how I can convert to an acceptable format?

Did you ever find a solution to your original post about getting the desired file format immediatley? I am on the verge of returning the JVC for this reason?

- Collapse -
a response
Sep 25, 2007 11:11PM PDT

first off, I never said I uploaded this to YouTube. We are using an online video analysis tool that we created. This tool requires that the movies be in .wmv format. The best tool we found for making this conversion was actually the software that comes with the camera, PowerDirector. If you record your movie on the camcorder at the "economy" setting, it only takes about half the time of the movie to convert it to a 256 Kb streaming video. That means 15 min conversion for a 30 min video.

Are you on a Mac? If so, you may be out of luck. You have get a special codec to get JVC Everio's format to work on a mac. I do not know what this codec is.

- Collapse -
How do You Perform the Conversions
Sep 26, 2007 12:02AM PDT

Do I do to the PC Software or to the Camera? I have been unable to see anything on the software for a conversion. that is my problem. There are no directions on how to perform a conversion. Can you help?

- Collapse -
Which solution are you using at the moment?
Jul 5, 2009 8:42AM PDT

@staypuffinpc: I am looking for exactly the same thing. Recording with a camcorder while the output has to be streaming WMV9 (200 kbps video and 44/48 kbps audio stream or something like that). Did you ever find such a device? What solution are you using at the moment?

- Collapse -
Just FYI
Jul 5, 2009 8:46AM PDT

Years ago that was done but not with a camcorder. The video, audio was wired to a PC with a video capture card and Microsoft software to encode and broadcast the A/V stream. No, it only required a roomful of MSCE to get it to work back then. Today it is likely to require less than a roomful. Maybe one closet full.
Bob

- Collapse -
Been there, done that
Jul 5, 2009 8:56AM PDT

I know it is possible this way. We are using Sony cams at the moment that store one hour video on a mini DVD. File size: around 1.3GB. After transcoding with WME only 120MB remains. Trouble is the recording is done throughout the country (Netherlands). Transfering 1.3GB electronically to the encoding PC is no option, but transfering 120MB to our streaming server comes close. Hence the need to have output files that are as small as possible and preferably (streaming) WMV.

- Collapse -
Just for YOUR research.
Jul 5, 2009 8:47AM PDT

Did you look at ustream.com?

- Collapse -
I have seen ustream before
Jul 5, 2009 9:03AM PDT

I have seen ustream before, but this does not seem to fit our needs. The recordings are highly confidential (therapist sessions with their clients) and can only be viewed by a few authorized people. And besides that they have to be in WMV format because of an analysis tool we use.

- Collapse -
Then is it time?
Jul 5, 2009 11:54AM PDT

To hire a Microsoft staffer to create this for you?

- Collapse -
Will hiring help?
Jul 5, 2009 6:12PM PDT

I guess a Microsoft staffer cannot create another solution than our current one: send the mini-DVD's to a central point (by snail-mail!) where a PC with the Windows Media Encoder does the conversion (and compression) job. We are looking to change that: the compression should be done by the camcorder. Which camcorder can create 120MB files for a one hour recording at a resolution of 384*288 or 400*300 pixels?

- Collapse -
Yup. That and green.
Jul 6, 2009 12:31AM PDT

This discussion must add one more thing. WMV is proprietary so a producer of said camcorder will have to pay license fees to MS to use this encoding. This is likely to be 99% of the reason you don't find what you are looking for on the shelf.

In fact you have written that you want and it looks to be specialized and proprietary as well. Nothing stops all this from being made but some folk expect everything, every solution to be on the shelf.

Bob (who writes custom software and designs electronics.)

- Collapse -
Which codec is not proprietary?
Jul 6, 2009 1:21AM PDT

Almost every codec is proprietary, maybe with the exception of Ogg Theora. Remember the Mpeg disputes? Flash was proprietary as well and is now more or less Open Source. So every manufacturer has to choose: use their own format or someone else's.

I did not really expect a camcorder that directly produces WMV. But as staypuffingpc's requirements are (or were?) exactly the same as ours, I still am very curious for the answer to my question: "What solution are you using at the moment?" Has he found a solution for his non-tech savvy users?

Jan - who earns his living by writing custom software as well

- Collapse -
Tipping my hand.
Jul 6, 2009 1:23AM PDT

I also do occasional work with CCTV systems. Many tried to get away from using a PC to do all this but for such it's the cheap solution as anything else costs more.

Why not chuck a PC at this?
Bob

- Collapse -
Because the camcorder is far away from the PC
Jul 6, 2009 1:40AM PDT

"Why not chuck a PC at this?"

Because the camcorders are far away from the PC that does the encoding (at the moment). The project runs in the Netherlands (small country), but as well in Norway, Iceland, Michigan and Oregon. Pumping 1.3GB over the internet is troublesome and we cannot put an encoding PC at every possible site. Norway used to send VHS tapes to Oregon, we are sending mini-DVD's to a central point here in .NL.

Now we are looking at the next step: cutting out the snail mail. That is only possible if most of the compression is done by the camcorder.

- Collapse -
Exporting to WMV
Jul 6, 2009 2:23AM PDT

Has anyone considered Quicktime Pro to convert their camcorder videos to WMV? I have a Mac and I do this all the time, but QT Pro is also available for the PC and it does the exact same thing. Seems as though most camcorder video saved to memory or internal hard-drives is saved in MPEG of some sort, and QT Pro can change this into WMV very quickly. In looking at QT Pro now, when I choose to Export into a WMV file, I don't get all the options for saving as I normally do when saving as another MPEG file, but this seems like it would make the process easy. QT Pro looks like it has a default size and frame rate for saving as WMV, but the final files are small, both in dimensions and data size. One unfortunate item: QT Pro is not free.

- Collapse -
Quicktime or iMovie
Jul 6, 2009 2:44AM PDT

Variation on a theme:

"Until a few years ago, even using digital camcorders required long wait times (often one-to-one) for teachers to transfer video footage to computers for editing and reflection. However, with the advent of Flash-based camcorders these speeds are greatly reduced. An hour of footage recorded on a Canon FS-100 for example, takes only 10-15 minutes to import into iMovie 08."

http://aectnow.org/ted/wordpress/?p=295

Probably the conversion engine is the same. However, for us the disadvantage is the same: the conversion needs handling by non tech savvy users.

Jan - off to volleyball in the park now: 7 pm over here

- Collapse -
Non-Tech savvy students
Jul 6, 2009 6:01AM PDT

"Probably the conversion engine is the same. However, for us the disadvantage is the same: the conversion needs handling by non tech savvy users."

I understand this dilemma, but all one needs to do is to place the camcorder file on the computer desktop (no ingesting needed), then all the students need to do is launch QT Pro and select "Export" and choose "Windows Media Video" and it does the rest. At this point, I believe any footage shot on a camcorder needs to take a step into a computer before emailing a file, and adding QT Pro would be a one-click option to change the camcorder file into WMV. Not too difficult, but I understand the hesitation in that it doesn't solve the original problem of having a camcorder that shoots natively in WMV format. Maybe Microsoft can make a camcorder that does this. (Yeah, right.)

- Collapse -
Maybe you remember the old internet question?
Jul 6, 2009 2:25AM PDT

"How do I move 10 GB a day across the world?"

-> Fedex.

Norway has PCs available so there must be some other excuse not to do the job there.
Bob

- Collapse -
Grin
Jul 6, 2009 2:37AM PDT

The recordings had to be looked at in Oregon. Back then there were no streaming video servers. We already skipped the trip over the Ocean and hired a branch of the Dutch PBS to do the encoding and stresming (on a private and secure server).

- Collapse -
Look at Ubuntu (in answer to proprietary)
Jul 6, 2009 1:28AM PDT
- Collapse -
Well....
Jun 26, 2011 12:24PM PDT

Is there a camcorder out there that does this? I saw alot of responses about everything else but the original question.

- Collapse -
None.
Jun 27, 2011 4:35AM PDT

But there are camcorders that do upload to sites without conversion. But that was not the question but could be an answer.
Bob