Posting videos from camcorder?

YouTube is the preferred option, yes.

When you go to post a topic, right next to the smiley icon in the top bar, is a filmstrip with a 'play' symbol on it. Click on that, and it opens a box where you can copy/paste the URL of your video once its completely uploaded to YouTube (by way of a computer--camcorders don't have the means to upload directly to the service.

---PCJ

I don't see any filmstrip icons on this forum? Or, are you talking about YouTube?

I use Google for work, sometimes, and something always seems to go wrong. They wouldn't allow me to use my work account and I prefer to do what's easiest. Does YouTube require me to join or pay to use?

Facebook has been super easy to post videos - although it takes awhile for them to upload.

My videos range from 200 MB to 600 MB ~ but only 2-7 minutes long.

You really should not upload a video directly from your camcorder. You should use some kind of video editing program first.

Load the video into your computer, do a little editing to cut out the bad parts, add titles, then recompress the video into a final product and upload that.

OGR Webmaster posted:

You really should not upload a video directly from your camcorder. You should use some kind of video editing program first.

Load the video into your computer, do a little editing to cut out the bad parts, add titles, then recompress the video into a final product and upload that.

Why? YouTube has nice basic editor built in. Add titles music, comments, etc.

Plus - not everyone has a PC with a enough processor power to manipulate video effectively.

Paul Kallus posted:

I've never done YouTube - is that what others do (and then post the link in the forum)? Or, how do you post videos?

YouTube is nice. Use their online editor called Creator Studio  if you want to get fancy.

Once your video is uploaded, use the "Share" link and it will pop the URL - copy that to you clipboard.

Now back at OGR - start a post, and use the "Insert/edit Media" button - paste the URL there - click OK.

This site supports video uploads - but I think you have to be an OGR subscriber to upload video.

YouTube might make it a little easier to share on other sites/platforms without taxing the OGR hamsters at HOOPLA

Roving Sign posted:

This site supports video uploads - but I think you have to be an OGR subscriber to upload video.

Not correct. You have to be a member of this forum, but not necessarily an OGR subscriber.

Roving Sign posted:

OGR Webmaster posted:

You really should not upload a video directly from your camcorder. You should use some kind of video editing program first.

Load the video into your computer, do a little editing to cut out the bad parts, add titles, then recompress the video into a final product and upload that.

Why? YouTube has nice basic editor built in. Add titles music, comments, etc.

Plus - not everyone has a PC with a enough processor power to manipulate video effectively.

OK, fine. My point was that uploading raw, unedited video direct from a camera is never a good idea. It should be edited into a more finished presentation. How you edit it doesn’t matter, as long as it’s edited into something presentable and not just the raw, unedited video.

If YouTube has a video editor, go ahead and use it!

I downloaded Sony's "PlayMemories" editing software, but am quickly running out of storage space on my computer. My camcorder is a 4k HD unit - and the files are huge. The editing features are not intuitive - but am learning.

I'll mess around with YouTube editing as well. Links to that may be best as most of my short videos are larger than 100 MB.

Thanks all!

Question, is it necessary to shoot video at more than say, 720p?  My iPad Air at 1080p gives me about 3 minutes at 100Mb.  720p maybe 4 or so.  Compressing through iPhoto is possible at 540p or 360p for even longer shoots.  Is there enough quality difference to shoot higher resolution video to post here?  What would be the minimum?

Paul:

Your editing software should allow you to output a less than a 4K file, or you could set your camcorder to shoot at 1080P or 720P (unless you're viewing these on a 4K TV or monitor, you're really just chewing up space for detail you won't be able to see). What model of camcorder is it?

 If you're running out of space on your computer, you may want to think of offloading video/photo files to an external hard drive or at least a sizable thumb drive. It sounds like you have all your apples (files) in one basket, and all it would take is one hard drive malfunction to cause you a lot of, well, "chaos and delay". You should always have the stuff you don't want to (or can't) replace sitting in more than one place. I keep two separate copies of my photos/video on external one-terabyte hard drives that are turned off when not in use receiving new material. That way my main computer could be zapped dead tomorrow and my (more than a decade's worth of) photos/video/artwork would still be safe.

I looked up a manual for Sony's PlayMemories, and it appears the program is just a photo/video manager that copies photos and video from your camera to the computer and lets you organize them--it doesn't do editing or compression. There are a few free video editors online that provide most of the functionality of YouTube's video editor (which is supposed to be going away in 2017 according to the search I just made for it. Below is tutorial I just finished watching for a free/open-source video editor called ShotCut that seems ideal for beginners:

Literally the only thing you would do differently is ignore the parts about the separate audio track, since the video coming out of your camcorder already has it included, unless you want to add a separately-recorded narration. It's not really necessary to make a title--though it could be as simple as shooting an extra 5-10 second video clip that you can put a text title over as described above. There are other tutorials for this program on YouTube if you want to explore its abilities further.

---PCJ

TedW posted:

Question, is it necessary to shoot video at more than say, 720p?  My iPad Air at 1080p gives me about 3 minutes at 100Mb.  720p maybe 4 or so.  Compressing through iPhoto is possible at 540p or 360p for even longer shoots.  Is there enough quality difference to shoot higher resolution video to post here?  What would be the minimum?

For shots that are just going to be posted here, I don't see why more than 720P would be necessary. Most clips posted directly to the Forum are less than 2 minutes or so.

---PCJ

Hi Paul,

The size of the video file will largely depend on both the length of the video as well as the video resolution.  Here's a video I posted recently of my new Allegheny & Pacific Railway Company, featuring Lionel's new Amtrak StationSounds diner (placed into service with my Atlas-O CZ cars) along with MTH's new Premier CP Holiday Train.

https://vimeo.com/255845744/33c4490f26

or the forum software can show an "embedded" video right here in a post (see below):

Vimeo is the video service I use in my professional photography business, and I prefer it over Youtube because Google knows enough about me from searches I do.  I don't need Google to monitor everything else I might post on Youtube or send via a gmail email account.    And trust me when I say most folks have no idea what Google is doing with the information you post or the emails you send.  Google is a great and powerful search engine -- no doubt about that, but to deny its "Big Brother is Watching" potential is somewhat gullible in this day and age.   They're not just hosting this stuff... they're always mining data from it. 

There's a free, Vimeo Basic service... as well as Plus, Pro, and Business levels for fee.  I just prefer Vimeo, because your stuff doesn't get lost amidst a sea of Youtube's video gibberish where hundreds of hours of video are posted per minute by everyone and their uncle nowadays. 

The file I referenced above is 2.1GB in size, but it's also runs approximately 22 minutes... and is full 1080P, which I know a couple of folks here have enjoyed watching on their large-screen TV's at home.  Right, Marty???    The full ProRes version of the video file is nearly 25GB in size on my computer hardrive, but there's no need to upload THAT size file to a video subscription service to get good-quality 540P, 720P or 1080P streaming files.

If you're capturing 4K video, there's no need to output a 4K movie -- and some subscription services don't support that anyway due to the resulting large file sizes.  The other feature I like about Vimeo is their online player will choose the appropriate resolution of the video to "stream" based on the device where the video is being played.  For example, there's seldom a need to stream a 1080P video to an iPhone.  However, if you have a large tablet (or are viewing a video on your desktop PC or home's widescreen TV), then the Vimeo player can stream 1080P if the original video file was produced at that resolution level -- as long as your Internet connection can handle the HD bandwidth.  Just select 1080P and click on the "fullscreen" icon in the lower-righthand portion of the video player's toolbar.

As Rich indicated, the proper way to share video is really to edit clips from your video capture device(s) with a Video Editor.  If you have a Mac, Apple provides iMovie as a standard part of the Mac software suite that's already loaded on your computer.  The above video was produced with iMovie from raw video clips I captured with a Canon EOS 80D camera.  Video editors like iMovie are VERY powerful and convenient, given the fact you don't need to spend extra $$$ for them.  You might find you need a few videos to get the hang of their nuances and to tap into all their features.  Heck, I'm still discovering new jewels of info with each video I produce... and enjoying every part of the process.  So they're worth it in my opinion, and there will be a learning curve for any video editor you choose to use.  And if/when you outgrow iMovie's capabilities, there's always Final Cut Pro for Mac users.  And Adobe Premiere Pro for PC users (and Mac users too).

There's a whole new world out there when learning to produce professional-quality video.  So get you feet wet slowly, learn some good video capture techniques.  And most important of all, have fun!!! 

David