Monday, 23 November 2009

Flip Flop

My expectations were too high. Typical. I do not doubt that the Flip Mino HD camcorder is able to take videos of up to an hour in length; that, for its size, it takes very good pictures; and that it is "user-friendly" - simple to operate - also.

What I didn't realize was how long a five-minute video would take to upload. Blogger accepts AVI, MPEG, QuickTime, Real and Windows Media, up to 100 MB maximum size. How does the Flip relate to this, if it is so blogger-friendly?

Must I accept that any video I take can be a mere couple of minutes' length?

I started to upload a five-minute video to You Tube last night and it indicated an upload time estimate of 100 minutes!

Is there an answer, I wonder? Will I lose interest in taking short video clips and let my £120 Flip gather dust in its box?
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11 comments:

  1. Alan in Belfast (Alan Meban)23 November 2009 at 10:39

    Edit down to shorter 30-60 second clips?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Timothy Belmont23 November 2009 at 11:02

    Morning Alan!

    I've just made another video and cut it to 90 secs on Youtube. I don't know how to transfer the video to my blog now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Stephen Barnes23 November 2009 at 11:21

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Stephen Barnes23 November 2009 at 11:22

    Check your quality settings - you don't really need to record at HD quality, VGA (640x480) is OK for the majority of video on Youtube, and will be considerably smaller in size.

    Alternatively, upgrade to faster internet access ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Timothy Belmont23 November 2009 at 12:10

    Folks, I know my limitations. The upload business, the Blogger limits, all means that it is too complex for me, personally. Maybe I do throw in the towel too quickly.

    I've returned it to Amazon today. I took the package, all sealed again, to Strandtown PO and paid £6.70. :-(

    I think I'll just stick to my simple, wee Kodak digital!

    Tim

    ReplyDelete
  6. Unknown23 November 2009 at 12:26

    What is your YouTube moniker? Those of us with YouTube accounts could subscribe to whatever you do manage to upload.

    I would also suggest inspecting Vimeo.com: no time limits and encoding quality is SO much better than YouTube.

    My Vimeo channel: http://vimeo.com/channels/mrulster

    ReplyDelete
  7. Timothy Belmont23 November 2009 at 12:50

    Many thanks for the suggestion, Mr Ulster.

    I'll just stick to the Kodak.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Unknown23 November 2009 at 13:23

    Hi Tim, do stick with the Kodak. But I presume you're shooting videos with it? I was suggesting you upload those videos to Vimeo. I'm happy to help offline yes@mrulster.org

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  9. Timothy Belmont23 November 2009 at 14:50

    I can upload 40 sec videos directly to the blog with the Kodak.

    And I've wasted another tenner on a memory card 512mb that the Kodak won't accept!

    In technological terms, it's an old camera, c310.

    No harm done, except to my wallet.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Stephen26 November 2009 at 00:21

    Can you source a card for the Kodak in NI or are you just reluctant to shell out for another one?

    If you can't get it, let me know, I can probably get one in Canada and send it to you, my treat for such a wonderful blog.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Timothy Belmont26 November 2009 at 08:42

    Thanks a kind offer indeed, Stephen. There seem to be plenty of Kodak SD memory cards on Ebay.

    I'm reluctant to buy another because I wonder if it is the camera that's at fault and won't accept any card at all!

    Perhaps, eventually, I might consider a new camera...

    Oh, and thanks a million about the blog!

    Cheers Tim

    ReplyDelete