Flip cameras... how do you use yours?

[gshaw]

Just wondering what kind of uses you guys have been making of the mini camcorders that are all the rage now? We've bought quite a few but so far I've established the software is useless on the network and also a bit iffy with privacy with the web upload feature so I think I'll just take the videos off via manual file copies.

 

Do you upload your vids to your VLE, burn to DVD etc... what about managing storage demands if users make a lot of long videos etc?

 

I know the cameras record in MP4 which is a pain in itself as Windows Movie Maker can't edit that format Got a converter but could be a bit too techie for most users. For DVD burning I've put DVD Flick on the image which should help... any other suggestions?

[powdarrmonkey]

Year 7 have a set project to create a film for incoming year 6, and work with the Flip cameras and Magix Movie Edit Pro.

[laserblazer]

Our PE dept. use them. The kids who are excused PE do the filming and then they analyse the results. They don't do much editing but use Movei Maker if they do. The Music dept. have some as well.

[plexer]

What is the workflow people are using with these.

 

I just tried an ultra 2 but logged on as a student who is a restricted user they can't export the footage from the camera or use a converter to convert it.

 

Ben

[Jamo]

We ahve the codec installed on machines and they can edit the video using Windows Movie Maker without conversion. Just need to be taken off the machines from the DCIM folder like a digital camera. The students seem to know what they are doing better than most teachers lol

 

Files are pretty big so they are usually deleted when not required anymore. We had a big video project last year and the kids seemed to really enjoy it.

[localzuk]

At the moment, we have 6 of them. I'm trying to drop them in as replacements for standard cameras - as the whole 'setup' time of traditional cameras, combined with the exporting of the video to movie maker, really put people off using them.

 

So far they've been used to film some PE lessons, for a storytelling session and for a few random lessons.

 

At the moment, the kids don't have access to any USB drives, so the video is dealt with by the teacher - which is not really an issue as yet.

 

I will be re-looking at the USB drive issue though at some point, as there are more and more of these sort of devices appearing and demand is increasing for them in lessons.

[plexer]

hmm I've got the codec on the machine but WMM still won't open the file.

 

I can run a converter I found as admin to do MP4 to AVI but I really want the students to be able to do it themselves.

 

Ben

[Jamo]

You using the codec from the camera itself? 3vidX codec, its located in one of the subfolders of the cameras

 

(Only works with non HD ones)

[morganw]

Is that 3vidX codec licensed for network use though?

Assuming it is how do you actually deploy a standalone codec? Does it just need copying somewhere or does it have some kind of registration process (must admit I know nothing about where codecs are installed on system). I've already got a k-lite pack allocated out and the files from the FlipHD cameras do work but movie maker seems unstable and slow. Then again that could just be movie maker...

[morganw]

Actually thinking about it maybe they are just Flip, not FlipHD.

[RTFM]

I am told by our English dept (who bought some Flip cameras) that you can edit the footage in Premiere Pro CS4

[Ambient]

I borrowed one of these camera from out local CLC to take snowboarding with me last week Good quality video

[plexer]

The 3vidx codec is installed on the pc I am trying to use them on as I installed the flip software as well, these are flip ultra v2's

 

Thanks.

 

Ben

[ranj]

we use them on our Macs mainly, used to use HD camcorders which was a bit of an overkill, flip cameras are pretty good for a school environment.

[link470]

Our library purchased a few last year and expected them to just work. Unfortunately, as some of you have already mentioned, the editing software isn't easy to work with on a network. No student on a restricted user account can just plug in the camera and fire up the editing software, you need to be an administrator, because while the camera says that all the software is on the camera, really, the installer is on the camera, and the installer installs to your local hard drive. Students obviously can't install software, neither can staff.

 

The only work around I've found for these devices is that while I'm making my images for each of our labs in the school and system sets, I plug in the camera into a computer that will be able to edit flip videos, and let the camera prepare the system by installing the software. I then remove the camera, finish the image, and seal and deploy it. After that, students can edit no problem because the software is already installed. I still haven't even done this though since the cameras were purchased right after I did a new image deployment school wide for all of our labs. I have them sitting in my desk drawer as I type this, but our new images will have support for these devices.

 

For the average home user though who is an administrator over their own machine, I see no problem with them, I think they'd be fantastic. With an enterprise network environment with restricted policies though, that requires more administrative overhead.

[BaccyNet]

Our PE Dept have a couple, not sure they do any editing with them though!

We bought one for the dept a while ago which is currently with Media, they use it constantly (which works better than their ageing camcorder stock) so more may be coming in soon.

[gshaw]

A quick update about ours seeing as this thread is still alive

 

We've installed the software across our machines using AutoIt to script the installer (why they break the MSI I'll never know) and set the library location to the network (using the drive letter path in a reg script)

 

I'll be telling users not to save the library videos to their network area or I'll run out of disk space pretty quick! We'll export the videos they want to WMV using the flip software then either edit using Movie Maker or send up to YouTube \ VLE

[joeb188]

Could someone explain to me how I can use the codec on my Flip ultra 2 sd to enable me to edit the raw .mp4 files in Windows Movie Maker (XP)

 

I've been looking for a solution for weeks

 

Regards,

 

Joe

[Ambient]

Mine goes with me to the French Alps every year to film "action shots" of my snowboarding holiday With a full length video edited and upon my return.

[ranj]

Does anyone know of a way to grab the footage of flip cameras and compress it. The footage students and staff are grabbing is at such high quality it is not needed. I need to find an easier way for users to compress their footage.

 

I believe on the flip camera itself there are no options for compressions.

 

Do other schools have this same problem>