camcorder that works with movie maker

[round2it]

We are lookin to buy some camcorders for use within school.

 

They must Work with windows movie maker out of the box or possibly a codec that i can install via gpo

 

anyone got any ideas

 

Cheers

[laserblazer]

We use Flip Videos. I have the K-Lite codec pack on all machines anyway but I suspect you would need this. Word of warning though. Movie Maker is freezing a lot here. The kids have only just started using it and I haven't had a chance to investigate. I've done a quick google and it does seem to be a bit of an issue.

[3s-gtech]

Movie Maker on XP is a nightmare, nowhere near stable enough for classroom use. It's better on the newer versions of Windows IME.

[K.C.Leblanc]

Canon FS100s work, however you have to change the the file exentions.

 

This is a little Autoit based doofer we use so the students can change these. It's far from purfect but it works.

 

What I would say it we have got into camcorders in a big way. Here are a few pointers.

 

One make sure you've done some testing and you know how much storage space your students are going to be using. Videos take up a stupid amount of space.

 

Make sure you have a booking in and out system in place and set down ground rules. Problems we've had include students leaving kit in rooms at the end of lessons instead of returning it and staff members passing kit straight onto other staff making it very hard to track down. Make sure you have a management agreed policy that whoever has signed out kit is responsible for it. We have also had issues where 6 different students all from the same class turn up 2 minutes apart all wanting a camera the same when they're returned. You need to make it crystal clear to staff that this wastes your time and if they want 6 camera one person should collect all of them.

 

Make sure you know if kit is insured to go out with trips.

 

Make sure students and teachers know they need to download thier own videos. Make sure instructions are available so they have no excuse for trying to dump this on you.

 

Make sure you've got all the right card readers and cables (including spares in stock, not matter how carefull you are they will go missing). With the FS100s you need the mains plugged in to transfer videos, so we use card readers instead.

 

When booking out make you allow time for charging. You might want to get some spare batteries and some off battery chargers. We've got a couple of ansman ones.

 

EDIT: Make sure staff understand the difference between project files and the completed video files. This causes loads of fun and games round here.

convert.zip

Edited November 30, 2009 by K.C.Leblanc

[round2it]

thanks for that

 

as for freezing i know we have had a few issues.

 

what about other software that you guys use

 

What camera and what software do you use?

[SteveBentley]

Movie Maker support in Win 7 is ropey to say the least.

[Arthur]

The Flip Video cameras which record in MPEG-4 ASP format (like the 1st gen Ultra's) will work fine in XP Movie Maker as long as you install the Xvid codec beforehand.

 

It seems most cameras these days record the video in H.264 format with AAC for the audio, which makes it a pain to edit in programs like Movie Maker. What's even more annoying is that iMovie '09 on the Mac handles these formats perfectly though.

 

Alternatively you could do something similar to K.C. above and create a little AutoIt app which converts the video into a suitable format using [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FFmpeg]FFmpeg[/ame] or [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MEncoder]MEncoder[/ame]? I've found WinFF is good at converting videos into WMV format and is not too complicated for the students to use.

[laserblazer]

I've just ordered Premiere Elements 8 to trial. I've downloaded the demo version, all 1.2GBs of it and I'm just about to press the GO button now. Decisions, do I want to take the guided tour?

[round2it]

i was going to try premier elements can you post your findings/conclusions

[laserblazer]

I use Premiere Pro at home but my version doesn't support AVCHD and I can't afford CS4 at this time. I downloaded Premiere Elements last night and had a quick play using an existing avi file.

 

I have heard that some schools have experienced problems with it crashing. It seems to be a bit heavy on the processor. I've got a 3GHz dual core pentium and 4GB RAM and it seemed sluggish rendering the AVI file, Lord knows what it will be like with AVCHD.

 

I'll keep you posted.

[round2it]

what a headache this is turning out to be.

[Sylv3r]

We've never had any issues with Canon Camcorders and Movie Maker.

 

These are the latest model we have bought and work spot on - Canon MD215.

[laserblazer]

Just found out that if you install the latest full K-Lite codecs it's possible to open M2TS files in Movie Maker and then export them to to DV-AVI or 720P WMV. What's more, it is pretty quick. I've just had a quick play with my new Canon HF S100. I'm hoping to use the new camera alongside my XM2 next week, so it's good to know I can down-scale this way if necessary.

 

My only beef so far with the camera is you'd think for £700 they'd include a paper manual.

[round2it]

thanks for that.

[rdk]

We have had all the above issues. For a simple fix, for quick and easy videos, we use Canon IXUS digital still cameras that record in avi in movie mode (640 x 480, I think). MovieMaker on XP works well with these. Kids are happy becasue everything stays relatively simple. Videos are crap-ish on TVs, but fine on computer or projected from a computer.

[gshaw]

We've got Flip Mino HDs... nice and easy to use but the HD videos don't open in Movie Maker... simple enough fix though - just export from the software in WMV and use that afterwards.

 

Might be that you don't need the HD feature so go with the standard ones or the other recommended Kodak Zi6

[round2it]

just having a look at the specs now

[laserblazer]

We've got Flip Mino HDs... nice and easy to use but the HD videos don't open in Movie Maker... simple enough fix though - just export from the software in WMV and use that afterwards.

 

Might be that you don't need the HD feature so go with the standard ones or the other recommended Kodak Zi6

 

Download the latest K-Lite codecs and then when you import the video select "all files". You may find it will work. It does with m2ts files.