Creative Real-Time Video Use?

[burnside]

Hey all,

I hold classes where I record with a camera connected to a macbook via firewire (with QuickTime). After the participant has finished, I quickly transfer the file to a USB drive and give it to someone who has a laptop in another room to review with the participant.

At the end of the class, I give all the participants a thumb drive with all of their videos on it.

SO, I bought several iPads with the hope that I could replace the 2nd laptop / transfer during the video review.


Several hopes:

• I could use the camera in the iPad and have the iPad sync to the computer at end of class for Flash Drive transfer.
• I could record with same old camera/laptop system, but immediately sync video to iPad for review

Unfortunately, I wasn't aware that the zoom was so bad / not quite possible on the iPad. I've heard of accessory lenses I could use, but haven't heard great things, which hindered the first hope. Second, I've looked into software to transfer/sync the videos from laptop to iPad but haven't found anything fast enough (this transfer process has to be very quick so the next participant can start recording immediately while the last one is reviewing). I don't think working through iTunes will be fast enough & I won't be able to use a wireless network.

My issue: I know you folks know creative work-arounds better than me. What am I missing? Is there some clever way I can record with the iPads and sync to computer in real time? Or is there a quick clever way to sync the videos transferred to the computer onto the iPad without too much computer navigation/transfer time?

Most videos recorded are less than 90MB.

 

[DrHouse]

I'm not sure to fully understand but here's my idea on how to record on one laptop and preview with an iPad:

On the recording laptop, make sure to record in MP4 format in a dedicated folder. Once the recording is completed, add the movie into iTunes with Home sharing activated. Make sure that your iPads can access the iTunes content via the Home Sharing feature. This means of course a local wifi access for all devices and laptops. Then, the reviewer will just open the iTunes library and play thru streaming the previously recorder video.

This would be much faster than copying the videos on an USB drive each time.

As a side note, same thing can be achieved by using a UPNP server (mediatomb for example) or a shared folder using the proper app to access the content over wifi.

In the end, using streaming will avoid the waiting time of copying the content and will keep all your files in the same folder. If no wifi is available, a cheap wifi router would pay for itself if you have to do that process often...

My 2 cents!

 

[twerppoet]

I probably don't understand what you are doing, so my suggestions are likely off.

Why not just let the iPad follow that student. He records then takes the iPad to the reviewer. When done you plug it into the computer and transfer the file. If you have enough iPads (perhaps you don't) there is no need to keep shuffling files from one to the other.

As far as copying the movie, you don't need to use iTunes. The iPad will mount to a Windows computer as a USB Drive. You'll find the movie in a subfolder under the DCIM folder. On a Mac, you can use the included Image Viewer program to copy files off the iPad.

No help for the zoom. If you use the iPad to record the video you'll just have to use manual zoom (walk it closer). There are a few case/mounts on the market that you can use to attache the iPad to standard camera mounts and dollies.

Though, on second thought, after reading DrHouses suggestion again, his method is likely to produce a smother experience once you get the wrinkles ironed out.

 

[burnside]

Great suggestions. These are the exact two options I was hoping would work. Unfortunately, zooming is very important, so I will have to pursue DrHouse's option. Only issue is that I'm always offsite and often don't have access to available wifi, but there's no reason I can't bring a wireless router around with me is there? Just setup my own personal network everywhere I go. Does anyone see any possible problems that would cause consistency issues with this setup (often don't have much setup time)?

Haven't used the streaming option on Home Sharing yet, but I'm guessing it's fairly intuitive?

Many thanks.