Newbie storage question - HFS200
 

I'm new to the HD video recording. I mainly use the camera to shoot my sons sports events. I have been shooting in 17mbps and so far have just been reviewing staright through camera to TV, then storing on computer. Obviously I am going to run out of storage space soon. I would like to be able to make blu-ray or DVD recordings of entire games to give to other people and for reviewing games (I coach). I also want to be able to e-mail individual video clips and/or post them to facebook. Of course i also want to save the videos to some sort of library for long term storage. So what is my best option for doing this, should i continue shooting in the high def settings and by a blu-ray writer for my computer. (I have a player). Should i get an external hard drive instead for storage, but if i do that how do i play it back on the HDTV - do i have t o transfer them back to the camera? Apparently the video clips are too large to e-mail when recorded in 17mbps, is there an easy way to downgrade them for e-mail or do i need to shoot in a lower setting to be able to e-mail. Any help would be greatley appreciated.

Thanks
Chris

Re: Newbie storage question - HFS200
 

Chris,

I am new to this also. I am sure someone with more knowledge will chime in but until then this is what I do.

I coach and record my sons ball games (baseball and football).

I make DVDs for the other coaches to review (SD). At the end of the year I make a video covering the season. Just the highlights of each game, short interviews of the players etc..

Don't know if you have a editor but you can use a simple editor like Premiere Elements or something better like Premiere Pro to make the DVDs. If you have a PC Windows Movie Maker should come with it. If you choose a editor you can change the format of the footage to upload to face book, you tube, vimeo, etc..

If you make Blue Ray DVDs make sure whomever receives the disk has a Blue Ray player. A regular DVD player is not compatible with Blue Ray.

When you make the DVDs make a copy for you to play on your TV.

If your computer can handle the footage keep recording in HD.

Don't know about the e-mail of a video. If you open an account at one of the video hosting sites you can e-mail a link to the video (option).

For storage I use an external hard drive (G-Raid 4TB). There are other and better options but it can get expensive.

Hope this helps.

James

Re: Newbie storage question - HFS200
 

Video with image quality worth watching in HD is generally too large for e-mail attachment. Large quantities of footage probably should be edited to manageable amounts of interesting material. Consider who, if anyone, will be interested in, and in how much of, the materail in 5, 10, 20, 30 years?

The storage options are typically CD, DVD, Blu-ray, hard drive, cards like SDHC, and tape. All have their risks and benefits. None are really an assuredly archival quality. Only tape has a long track record, and CD/DVD are starting to reach the point where there is soem history upon which to infer a trackrecord.

SDHC-like cards may have highest risk of loss over time. Tape and then DVD may be most proven technology for storage, provided you still have a working player available when you need it. (Think 8-track audio, Beta video tape, etc.). And quality of the media is key - some CD and DVD media is poor, some tape is poor and deteriorates quickly.

Hard drives are convenient, but consider the changing times and technologies. For example, how many folks have the capability of readingn information from an eaarly 1990's vintage (pre IDE) hard disk drive.

What ever you elect to do, be sure to periodicly refresh the storage, and transfer the content to new mainstream media as needed to ensure continued availability over time

Re: Newbie storage question - HFS200
 

I am guessing if you want to email some videos, the people you want to be able to watch those videos do have an internet access, so instead of emailing videos in low resolution, upload them to one of many available websites like Youtube, Vimeo, Exposureroom, password protect them, and you will have free online storage for your videos, you will be able to keep more or less high resolution, you can link those videos on facebook and you will be able to email link with the password (if you want) to anyone.