best camera to stream video?
 

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this & never owned a DV cam before.
Can anyone suggest the best camera to film a 3 hour classroom course and stream the video exclusively on the internet ? I am currently hesitating between the GL2 and the Pdx10.

I will use a separate microphone so the XLR input on the Pdx10 is interesting. The streaming function may also be used.
I know the PDX10 is more pro, but I am wondering if the price difference is worth it, given the fact that my content will be compressed anyways.

Does anyone know if it is possible to record from the Pdx10 directly to a laptop hard drive via the firewire link?

Thanks a lot for any help!

JF Nadeau

> best camera to stream video?
 

I'm no expert on the subject but since no one has jumped in...Seems to me you have two choices - 1) a comcorder that can make AND save a web stream format, such as MPEG-4. 2) a non-streaming camcorder and some better than average compression tools. Three hours is a ton of data. I assume you won't be streaming live. If that's so, choice #1 will save you many hours of compression, but you will have no control over the quality of the compression and limited control over the resulting files - ie you won't be able to edit fades-in and out, add titles and so on, because there's no post production stage. If there is an MPEG-4 editor out there I don't know of it. Choice #2 means hours of capture, editing (even if only to create discreet segments) and compression. But you do have control over the content of each clip you create (I assume you aren't going to create one 3-hour streaming clip) and you have control over the compression settings - which not only involves quality but also the disk space required to host these files, if that's a concern.
I'm not sure if these thoughts are helpful or not. Hopefully they'll stimulate some further replies.

MPEG vs DV
 

Thanks for your reply, it raises an aspect that I did not consider.
It makes not much sense to record the full course in MPEG, and not being able to edit anything.

I found out that I could record from the camera directly into my laptop, or to an external hard drive (120 gigs = 500 CDN$) connected to my laptop. Given your answer, I believe that we will record in DV rather than in MPEG.

I'm still uncertain as to which camera I should choose. I wonder if I should put the extra money to buy a pro camera (pdx10 or pd150) rather than a prosumer (GL2) (or just consumer) given the fact that the video will ultimately be compressed...

Thanks for your reply!

JF Nadeau