Record high quality MP4 without a Computer for cheap
I normally don΄t like to comment on products in general but I know that some fellow VJs have this big problem and this is just the perfect solution. The problem? Recording a 1+ hour set.
There are some solution already available but they are all bad, but lets recap them
1. Recording to a DV Camera
----------------------
The Good:
Good quality
small formfactor
The Bad:
Expensive equipment
Camera record head has limited live span and if you record a two hour set every week the camera will last about 4 month
maximum record time per tape 120 min with reduced quality 90 minutes full dv quality
for further distribution you have to digitize the stuff back in (loosing 90 minutes in the meantime)
2. Recording with a DVD Recorder
--------------------------
The Good:
dvd recorder are quite cheap
you have a dvd in your hand in the of it
The Bad:
I have to see one DVD recorder that just works
heavy basstly music will make the lens jump and leaves you with a broken DVD and mostly no way of recovering you footage - this happens VERY frequently
putting it on the web (gooTube) requires you to rip the dvd - a long process.
3. Recording to a spare Laptop
------------------------
The Good:
Full Quality/Codec/Format Control
you have it on a harddrive and can just copy move it around recode it whatever
The Bad:
EXPENSIVE who has earned the money to get a spare laptop to do just video recording - a raise of hands please
Takes up lots of space
cable mess
spilled drinks
As we can see all these solutions are far from perfect and mostly stop gap measures to find a truly portable, cheap recording medium. Well a company that I once had a lot of love for but then got bought up by AVID and since then has not putting out much of interest has the perfect device. The company I am talking about is Pinnacle - people who have done video editing in the late 90s probably know it. They used to produce professional capture cards and computer/video stuff of high quality. Their new product is called - rather unispiring - the PINNACLE VIDEO TRANSFER. Its geared towards consumers but is just the perfect thing for the VJ warrior. It has video/audio inputs (S-Video, Composite-Video und Stereo-Audio) and a USB port. You feed it the video and connect a Harddrive of USB2 flavor or a PSP or an iPod or an Memory Stick on the USB port and it record you video to this massstorage of your choice as an MPG4 in a user customizable quality up to 720x576 25fps (full pal video (or NTSC if that is what you need). The thing without a drive costs kidney saving 129,00 Euro or as a bundle with a western digital USB2 harddrive you get it for 199,00 Euro.
4. recording with PINNACLE VIDEO TRANSFER
-----------------------
The Good:
Storage only limited by the Connected Harddrive (1TB of MPG4 should get you about a week of footage)
Small formfactor
relatively cheap
portable
relatively high Quality (better then MPG2 DVD for sure! Not quite DV but close)
little failure rate (especially when used with an SSD Drive or Memory stick -> no bass-moved heads jumping around)
The Bad (oh there always has to be one):
Converting it to something else is about as painful as converting a DVD
Converting it to something else is bringing you some bad quality loss
But since no one does DVDs anymore anyway you just set to the quality you need for your website and there you go no need for conversion ;)
This is what a VJ should have in its bag if she wants to record their sets - the ultimate solution for now.