Video record lectures and host them online?

I want to record some lectures in my grad courses in high def video and host them online for my classmates to download, and I have a few quick questions for anyone who has done this in the past.

I am leaning towards the Microsoft Lifecam Studio as it supposedly has a good microphone and 1080p recording, which I'm pretty sure my i7 XPS can handle recording during lecture.

Second, what good software can record in realtime? I have Adobe Premiere Elements 9, but it's a resource hog. Anything else that can do the job and use fewer resources?

Third, what good/economical webhost can I use to put these files up online for a class of 38 people to access and download for their use?

 

Buy a hd camcorder - never look back.


I speak out of experience I own a Logitech C910 one of the two 1080p webcams, the Microsoft LifeStudio is the other and its not much better. Plus its included software does not even record 1080p.

Between the two the C910 is much much better audio recording, and also has native software for 1080p recording.

In both cases though the quality is horrible, editing the footage is a pain due to the capture format, it will require your laptop & a webcam, and use your laptops resources etc.

You can get away with a hand sized camcorder to get 5x the quality, more ease of use, easier editing, no size/placement issues etc.

If you gotta do it on the cheap I would go with something like a Flip Mino HD or a Vado HD these record in 720p and still beat the quality of the 1080p webcams. From the looks of it, the image sensors on these webcams can not handle 1080p and its just being forced out of them much the way cheap consumer point & shoot cameras have boosted the megapixel count shamelessly. A 3MP camera and another model with 10MP that has the same image sensor, so the quality of the image is the same just the 10MP version is larger, but the quality is degraded as a result of blowing up the image size so as a result you have to shrink the image down, and now your back to square one again, could have suck with the 3MP camera and had that quality to start with and used less memory card space and less time editing.

These first gen 1080p webcams are a great idea, helping move tech forward however they are not ready for prime time yet, they lack quality and also like most webcams have horrible lower light performance too so that is important.

 

Thanks for the feedback.
I'm now looking at the newest Flip style cameras on Amazon, little more pricey but if they offer better capture, that will be pretty crucial in being a useful recording for class.

 

Well with a flip you can keep it on your person just like a cell phone, no need to worry about the laptop and the quality is going to be better IMO.

With my Vado HD editing the footage is still sort of a pain, Newer Sony Vegas is ok with it, but sometimes I have to wait a long time for importing.

Not sure if your planning on just "set it and forget it" but if you need any kind of mobility like your actually filming something obviously the Mino will be much easier to manage than a webcam with a usb umbilical cord, and you may even need the laptop plugged in for the sake of battery life.

You can score these mini HD recorders a lot cheaper than full price all the time on sale from places like Amazon, and refurbs, etc.

I definitely prefer the Vado HD to my C910. I had a very important video review get messed up too because of a hickup in the recording software ruined just a fraction of a second of recording in a 20 minute review and so the whole video file was toast. I never made another take of that video that I liked as much as that one too.

I got a Samsung H205 now it was on sale for a very big discount (almost the price of the H200) and it was so worth it for me, even using it once in a while it was worth it. If you plan to use it often its definitely worth it for a camcorder.

If this is just a little project though that your doing just for the heck of it and have no reason to invest in equipment I wouldnt bother going higher than the mini HD camcorders or just the integrated webcam on a laptop.

You can invest a few $$$ for a better microphone if your going to use the laptop, also do not underestimate the value and power of post processing the audio. I always have to filter background noise before I publish a video.

 

Well I'm a poor grad student and I'm doing lecture recordings of some courses where strict audio recordings aren't too helpful.
So a $200-$300 camcorder, while nice, isn't much of an option.
A $120-$140 mini HD would probably be at my maximum. After courses end in July and clinicals start I'll probably just sell it on CL and try to recoup some of the money.

Doing this out of the goodness of my heart for classmates, all cash outlay will be on my part for their benefit, so I'm not looking to spend much $$.

 

yeah you should be able to get a flip/vado or something in the $70-80 range i'll try to remember this thread when I see one on sale next.

Example: $64.00

http://dealnews2.pgpartner.com/user_sales_getprod.php?masterid=780279186&lot_id=10545602

 

Think that Vado HD will produce decent quality recordings of lecture that my classmates can hear well (probably need to do the audio post processing you mentioned?) and see clearly?

 

Here are a few of my Vado HD movies:

YouTube - Ergotech 100-D16-B03 Triple Monitor Desk Stand - Setup Preview

YouTube - Zombie Driver - Steam Treasure Hunt Achievement Road Rage (In Eyefinity Surround)

YouTube - Auidophile Headset Mod

YouTube - Dirt 2 - HD Eyefinity footage w/ Bezel Compensation

It got the job done, the main things I gained by finally getting a "real" camcorder is 1080p (I actually still record in 720p), better recording format, optical zoom, image stabilization, better quality.


You may want to do some research on your own if the Flip HD is better than the Vado HD and there is another product or two that also is the same. I got the Vado because it had a wider angle lens (wanted to record my mountain bike rides) and because I got it on sale for a really good price.

Im super happy with its performance for the price and the audio quality. I just hate how it is not drag & drop into all my video editors. Still I can work around that via changing the file container or transcoding.

 

Ended up ordering a Kodak Zi8 with an external condenser microphone.

Vicious, what software do you use to clean up the audio?

 

get your prof's permission

 

Yes sir!

Been in this game long enough to know the obvious...

 

Hmm Kodac..

Well for audio

For free use Audacity, for paid use Adobe Audition

Just google for a tutorial on "noise removal"

 

I thought the same thing, never bought Kodak products, but it actually got really good reviews and allows for an external mic.

I asked the Google machine, looks like Premiere is able to do it as well, might try it there first, if that doesn't work will give Audition a shot.

 

yeah probably a lot of the same features between the two.

 

Audition is a great tool. I've been using it almost everyday for two years. It's the primary software tool for Radio-Broadcasting here in Canada, so I'd recommend it if you're handling any type of audio.

 

I just use it for noise removal and possibly a bit of remastering. What kind of stuff do you use it for?

 

glad it was obvious to you, it wouldn't be to all students

good luck with your work

 

I had this class where the lectures were recorded and posted on-line and HATED it! Worst thing ever to hear a professor drone on over video for an hour. I find good notes to be much more useful.