good original video but bad to Rail-Videos.net

[Trainshooter]

I need input from all you rail videographers out there!! I have quite a library of trains on tape - specifically 8mm - most of it recorded in Digital 8 on a pretty decent Sony Handycam. When I view it on the cameras LCD screen or on my TV's at home it looks really good - sharp, clear video with accurate colors and no noise when a scene is paused (or frozen) to record locomotive numbers. When I researched a couple years ago the best way to videotape trains I came to the conclusion that Digital 8 was the best way for me since I already had quite a bit of family videos and trains on regular analog 8mm. Certain Sony Digital 8 Handycams have the capability of playing back both digital and analog recorded 8mm tapes. Also, I was concerned with what I read about "burned" DVD type recordings deteriorating quickly especially when exposed to heat (like leaving it in a hot car). I don't mean hot like melting the plastic hot I mean really warm! It seems that DVD's that are burned rather than molded are prone to data drop outs in as little as a couple years after being recorded. Plus, I had found that my real old VHS tape recordings (magnetic media - 30+ years old) still looked good. Granted the cameras weren't as good as what we have now but at least I didn't see any degradation in picture quality. Anyway, what I'm having problems with is getting good video from an 8mm digital tape to my computer and then uploaded to R-V's website. I use the Pixela 1.0 program that came with the Handycam and it's easy enough to use. So far I have 12 videos that have been accepted to R-V's database and no they sure don't look as good played back on a computer as they do straight from the camera to a TV but I know that "streaming digital video" has it's limitations yet. Yesterday I had several rejections because of "pixelated video" and I agree that you can see the little blocks in them just as there are in many of the videos in R-V's database so far and on YouTube or any other website with video clips. This technology is new to a lot of us and I just want to open this thread up to anyone with good, easy to understand advice about the best way to record trains in movie form and get it to this website to share with the world. Thanks for any help in advance and taking the time to read this...

[Trainshooter]

I also wanted to add that the uploaded videos of both mine and many that you see in the database have that "choppy" look. What I mean is that the trains don't move fluidly (to borrow a phrase from one of the screeners). What causes this and how can it be reduced? Is it limited by the bandwidth of one's internet hookup or the framerate R-V receives the upload at or what? The answer to this I expect is pretty technical but if anyone has an easy to understand explanation I think it would help us all. Thanks again by the way to Chris, Andrew and Chris (and anyone else involved) for adding the video aspect to R-P. Once we all know as much about videotaping trains as we do about still photography I'm sure Rail-Videos.net will be a huge success as well!

[Joe the Photog]

You got a link for us?


Joe

[Trainshooter]

Here's a link to an accepted video -

http://www.rail-videos.net/video/view.php?id=139

and one to a rejected video for being "pixelated" -

http://www.rail-videos.net/video/rejected.php?id=10000487

[Mgoldman]

T hat video do es s eem to jum p a littl e bit bbut most of what I've seen looks pr etty good.

[Trainshooter]

I'm starting to figure this issue out on my own - it seems that using USB format for transferring video from camcorder to computer has glitches. The data stream is inconsistent from what I gather. I have Firewire capability but no cable to hook up that way. The cable is cheap and might just solve my problem so that will be my next step. Hope this info helps anyone else who has run into this...

[Wizzo]

I'm starting to figure this issue out on my own - it seems that using USB format for transferring video from camcorder to computer has glitches. The data stream is inconsistent from what I gather. I have Firewire capability but no cable to hook up that way. The cable is cheap and might just solve my problem so that will be my next step. Hope this info helps anyone else who has run into this...

You have hit the nail square on the head.

I acquired a Sony Handycam about a year ago, mainly to shoot off road action with, although I do have a few train clips that might find their way onto the new site.

The camera was only supplied with a USB cable, although the base station did have a DV (firewire) socket. When I transferred video to the PC via USB for editing I was very disappointed with the quality - pixelated and jerky. After 10 mins on Google I found out that USB simply isn't up to handling video transfer.

I purchased a firewire card for the PC and a connecting cable. Subsequent video transferred from the camera via firewire is high quality and indistinguishable from playing the tape directly onto the TV