Watching video from a DSLR

[ChrisR]

My Canon can take
1920 x 1080 at 25fps or 24 fps
1280 x 720 at 50fps
640 x 480 at 25 fps.

If I use the middle one, when I play them back on my old PC they jump, about once a second then "play" for about a quarter of a second, then jump again.(Quicktime). Is that a problem with a slow video card?
Is there a program I can use to reformat them to a lower spec so they play more smoothly?
(They're fine on the back of the camera)

thanks

 

[ericmark]

I also have a problem with a Camcorder in the same way on my old PC. I bought an old DVD/Hard-drive with no freeview tuners brand new for a song and it has firewire built in so I now transfer my tapes using this stand alone machine and don't use the computer.
There are a number of reasons why the PC may not keep up including the USB port speed. And in my case the TV card speed which is needed to upload the video.
Is there an option to use different methods to upload into the PC? My camera has comp sync, firewire and USB. No firewire on PC but with D-SLR I only use it for stills so USB is OK. Only use camcorder for video.
Of course a true D-SLR can't take video as the R refers to reflex mirror and it would not be able to go up and down that fast. Some modern D-SLR's however allow one to disable the SLR function and work like a compact using the CCD to view the picture displaying it on the LCD screen in same way as a camcorder. However then quality with such a large CCD is very very good and the size of file created can be well over that made with a Camcorder in some cases to same quality as used with commercial films.
To get HD pictures using max pixels that my TV can display will give me a Jpeg file of around 1Meg but my camera will take pictures at 10Meg if the TV can't display them what's the point? To to show my pictures on my TV I reduce them all using the Photoshop image processor from Bridge. This means the pictures show near immediately rather than having to watch them slowly build up down the screen as the TV or DVD player tries to process the huge file.
Unless you have a method to display the extreme high quality then what is the point? Even the overhead projectors don't have a huge pixel range so unless you are going to show in your local cinema using there top quality equipment really just no point in taking in such high quality. And if you are them buy a MAC to do it with. PC's are just not the tool for high quality audio visual you need a MAC.
Since I also want to use my PC for other work I have no intention of getting a MAC.

 

[darek]

My Canon can take
1920 x 1080 at 25fps or 24 fps
1280 x 720 at 50fps
640 x 480 at 25 fps.

If I use the middle one, when I play them back on my old PC they jump, about once a second then "play" for about a quarter of a second, then jump again.(Quicktime). Is that a problem with a slow video card?
Is there a program I can use to reformat them to a lower spec so they play more smoothly?
(They're fine on the back of the camera)

thanks

No, it's very unlikely that the problem is caused by your graphic card (make sure you have drivers for your motherboard and graphic card properly installed, though)

I would start from downloading good software player with new codecs such as :
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
or http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm

If you want to convert videos I recommend :
http://www.mediacoderhq.com/download.htm
or http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php

There are a number of reasons why the PC may not keep up including the USB port speed. And in my case the TV card speed which is needed to upload the video.
Is there an option to use different methods to upload into the PC? My camera has comp sync, firewire and USB. No firewire on PC but with D-SLR I only use it for stills so USB is OK.

The easiest solution is to buy a PCI firewire card .Do not go for the cheapest ones as they may drop frames. Belkin should be ok (although my cheap ,old Via which is usually not recommended, works just fine) . I can see plenty of them on feebay for approx.£5-6 delivered

 

[steveb1964]

if it is an old pc then it will struggle to play 1080 or 720p footage and you will get things jumping around like you see now.

try vlc or coreavc.

really you need something like a quad core processor to run these files smoothly

 

[ChrisR]

Thanks ( sorry I've been away)
So, what's HDTV, 1080 by something around 2/3rds of that?
Perhaps 1280 x 720 would be the one to use then, and downsize to HDTV?
I'm thinking of doing some demonstration videos, but no. I don't need cinema quality!

I'm not one of these religious people when it comes to PC/Mac - Macs are just so much more expensive. especially the laptops. Why are they better for video??

 

[MarkTravis]

Thanks ( sorry I've been away)
So, what's HDTV, 1080 by something around 2/3rds of that?
Perhaps 1280 x 720 would be the one to use then, and downsize to HDTV?
I'm thinking of doing some demonstration videos, but no. I don't need cinema quality!

I'm not one of these religious people when it comes to PC/Mac - Macs are just so much more expensive. especially the laptops. Why are they better for video??

In simple terms you only need to shoot in HD if you are going to playback via a computer (incl. graphics card and especially the monitor) that has a suitable program to playback HD footage OR you are going to burn the footage to blu ray. If you burn HD (1080 or 720) to DVD, you get DVD quality.

I shoot HD in my work and always do so at the 720p setting (which techincally is 1080i) I have always found that various older players can struggle with 1080i, but everthing works OK with 720 and I am damed if anyone can tell the difference!

For any HD on a computer you need a good spec CPU, as HD really does put a strain on a computer - you wait until you start editing and rendering! even a 720 10 minute render can take ages! The graphics card is important but if it can playback HD then it will generally cope. My advice is CPU and RAM in that order.

Oh and happy shooting the Canon is a good camera the Canon 5D mkII, by the way has been used in the shooting of a good many feature films in recent times