Hf G30 straight to DVD

[Nick Sutton]

I have a figure skating competition coming up and I have been requested to shoot footage of each skater and then burn those videos to a dvd. There is no edited needed as these are strictly for critiquing purposes.

Is there a simple solution to this without much headache? So far I haven't been able to find a clear cut answer on the right way to pull something like this off.

From what I have gathered, I could find a DVD recorder with a SD card slot and just copy the video footage that way. I would assume I would need to record in .MP4 format as well.

Another option I have run across is a SD to DVD duplicator. I have found plenty of DIY options for that but I'm having a hard time finding the controller with a SD slot that is still on the market.

Any input or advice would be highly appreciated!

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Nick,

Perhaps get away from DVD, as you'd likely need TWO burners working in rotation. One recording live, while the other is "finalizing" the disc which can take a few minutes. Depends how much time you have between performances. Then the viewer needs a DVD player, which are going away - think of laptops, tablets, Surface, etc.

Maybe record direct as .mp4 and then anyone can view. Something like the Matrox Monarch HD unit will record straight to a USB stick or SD card. One button recording. Of course, even small capacity sticks or SD cards cost more than DVD media, but if you can get reimbursed, making the .mp4 files will allow you to quickly deliver a high-quality HD video file that can be played almost anywhere.

Thanks

[Nick Sutton]

Thanks for the response Jeff. I was really interested in moving to a usb stick setup but wasn't sure if it was cost effective yet. It's hard to break that clients thought of wanting a DVD, and I totally agree the world is moving away from DVD.

Another thought I had was to somehow host it on our network and password protect each performance video. Then they could purchase the password and view the performance on their mobile device or tablet. That might be a long stretch but it'd be much nicer. After the competition, they could then just download the file and put it on their own DVD.

[Nick Sutton]

Oh and check this out:

YouTube (Short URL)

[Nick Sutton]

I just did some looking around on my Zenfolio account and they offer video hosting and password protection for each video. Now what the hard part will be is uploading those videos in a timely fashion.

I did a test of a 0:50 .mp4 file (only 16mb) and it took about 1 minute to upload and 5 minutes to render to be played on the zenfolio site. Using SpeedTest.net I have an upload speed of 12Mbps right now. So I don't think that would be efficient by any means. Some of these competition performances are 4-5 minutes long.

[Don Palomaki]

How quickly (soon after the performance) do you have to deliver the recorded video?
How many different performances?
How much time between performances?

FWIW: 2 GB USB thumb drives can be bought in bulk for as little as $2 each, 8GB for under $4 each. While more than DVD, you can deliver the file in HD to boot, use a laptop to do the file transfer from SDHC card to thumb drive quickly.

If they insist on DVD I would use DVD recorders and feed a the live analog composite signal from the camcorder to the burner. Keep the file on the SD card for backup, or if someone really ants a HD file as well.

[Nick Sutton]

Originally Posted by Don Palomaki

How quickly (soon after the performance) do you have to deliver the recorded video?
How many different performances?
How much time between performances?

FWIW: 2 GB USB thumb drives can be bought in bulk for as little as $2 each, 8GB for under $4 each. While more than DVD, you can deliver the file in HD to boot, use a laptop to do the file transfer from SDHC card to thumb drive quickly.

If they insist on DVD I would use DVD recorders and feed a the live analog composite signal from the camcorder to the burner. Keep the file on the SD card for backup, or if someone really ants a HD file as well.

The sooner I can deliver the video, the better.

I don't have a set list on the number of performances yet, but I know there was 125ish skaters last year and some of them do multiple performances. So my guess would be somewhere around 150-175 total performances.

I just glanced at the event sheet and there is one 6 minute group and one 4 minute group (not sure on the # of skaters in each group) and then the rest of the performances are 1 minute 30 seconds up to 2 minutes 40 seconds long.

The time between each performance is somewhat short. When one skater heads off the ice, the other one is waiting in the doorway to skate onto the ice. Maybe a max of 30 to 45 seconds. My solution for this was to have multiple SD cards available and just pop a new one in for each skater. I should only need 5 or so cards I believe. I'll use one large card as a backup and never remove it from the camera.


As far as the thumb drives, I need to look more into that. I know they have duplicator that will transfer data from and SD card to a flash drive. Duplicators are typically a one button operations as well. Time to waste away my day looking at duplicator stuff :D

[Nick Sutton]

So I sent out a few emails last night to some companies that offer duplicators and one responded this morning and said this is the unit I would want:

SySTOR 1 to 1 CD DVD Duplicator + USB/SD/CF to DVD Backup Copier Tower (PMBC-1)



Not a bad little setup but $319 seems a bit steep for what it is. I know it could be built for less if I could get my hand on the controller.

[Don Palomaki]

Is this machine copying from the USB to a data DVD?
Or do you need a video DVD?

[Nick Sutton]

Originally Posted by Don Palomaki

Is this machine copying from the USB to a data DVD?
Or do you need a video DVD?

That's the BIG "issue". It would take the .MP4 from the G30 and just copy over that data to the dvd. So people would have to watch it on a computer or something that supports .MP4. I believe most newer dvd players support .MP4 but we all know there are going to be issues for some people.

[Nick Sutton]

Well after our largest event I'm still looking for an on-site deliverable solution. I spent way too much time doing lableing on envelopes as well as dealing with postage. Speaking of postage, $175 later everything was mailed out.

Being that we do 3 of these events a year, that's quite the expense for postage.

[Don Palomaki]

Are you doing this as a "one-man-band" operation, or do you have a trusty assistant or two to help at the shoot?

Are these mainly one-of's of each performance, or are multiple copies of each performance needed?

Standard DVD is SD, do you need to deliver HD files?

[Nick Sutton]

Originally Posted by Don Palomaki

Are you doing this as a "one-man-band" operation, or do you have a trusty assistant or two to help at the shoot?

Are these mainly one-of's of each performance, or are multiple copies of each performance needed?

Standard DVD is SD, do you need to deliver HD files?

I actually have a table staff of up to 4, 1 video shooter and 2 photographers. Both photographers are shooting at the same time so there is always a free body.

There are individual events during the competitions and within these events there can be up to 5 or 6 skaters skating separately. So if all of them purchase their video, that amount of DVD's would need to be made. That is where a DVD duplicator would come in handy.

As far as quality, It definitely doesn't need to be anything special. People just want to be able to view their performance. I'm not adding any menu options to these DVD's either. It's just straight footage.

I have however had 1 case out of 72 from this last event where they asked if I could make it playable on a DVD player for their grandparent. Not a big deal.

[Don Palomaki]

Then it sounds like the fastest, and lowest cost is to:
Copy the MP4 files to economical thumb drives and pass those out. Use a laptop PC to do that. The "free" person can do that while others are shooting. You can have the thumb drives printed with your logo, and maybe the event date (or add those details with a fine point permanent marker and neat handwriting).

Have a simple DVD recorder at hand to record a standard VIDEO DVD for the few people who need that. It means having a player with composite or s-video output to feed the DVD recorder while another is shooting..

With postage plus DVD mailer close to the cost of a thumb drive, not counting packaging and shipping labor, instant delivery makes sense, and alternate delivery forms/formats can be priced separately.

[Nick Sutton]

I was thinking about the flash drive setup simply because people with new MacBooks don't have optical drives. Problem is, I haven't been able to get any decent quotes for 4GB custom flash drives.

Here is the breakdown on cost to ship DVDs.

$2.54 via USPS
$0.20 per DVD
$0.05 per DVD for ink
$0.60 per bubble package
$0.01 per DVD sleeve

Total: $3.40 excluding time expense making each DVD. 72 orders took me 8hrs to complete. So... that in itself might be worth looking at the flash drive option.

I wonder if I can find some inexpensive packaging similar to what the square readers come in to place the flash drives in. I'd hate to just hand over a flash drive. I bet I could add on an option to get it on a usb drive for $2.50 to help cover some of the expense or maybe just have the customer pay for shipping.