Recording and sharing lessons

on video
The aim of this guide is to describe how to create video recordings of lessons to be
sent to tutors as digital files on USB stick.

Table of Contents
Video Recording..........................................................................................................2
Devices that record video__________________________________________________2
Traditional Camcorders__________________________________________________________2
Tapeless / Card-based Camcorders________________________________________________2
Digital Cameras_______________________________________________________________3
Webcams____________________________________________________________________3
Transferring video to computer_____________________________________________3
Tape-Based Camcorder_________________________________________________________3
Card or Hard-Drive Based Video Camera____________________________________________6
Tripod__________________________________________________________________7
Video Playback............................................................................................................8
Video formats____________________________________________________________8
Video players____________________________________________________________8
Video Sharing..............................................................................................................9
Secure sharing of files____________________________________________________9
Encrypting USB disks___________________________________________________________9
Uploading Encrypted Files _______________________________________________________9
Video Editing.............................................................................................................11
Video File Conversion and basic editing with Freemake________________________11
More Advanced Video Editing with VideoPad_________________________________12
Image Credits............................................................................................................13

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Video Recording

Devices that record video

Traditional Camcorders
Classic camcorders record on DV tape. They are easy to use to record but make it
difficult to transfer video to the computer. A computer with a Firewire port is
necessary and the transfer is in real time (ie it takes 60 minutes to transfer 60
minutes of video). See below.
Some camcorders record directly to DVD but DVDs need to be finalised and
additional software (such as Handbrake) is needed to convert them into digital files.

Tapeless / Card-based Camcorders

These types of cameras are ideal for the task. They save the recordings directly into
a digital file that can be copied via USB or SD card reader.
We recommend the Sanyo Xacti range: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sanyo-VPC-
CG20EXBK-B-Xacti-Camcorder-Photos/dp/B0038WATL2 that can serve as a very
serviceable digital camera. Additional batteries may be required for lessons over 60
minutes.
FlipVideo are also a popular brand in education http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flip-Video-
Camcorder-Generation-Memory/dp/B0029U298U. Flip and their competitors (e.g.
Disgo) are cheaper but can only be used for video. They are extremely easy to use
and make it easy to move recorded video onto a computer. However, they typically
do not make it possible to extend the memory so care must be taken to purchase a
model capable of recording at least 2 hours of video.

Sanyo Xacti Flip Camera

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Digital Cameras
Many digital cameras record video but they may be limited by length or quality. Make
sure your camera can record a full uninterrupted hour of video before live recording.
Also, some digital cameras do not record sound of sufficient quality.

Webcams
Webcams are not typically suitable to recording lessons because they are designed
to record a face at a fixed but some models can be sufficient in brightly-lit
environments. Make sure you send a sample to your tutor first to confirm suitability.
You can use Windows MovieMaker on XP or VideoPad on Windows 7/Vista (see
below) to capture video from your webcam.

Transferring video to computer

Camcorder ports (From top to bottom): Inexpensive SD card reader

Firewire port: used to transfer video off Note: most computers have a built in
tape card reader
USB port: used to transfer photos off SD
card

Tape-Based Camcorder
To transfer video from a camcorder you need a Firewire Cable and a Firewire port on
the computer. Most Macs and most PC laptops have a Firewire port, however, most
desktop PCs do not.
Also, Firewire jacks come in two different sizes: small (found on cameras and
laptops) and large (found on desktops only) – make sure you choose the right
combination when buying a cable.

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 Small to large (4-pin to 6-pin) firewire Small to small (4-pin to 4-pin) Firewire
cable cable
Used to transfer video from camcorder to Use to transfer video from camcorder to
desktop laptop

After you connect the camcorder to your computer, turn it on, open Windows
MovieMaker (on Windows or iMovie on MacOS) and choose Capture from Video
Device. Note: On most machines, you will receive an automatic prompt to import
video from the camera.

Follow the instructions to continue import, including choosing a location for storing
your video.

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When prompted to choose video quality, choose Other Settings and 768kbps or
512kbps to keep the size of the resulting video file small.

When prompted, use the buttons to start/stop capture. Video capture is done in real
time.
It is best to uncheck the default option ‘Create clips’ and you may also want to mute
the speakers while recording.
On most machines, it is advisable to close other programmes and not to use the
computer while capturing videos. Not doing so may result in skips and garbled audio.

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Once the capture is finished you can either close the Window and retrieve the file you
saved in the first step above.
If you wish to edit the video (e.g. crop, add subtitles), create and edit clips, combine
them by dragging them on the timeline and finish the movie by saving it to your
computer. Note: In all video editing software, you must ‘Finish’ the movie as
described below. Simply saving your edits to your computer will only create a ‘project
file’ that doesn’t contain a video anybody else can view.

Card or Hard-Drive Based Video Camera

To transfer video from a card-based on a hard-drive-based camera, you just need to
copy the files from the memory card (either via USB cable or card reader – see
above) to your harddrive.
You may still wish to edit them or reduce their size to fit on a smaller USB stick. See
below for more instructions.

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Tripod
For best recording results, you will need a tripod. Inexpensive classic tripods are
available but they can be difficult to transport.

As an alternative, we recommend GorrillaPods by Joby that can be attached to

furniture.

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Video Playback

Video formats
Video formats are a very complicated area. A video file consists of an enclosure that
holds the video and the audio track such as AVI, WMV, MPG, MP4, MOV and an
encoding format for the video track, known as codec such as Windows Video, h.264,
Divx, etc. While there are relatively few enclosures, there are many video codecs and
variations on codecs. This means that, for instance, some AVI files will play on a
computer while others won’t. This becomes a problem when you deal with video files
created on various machines. The solution is to install a video player that has support
for as many codecs as possible. Unfortunately even with the right codec, not all
players play all files correctly. If you deal with a lot of videos from different sources,
you may have to install more than one video player to play back your videos.
Generally, we have found that on Windows, the combination of the free GOM Player
and the Open Source VLC player, can handle most videos. On MacOS, VLC and
QuickTime should suffice although you may have to install additional software to play
WMV files.

Video players

GOM Player VLC

http://www.gomlab.com/ http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
VLC is also available on MacOS
Both of these players have additional features such as taking snapshots, speeding
up and slowing down playback, setting bookmarks, playing section of the video in a
loop and configurable keyboard shortcuts for controlling playback more efficiently
without using the mouse.

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Video Sharing
Video files containing recordings of an entire lesson are too large to send by email.
The best way to send a video file is to send it by post on a USB stick. We strongly
discourage the use of DVDs due to compatibility and cannot guarantee that tutors will
be able to view them.
Before sending your video, you should make sure it plays on a different computer
from the one on which the video was created (ideally using GOM or VLC).
The most common sources of problems are:
1. Copying only a shortcut to the video file and not the file itself (this means the
file plays on the original machine but not on the tutor’s computer)
2. Sending an improperly burned DVD
3. Sending a file copied directly from a DVD without conversion

Secure sharing of files

Encrypting USB disks
If you want to make sure the video on the USB stick you are sending cannot be
viewed by anyone else, you can use the free TrueCrypt software:
1. Go to http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads, download and install the software
2. Encrypt your USB drive by following advice on this tutorial:
http://www.butterscotch.com/tutorial/How-To-Encrypt-A-USB-Key-With-
TrueCrypt
3. Copy the video file (or any other files) to the encrypted drive
4. Email the password to your tutor
Note: Choose a long secure password with numbers and capital letters and write it
down. Ex: TromperXorba1956.

Uploading Encrypted Files

You can also use TrueCrypt to encrypt containers in which you can place your files
and then upload the containers on the Internet:
1. Create a secure container file on your drive following the instructions here:
http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/tutorial
2. Copy your file into the container file (it presents itself as a drive on your
machine)
3. Upload the container file to an online file service like http://ge.tt or
http://yousendit.com (Note: there may be a fee associated with the upload. At
the moment Ge.tt is free but YouSendIt charges a fee for uploads over
100MB)
4. Send your file and the password to the container to your tutor

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Note 1: Do not try to upload files larger than 1GB. Try to compress your video file to
about 500MB using the free software http://freemake.com (see below). Use the TV
or Mobile quality settings. Watch the compressed video before uploading to make
sure the quality is acceptable.
Note 2: Uploading video files can take many hours. It is not recommended over slow
connections.

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Video Editing
The most basic form of video editing is simply converting the file to make it smaller
and perhaps cutting off the beginning and end. For this we recommend the free
Windows software ‘Freemake’. http://freemake.com
For more advanced edits including subtitles, we recommend the free Windows
software VideoPad for all versions of Windows or MovieMaker for Windows Vista and
7. VideoPad lacks certain features but it can read and edit video files from almost any
format. http://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad
MacOS users can use iMovie for all edits.

Video File Conversion and basic editing with

Freemake

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More Advanced Video Editing with VideoPad

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Image Credits
http://www.flickr.com/photos/npslibrarian/2105033442
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35247640@N02/3343644319
http://www.flickr.com/photos/89927155@N00/3732931346/in/set-
72157594500615751

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