Mountain Biking - Making an MTB video... any advice?

Me mum bought Dad a decent Sony video digital8 camcorder that he never uses, so i hopefully will get some footage of me and me mates mucking about on the trails.

Do any of you know how to record it onto PC? Its got a USB connection, and sticker on the side says USB STREAMING as one of the features, so how do i work this?

Also where can i host videos of us riding, to share with you lot.

Last but not least, any usefull programs i could use for editing or adding music? Any tips whilst shooting.

Thanks guys. :D

well as an editor there are many ways. the camera should have come with a disc or something that has the program to make it computer friendly.. then depending on that program you might be able to just drag and drop cut and paiste..hosting and all that im not sure but im sure someone else would know ...

if your are able to drag and drop cut and paiste then figure out how to put a music file(mp3,wav.etc,) into either an audio track or a video track under you footage and it should lay it to the video....


your first gonna have to figure out if you have the right programs so good luck if you have any more wuestions hit me up.



hope this helps

AN6's


.02

I don't know about hosting, but I could try to help you with some of the other parts.

Usually if it has a usb connection it's pretty much plug & play, If you have windows xp I know that whenever you plug in a new USB device it'll make a "ding-dong" type sound and something will pop up on your desktop to ask you what you want to do with the stuff on the camera.

As for adding music, editing etc... Windows xp comes with a program called windows movie maker that works pretty well, does all you need for a video compilation to share with friends. There are some others out there as well but you usually only can get 30 day trials and whatnot unless you pay money.

for shooting, I would say to make sure that you have a good variety of stuff, and experiment with angles... angles are everything (except the actual riding :))

Have fun, it always seems to make things more interesting when vidcams are involved...

EDIT: oh yes, as an6freerider said, it probably came with some software that allows you to do basic editing as well.

Thanks guys, good info! I just looked through the manual and found a USB driver and digital imaging software, so i will experiment a bit with this, and try and find out how to add music.

Chances are the riding will be 100x less hardcore compared to the music as im into Slayer etc! :D

I use windows movie maker to make my videos, but I only have a digital camera that can take 320x240 clips right now (looking for a camcorder <100 bucks).

I'd recommend buying a low priced web hosting plan (I get 250mb/5gb bandwidth for $3 a month, it's enough for me). You might need to buy a domain, but you can do like I did and get a .us domain for $5 per year.

Got some footage as a test, just few wheelies bunnyhops etc. Looks a lot lower quality than that of the LCD on the camera. Anyway ill get it sorted and head out on the bike this weekend and get some proper videos thrown up here.

I can send the other vid to anyone who wants it, only 1min ~1.4mb

If you can send it to jonbuder @ gmail.com, i'll upload it so others can see it.

I can also give you some webspace for free, if you want.

Kickass, ill send it right now!

Cheers bro.

Here is a link that shows how to make a helmet cam.

http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/goodies/mini-dv.htm

I'm thinking of making a helmet cam some time soon and hitting up the local trails. Theres nothing technical. But I want to share them. Hopefully there will be a cooler day soon. It would be MUCH easier to mount the camera on my fullface.

http://jonbuder.us/files/dazza_tricks.wmv
-Here ya are.

There was a lot of time where you were turning around, off-cam, so I cropped those out. It made the vid a bit shorter, and smaller.

haha thanks a bunch dude thats great! Hopefully get some real footage this weekend!