emailing AVI clips (A40)

[rmrm]

I have a canon A40 powershot and can email my pictures without any problems ( after downloading them to my computer ). But how can I email my video clips? I am not a computer expert, so please be detailed. Thanks for the help.

[JohnMN]

I don't know if you want the short or long versions of how to email video clips, so here is both. The short version is, just send then as an attachment along with your email (depending on how large they are, it may take you forever to send it). Now follows the long version of how to do it.

SENDING VIDEO CLIPS BY EMAIL.

1. Load up Arcsoft VideoImpression 3.0 or whatever version you have.

2. Click on the GET icon to open the find the video file you wish to
email. Navigate to the disk or folder where the file is stored.

3. An Open dialog box will appear, click on the file and click on the
Open button. Your file will be added to the bottom or end of all the
other files in VideoImpression.

4. Click on the file to highlight it (red box around it) and then click
on the Add to Storyline icon. The first frame will appear in the movie
strip at the bottom.

5. Click on the Play Movie icon (movie projector) which is next to the
Add to Storyline icon. Next click on the Send icon (envelope).

6. A Send dialog box will appear asking you to type in a name for your
file. Type in a name in the box provided and click on OK. The file will
then be processed and an Internet Connection Wizard will appear.

7. Depending on what your Internet settings are the following may or may
not work for you.

8. Type in a Display Name, click on Next.

9. Type in your full email address, click on Next.

10. Email server names (you will have to find this information out for yourself,
but you can try POP3, POP3 and SMTP in each of the respective boxes. Click Next again.

11. Enter account name (your email address). Then the password you were given by
your service provider. Make sure 'Remember Password' is ticked and click on Next. Then
click on Finish.

12. If everything has gone well up to this point, Microsoft Outlook Express should appear
onscreen, with the video file included in the Attachment line, but as a (.exe) file.

Let me know how you get on with either version.

JohnMN

[lord.hypnos]

If you are going to be emailing clips, then I'd definitely recommend that you convert them first. I use TMPGEnc (http://www.tmpgenc.net/e_download.html) to convert the files to MPEG (which everyone can view regardless of OS).

Load the video file by chosing browse or by just dragging the video file icon onto the program. Click setting to adjust the encoding options.
And for the settings I use:
Video:
>Framerate: 24fps (doesn't affect size much)
>Rate control mode: Automatic VBR
>>Click "Settings"
>>Quality: 80 (doesn't affect size much)
>>Max bitrate: 600kb/s
Audio:
>Stream Type: MPEG 1 Layer II
>Sampling freq: 32kHz
>Channel mode: mono
>Bitrate: 32kb/s

Specify an output directory, and then press Start.

As an example of what that will do, an 10s original clip (from my S30) was 2.8MB and the converted is now 800kB. That is less than 30% of the original filesize. You could reduce that further by decreasing the Max bitrate of the video, but then the quality drops off.

As far as emailing them, if you know how to attach pictures, you use the exact same steps to attach video files.

[rmrm]

Thanks ! !

I have sent a AVI with the great help from "JohnMN". The picture quality was not as good as the original, but I am glad to have learned how to send the file.

I will try "lord.hypnos" method next. Maybe the quality will be better.

Thanks for responding. This is a great site. Glad I found it.

[pdonner]

I read your posting about converting AVI files. I have both a 330 and a S110 and I cannot seem to convert these to MPEG I or II using your method. I am trying to pull them into Adobe Premier but they are not recognized. Any ideas?

Thanks.



lord.hypnos wrote:
If you are going to be emailing clips, then I'd definitely recommend that you convert them first. I use TMPGEnc (http://www.tmpgenc.net/e_download.html) to convert the files to MPEG (which everyone can view regardless of OS).

Load the video file by chosing browse or by just dragging the video file icon onto the program. Click setting to adjust the encoding options.
And for the settings I use:
Video:
>Framerate: 24fps (doesn't affect size much)
>Rate control mode: Automatic VBR
>>Click "Settings"
>>Quality: 80 (doesn't affect size much)
>>Max bitrate: 600kb/s
Audio:
>Stream Type: MPEG 1 Layer II
>Sampling freq: 32kHz
>Channel mode: mono
>Bitrate: 32kb/s

Specify an output directory, and then press Start.

As an example of what that will do, an 10s original clip (from my S30) was 2.8MB and the converted is now 800kB. That is less than 30% of the original filesize. You could reduce that further by decreasing the Max bitrate of the video, but then the quality drops off.

As far as emailing them, if you know how to attach pictures, you use the exact same steps to attach video files.

[lord.hypnos]

Hmm ... the only thing that I can think of is that you don't have an M-JPEG decompressor installed. QuickTime installs ones during installation, or if you want better results you could use PicVideo's (or some other) codec.

Premiere seems to be a bit overkill considering the quality of the files produced by the camera. M-JPEG is the codec most people (myself included) use to screen/vidcap. Premiere had no problem opening one of my movies.

I assume that you know what you are doing if you are trying to encode to MPEG II. To be able to play the file, one will need a software DVD player installed not just a standard player such as Windows Media Player.

[Jerry Vanderberg]

lord.hypnose - Thank you for suggestion of software for compression. I also am interested in compressing AVI clips from an S30, so my settings should be similar to those that you suggested. However, settings offered to me on my downloaded program don't coincide with what you have suggested. So here is what I have set (or am asking):

Select Format: (I chose Video-CD/NTSC Film)
Interlace vs. Non-Interlace??
Aspect Ratio: (1:1 (VGA))
To get the 600 bitrate that you suggest, I had to "unlock" the bitrate choices: Okay?
VBZ buffer choice??
When I try this or other variations, shortly after compression process begins, I get an error message: (stream writing error) and compression stops

Any suggestions?

[lord.hypnos]

I think that you used the Project Wizard that pops up automatically when you start TMPGEnc. You can manually set all of your options by pressing Cancel (You can also uncheck the option to start the wizard each time).
In the bottom third of the program window you should see Video Source, Audio Source, Output File, and Stream Type. The options that you are looking for are in the Settings button under Stream type.
However, if you were trying to make a VCD you can follow the directions here:
http://www.vcdhelp.com/tmpgenc.htm
(A great site on how to convert from various formats to another)

I also have an S30, but the process should be exactly the same.

[Swreck]

This seemed super helpful, but I'm not getting video--only audio. To back up, I moved some footage from tape to MM card and then to my PC. It came over as an .avi. Right from the start, Windows Media Player could only get the audio, no video. When I opened the file in Quicktime, it was fine--I got both audio and video. I figured maybe mpeg would help, so I downloaded TMPGEnc. But when I try to open the avi as the Video source, it says something like "can't open, not supported." I CAN get it to take the same file and make an mpeg of the audio only though. Seems like it's having the same issue as Window Media Player. Any ideas on how I can make the file open in Media Player and get the video? (Plus I like the smaller file size of the mpeg conversion)

Thanks in advance!

[JohnMN]

The only thing I can think of is, that you are missing a file that Windows Media Player needs. I have seen this before but I now use Quicktime to playback the video files from my A40. Try running Windows Media Player again and take note of any files it says are missing or that you may need to download from Internet.

JohnMN

[deep_thought]

I just went through the same issue on my new S200.

I honestly never thought I'd use the video feature, then my friend's son started doing the chicken dance for easter...

Anyway read this thread and tried a couple of things including
-new download of quicktime
-virtual dub
-TMPGEnc

none of which recognized the clip. The problem seems to be Quicktime doesn't download a codec for motion jpeg that other applications can access (out-Gatesing Microsoft?) so you need to download a codec elsewhere. I used Morgan M-JPEG codec V3

http://www.morgan-multimedia.com/

which was the charm. Now views in Media Player and opens in Virtualdub for conversion with any installed codec, so I've joined my 3 clips recompressed and e-mailed them.

Codec is 60 day trial: whan that runs out I'll decide if it worth paying $20 to register, but the chicken dance is almost worth it in itself - unless anyone knows a freeware compatible codec? I've got to say though that on my Duron 800 system media player with this works a WHOLE lot better than quicktime.

[simpleguy]

I tried using TMPGEnc as suggested to compress/convert the avi file to mpeg, and came across the problem of TMPGEnc not recognizing the video source. However, I have an MJPEG codec installed, since I can view the avi in Media Player, but apparently TMPGEnc couldn't access it.

Searching around on the TMPGEnc forums for this problem, I came across a suggestion to go to the TMPGEnc Options to "Environment Settings" to "Vfapi Plugins" and raise the "Direct Show File Reader" to 2.

http://bbs.pegasys-inc.com/bbscgi/ebbs/board.cgi?board=tmpgenc#topic26534

This solved my problem - TMPGEnc was able to recognize the video source of the avi file and convert to mpg.