IT Help with You Tube

[Cypress]

Cari Amici

I attended a concert lately and captured some video/audio of portions of the performance. My Canon AS1300 does the best it can and while the video may be a bit wobbly at times, the audio is first rate.

I posted to You Tube so other fans could enjoy the songs as well. One video is particularly superb but the video is most most terrible, but the audio is most most superb. Is there a way to mask the video, put up a still picture of the artist and let the viewer only listen? I want to share this with fans but am new to You Tube and ever so the amateur with technology.

Also, can I transfer the video on my PC to a DVD and put in my DVD player at home for viewing?

Thanks if you can.

[SteveinMN]

Cypress, the short answer to both your questions is yes.

First, though: posting a video you took at a concert can put you in somewhat murky copyright territory. Was recording allowed? Will your video be used only for non-profitable purposes? I hate to be a mudge, but no one wants to see their artistic skill carried off and I don't want to enable bad activity. You're probably fine if you shot just a short segment of the concert and you don't intend to make money from posting it on YouTube or anywhere else.

I've never posted a video (not even on Facebook) so I'm guessing others will provide better answers, but there are programs on most recent PCs/Macs that will create the kind of programming you want and save it in a format that can be uploaded to YouTube. Powerpoint might even be able to do it, if you can live with its significant limitations. On Mac, Garage Band is the program that comes to mind first. VLC (free) and likely even some of the software that came with your Canon camera may allow you to do this. I'd poke around there first and then maybe look at some reputable shareware sites for other choices.

As for the second question, so long as you have a DVD burner on your computer, you can do this. If you don't have one (some only read DVDs), add-on burners are really cheap these days. When the DVD burner on my MacBook Pro died, I replaced it with a Lite-On I bought used off Amazon for $14 bucks. Plug it in and go. Easy peasy.

[Cypress]

Hi Steve

Thanks for replying to my query. Yes, it is only a portion of a concert and yes only for personal use. I never intend to profit from this only share with friends.

I can purchase a DVD blank this weekend, do you have to format the disc? What about compressing the video itself? I thought I read somewhere that it was necessary to do. I just want to preserve this experience for myself.

I am a laggard but don't mind trying. :)

[SteveinMN]

I can purchase a DVD blank this weekend, do you have to format the disc? What about compressing the video itself? I thought I read somewhere that it was necessary to do.
The act of putting the DVD blank in the burner will instigate a request to format it. The choices of format should be fairly obvious (one will be, say, "Backup"; another will be "Files"; another would be "mp4" or such). You might want to choose the same format that was used by your camera -- when you move the file from your camera to your computer, the extension will identify the file type. You also might want to purchase more than one blank (or at least find them at a convenient place); every now and then something misfires (video file is corrupted, the burner hiccups, the disk is faulty, whatever) and you get what's called a "coaster" because all it's good for is holding up drinks. :) I also would make a safe duplicate copy of the original file -- or verify it's still on your camera before you work on it on your computer. Just in case.

Compressing the video also will be largely automatic and will depend on the format in which you save/export the file. It also will be dependent on your DVD player and what formats it can play back. I would think if it's recent, MP4 format should work fine. It's likely what came out of your camera, too. I would not recommend changing the video format unless you have to -- almost any time you do that, the picture will deteriorate.

At this point, though, we're both flying a little blind. Without knowing the file format, what program you will use on your PC to edit, what your DVD player can read, etc., I can't be very specific about procedure or menu choices. But if you have a safe copy of your file, you can experiment (and learn!) a lot as you try things out. Good luck!