Tips Recording Play At Home

djakrse

djakrse

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What's some good advice on how people should record themselves at home? I love the idea of video proof or documentation of your high runs. In all cases, it sounds like it could be great to have an instant replay to review those awesome shots or prove whose right in the heat of battle.

Do most use their phones or cheap cameras? Use tripods or web it in a corner like Spiderman? Any semi-permanently mounted setups or custom installations?

What's the best compromise between quality and price? Phones are starting to record at full HD, but battery should be a concern there, so are camcorders still the way to go?

Most solutions should be digital nowadays, correct? The least amount of conversion is always preferred. Anyone using a DVR or similar home security system? Who's able to instant replay on their tv and how easy is it?

Any other concerns or issues I've missed?

We're in the middle of building a house. I haven't budgeted for anything tremendous, but I'd love to be able to record myself at all times. My "dream setup" would be remote controlled, full 1080p HD, and perform well in low light -- this is not required as I should have good lighting, but good performance always helps the quality. I want a great viewing angle of the whole table, which does not need to be adjusted. I prefer not to have to set up a camera every time, as I hope to be playing quite often. I'm thinking my phone is a last resort.

I know some of these questions have been answered, but they aren't easy to find. Maybe an FAQ and sticky could be employed?
 
what is your budget. leave camera mounted at pool table or use for other things too.?
do you use pc or mac? any video editing software? some really great still cameras used by indie film people these days. thinking panasonic gh2 with an older lens that uses an adapter, no tape, sd card, look on youtube & see indie films that use these. maybe $1500 with cheap lens option. it might be serious overkill for your use. i have a sony still camera f828 cost $1300 5 years back worth $275 today, records video to removeable memory card. lens on this camera is way better than ones on phones etc. also i use it professionally as a still camera daily, just 8mp but enough for my work. i also have an Apple iSight camera as an add on for a 6yearold mac g4 laptop. might work ok for that, i will have a table at home soon & will test out some 6 to 12 year old gear, some standard definition pro stuff the news crews were using back in the day. but maybe some of the tiny, inexpensive new cameras would be adequate. ........jr
miniDV tape camcorders must be getting really cheap now. not sure how important hd really is.....in many situations some hype there. most who get a camera that does hd are disappointed if they find it necessary to buy newer computer to run newer software to edit. all can get very expensive. you might need to get setup to burn bluRays to get much use out of HD.....but maybe you wont really need to edit much for your project.
jerry
 
nashville14:1 said:
what is your budget. leave camera mounted at pool table or use for other things too.?
do you use pc or mac? any video editing software? some really great still cameras used by indie film people these days. thinking panasonic gh2 with an older lens that uses an adapter, no tape, sd card, look on youtube & see indie films that use these. maybe $1500 with cheap lens option. it might be serious overkill for your use. i have a sony still camera f828 cost $1300 5 years back worth $275 today, records video to removeable memory card. lens on this camera is way better than ones on phones etc. also i use it professionally as a still camera daily, just 8mp but enough for my work. i also have an Apple iSight camera as an add on for a 6yearold mac g4 laptop. might work ok for that, i will have a table at home soon & will test out some 6 to 12 year old gear, some standard definition pro stuff the news crews were using back in the day. but maybe some of the tiny, inexpensive new cameras would be adequate. ........jr
miniDV tape camcorders must be getting really cheap now. not sure how important hd really is.....in many situations some hype there. most who get a camera that does hd are disappointed if they find it necessary to buy newer computer to run newer software to edit. all can get very expensive. you might need to get setup to burn bluRays to get much use out of HD.....but maybe you wont really need to edit much for your project.
jerry
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To answer your questions, I'll leave the budget open at this point, as I have no idea what I'll need to spend for my setup. It seems expensive cameras would be overkill for sure. Perhaps a cheap static webcam or security cam would be the best choice? I don't know anything about the resolutions there, but using a laptop and a webcam might be easy?

I'll definitely prefer to leave the camera mounted semi-permanently, or at least, my goal is to keep daily setup to a minimum. I don't want to spend any time adjusting angles and all, unless I can do that easily, say by viewing through the wall mounted tv. I see some great high angles with many of the posted videos that I'd like to use.

I'll use a PC for any conversions and I'm not afraid of any media software, though I'll probably use free software. My expectation is to be able to play back through my wall mounted tv and upload and share. The fewer the steps there, the best, though one conversion step is okay. I doubt I'll want to write to disc either.

You have an interesting perspective with equipment, though I'm thinking I probably do not want to invest that much in a camera. The 1080p is not a must have either, but I definitely want good quality playback.

The more I think about it, I'm leaning towards a few different setups:
  • Use an old TiVo; somehow record output from cam/cell camera
  • Use a cheap, homemade security system with 1 or 2 security cams and a dvr
  • Use my cell phone, plugged in to TV and power outlet during sessions, though vid transfers would have to be done before or after every single session

I'm still curious what others are doing and what they would like to change about their setups, i.e. what's wrong with what they've got.

I just found this thread. I'm hoping to get some good ideas from there.
 
Sorry for the hijack but I too am curious as to what it would take for running a semi-permanent setup. I have been thinking about the Gopro mounted to the ceiling by the table. Seems like a pretty nice rig for the money and it shoots in HD. Any thoughts on these cameras?

Cheers,
RG
 
Thanks for the post. That's impressive for sure! I like the price range too.

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Hi guys, check this thread out in the main forum:

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=309162

I started it asking about wide angle lenses, but it has transformed to overall video talk for filming pool. Some good info there, on both old technology cameras and new technology.

I just bit the bullet and am getting rid of the old technology to buy a new one.

When I get it, I'll write how I like or dont like it for pool.

Also on the last page is a picture of my setup.
 
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I'm a newbie at this, so take with a grain of salt. However, I've spent the last 6 month trying to figure this out (and I still am)...

I tried using my iPhone, permanently mounted on the ceiling. It sucks for several reasons:

1. Its really hard to get the files off of it. The video files are HUGE HUGE and take hours and hours to transfer to your computer with USB2. If you wanted jsut a quick video to upload to youtube, it might be fine. But recording your practice session and archiving them, forget about it entirely.

2. You can't lock in the focus. Sometimes it would autofoucs on you instead of stay on the table as you were shooting.

3. Many rooms are sized such that you'll have to put the camera all the way in the corner of the wall and ceiling to fit the whole table. With a phone, you can't see the picture casue the wall gets in the way of your face:eek: So you have to guess and experiment with placing the phone just right. THe front facing camera on the phones is usually lower quality, so thats not a great option.
 
Those are exactly the points I worried about with a cell phone and cheap cameras, for that matter. I'm reading your thread now... I'm hoping to capitalize off of the experience of you guys who've already tried things. I may have about that much time to research myself. I don't even have a table yet. Uh, we're still building the house too. :grin-square:
 
if u plan to use often, tape is too much trouble. a camera that records to a card might be good, you would have to take the card out to download to a hard drive via your computer, might involve climbing a stepstool every time. webacm permanently mounted might be best, just plug into a laptop with a huge extenal hard drive whenever you want to record. you will need some kind of software to crop off unwanted stuff at beginning and end. i bought a 1000 gb hd a couple of years ago for $100, maybe they are less now. you will likely keep a very small % of what you shoot. look into what a camcorder recording onto sd card would cost. sd card prices have come way down. video cameras using sd card have come about in the last few years so they might still be pricey. there are some excellent still cameras that record wonderful video onto cards but time is very limited on most. some use cf cards which are mush more exspensive.
jr
 
Thanks for the links gentlemen. After reading some of the reviews on Amazon, looks like I may want to rethink going Gopro. On the other hand CNET, consumerreports, etc. are pretty positive.

Cheers,
RG
 
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What is your budget? I've tried a few cameras ranging from a sub $100 flipcam to $1200 pro-sumer camcorder with reputed low light capabilities. From my experience, price/quality doesn't go up linear but in price point steps. Meaning if you have a $100 camera, and decide to buy a $200 camera its not going to be twice as good, or noticeably better. If you want to see a difference, then you'll need to look at a camera in the $500-$800 range. I looked at the Canon Vixia G10, a $1200 camera and the next camera up isn't the XA10 for $1700, which is basically the same camera plus XLR mounts, but the XF100 at $2500 camera.

So, find out which features you can't live without, and buy the best camera for the buck for your price point. As others pointed out, and older hi end camcorder (480i) that used to retail for $1200 will likely have better image quality than a newer low end 1080p camera $300.

1080p doesn't automatically make a camera better. You'll need to look at the specs. Things that matter, are bigger sensors and more dynamic range. Lighting is the equalizer and will make any camera perform its best. With adequate lighting, I have footage sub $100 flip cam look just as sharp, as a $1200 camera in low light.

If you're mounting the camera permanently, run it from A/C rather than batteries. Check the camera settings and disable auto-shutoff. If you want to turn on/off the camera, then do it from a powerstrip.

Tape vs SD card. If you're planning on permanent mount, say on the ceiling or high up in the wall, it really doesn't matter because changing tape/sd would be equally hassling. Cameras come with USB/HDMI/SD/Composite and or firewire ports. Get a cable and consider streaming from firewire,HDMI/SD/Composite. With 33' USB repeater cable, I can copy the video files off a SD card on my camera remotely.

Wall mountings
http://www.amazon.com/Professional-.../B000L47AHG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367759083

Here are some footage ranging from a sub $100 flipcam to $1200 pro-sumer.

Kodak zi8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeJkKtpej9Y

Canon Vixia M4x
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHy3ZTXOFnY

Canon Vixia G10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWXmN3FHuXQ
 
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Thanks for the videos and the advice!

I'll look at the videos as soon as I get to a computer. That's very helpful. I understand the better the sensors, the better the low light performance. The price /quality levels is expected too, but thanks for the estimated ranges to give me an idea.

I can tell I'm going to be researching and price watching for months.

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ctyhntr said:
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Sonuvaah. I had made a post with Tapatalk right after your post. I would have sworn I watched it receive update the post was accepted and actually saw my post at the end of this thread. :confused:

I basically thanked you, ctyhntr, for the videos with cameras used. That will be very helpful, and as soon as I have enough time here I'll go through them and start taking notes.

As I stated earlier, I still don't have a budget for this, or a table even. I plan on spending the next 6 months or so researching cameras until I am ready for the table, and maybe another few months after that until I can get it properly set up by one of the known, good mechanics.

I'm a big believer in what you guys are saying about not using cell phones or cheap cameras in this installation. I may be restricted to my cell phone until I can make a well informed purchase, however and I am definitely going to absorb as much as I can until then.

So far, I am thinking a moderately priced camcorder, maybe in that $500-800 range. The 1080p is not my main focus, however good quality recordings and being able to output to an HDTV for review is.

I saw in Danny's new run thread where he had to get the vids off his DVR. I may need to figure out how his is set up, because I see that as being a logical way to record on a daily basis and manage the recordings easily. As well, it would be easy to review recordings on a TV that way. Obviously, a camcorder alone should be able to record and output to a TV, however the DVR guarantees large amounts of recordings be kept on hand and I've worked with getting TiVo recordings onto a PC with minimal conversion, even for DVD storage. I'm picturing being able to even rewind and pause recordings while in progress, as DVRs are generally able to do.

I haven't looked into hooking up a camera to a DVR yet, but I'm guessing (never owned a camcorder) he hits record on the camera, has the output hooked up to DVR, and manually records via input or channel... I've only used TiVo, so I don't know if that's an option or hacking an old TiVo with an open source OS would be needed.

Lighting is understandably a big factor, and I may request info on that at a later date. I'm thinking of something similar to Diamond's table light mounted on the ceiling at the moment. I should have plenty of good light in the room as well.
 
Camera's

Hi All,
I have a $300.00 Sony set up on the break side of the table. Most of the action is at this end in 14.1 so it has a good view of the rack. I have a permanent mount on the ceiling but the camera can be taken down for other uses. My ceiling is not very tall so the top side of the table has a little distortion from the distance but the whole table fits in the shot.
In short it doesn't need to be expensive. The video I get is very good. I can shoot either 1080i or Standard res.
The hardest part for me was the mount. It's off the ceiling so it had the camera upside down. I bent a bracket into an "L" shape and was able to mount the camera right side up with a little effort.
Now I just need to shoot well enough to document it. LOL
Mark
 
Any chance you have a video sample? Also pics? :)

I'd love a ceiling mount, but hookups are a big concern, and I just couldn't get up and down to access it all the time.

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I found a Samsung full HD camera at Walmart for sale price of $200,,it was a $350 camera. It takes a HD card for recording.
I mount it to tripod but they do make wall mounted swing arms for mounting overhead. Which I want to do.
The card makes is very easy to upload,,but I also found I can just plug camera into the PC and upload.

What ever you do,,buy a camera that plugs into the wall for charging. Many cheap cameras take batteries only. You do not want one like that unless you have endless amount of batteries. They go through them fast!!!
 
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