Ok, wait a sec until I catch my breath. This is the best idea I've had since I started hot-linking pr0n all over the WGB.

Just the simple idea of having this thread exist is going to provide me no end of joy.

Context here.

So, what is this about, then?

José

Oh. Right. So I've been working on an alternative communication project. CKC is one of several people who live far away that I write letters to. Lately I've been too busy and too tired for letters and emails, and I've gotten behind on what's become a rather substantial correspondence habit. So, I've been trying to find a simple way to do voice recordings while I'm lying in bed about to go to sleep, cause that's really the only time I have.

I tried a few different tape recording options, but it was too big of a hassle. What it's come down to is a small japanese digital camera that does video and voice recordings. I've managed to make a few recordings (very low impact activity, letter-dictation) and get them onto my computer. They're in what's supposedly .wav format. Nero is claiming that the format can't be burned to a cd... Am I just mixing up my facts here? I thought you could totally burn wavs to a cd. So if that's not doable, what's some good software to translate audio formats?

Incidentally, I'd love to see this eventually morph into a correspondence format discussion. Right now, I'm envisioning alternating tracks on a CD between music and voice recordings.

Incidentally, I'm not certain if I can play the wav files on my computer. I haven't got speakers hooked up, I'm going to try to do that tonight. But it does look like Windows Media Player and Ultra Media Player were both having some trouble playing the tracks.

Hmmm. I usually know something about that, but I forgot. Wait a minute while I look at some wav. files.

I mean, of course you can burn them to a cd, why not? But I suppose you are asking how to hear them, later?

Yep, you usually have to convert mp3s and so on to .wav format if you want to make an audio CD, so they can definitely be burned. I wonder whether maybe the camera is not outputting 'real' wav format files with the appropriate headers etc?

See if they'll play on a computer, and maybe d/l some of the freeware conversion stuff that's out there just to find out their properties and so on. You'd probably lose too much quality converting to mp3 and back again, but it might be a worthwhile experiment to see if nero's happier with those .wavs.

PS Sounds like a very cool idea.

OK. I could open it in realplayer or in Quick Time on my computer. In Quick Time, I could export it to any other format, and .aiff I can play on my cd-player.

I think your original idea is best. Analog tape recording with music in the back ground so if there's a lull in your monolog flow the music takes over. I would say MiniDisc (Evil Sony) but then playback might be an issue again. Most cars have tape decks so listening on commute would be good and you can pick up a tape walkman (eek Sony again) anywhere. Resurrect Analog!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Eric,

Ideally I'd like to get through this without buying anything. The tape player on my stereo eats tapes and the tape recorder I was using wouldn't play. It was a whole big huge hassle.

I'm probably going to stick with the digital recordings option. I like the portability. And I keep thinking of portability because I'm lusting after an ipod like nobody's business.

I shall google for freeware later tonight. There seems to be an issue with the video stuff as well. They can be played, but they're all dark. Very strange. Too bad the camera's menus are in Japanese. I have plans to deal with that issue that involve colin as unpaid labor.

What kind/make of camera? They usually encode video and audio files in MPEG format, that can be hard to edit or play in some platforms. There are apps like Streamclip that allow to transcode them to friendlier video/audio formats. But... that's on OSX. I see you 'don't do Mac'..?

quote:

They can be played, but they're all dark. Very strange.

I've tried that too. Problem is, I don't think when I have a problem like that, I just try all the options, and then when it works I'm happy, still not knowing why... I think that you might be opening the wrong file. With raw videos you will have three or more files, containing all the information you need. They can all be opened in your player, but only one contains the images, and the best way is to turn it into a .mov file (or something similar) before opening it to avoid confusion. Maybe. I think. I don't have any unedited stuff here, but I'll see at work tomorrow what actually happens.

It's been awhile since I've done this, but once upon a time, I used to burn .wav's to cd all the time. It was quite easy to burn them to cd in what's called Redbook Audio format, which is essentially the official standard CD format that can even be played in a normal CD player (assuming you're using a CDR that's compatible with the laser on the player). This was done automatically by the software I used, which was very low-tech.

Now, looking at the Nero Express on my spankin' new computer, it says it is capable of doing this exact thing. Shouldn't be a problem. You tell it to make an audio cd, it tells you to select files, you select 'em and ta-daa. Audio CD.

Wave files need to be 44khz to be convirtable to cdda ... most progs re-en-code them before burning, just like you can burn mp3's to audio CD.

btw. the Ending (.xxx) says pretty much about the format itself, it is just used as a help.


But Hurts, what you really need is one of this:

Prices starting at 50 bucks, and you get them from 512MB till 2GB
Record as much as you want, plug it into your USB Port ... done.

a few notes:

A- try and find the camera on the net, see if there is a engliush version, rty and access pdf of manual if avaiable in english.... oftentimes wit electronics, it may be possible to find the maintenance code wqich will allow you to change the menu into english.... not always possible tho

B- it records voice and picture.... very important to know video format it saves in... this would determine the best program to use for examining files:windows media player or quicktime

C download a small program called VLC. this program wil playback almost anything and works on almost any platform... if it can play back your sounds or videos, it can usually also transcode them into any other format...

it may be that the camera is recording sound in a proprietary format, in which case you need to transcode the sound to wav or mp3 in order to burn to a standard audio cd. the manufacturers may have included some type of software for use with the camera if that is the case, which probably oes you no good. hence the need to find a manual (if japanese only, colin should be able to tell if proprietary software is needed?)

there's no reason to pay money to anything i have described; google is your friend, and so are the tons of forums about working with audio and video.

I had some similar problems to get some digital soundbites for a private project, a year ago. The digital camera would record audio, but only as part of a video, so I had some huge mpeg files that were a bitch to e-mail, just for a few words.

Once I got a microphone, things got better, as windoze has a sound recorder (one minute default, but you can expand it) without the need to get any of the plenty free options around. I actually liked the challenge of reading the PR fragment I wanted in one minute or less. It gives you the choice of saving as a .wav (big) or a mp3.

And a .wav should be read by any sound software, no matter the platform. So you may have some file mislabeling going.

I would second a small investment as Newromancer mentions. Although it is not an i-pod, it is cheaper, with sound recording (mine turns it automatically into a mp3, so I have some 4 hour talk storage ability in a 256 meg flash) and doubles up as a portable memory transfer. And it saves you from getting a microphone.

And if you are on compatible timezones, what about Skype?

José

The title of this thread made me laugh OUT LOUD.

quote:

Originally posted by Mean Old Man:
The title of this thread made me laugh OUT LOUD.

Yeah, that's the big highlight for me too, as we don't seem to be making any progress with the actual technical issue involved.

Things that rang bells were that yes, the camera has some english writing on it that says mpeg-4. It's a Sharp vn-ez5 apparently. There are some other codes in japanese that I'm hoping are redundant.

I do indeed 'do mac' but I have a very old imac with 9.12 on it.

I have yet to experiment with playing the supposed wav files and futzing with freeware, both of which sound promising.

If you're having such problems burning the files as cd audio, then I seriously doubt that they're really .wav's. The only downside of .wav's is that they're huge. In all other ways, they're pussycats.

quote:

In Japan, MGI's VideoWave and PhotoSuite products are being marketed with an exciting new product from Sharp, the VN-EZ5 Internet ViewCam. Internet ViewCam is the world's first MPEG digital recorder to incorporate the MPEG-4 digital moving picture compression standard. The high-compression format drastically reduces the size of moving picture files, allowing users to capture Web ready video or still images that can be edited with VideoWave and PhotoSuite, then easily e-mailed or posted on the Web. This new breed of digital video camera makes it easier than ever for computer users to incorporate video into their multimedia applications, on home pages, for Internet broadcasts, and e-mail. The video data is recorded onto SmartMedia(TM) memory cards eliminating the hassles of tape.

mpeg-4 is what most people refer to as DiVX, it is a 4th generation compression format, used for video (mpeg1 was for VCD and SVCD, mpeg2 is DVD, mpeg3 is what we call .mp3, and mpeg4 is divx,xvid, the most seen video format beign passed around the networks currently...)

if you google VLC, you can download the client software (not the server software) and use it to transcode the audio from the mpeg4 file into a .wav or mp3 file. the technical details can be found through the website. don't worry, it's not too complicated if you have something to follow along with in order to find your way around the preference menus.

how are you getting video or sound files from the camera to the computer, and what file extension do they end in?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: elecktrik dragon,

Audio stuff comes out labeled .wav and movies come out as .asf files and there are also a couple random .asb files in that direactory. The number of .asf files looks about right for the number of movies on the camera. Images come out as totally valid .jpg files that I've had no trouble with whatsoever.

And yeah, the SmartMedia card is super cute and impressive. It's the thickness of a business card and a little over 1" square.