The Hottest Questions About Video

Do you want to know about video? Here are some frequently asked questions.

1. What's the best sound and Video quality video camera?

you can consider buying Canon VIXIA HF R20 Full HD Camcorder This camera has performed very well. I added an external shotgun mic and we use it for recording performances. It has great features, accurate focusing, and the convenience of removable memory cards makes uploading to the internet easy, especially with the included software.

2. Which is better to use with PC gaming, Skype or Teamspeak?

Teamspeak is much better. Benefits over skype are: -Less Intensive -When someone calls, the "BLAH BLAH Calling" all over your screen -Better audio quality -Not as many issues with being disconnected etc. Cons over skype: -None, except that you do not have video but no-one cares about that in video games

3. should I switch from canon to nikon?

I am a keen Nikon user but I have to advise you not to switch. All crop frame DSLR cameras have similar quality sensors and lenses and that's what gives the high quality of image. If you were switching to full frame then you would see a big difference, but swiching from one system to another wo not make your pictures any better. DSLR cameras suck for video. They do not have decent auto-focus in video. They pick up camera noises on the audio. They do not have power-zoom. It's a bolt-on. They are not really designed for the job. Do yourself a favour and buy a decent camcorder if you want to do video. Take a look at the Panasonic 3MOS series - those have separate CMOS sensors for red, green and blue channels so you get much better colour depth. Look for a model which takes an external microphone. The cheapo built in ones are crap (that applies to both DSLR and camcorder video).

4. what means video encoders ,decodersand filters.and ripping?

Ooo... complicated subject! In general, video uses a LOT of bandwidth. For example, let's say you have a 720x480 video, 24-bit color, 30 frames per second. 24-bit color means 3 bytes per pixel, so 720x480x3x30 bytes per second is needed to transmit this video! (31104000 bytes, of 31MB per second). Obviously, that's way too much bandwidth. So most video streams nowadays are encoded so you need MUCH less bandwidth. An encoder basically takes a uncompressed stream and encodes it into a compressed stream. Decoder does the reverse, takes a compressed stream and unwraps it into an uncompressed stream. Filters... lots of different definitions, but when as related to multimedia, it refers to the various "layers" that will interpret signals separately. For example, when you read an AVI file, it could contain a video stream, multiple audio streams, plus subtitle streams. So you will need a filter to just filter out and process the audio, for example. The audio itself can be encoded, and MP3 or AC3 are popular audio encoding formats. Ripping usually refers to reading the binary content off of digital media such as CD or DVD and dumping the content onto the harddrive of a PC.

5. What is the best desktop computer to buy under $800?

That depends... What do you want to use the computer for? If you just want to surf the web, check email, and work in Microsoft Office, you can get a great desktop for $800. If you want a gaming PC, then your choices are a lot more limited, though you can get a decent gaming desktop for $800. Let us know what types of uses you will want the computer for, and we will give you some more specific recommendations. :-) UPDATE: For $802.74 (not including shipping or an operating system), you can build a nice desktop PC that will play games and video very well. Parts list (all sourced from NewEgg.com) below: Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I32100 Item #: N82E16819115078 Return Policy: CPU Replacement Only Return Policy Protect Your Investment (expand for options) $124.99 GIGABYTE GA-Z68P-DS3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s ATX Intel Motherboard Item #: N82E16813128520 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy Protect Your Investment (expand for options) $107.99 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL Item #: N82E16820231314 Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy $54.99 EVGA 01G-P3-1371-TR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card Item #: N82E16814130565 Return Policy: VGA Standard Return Policy Protect Your Investment (expand for options) $159.99 HANNspree By Hanns-G HF225DPB Black 21.5" Full HD WideScreen LCD Monitor w/Speakers Item #: N82E16824262011 Return Policy: Monitor Standard Return Policy Protect Your Investment (expand for options) $119.99 CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply Item #: N82E16817139028 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy $69.99 Western Digital Caviar Black WD7502AAEX 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive Item #: N82E16822136794 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy $64.99 ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM Item #: N82E16827135204 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy Protect Your Investment (expand for options) $20.99 COOLER MASTER Elite 430 RC-430-KWN1 Black Steel / Plastic Computer Case Item #: N82E16811119227 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy $49.99 COOLER MASTER R4-C2R-20AC-GP 120mm Case Fan (for the case's back panel) Item #: N82E16835103061 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy $8.85 LITE-ON SK-1688U/B Black USB Wired Standard Keyboard Item #: N82E16823107128 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy Protect Your Investment (expand for options) $7.99 Logitech B100 Black 3 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Wired Optical Mouse - OEM Item #: N82E16826104370 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy Protect Your Investment (expand for options) $11.99 SUBTOTAL: $802.74 A copy of Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (OEM version) is about $99.99. I also did not include speakers since (a) the monitor has built-in speakers, crappy as they probably are, and (b) you should hear them for yourself before buying. Hope that helped!