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I see that many of you record student performances. And it prompted me to buy a camcorder. I ordered the flip mino HD ("2nd generation")and it arrived today. Very simple to use!!! I intend to record each student performing at the December piano party--each recording just of one child, and then e-mail parents the recording of their own child. This camcorder was reviewed on PC world and got rated best in its class for low light recording.

Anyway, just exciting to find out that something that I thought might be too difficult has turned out to be simple. I've already made some recordings and I see how it all gets uploaded, stored etc.

Good for you! Let us know how it turns out.

Thanks John! By the way I found both books you recommended at my local library (The Piano Shop on the Left Bank, and Beethoven's Hair). Started with Carhart's book first and thoroughly enjoying it!!!!

Trouble. Turns out I can e-mail videos up to 25MB. A short video I made is 30MB and apparently I can't send it. I suppose I could try to burn video to CD for parents. Unless there is some way around the 25MB limit.

Ann ~ You could try to upload it to a free video site, like YouTube, and set the privacy/sharing to "private" ... then send the URL to the parent. Only you and they will be able to view it. Then you are not taking up space on your computer or theirs to store it. Hope this helps!

Hi Adrienne. I've never uploaded to youtube, but I'll give it a try. Thanks!!!

YouTube has very clear instructions, Ann. You should have no problem. The only thing that surprised me is that sometimes it would take a very long time for the upload to occur, especially if I were doing it at night when there was a lot of internet traffic. Be patient and don't worry if it seems to be cranking endlessly for some minutes.

The other thing to keep in mind is that YouTube enforces a ten-minute limit on videos. Apparently there is some way to get around it if you get a special account, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

You can also compress the video a bit for email be reducing the frame rate, for instance. Video is a data hog, much more so than audio.

I'd be tempted to burn the videos to DVD that way you get to retain as much quality of the recording as possible. You can always include a compressed PC version as an extra on the DVD for parents that would like to put it onto a PC, but I'd assume most would prefer to stick it in a DVD player to show their kids/family? Even if that DVD player happens to be their PC

Windows movie maker can do simple DVDs and it's free. You can create a template for your recital then just swap in the appropriate recording for each student and burn to DVD. Or there's Sony Vegas if you really want to get into it

Downside is it may take a little longer. But it seems a bit of a waste to record in HD and then not take advantage of the quality, even if you're reducing it down to DVD levels.

Email isn't really suited for sending large files. The person you send it to may not have a lot of room in their inbox, their ISP may block large attachments (or any of the mailservers on the route)...

If you want to send over the internet, take a look at the various "send files" sites. Many are free up to a certain file size. Just find one that allows you to password protect the upload so that only the person you're sending the URL to can download it.

I was able to upload a short video. Next I have to learn how to copy and paste!LOL! Basic, but I haven't done it. I'm thinking I would copy and paste the URL to send it to parents. I have a 12 year old, so when he gets home from school hopefully I can get help with this.

And another option would be to burn DVD's. Some tinkering I haven't done yet, but probably can manage.

Anybody know what URL stands for?

OK. I was able to figure out how to copy and paste. Just sent a URL of a video by e-mail. Small steps forward.

You might want to have a clause in your studio policy about pictures, audio, and video recording...most of my students families have no problem with it (some will let me use their videos to promote my studio on youtube), though one with a *teen* student did, and he was one who definitely needed to see how he looked while playing since I was having trouble with getting him to sit with good posture and play with a good sound.

Also you can reduce the resolution on the camcorder (setting from SP to LP) so that the video files are smaller.

Meri

Thanks for the advice Meri.