PV-GS400 Enclosures

[shadowr69]

Hey Mark!

Thanks for replying.

The OI housing is expensive relative to Equinox. I agree with you about the scrapping rubbing. I'd be upset too if I paid 1500 and the tolerances didn't fit. Besides the fit any concerns regarding the reliability of the housing? Are you concerned about leaks? I would have to ruin my PV-GS400.
:06:

May I ask why you didn't go with Equinox?

-tom

Don't get the wrong impression on the housing, it is something that is minor and can most likely be fiddled with for 5 mins(if that) to fix it. there is an adjustable screw on the front(from what I've determined of it) that looks to be held by a lock nut...just need to loosen the nut and back out the screw a little and should be able to fix the rubbing problem....I just haven't done it yet. As far as reliability, I feel the housing is pretty solid. I had my worries at first(with any new housing I'd worry so this isn't unique to this housing), but I also have the camera covered just in case of a flood. A friend of mine has one, which was my primary source of opinon and also just with talking to the guys over at OI. They are a great bunch and will really do anything that they can to fix any issues. I haven't brought up the issue of the filter to them yet, I'll shoot em an email to see if what I had planed was a good course.

As far as ruining your cam...I wouldn't have purchased this if I didn't think it were reliable I bought the camera a few weeks prior to getting the housing once I decided on what I wanted to get. I'd hate to ruin mine too :05:

Mark

 

[shadowr69]

Can't comment on this particular camera/housing combo since I am using the Equinox ProPak8/DVX100. My Equinox housing has a "Home Depot" touch to it but it works OK.

One thing you need to be aware of is mechanical vignetting (aka black corners) that you will only see in your video editor, playback on a computer or on a broadcast monitor (since it hopefully is outside of the safe zones). Customer service so far has been horrible, I have tried to get a solution for my problem for 2 month now. Check them out at the BBB website...

You get what you pay for, but what makes this housing great is that you can easily modify it yourself...like installing a big LCD in the back plate as a viewfinder.

Try www.sealux.de, might be expensive though.

I remember your post about the vignetting issue from before...I wonder if it affects all of the housings they make in one way or another. I know the OI one doesn't have that issue. (one of their claims I believe they have listed). I had a similar issue with the Amphibico housing and a sony cam....I actually liked the amphib housing too...

-Mark

 

[ronrosa]

heya runrosa

Yeah, tried the sand trick, doesn't always work as expecet when the sand is more of a brownish color or extremely rocky....

but yeah, that has worked on the occasions that I've had no other choice..

-Mark

I guess I've been lucky in that the sand when I've been filming is mostly white.

You could try something like this:

 

[shadowr69]

thats what I was planning on doing....

 

[shadowr69]

Alright, I have some vid that I shot with the camera in discussion, I hate to compress it cause you really can't see just how good it is, but you may get the idea....let me know if you have any questions...I'll see if I can cut a smaller clip thats higher quality.

hope this doesn't kill my server...
http://www.voodoofish.net/video_clips_kauai/

-Mark

 

[Shasta_man]

i would rather you just went to MPEG-4/DivX from AVI. By going from camera to MPEG4 to MOV, you're going through multiple codecs, which will degrade quality. You could use DivX and use very aggressive settings to get very small files while losing very little quality. The tradeoff is processing time. It takes longer to do so. However, you can just leave it running overnight, etc. and get the completed file in the morning.

Up to you though. We appreciate your efforts.

 

[shadowr69]

Thanks for the recommendations, this is actually the first time with posting a vid file to the net, I've only made dvd's...

This was the first option that I found with premiere when I tried to export.
I'll look for online resources that may help in this, unless you know of a site that goes through the process...

-Mark

 

[Shasta_man]

Not sure exactly what you're missing so I'll explain my basic process. To create a DVD, I edit the AVI video in Premiere. I make all the cuts, etc for the final version. I then go to File/Export/Adobe Media Encoder. I set the top preset to MPEG2 DVD. You can then set the next preset to the best quality/size trade you want. I use a custom setting for my living room DVD of variable bit rate of 6200 peak, using LPCM audio at 48 Hz. Actually, you could set it for Dolby Digital at this point but I haven't done that yet, and the source is not Dolby Digital.

then I click OK and it makes the completed video as a single file using the compression mentioned above. I then take this file and open Adobe Encore and import that file along with a pre-made menu file and then create the disk. The advantage is that the video/audio processing is basically done already from Premiere. It just needs to create the menus and burn the disk.

By the same method, you can choose MPEG-4 in the Adobe Media Encoder step. It would just create the same file but compressed as MPEG-4. I believe you need to install the DivX software from DivX to have that as an option as well. Then instead of burning it to DVD, you just put it on the server.

 

[shadowr69]

I don't actually see "Adobe media encoder", I see "Adobe mpeg encoder" which is what I use for dvd's, but I don't have the divx/mpeg4 option there, I'll need to get the divx codec if thats the case. I was actually using export to movie and used the mpeg4 compression which I could really only save to an avi or (mov)quicktime from what I saw.

-M

 

[meekal]

just my $0.02 - SHASTA_MAN's workFlow is the same process that i go through - ALMOST. i set the MPEG2 GENERIC. this creates an MPG that i use to import into ENCORE to create a DVD.

To make the file web ready i then take the above MPG and run it through MS MEDIA ENCODER (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/default.aspx)

you can check a 'little' experiment that i did at http://piddlefish.servepics.com/SCUBA/video-1minTest.html - to see the outcomes of the different types of encoding.