O'Reilly Digitalmedia Mac Center Flip Video Test Video from Todd Ogasawara on Vimeo.
Like a lot of people I looked at the relatively low cost (under $200) Flip Video cameras last year, thought it looked interesting, and then ignored it. But, many other people didn't ignore it, bought it in large quantities, and it caught on in a big way despite people like me. So, I decided to buy one for my daughter when I saw the Flip Video Ultra Series model at my local center of technology (Costco). I borrowed it long enough to shoot the sample video above. Driving home it occurred to me that I had read a lot about the Flip's video quality but couldn't recall reading anything about how its software works on a Mac?
You can see the contents of the top level of the Flip's flash storage here.
The Flip Video app doesn't have an installer. I manually dragged it to my Applications folder to install it. When I launched it the first time, it told me that the 3IVX video MPEG4 decoder needed to be installed first.
The 3IVX CODEC is 2.9MB large and installed quickly and without incident.
The Flip Video shows what it calls "Your Library" as its main view. "Camcorder Videos" shows the video clips on the camera. I arbitrarily named the Mac folder "FlipVideo" (Flip calls it an Album). It was created in ~/Documents/My Flip Video Library/FlipVideo.
The "Save Videos" menu lets you save videos in either direction: Flip-to-Mac or Mac-to-Flip. It really isn't needed since you can drag and drop files from the FLIPVIDEO folder itself. But, I can see how this would be useful to a lot of people.
The "Make Movie" option is a misnomer. It does not actually create anything. Its function is to let you play video clips in a sequence. However, that sequence is not saved. The "Movie Mix" feature found on the Microsoft Windows version is not available for the Mac. This feature is an iMovie like application that lets you edit clips, add transitions, etc. I used iMovie 06 (I'm not a fan of iMovie 08) to work with the Flip's AVI video file.
I didn't try the "Share Video" feature at all.
One thing that struck me as odd is that the Flip Video for Mac software does not run unless the Flip Video camera is attached via USB. So, you can't use the share feature after the camera is disconnected. And, since this particular Flip Video camera isn't mine, I have to borrow it from my daughter just to take look at the software. Of course, the software really isn't necessary to work with the files. The 3IVX CODEC is the key to working with the Flip's AVI files.
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Hi, i am having trouble when i install 3ivx installe on my Macbook, because when it says its done, it says "Installation Failed" and says an error or something.
It says i have to contact a member of the software.
Is anyone else having this problem?
Please reply back.
thanks.
Jolean
can someone please email me how i could make a homemade fisheye, or a professional fisheye for it? thank you =D
Alexsk8sallday@hotmail.com
Hi,
I think the blogs performed a very important role in the awareness of the peoples about software's.Especially software,s blogs are help to the users,s that how to down load a new version of the window and how to used different tole is the version etc.
You are the best present I got for Christmas and now I bring the flip everywhere.THANKS a BUNCH!
fozzy: reread my first paragraph where I said lots of people have already reviewed the Flip's video quality. Just go on YouTube, Vimeo, or Viddler and search for Flip Video. You will find lots of useful video tests there.
It's unfortunate that you gave the software a good looking over, but that your video footage is all basically infinity focus, with no low light, no high contrast (there are always shadow vs. bright spots at beaches), etc..
I've been considering using a flip for a current project, and have been mulling over shooting my own test footage, I had hoped that this was going to answer some of my questions.
Dan (who's Cecil?): Thanks for sharing your experience and video (I chuckled outloud watching it, btw).
I bought a flip ultra about 3 weeks ago and have been really impressed. Love the lack of a CD, as you say. Also, the lack of a power cable -- charging through the USB is sweet and sane. One less bit of clutter, always welcome.
I messed with the software for a few minutes and decided to switch over to imovie 8. Hadn't used it before. Just took a day or so and my first video was done. Nothing fancy. Certainly, some wind noise outside. But all-in-all, a great user experience. I tried youtube and vimeo for uploading and had a slight preference for vimeo b/c of the quality of the embedded video. Both were very easy for a first-timer.
Since I'm not using the software, I basically have a a portable hard drive with a nice camera on it. I plug the camera in, it turns back into a hard drive. I drag the movies off, plop them into imovie, and start editing.
here's that first movie, in the spirit of sharing:
(honestly, no cats harmed in the making of this video)
http://www.vimeo.com/1788798