FLIP CAMERA GUIDE Flip Ultra HD, using FlipShare software RECORDING VIDEOS The Flip camera has no menus to navigate. Recording a video clip is easy: Press the small power button on the side of the camera to turn the camera on. Press the large red button to start recording. Press the large red button again to stop recording. For more details and diagrams, please see the Quickstart guide that comes with the camera. TRANSFERRING VIDEO CLIPS TO YOUR COMPUTER Transferring video clips to your computer requires FlipShare software that comes with the camera. The first time you connect the camera, you will need to copy the software from the camera onto your computer. CONNECTING THE CAMERA AND STARTING FLIPSHARE We recommend that you protect your camera by using a USB-to-USB cable such as the one provided with the IS Media Loan Stock Flip Camera. Slide the button on the side of the camera to release the USB connector and flip it out. Attach the cable to the USB connector on the camera. Attach the cable to the USB port on your computer. Your camera will turn on automatically. o The first time you connect your camera, you will need to set up FlipShare. Follow the instructions in the installation wizard. o If the setup wizard doesn t start automatically, click on My Computer and navigate to the USB drive for the camera, then click on Setup FlipShare. o After setting up FlipShare, you will be prompted to restart your computer. Once it has been set up, FlipShare should start automatically each time you connect the camera. If it doesn t, click the FlipShare icon on your desktop. o If you are using a Windows Vista computer, you may see a message indicating that your colour scheme has been changed temporarily to Vista Basic. Do not worry the setting will revert once you exit FlipShare. If you aren t taken directly into the FlipShare dashboard, click View & Organise Videos from the menu. o This takes you to a window where you can play, edit, and save clips to your computer. Clips on your camera and on your computer in the FlipShare library can be manipulated from the dashboard. See the following screenshot:
NOTE: If the camera is removed from the computer incorrectly or if the power button is accidentally pressed when connected to the computer, the camera cannot be switched on again until it has been reset. To reset the camera, remove the battery pack and put it back in again. The camera can then be turned on. There isn t enough space to cover all the functions of FlipShare in this guide, so we will only cover the most commonly-used ones here. Trim You can trim out extra bits at the beginning and end of your clip. o Click on the video clip to select it. o Click Edit / Trim from the menu at the top. o Click the Play button to view the clip. o Click and drag the Start control to set the start point. o Click and drag the End control to set the end point. o Click Save. [Note that after the clip has been trimmed, you still must export the clip using one of the methods below for Saving a Video Clip]. Capture a still picture You can save one frame from the video as a still picture. o Click on the video clip to select it. o Click the Capture a still picture icon from the Create toolbar at the bottom of the screen. o Slide the capture control to the frame you wish to save. o Click the Save Snapshot button and choose the location where you want to save the image. Page 2 of 5 E-learning Team FLIP CAMERA GUIDE
SAVING A VIDEO CLIP The current version of FlipShare software is NOT designed for you to just drag and drop the files from the camera to your desktop. It is designed to export the files using one of two methods. 1. If you click Export from the File menu, the software saves a fairly large MP4 file onto your computer. For example, a 2-minute clip yields a 120 MB file. Such a file uploads into Blackboard with no problem but does take a while to download from Blackboard and may not be compatible with all the students computers, depending on their media player software. 2. If you click Share publish videos to the web, the software saves a smaller file in WMV format onto your computer. A 2-minute clip yields a 22.2 MB file. The file should download and play smoothly on a reasonably current PC. This is the recommended method. Our recommendation for short video clips (about 5 minutes or less) is to use the Share option and upload the file without converting it. If you need to upload significantly longer clips, use the Export option and then use another program to compress the file into a smaller size. EXPORT Please note that in addition to Export and Share, FlipShare also gives you the option to Save videos to your computer. The Save videos option allows you to edit the videos using FlipShare but you still need to use either Export or Share to use the videos in any other application or upload them to the web. The Export option will save a copy of the video in MP4 format. Click on the desired clip to select it. Click File / Export to... from the menu at the top. Navigate to the place you want to save the file and then click the OK button. o Be sure to wait until the progress bar indicates that the file has been saved. This process may take a little while. E-learning Team FLIP CAMERA GUIDE Page 3 of 5
After the file has been saved, you can edit it using some other editing program (such as Windows Movie Maker) or move it to another location on your computer. SHARE PUBLISH TO WEB The Share option will save a copy of the video in WMV format on your computer desktop. Click on the desired clip to select it. Click the Upload to the web icon from the Share toolbar at the bottom of the screen. o A dialogue box will open (see below). Click Other Web Sites from the dialogue box. o A new dialogue box will open. Click Other and then click the Next button. Enter the name of a folder for the video clips and then click the Go button. o Be sure to wait until the progress bar indicates that the file has been saved. This process may take a little while. After the file has been saved to your desktop, you can edit it using some other editing program (such as Windows Movie Maker) or move it to another location on your computer. Page 4 of 5 E-learning Team FLIP CAMERA GUIDE
CONVERTING VIDEO CLIPS You may use any conversion software that you prefer. One program that is free is Any Video Converter. It can be downloaded here http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/. This software will compress the file and convert it into a number of possible formats. We recommend using the Export option in FlipShare and then choosing either of the following two formats from the converter software of your choice: The Flash FLV format generates a small file that should play well on any computer, as it will download the Adobe Media Player from the web if necessary. The image is smaller on the screen than the original WMV file, but it is clear. The Window Media File WMV format is also useful, but do note that the file generated is compressed so the image on the screen will appear smaller than that of the original video clip. If you enlarge it to full screen size, the image will be somewhat pixelated. E-learning Team FLIP CAMERA GUIDE Page 5 of 5