How can we build this in the "cloud"? Process would look like the following: User connects camcorder to tablet. Tablet is used to transfer video from the camcorder to our hosted service where they use the ipad to edit the video. Thus eliminating the need for the storage on the "tablet" device.While I hate to come to a problem without a solution, I will need some time to think about the following: A)What is the "secret sauce" to patent in the application? Is it the "touch screen" component that allows people to use their index finger to drag and drop their scenes?
B)A "compression" component for the transfer of the data needs to be added. I.E. Riverbed component to send the data to our hosted service in order to speed the delivery of the data. Not sure how to take the current appliance device of a Riverbed and condense it to software only.
Those are my current thoughts, but I am sure I can think of more later.
JJD - Intrigured...
-- JJ Donovan, November 6, 2010
An alternative approach would be similar to that taken by animoto.com: 1) user uploads the raw video, 2) software produces the video in the cloud (possibly with user hints such as ratings), 3) user downloads or shares finished video.This approach would be more efficient. The customer would only pay for the processing power that she actually uses (computing resources in the cloud are rented, not bought).
Also, with the animoto approach, the developer works directly on the real problem: producing a finished video that will evoke pleasant memories when the customer views it with her family or passes around to her friends. The tablet approach assumes that the customer really wants to be a video editing technician.
-- Daniel Patru, November 7, 2010
Why would animoto remove the need for editing and input from the user? Personally, I tried animoto several times and was consistently disappointed with the default rendering. The idea is good but the implementation is weak. Compared with a tablet or other personal device, uploads and downloads to a cloud based service are slow. Imagine one hour of HD video, or 12 GB... To order to prevent animoto from slapping their branding on my personal videos, I'd need the $249/yr Pro package, which would be more expensive than a tablet over two years.
-- David Wihl, November 10, 2010
Yes - I agree with much of what was said - but from the standpoint of a software developer! Those with an Android tablet may like to try Cloud-based tablet video editing with my Company's software:https://market.android.com/details?id=net.forscene.KestrelTest&feature=search_result
PS We started off as "tablet only", but 85% of our sales were for smartphones, which we added later. The point is that these 85% didn't pay for the tablet upgrade.
Most consumers already carry around a camera in their phone, many are "HD". The mass market may be editing on a phone, with possibly web access on a desktop for the hard bits.
I think there are millions who would use only trivial editing - but a different audience of a relative few who spend thousands on cameras (and lenses if you go the DSLR route), where a good product proves its worth in the time saved during editing.
-- Stephen Streater, March 25, 2011
Have you thought to revisit this concept in the aftermath of the iPad 2 and the iMovie application? I know it's running on an iPad, which seems to be anathema to you, but the iPad 2 seems to be designed with the idea of being able to edit video on it (what with the dual cores, extra memory and whatnot). With the camera connection kit (yes, it's 40 dollars, but it works), you can connect most video cameras to it via SD card or USB port. I know it's not perfect, and that iMovie can't read all file formats, but it seems to be the best current solution, and at a minimum of $540 (plus tax), or a maximum of $740 (ignoring 3G), it's under your mythical $1000 price point.
-- Joseph Scharfenberg, May 9, 2011
Joseph: the iPad 2 is definitely not anathema to me; in fact I am thinking of getting one so that I can walk around the house and Skype with relatives. I don't think iMovie on the iPad 2 solves the problem that I set forth at the beginning, i.e., convenient editing of high quality video from a real video camera. A Google search does not indicate that anyone was able to work with AVCHD files on the iPad (in fact it seems that a lot of people with iMacs and other standard Macintosh computers had trouble with AVCHD as well).
-- Philip Greenspun, May 9, 2011
A very interesting article for me to read, especially since I am actually looking for exactly what is being described here, a tablet or device which is easily portable for video editing on-the-go.However I disagree with the conclusion to produce a dedicated tablet just for video editing, since the iPad took off tablet computers have become increasingly popular as media consumption devices, however I believe people are beginning to want more out of their tablet devices, and so want to expand the uses that their tablet has, two of the most obvious being photo and video editing. With regards to video editing both Apple and Android have taken steps towards supporting this, however my main criticism of their implementations are that the apps are tailered just for videos taken from the camera of the tablet, and I think this is very limited since most people dont want to use a 10" tablet as a camera!
My vision would be to create an application where you were able to plug an SD or USB from a dedicated video camera into the tablet to transfer and edit the videos from that camera, the app would be developed for Honeycomb which has a minium spec requirement set by Google so there are no issues with wrrying about an under-specced device trying to run the app, that way people would not have to spend extra on "another" tablet, simply use the one they already have. The only issue with this proposal however is that it is the hardware that currently holds back this vision, the current Tegra 2, although it is pushed for its power and ability to play 720p video, is actually surprisingly underpowered when playing back HD videos unless they have been specifically encoded to run well on the cpu, until the CPU's can effectivly playback all video codecs then my dream of a video editing app looks to be out of the queston :-( (Heres hoping Tegra 3 or Tegra 4 sort this out!)
-- Thomas Carter, May 23, 2011