OSX best way to capture/save movies from endoscope cam

[jtara92101]

So, I have one of those GiraffeCam endoscope cams. I want to poke around inside the walls to see the best way to mount a heavy TV bracket, and then maybe later to run some wires. It plugs into my Macbook with a USB cable, and appears as an additional USB camera. I'll bet others here have used similar cameras for the same purpose.

 

I'm pretty flummoxed by what I was able to come up with from Googling - mostly seems to be old advice. Seems the consensus is that the "best" is QuickTime Player, but that's not even supported any more right? And is old, and only makes huge .mov files.

 

(I think a while back I captured a movie in Photo Booth. Don't remember what format, and now no idea where it went...)

 

I made a 2 minute movie and it came to 800MB! I was able to figure out how to save to iTunes, but then no idea where it actually went or just what "saving to iTunes" really means. Then I saved it to iCloud drive, and am able to view it now on my Mac Mini, but on my iPhone, I only get the sound.

 

(Impressed that the GiraffeCam has a built-in mic, and I hear metallic "pinging" sounds every time the camera hits the back of the metal lath...)

 

Open to suggestions as to the best way to capture DIRECTLY to a more efficient file format (which?) or at least be able to convert in the same program that captures.

 

And, then, ideally, I would love the videos to just show up in Photos, so it would sync to my Mac Mini, iPhone, and iPad.

 

Saving the .mov and then running some converter is a work-around I'd prefer to avoid, but if I have to I have to.

[Scottmichaelj]

So, I have one of those GiraffeCam endoscope cams. I want to poke around inside the walls to see the best way to mount a heavy TV bracket, and then maybe later to run some wires. It plugs into my Macbook with a USB cable, and appears as an additional USB camera. I'll bet others here have used similar cameras for the same purpose.

 

I'm pretty flummoxed by what I was able to come up with from Googling - mostly seems to be old advice. Seems the consensus is that the "best" is QuickTime Player, but that's not even supported any more right? And is old, and only makes huge .mov files.

 

(I think a while back I captured a movie in Photo Booth. Don't remember what format, and now no idea where it went...)

 

I made a 2 minute movie and it came to 800MB! I was able to figure out how to save to iTunes, but then no idea where it actually went or just what "saving to iTunes" really means. Then I saved it to iCloud drive, and am able to view it now on my Mac Mini, but on my iPhone, I only get the sound.

 

(Impressed that the GiraffeCam has a built-in mic, and I hear metallic "pinging" sounds every time the camera hits the back of the metal lath...)

 

Open to suggestions as to the best way to capture DIRECTLY to a more efficient file format (which?) or at least be able to convert in the same program that captures.

 

And, then, ideally, I would love the videos to just show up in Photos, so it would sync to my Mac Mini, iPhone, and iPad.

 

Saving the .mov and then running some converter is a work-around I'd prefer to avoid, but if I have to I have to.

IIRC even iPhone videos are recorded still in .mov format.

 

Not solving you question but why do you need to go crazy? You can't use a stud finder? Is this TV hanging on sheetrock? How much does it weigh? Save yourself the trouble and use Togglebolts. Maybe the center or one side can be in a stud then use these where there isn't one. Used them on 65" Plasmas with swivel arms without one problem. The metal digs into the sheetrock abit to make a nice "bite". Haven't tested a kid handing off it though. Lol

 

[jtara92101]

Not solving you question but why do you need to go crazy? You can't use a stud finder? Is this TV hanging on sheetrock? How much does it weigh? Save yourself the trouble and use Togglebolts. Maybe the center or one side can be in a stud then use these where there isn't one. Used them on 65" Plasmas with swivel arms without one problem. The metal digs into the sheetrock abit to make a nice "bite". Haven't tested a kid handing off it though. Lol

 

 

It's... complicated!

 

50" plasma, Samsung 50C8000, 55 pounds. Heavy swivel arm that allows full 90 degree rotation (e.g. TV at right-angle to wall). Definitive sound bar on add-on bracket. Bracket, sound bar adapter bracket, and sound bar add another 75 pounds, so about 125 pounds total. The Samsung has the power supply at the top so is top-heavy. 

 

In my old residence it was lag-bolted into wooden studs. No problem!

 

Current residence is a historic concrete high-rise built in in 1927, renovated in 1999. Every wall is a new surprise. Basic construction is steel-reinforced concrete frame, with hollow terra-cotta blocks for outside and some inside walls. Fortunately, the wall I want to put this on has no terra-cotta, which is thin, crumbly uselessness. Every wall brings a new surprise.

 

The particular outside wall I want to mount this on is 1/4" drywall (1999) over 5/8" plaster (1927) over metal lath, over concrete support column. Except where there is dead space behind, the lath/plaster appears directly against the support column. There is a bump-out (into the room) for the column, and there is dead space in the bumped-out corner and so the corner is false. (LOTS of dead space in the apartments, rumor is there is a kitchenette hidden in the corner of my bedroom beside a column where the drywall was just continued into the corner...) There's a bevel at the corner of the concrete column and for this particular column they made the corner of the plaster/drywall square, while others actually follow the contour of the column. In the dead corner, there are some solid metal bars running vertically behind the plaster. Maybe 1/2 x 3/4 or perhaps 1/2 x 1. In this particular wall, I don't think there are metal studs (1999) though I might be wrong and they might be used in the corner. I know the metal studs are useless for mounting anything like this! There are NO wooden studs - the only wood is door framing and window framing. The plaster seems quite solid dunno why they put the drywall over it, but suppose they finished everything uniform when they renovated and other parts of the building might have been more run-down. (Interior walls are drywall over metal studs, circa 1999. They removed most interior partitions as it was a hotel-to-apartment conversion, later condo with no further changes.)

 

Needless to say, this construction drives a stud-finder crazy! And I have a good one with metal-detector mode, deep-scan, etc. The stud-finder has worked well for the more normal-ish partition walls.

 

Whether or not I am allowed to drill into the concrete is ambiguous. Building maintenance seems OK about it, but suggests I not run a hammer drill for TOO long, in respect to the neighbors. Rules and regulations are more iffy, maintenance guy claims it just means don't put a hole THROUGH any concrete.

 

I will need 8 holes max, that's what I used in the old residence with the lag bolts. The bracket would span across the false corner and the solid concrete support column. I don't know how much support there really is in the false corner. Obviously, the support column is golden, so long as I can drill it (I can borrow a hammer drill) and I don't get in trouble for drilling it. And don't hit rebar, I guess if I do I just move along on the bracket slots...

 

I drilled a bigger hole, talked to the building maintenance guy, and now have a clearer picture. Will talk more to building maintenance guy tomorrow.

 

It is in San Diego, an earthquake zone. The false corner MIGHT be hiding some earthquake reinforcement, dunno. I know there's not much, my friend who watched the renovation in 1999 from his property up the street cynically states that they put a WHOLE truckload of steel in for reinforcement. (16 story building.)

[stusviews]

My only experience is stills from an edoscopy (no idea of the format) and live video from a camera sent through our sewer line to the street. I viewed that sewer line video on an iPad after the video was taken. You may want to pursue the latter method. Better yet if someone has a live endoscope solution

 

I would never use a toggle-bolt to secure a weighty object, not even outside an earthquake prone zone

[larryllix]

Have to agree with Stu there.

In an earthquake zone that heavy amount of weight is asking for trouble on any kind of extended leverage.

 

On my 55" I gave up trying  hang it on the wall any which way and got the feet back on it.

 

 On the wall puts the screen about 16" further away from the viewer, causing a different sound image to video image depth, and makes your monitor screen look much smaller due to distance. Try sitting a few feet closer to your screen, one night. It's like getting an upgrade to a 70" TV.

 

For the few times we have ever needed to swivel our TV, the stand does that just fine. Think about the cool gadgetry we have been sold and what it is really worth, functionally.

 

OTOH: I really should get a tether to the wall behind it for safety. Now I keep my TV forward as far as I can. It accommodates the Philips Bloom I have behind it to help watching eyestrain, with more even lighting.

[builderb]

The plaster part sucks. Ideally you screw metal plate to the metal studs, and fasten to that with metal screws.

 

I doubt that's practical though. You could fabricate a stand that gets vertical support by touching the floor, and then rely on one solid line of screws to a stud for lateral/withdrawal resistance. That gives you a place to bury cords too.

[jtara92101]

The plaster part sucks. Ideally you screw metal plate to the metal studs, and fasten to that with metal screws.

 

I doubt that's practical though. You could fabricate a stand that gets vertical support by touching the floor, and then rely on one solid line of screws to a stud for lateral/withdrawal resistance. That gives you a place to bury cords too.

 

My friend with the rotary hammer (clarified, it's a rotary hammer, not a hammer drill (...good thing, the difference is the rotary hammer goes through "like butter", watched some YouTube videos...) suggests pre-drilling the plaster and filling with epoxy or something similar then using longer screws/anchors. (Not sure what he said, he's out of town till next week). I think he'll give me good advice, as he owns/maintains 3 apartment buildings up the street. He recently ordered a huge diamond hole saw on Amazon. Anybody need to break into a vault?!

 

I don't think there are any metal studs in this particular wall, though. And certainly not on the part where the bulk of the bracket will mount. There MAY be a metal stud on the false corner, (left side of bracket) but then the right side of bracket would have to mount on the concrete under plaster. I think the corner is the weird solid metal bar that's like 1/2 x 3/4.

 

The bracket is very heavy-duty and very flexible. It has multiple positions for placing the post, so that the bracket can be offset left/right of the desired collapsed screen position as needed. So, I can get it all on concrete, or spanning across the false corner and concrete. I could even go to the section to the left of the bump-out, but I think that wall is either brick or hollow terra-cotta.

 

I'll attach a photo of TV currently teetering on subwoofer for orientation. Oh, I found a photo of the setup in my old residence, as well, so you can see the bracket I am talking about. Sorry it is so dark, I lightened it quite a bit. Backlighting...

 

I have a nice 3-shelf Omnimount unit, which hides all of the wiring clutter behind the wooden snap-off panels.

 

I'd IMAGINE that eyebolt sticking out of the wall might in some way be useful. I've nixed a friend's plan to somehow attach some pole to the eyebolt. Apparently it was meant as a way over-enengineered anchor for safety bars over the window (it was a hotel when built in 1927) that could be detached and swung out on a hinge for emergency exit. Others have suggested it was for window washers to tie-off. Or might have been for hoisting some steel structural member. Who knows...

 

But I have other plans for the eyebolt(s). I have 4, one for each window. They are going to be either RGBW or CYMK. I think CYMK, as Dick Blick (artist supply) has spray paint in "true cyan, true yellow, true magenta". A little visual technology pun. I want to see if anybody "gets it" and how long it takes.

 

The large hole you see is at the edge of the structural column. The corner is false. My notes written on the wall read for one small hole, "drives drill bit left", and another just to the right "solid, breaks bit". Then I drilled the big hole to investigate, and it is the angled edge of the concrete column. Which caused the drill bit to slide to the left...

 

The last photo is a reason I am reluctant to drill into this column. In the last photo (outside) the column is approximately centered at the bottom of the photo. I think it runs up through the central tower section...