As I see others using the Flip camera, I’m seeing a common problem emerge – often, the lips are moving slower than the words that I hear.  It’s rather obvious and very annoying.

The problem is that people are uploading the video file uncompressed in an AVI format, the format that the Flip camera records in. This looks good on your TV, but it’s lousy for online sharing.

The Flip camera also comes with its own software where you can save your video file in a compressed format. I used it, but it degraded the image.

If you want to share your video online without compromising the picture, you should save it in a compressed Quicktime format (m4v). That way, if you want to podcast your video file, you can do so easily using iTunes.

There are two ways you could do this:

• Purchase software that will convert your video file from AVI to M4V (I use Camtasia as I can also mix in screen captures and sounds – see this video as an example) OR
• Sign up for a free account through mDialog. This service will encode your video file in a few formats without you having to get your hands dirty. Just upload your video file as is and mDialog will convert and encode it in the right formats without degrading the picture.