[cdtobin]

Did you send video from Russia to oyour IA doc? Did you use your own laptop? Any hints about doing this?

[ncturtle]

We were wondering about pictures as well. We know that we will be staying in an apartment with no internet connection and will need to use an internet cafe? Not to sound totally ignorant (but I am about this! ) Can you use the card from your camera and just insert it into the computer at the internet cafe?
Any info would be helpful..
Thanks!

[Amysue1112]

Yep we sent both pics and video to our IA doc. In our situation, we lost our referral the day we were to meet her, so when we got our the referral of our daughter, we wanted to get the IA doc to evel the info.

We used our digital camera that could take short video clips (you may have to be very discreet about taking pics/video..they did not even know we took video.
Before our trip we bought a laptop that could accept our camera memory stick. It was very easy, but I can get my dh to give you specific details since he is the computer person.

WE also kept pictures on our blog for our family..it was really great for them to follow our experience with us..what an amazing one it was! I will be glad to share our blog if you would like to see it..pm me.


Also, if you don't have an IA doc yet, I highly recomend one...PM me if you want and I will give you the group's name...since we lost our referral and got another one..we needed our IA doc and QUICKLY. They had a doc on call 24/7 for travelling families just for this type of thing. We called their 800 # in the states and sent the pics/video and had a call back and an opinion in 10 minutes! Can't get better than that! AND they only charge a one time fee for as many referrals as we needed evaled. We hoped we would only have one but we ended up needing 4 evals, so thank goodness we went with them or we would have paid A LOT of money.

I would be glad to share more if you want..just PM me since we can't talk about it here.

[russia06]

DH Here. . .

Since I am the resident computer guy in the house, I thought I would take a crack at this. . .

First test it. Use the laptop you are going to use and camera, and send pictures to your doctors. Most digital cameras allow for a USB connection to a computer, so even if your computer doesn't have a card reader, you should be able to transfer the pictures to the computer and then e-mail them. Be aware even "hi-speed" access in Russia is not what we in the US are used to as "hi-speed", so pictures and video are large files that will take a while to upload. You may find it necessary to use a ZIP program that will reduce the file size. (There are several you can download for Free over the Internet). Before you go, make sure your doctor can open a test file from you.

As for video, the biggest issue is file sizes. We actually brought a DVD camcorder, and I had some basic editing software on our laptop. However the file sizes are very big, so e-mail was out of the question. We actually posted them to our website, and the doctor downloaded them from there. Again, test this before. There are lots of different computer video formats, and you want to make sure your doctor can open the one you are making.

As for an internet cafe, we did not use one, so I can't guarentee anything. Most likely you can connect your camera up using a USB cable to the computer in the cafe, but if the computers are older, that might not be possible. Also, the cafe might not be allowing USB access, since if someone knows what they are doing, this could be a big computer risk (i.e. viruses). While you won't be doing anything bad, someone could use that method to put a virus on the cafe's computer. Personally if I were designing an Internet Cafe, I would disable the USB, but who know what they are doing in Russia.

Good luck,
JB (DH of RB)

[beckyww]

If you're worried about email size - upload it some spot like photobucket. You could link to it on a personal web page, or a blog, or even just send the IA doc your login.

Becky
www.woodworthfamily.blogdrive.com

[cdtobin]

This is a good suggestion for everyone interested in video to their IA docs!

[cdtobin]

good advice for travelers!

[ncturtle]

I "googled" internet cafe + russia and found that there seem to be pretty abundant in the cities that I checked (Moscow and St. Petersburg)and open 24hrs. Looks like we will be heading out for our first trip on 3/12 to St. Petersburg.. so I'll let you know how it goes!

[pequele]

be careful putting your camera card directly into a foreign computer without having downloaded the pics to your own computer FIRST!!!! My friends took their camera card and put it directly into a computer that was at an internet cafe/business center when they were in China adopting their daughter. With the foreign keyboard etc, the computer did something to their camera's card (reformatted possibly???) and it ATE ALL their pics from their first encounter with their daughter plus all sight seeing before AND it made the card not usable in their camera for the rest of their trip. They had to go to WalMart (YES WALMART in China) and buy a new card, and despite it being WalMart it cost them about 5 times the price it would have in the US, but at least they have some pics of their trip, but they have lost everything documenting meeting thier child for the first time! Very sad!