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Digital Video Editing Buying GuideBuyers' Guide to Digital Video Editing Contents
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Potential to reality - Software, the missing link Quality Digital Video (DV) became a possibility with the arrival of the Sony DCR-VX1000 in 1995, a landmark DV camcorder, years ahead of its rivals. It provided a video signal quality equal to most camcorders available today, was the first consumer camcorder with a Firewire connection, possessed easy-to-use controls, and the lens was professional quality. The Sony DCR-VX1000 should have been what the Canon 300D was for digital SLRs and the iPod was for digital music on the go. However, it was doomed never to spark the DV revolution. Why? Simple; the software available at the time was horrible to use, expensive to buy and impossible to install. Digital video for the masses could only begin when the accompanying software was easy enough to use without requiring a Degree in rocket science. This fusion of software, affordable DV camcorders and fast PCs with large hard drive capacities happened around 2002. On the PC side, Windows XP offered Firewire support and the plug-and-play connectivity promised with Windows 98. While Windows was ironing out bugs, Apple stole the limelight with the arrival of iMovie, a simple to use program that allowed anybody with an iMac and DV camcorder to make movies within hours. The PC industry quickly followed suit with variations of professional video editing programs. These offered lots of features but generally had clunky interfaces when compared to the slick simplicity of iMovie. Mature programs developed specifically for the video enthusiast, eventually arrived over the next couple of years offering the features needed to easily create home movies. The current crop of video editing packages has matured remarkably, with many programs now into their 7th and 8th revisions. That means a lot of mistakes were made and a lot of lessons learnt. Users entering the world of video editing can now enjoy using applications that are not only more stable, but also more intuitive than ever before. What you will need for hassle free video editing Once you have recorded your video footage, the next step is getting it onto your PC and transforming the raw video into a polished movie. Most newer PCs will have enough power and memory capacity to handle DV editing tasks but as a good standard rule always remember, the more RAM the better. Hard drive capacity is also important as video files can take up large amounts of space. The following figures are not the minimum requirements for working with DV, rather a recommendation on the appropriate system to make life easier.
Why does video take up so much hard drive space? Video is a continuous stream of still images that our brains interpret as motion. In Australia we use the PAL TV system, which has 25 image frames every second, each made up of 720 by 576 pixels.
Non-compressed video data creates huge files. For example, a 10-second uncompressed video file can take up to 340MB. That's 34MB of data per second. In order to just capture a 20-minute video file, over 40GB of storage space would be required. To get around this problem, compression formats were devised to dramatically reduce file size, yet retain acceptable quality. These compressors work by throwing out data unimportant to the overall quality of the image. Compression formats include:
Assuming you already have your DV camcorder and software application, the only addition to a standard PC needed for editing DV is a Firewire card. Many PCs now come with Firewire (also known as iLink or IEEE1394) although USB 2.0 is more common. Many camcorders offer USB 2.0 functionality as well as Firewire, which is useful for creating streaming video and the occasional DVD movie. However, Firewire is still the best way to deal with DV, as it offers greater control over the camcorder during the video transfer process and the transfer technology is more reliable. Firewire or 1394 cards are an inexpensive DV-to-PC solution. It allows users to move footage from a DV camcorder to a PC, edit it, add special effects, then send it back out to the DV camcorders to view instantaneously. Once you are finished editing your masterpiece you can save your video into numerous digital video formats or transmit back to your video camcorder. The result is 100% digital, 1st generation loss-less video. A key feature of Firewire is that transmission speed is scaleable from about 100 Mbps to 400 Mbps. This high speed, uninterrupted transfer is crucial for DV to work properly. If your controller is compatible with the OHCI standard (Open Host Controller Interface), simply open the computer case, put the card into an available PCI slot, close the case and restart your computer. Windows 98SE or Windows XP should have no trouble recognising the card and installing the appropriate driver with little input from the user. If possible, work with Windows XP as Microsoft has ceased support for Windows 98 and Windows ME is a flaky operating system at the best of times. All DV capture cards deliver identical quality in terms of capture and output video, that means DV-in = DV-out. At first glance it appears that USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) is indeed faster than Firewire (400 Mbps). However, this is only true under ideal conditions. While 480 Mbps is the maximum speed achievable, USB 2.0 can not guarantee a specified data transfer rate. This is mainly because USB 2.0 is a master-slave, host-dependent technology, meaning it relies on your computer's CPU to facilitate and manage data transfers. Firewire, on the other hand, is a peer-to-peer technology that does not require CPU resources to facilitate data transfers between Firewire devices. Firewire devices can guarantee real-time delivery of data at a specific rate. Real time data delivery is necessary for certain applications, such as digital video streaming where dropped or delayed data packets is unacceptable. This is why devices like digital camcorders have 1394 interfaces, and why Firewire is the interface of choice for digital video editing applications. Video editing applications allow video to be captured, edited and exported to DV tape, the web or a recordable CD or DVD, with price points for video editing programs ranging from free (on the web or on a PC World cover CD) up to several thousand dollars for professional hardware/software solutions. Popular video editing applications are available from Pinnacle (www.pinnaclesys.com), Ulead (www.ulead.com) and Adobe (www.adobe.com.au). Often, demo versions of the applications are available to try out for a limited period. This allows you to see if the application is worth using, before you lay down your hard-earned cash. If you have a Windows XP machine, a video editing application called Movie Maker is already included in the operating system. If you have upgraded the OS to SP2, you will have the latest version installed. If you haven't updated to the latest version of Windows XP, you can download the latest release of Movie Maker from the Microsoft web site. Most of the current inexpensive video editing packages offer 3D titles, special effects, impressive wipes and transitions to satisfy most movie making tasks. Easy to follow step-by-step wizards help to make the process less daunting, with some applications creating a finished movie for you from scratch. Installing the software Once the CD has been inserted, your application should automatically install in its own directory. While the default choices for installation should satisfy most users' requirements, we recommend you have your video captured to a separate hard drive if possible. Once the program opens, a variety of settings will need to be determined to suit the type of movie you want to create. Templates are often available for either the local DV PAL or the American NTSC systems. Applications will usually have NTSC as the default format for video, so check before you make your first movie. You should also be able to choose between 4/3 or 16/9 (HDTV) support. Another popular preset function is DVD, where video is converted to MPEG-2 before it is burnt to a DVD disc. The software should recognise the type of camcorder you are using, with Windows XP providing most of the relevant information. Your video editing program will present you with a series of windows, timelines and palettes that allow you to manipulate your video, audio, titles and effects. Capturing video Capturing video from a DV camcorder or VCR is a simple process, usually involving little more than choosing File - Capture Movie from the application menu. Some applications offer a "wizard" approach, where you simply click on icons that look like a camcorder to start the video transfer process. You will generally see a monitor view of incoming video, with settings and logging tabs to select if you don't want to capture the whole video tape. A batch feature may also be available, allowing you to put clips in any order, add comments or notes, delete clips, search for scenes and temporarily disable footage for capturing. The most popular way to work with video is in a Single Track, or Storyboard, environment. This is where single icons showing a video scene and transitions placed between clips on one single track are displayed on the screen. New users should start out using a Single Track mode if possible. A multi-track mode is where you need to keep track of multiple video and audio tracks, creating a movie by layering the various tracks in a sequence. For example, if you want a transition, you place it on the effects track between Video track 1 and Video track 2. Keep it simple! Before you get too involved in the video editing process, it is important to understand the concept of telling the story in a simple manner. The audience will be moved by the video content, rather than the stunning transition effects or swirling title sequence. Most of the time, the best effect you will be applying will be a simple cut between one scene and another. Sometimes a fade might also be recommended to signify a drastic change in time or storyline. If you want to work with any of the more impressive looking transitions (eg page curls or wipes), make sure you use them to enhance your project, not take over it. Telling a story All video editing applications have the basic collection of tools, effects and transitions to help you turn your raw video footage into an enjoyable movie.
The simplest transition is none at all, or a "cut", where the first frame of the second video immediately follows the last frame of the first. Other simple transitions include fades, where the first video fades out to either white or black while the next fades in. All the applications have these basic transitions, although if you want to go all out with barrel wipes, explosion effects and 3D titles, some applications offer more than others. Titling Most video editing programs have a titling package that provides the tools and fonts to place into your movie timeline. Titles can be changed or removed at any time right up until the moment when you render the edited footage. Title applications provide a variety of choices -- including animation, colour and a choice of fonts and font sizes. A good titling sequence can help establish the appropriate mood and prepare the audience for the genre of movie being shown. Hollywood movie titles provide a perfect example of the importance of a title to establish a mood. Dramatic movies usually employ a subdued, simple titling sequence, while blockbuster movies may use animated titles that zoom in and out of screen to prepare the audience for the upcoming action. So take a tip from the professionals and make sure your titles give the message you want. Most video camcorders these days provide a titling feature in the camera itself; however avoid using this feature unless you cannot edit the footage on a PC, as in-camera-effects always look cheap and tacky. Audio If you want to take your editing seriously, you should also consider getting an audio editing program to complement your video editing package. Video editing programs in general are good for simple audio cuts and fades. However, when you work with video, a frame is generally the smallest editing measure, whereas in audio a full frame is often too much time to accurately cut out a sung word or match up a sound. Dedicated audio editing programs allow you to match up your audio more accurately than in a normal video editing package. Always make sure you have a backup of any original footage before you start working with your audio, particularly if you take the sound off your video track. If you are working with only one camcorder, you may not have much control over the quality of the audio, particularly if you aren't using an external microphone. This is where you may want to consider a background soundtrack to set the mood, allowing original audio content back into the video only when it is relevant to the story. Finally, remember copyright issues when choosing audio content to use in your next video. Just because you have bought the CD doesn't mean that you can use the music in any project you see fit. Getting video to the Web Because your video is in digital form, your software can easily transform your movie into a Web friendly file. Virtually all video editing programs allow you to capture, edit and output to many Web formats, straight from the timeline. Web video output options usually include QuickTime Streaming, QuickTime Progressive Download, Windows Media (audio and video) and variations of the increasingly popular MPEG-4 format. You should also be able to customise your video's quality to suit different Internet connection speeds. Although with the popularity of broadband, you may want to keep your video at the highest quality possible if you are sharing with family and friends. As DVD home entertainment systems replace the humble VCR, DV camcorder's have been suitably equipped to allow users to put their movie creations onto DVD media. Differing formats Disc space capacity on a single-sided, single-layered DVD is up to 4.7GB compared to the maximum of 700MB for a CD-Rom. More space means more video, making DVDs the ideal storage device as they can store more than four hours of full screen, high quality video and surround sound onto a single disc. Up until recently, authoring DVDs had been a frustrating and expensive procedure. First you had to encode the video material into MPEG-2, a process that is exceptionally time-consuming. Next, you needed to create the appropriate menus so your home DVD player could play your video and finally, you needed to ensure that your DVD media was compatible with various competing formats. The arrival of inexpensive dual format DVD recorders has removed many of the format issues that have hampered the widespread use of DVD authoring. Now, many of the video editing packages have the relevant tools to create a DVD movie without having to buy a dedicated DVD authoring application. The basic process for recording a DVD disc (DVD-R/DVD+R) is similar to recording a CD-R, with the choices available including: disc at once or incremental writing. Disc at once is the safest way to write a disc without running the risk of creating a coaster as the drive is able to consistently provide data to the disc at a consistent rate. This helps avoid buffer under-run as the PC allocates all of its resources to writing the disc. Incremental writing is similar to packet writing on a CD, where the DVD recordable disc is written to over time, with data added to the disc until the limit is reached. The disc must be finalised before it can be read in a DVD-ROM drive or used in a home DVD player. The best way to overcome any issues with regards to DVD formats is to go with a Dual format (DVD +RW/-RW) drive, which are readily available for around $200. Be sure not to confuse Dual format with dual layer. Dual layer technology allows you to write up to around 8GB onto a dual layer disc. |
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