It’s not that difficult to set up a digital video editing system and start editing within 1 hour if you are familiar with computers.

But you WILL encounter problems sooner or later. You’d better know the basics of digital video editing to make your editing life easier.

This page features straight-forward, easy-to-understand information about getting started in the world of digital / desktop video editing. I have put all the info in a FAQ format. Hopefully, you will find this page helpful.

What is Digital or Desktop Video Editing?

Digital Video Editing, or Desktop Video (DTV) Editing, is using your computer to edit videos.

Today, computers are so fast and storage is so cheap that you can capture your video directly from your camcorder to your computer, edit it, add all kinds of cool titles, filters, transitions and FX. Then you can output back to tape, onto the web or even onto a CD or DVD.

Although different technically, Digital/Desktop Video Editing is the same as Non-Linear Editing (NLE) for most practical purposes.

What is Non Linear Editing?

Non Linear Editing (NLE) is editing using random-access video storage. It means you can get access to your footages from hard drive randomly and instantly. The video files on your hard drive are just like normal Word documents, you can load, watch, manipulate, any part of the file in a non-linear mode.

Instead of using jog shuttles and special video decks, you simply capture the video to your hard drive. You can then edit and rearrange the shots much like moving paragraphs around in your word processing program. Since the video is digitized, you can instantly get to any exact point in the video.

Non Linear Editing software is timeline based. Each shot is placed on the timeline. You can lay down more than one track of video and audio onto the timeline.

The best part about NLE is the effects. It’s only limited by your own imagination and the software you choose. You can add special filters to clean up and restore picture quality, or to place ripples or swirls in the video. You can also create awesome transitions between shots.

Then comes titling and graphics. You can use any Windows true type font, so foreign languages are no problem at all. You can add a logo or computer graphic or even animation. In fact, you can make it fly, bounce, or spin onto the video.

You can also add cool plug-ins to your NLE software to create awesome 3D transitions and effects.

The power of NLE is truly incredible. Now every video makers can create videos that look and feel like network productions.

What is Linear Editing?

In the past you had to edit linear.

The simplest form of linear editing is called assemble editing or deck to deck. This is when you copy the “good” parts of a tape over to a new tape and repeat the same process until the whole program is finished.

A/B roll editing is when you edit from two or more video sources. An A/B roll system often includes a digital mixer, to let you cut, fade, dissolve and wipe from source A to source B.

Non-Linear is definitely the way to go. Anything you could do on an old fashioned linear system can be done better and cooler with NLE. The only instance you may have to use linear system is probably producing news programs where you have to finish it really fast and don’t need any effects.

Here is the only place I mention linear editing in this site .

What is a video capture card?

Video capture cards let you record video from camcorder or VCR onto your computer’s hard drive. These cards use hardware and/or software compression (codec) to digitize the video onto your hard drive.

While it is the video editing software that lets you actually create and edit the video, it is the video capture card that determines the quality of your video.

Check out this comprehensive video capture card features chart to see which card is best for you.

What is a CODEC?

CODEC stands for Compression/Decompression. It is the compression algorithm used by your video capture card to digitize and store the video on your hard drive.

Codecs exist for all kinds of compressed video, including DV, MJPEG, MPEG, Indeo, Cinepak, Sorensen, wavelet, fractal, RealVideo, vXtreme, and many others. The three most popular video codecs used today are MJPEG, DV and MPEG.

Besides capturing video, the codecs also come into play when you need to render transitions, titles, and effects. The system has to take the source frames, decompress them, perform the effects, and recompress the resulting frames.

What are “hard” and “soft” codecs?

Hard codecs are hardware codecs, normally a computer chip. You supply power and raw video at one end, and get compressed video out the other end in real time. Flip a switch and pump in compressed video, and raw, uncompressed video comes out.

Soft codecs are software modules that do the same thing, such as the DV codecs supplied by QuickTime or Microsoft. Modern computers are fast enough that soft codecs can compress or decompress in real time or even faster.

Which is better, hard or soft codec?

One thing to keep in mind is that “hard” vs. “soft” doesn’t matter when it comes to video quality, both give excellent result when working properly.

Speaking of speed, in early 1998, various vendors claimed a 25% or 30% speed advantage of hard codecs over soft codecs. Too much depends on other factors, like the speed of the computer’s CPU, bus and bus interface chipset, to decisively say that one codec will be faster than the other in effects rendering. As CPUs and buses speed up over time, the soft codecs have taken the lead in speed for rendering operations.

However, hard codes do have some advantages sometimes depending on your requirements. Hard codec systems usually come with breakout boxes that include analog (composite, Y/C, or even component) connections as well as 1394 connections. You can connect up any VTR format with analog I/O to the box and capture it in real-time or output to it in real-time.

Another very cool feature that many hardware based capture cards now have is real-time features such as transitions, FX, filters, titling and more. You do not have to render, these effects play directly from the timeline. Not everything is in real-time with these cards. Each real-time card comes with its own special selection of real-time features.

What is FireWire?

Also known as IEEE1394 or iLink, FireWire is a new interface standard that allows super high speed data transfer. It is the hottest new technology in digital video.

When you use a DV camcorder/VCR and FireWire card, the video is passed directly from your camcorder to your hard drive. Because the signal stays digital through the entire process, you get zero loss and a final video with identical video quality to the original footages.

For more information about FireWire and DV, see DV & FireWire FAQ.

What is Rendering?

Normally, before your edited video can be played back to tape, the computer have to “render” or “make” the finished movie as a single separate video file. Once this new file is created, you can play it back anytime you like.

The rendering process takes up a lot of computer power and time. The more titles, effects and filters you add, the more processing power, speed and time will be needed to create the finished video. This is the area where more RAM and a faster processor can really make a difference.

Rendering can take 10 to 20 times as long as the total time of the finished movie. Rendering times of several hours are not uncommon. Until rendering becomes faster, long videos (over 1/2 hour) with effects are not very practical even for professional editors.

What is full speed, full screen video?

A standard NTSC video signal consists of 30 frames (actually 29.97) per second, and two fields per frame. This is considered to be full speed or full motion video. PAL uses 25 frames per second.

With digital video, full screen is considered 720×480 for NTSC, 720×576 for PAL. If you capture at a smaller size, your computer will have to interpolate the missing information when it plays back the video full screen to your VCR or TV. The larger the capture size, the higher the resolution, and the greater size of the file created.

Source : http://www.aboutvideoediting.com

Although this web site is mainly for home video makers rather than professional video editors, I’ll list the most popular professional video editing systems here for completeness anyway

You may want to upgrade to professional solutions someday. Yes, video editing is an addiction. Or maybe you want to start your own production house and make your living on it.

For now, you don’t have to worry about the price. They range from 20k to half million. Just make yourself informed on what the professionals are using.

Avid has a lot going for it, not the least of which is a user interface that’s been around so long it’s emerged as the de facto industry standard. Powered by Avid’s Meridien Video subsystem, another great benefit of Avid’s vast stable of editing choices is the ease with which all Avid products work with all their brothers and sisters around a production facility. With an industry full of trained editors and freelancers who would not consider working on anything less, Avid has become what IBM was a decade or two ago: Nobody ever got fired for buying Avid. That is, unless you can’t afford it.

Avid Symphony, capable of real time, multilayer, uncompressed editing and special effects, including color correction, keying, compositing, paint, character generation, 3D effects and audio editing and mixing. Symphony includes the full Media Composer feature set and adds the conforming, real-time finishing and multi-format mastering tools required for high-end film and television editorial work.

Avid Film Composer is the system of choice of editors of virtually every major motion picture today. Providing 23.976P, 24P and 25P Universal offline editing, real-time 3D-FX and precise matchback to every major film format; if you’re editing film and not working with an Avid Film Composer, your clients will probably wonder why not.

Discreet, a division of Autodesk, was established in 1999 after Autodesk acquired Discreet Logic Inc. and merged its operations with Kinetix®. Discreet develops systems & software for visual effects, 3D animation, editing and production – crucial to the creation of digital moving pictures in feature films, video, HDTV, broadcast graphics, interactive games and the web. Discreet products are used extensively in film and video post-production, games, animation and multimedia, television programming, and news & event coverage.

Discreet Fire, a Unix-based nonlinear editing, conforming and finishing system for digital cinema and HD production.

Discreet Inferno, most commonly used for high resolution commercials and sophisticated film compositing, this Unix-based software runs on SGI’s Onyx 3000.

Discreet Flame, positioned as a compositor for smaller boutiques, independent post houses and network/cable broadcasters creating effects for commercials, music videos and promos, offers a slightly reduced feature set compared with Inferno.

Discreet Smoke, Fire’s little brother, runs on the SGI Octane2 platform, and works in 2K, HD or traditional standard definition formats on a single unified system. Smoke offers 24p 2K playback and an expanded 3D DVE module with real time interactivity at full RGB 4:4:4 resolution.

Matrox DigiSuite MAX, designed for broadcast and post-production facilities, delivers maximum editing power and creative freedom with more real time features than any other platform in its class. The complete spectrum of analog and digital inputs and outputs is supported to enable professional editors to work in their formats of choice.

Media 100 844/X, a full-featured editing system integrated with fast unlimited-layer compositing, 844/X packs some serious effects processing power. 844/X delivers real time image processing on up to four concurrent 10-bit uncompressed video stream and key pairs, along with 31-bit internal precision to support the arrangement and editing of complex and numerous layers.

Pinnacle Liquid Blue is Pinnacle Systems‘ multi-format broadcast editing system. Pinnacle Liquid blue offers end-to-end native digital production in all formats, supporting DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO 25/50, MPEG-2, MPEG IMX, and uncompressed, all with faster than realtime SDT Itransfer, both 2x and 4x.

Pinnacle Liquid Chrome is designed for effects-intensive post settings where time and quality are at a premium. Liquid Chrome brings together three of Pinnacle’s components into one editing and compositing system — Pinnacle’s Liquid editing application, the TARGA 3000 compositing engine and Pinnacle’s K2 single-chip 3D DVE

Pinnacle Liquid Silver is an MPEG-2 post editing solution aimed at long form or corporate editing. Liquid Silver uses MPEG-2 4:2:2 and uncompressed formats, offering the same quality as traditional MJPEG systems for 40% less disk usage.

CinéWave is software and hardware working together to deliver more speed and flexibility on the Mac G4. CinéWave, the first uncompressed editor for Final Cut Pro, provides non-linear editing, unlimited layering, uncompressed real-time effects, motion tracker, paint, and compositing tools. CinéWave is designed to work in DV, DigiBeta, uncompressed 601, PAL, NTSC, 1080i, 1080p, 4:3, 16:9, DVD, and the Web.

Quantel has been at the forefront of the use of digital technology as a creative tool for the last 25 years and it is now using its vast experience to create tools for the new digital age – covering everything from terrestrial and multi-channel television, to broadband internet, DVD and e-cinema.

Quantel iQ sits at the head of the class of the generationQ line of products. An entirely new technology, iQ provides a completely integrated working environment where Quantel’s unique hardware meets the openness of a standard PC.

Quantel eQ, Quantel’s new HD nonlinear editing and effects system offers interactivity and performance that might be expected from SD nonlinear systems.

Quantel QEdit Pro, next generation multi-format editing and effects system delivers real 10 bit non-compressed quality AAF-compliant SD/HD PC-based NLE with a high-end creative toolset for the mainstream finishing market.

Source : http://www.aboutvideoediting.com

The latest technology in digital video editing is DV and FireWire.

If you are setting up a new system, go digital right from start. That means, buy a DV camcorder and video capture card with FireWire port.

What is DV?

As you can guess, DV stands for “Digital Video”. It is the new high resolution digital video standard.

DV is compressed at the camera, on the tape itself. The camcorder has the DV “codec” built in.

The DV spec is a 720×480 image size with a 5:1 compression. DV video information is carried in a nominal 25 megabit per second data stream. The color information is sampled at 4:1:1 for NTSC, and 4:2:0 for PAL.

Unlike MJPEG compressed video, DV video can’t be scaled. You can’t lower the screen size, change the screen size or data rate.

DV format is typically reckoned to be equal to or slightly better than Betacam SP or MII in terms of picture quality. Two types of DV camcorders, DVCAM and DVCPRO, are widely used in TV industry today.

However, for most of us, DV often refers to MiniDV actually. MiniDV is just the home level DV format. It is compressed to a constant throughput of 3,600 kilobytes per second. The video quality is not as good as Betacam, but much better than S-video.

What is FireWire?

Technically, it is the high speed, short distance data transfer protocol IEEE1394. Apple didn’t like the numbers and so called it “FireWire”. Sony didn’t like it either, and so they called it “iLink”. And they are all the same thing.

When the FireWire concept was first announced a few years ago, it was envisioned that it would become a new standard that would replace SCSI and link all our consumer electronics equipment and computers together. Now, the dust has settled and the hype has died down. The only application for FireWire that has actually come to fruition is for transferring digital video (DV) information directly from a camcorder (or VCR) to your hard drive.

What’s the difference between DV and FireWire?

DV is the actual format of the video.

FireWire is the port and protocol that lets you transfer the DV data to your computer. The full FireWire spec includes frame accurate device control and the ability to read and write the digital video.

When the video goes through the 1394 cable, into the capture card, and onto the hard drive, nothing is done to the video. It is a digital copy. It’s identical to the original. And this is really nice.

How’s the quality of DV?

The DV (MiniDV) spec is a 720×480 image size, at roughly a 5:1 compression. More accurately, it is compressed at a constant throughput of 3600 kilobytes per second which averages out to 5:1 compression.

The images are crisp, bright and have excellent depth and contrast. In general, it’s acceptable even in TV stations.

Best of all, the information is stored on the video tape in digital form, so it can be copied over and over without any loss.

DV in = DV out

This is what makes DV so great. When you capture DV footage to your hard drive via FireWire, the DV video on your hard drive is an exact digital copy of the original footage. There is no loss. When choosing a FireWire card, there is no video quality debate regardless of what codec is used.

What are the different DV CODECs?

Don’t know what is codec? Check out Getting Started FAQ.

Basically, the DV codecs can be split into 2 groups. Hardware and Software. But remember, the final video quality is not an issue. DV in = DV out.

Software codecs
Software FireWire cards are really just an interface for bringing the DV video in and out of your computer. They rely on software compression and the speed and power of your computer to digitize and edit the footage. The biggest advantage of software based FireWire cards are how affordable they are. Another advantage is that with computers getting more and more powerful every day, software based systems become faster and faster.

OHCI cards
OHCI cards, or “Open Host Controller Interface”, use the drivers found in the Windows 98SE, ME & Win2000 operating systems. Since the manufacturers do not have to engineer any software drivers, they are very inexpensive, usually around $100. With these cards you can capture and edit your video, but this can be limited. The only features you get are those that the NLE supports. One of the advantages of the OHCI spec is that it also allows you to attach other cool FireWire devices like hard drives, WebCams, scanners and more.

Hardware codecs
These cards use the same DV chips used in your DV cam to handle the DV data. They have both analog and DV inputs and outputs. Your analog footage is captured and compressed directly into DV in real-time. You can create a timeline that includes both analog and DV footage. Because these cards have analog output (usually through a break out box) you can view your video on a video monitor while you edit. This makes the actual editing process much easier and faster.

Which is better, hardware or software codec?

One thing to keep in mind is that “hard” vs. “soft” doesn’t matter when it comes to video quality, both give excellent result when working properly.

Speaking of speed, in early 1998, various vendors claimed a 25% or 30% speed advantage of hard codecs over soft codecs. Too much depends on other factors, like the speed of the computer’s CPU, bus and bus interface chipset, to decisively say that one codec will be faster than the other in effects rendering. As CPUs and buses speed up over time, the soft codecs have taken the lead in speed for rendering operations.

However, hardware codes do have some advantages sometimes depending on your requirements. Hardware codec systems usually come with breakout boxes that include analog (composite, Y/C, or even component) connections as well as 1394 connections. You can connect up any VTR format with analog I/O to the box and capture it in real-time or output to it in real-time.

One of the very cool features that many hardware based DV cards now have is real-time features such as transitions, FX, filters, titling and more. Real-Time means you do not have to render, these effects play directly from the timeline. Not everything is in real-time with these cards. Each real-time card comes with its own special selection of real-time features.

Most of the hardware based DV cards also support MPEG2. MPEG2, like DV, is 720 x 480 for NTSC, 720 x 576 for PAL. The big advantage of MPEG2 is that you can lower the data rate and still maintain close to DV quality. MPEG2 compression is what is used by DVD. So these cards usually include DVD authoring software.

What about Digital 8?

Sony’s Digital 8 uses DV compression atop the existing Video8/Hi8 technological base and records on Video8 or Hi8 tapes. Both Digital 8 and DV camcorders allow you to transfer video directly to your computer via FireWire, using a DV capture card. The biggest advantage of digital 8, besides the cost, is that you can put an older analog Hi8 tape in the cam, and transfer the video via FireWire.

The only disadvantage is that the video from these cams is simply not as good as what you get with DV. Digital 8 camcorders are aimed at the price sensitive buyers. So they don’t get the same quality optics, features and CCDs as DV cams.

Simply put, get a DV camcorder if you can afford. If you can’t, a Digital 8 will also do the job.

So, which FireWire card is for me?

To get the best answer, you need to decide what is most important to you.

• The flexibility and combination of analog and DV video source?
• Are you going to use it in your existing computer, or get a new one?
• Do you have adequate storage?
• Do you need the NLE software bundled with the card?
• Real-Time features?
• What is your budget?

Once you have figured this out, it really comes down to the feature combination. That’s what separates one FireWire card from another. DV in = DV out, so no matter which card you buy, the final video will look the same.

Source : http://www.aboutvideoediting.com

One of the most confusing things about digital video editing is the storage requirement. In this page I will help you better understand just what kind of storage you will need for your video productions.

Finally digital video makers have a range of choices for storing their digital video files. Todays new hard drive and RAID technologies combined with larger, cheaper drives have made desktop video editing more affordable then ever!

You can never have too much storage

DV compressed video requires 13GB per hour of footage. While this may not seem like a big deal to you today, it sure was just a few short years ago. Back in 1998 a 9GB SCSI drive would cost you over $1500! And if you wanted to create great looking video, you had no choice but to invest that kind of money. Today’s Ultra ATA66/100 EIDE drives are almost as fast and they are a fraction of the cost.

For single stream DV (ie Pyro, Edit DV, DV200, DVnow) a single ATA EIDE drive is enough. For home use you can even use a single EIDE drive for your system. Just make sure you have separate partitions for your software and the video.

It’s the throughput that matters

Seek times and RPM and peak transfer rates mean not much for video production. All we care about is sustained throughput. We don’t care about the highest specs of the drive. We only care about the minimum. If the sustained data rate of the drive dips below the required transfer rate for our video, the result is jerky playback, messed up audio and dropped frames. Given today’s technology, there is no excuse for this. When in doubt, get better storage then you think you will need.

A single EIDE drive will get slower as it fills with data

This is because a hard drive is a spinning disk. Back when we all had turntables and records, this was very easy to explain. If you placed a penny on the outer edge of the record, it would travel a much greater distance in a single rotation then a penny placed near the label on the inside of the LP. More distance over the same period of time equals greater speed. Hard drive is the same: a single EIDE drive will get slower as it fills with data.

VideoRAIDs use a special technology called Zone Striping. This matches up the inner tracks of one drive with the outer tracks of the second drive. This is how a 2-drive VideoRAID can achieve 20 megs per second substantiated throughput over the entire capacity of the drive.

Real-Time editing requires REAL storage

This is really the end result of above mentioned. Today’s awesome real-time cards can do great stuff, but only if they have adequate storage. You need 3 times the data rate of a single stream of video to support dual stream editing. DV is a fixed 3.5 megs per second. So Real-Time DV editing requires a sustained data rate of 10.5 megs per second.

Today’s lightning fast ATA100 EIDE drives will support this data rate when they are less then 75% full (Ultra66 drives up to 50% full). As your storage begins getting slower, your video editing system will get sluggish and unresponsive. As your single EIDE drive continues to fill up and get slower, it will eventually effect the output quality of your video.

RAIDs are GREAT for video

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. What it means is that 2 or more drives are grouped and formatted together in order to provide greater storage and performance. There are several different types of RAID. Servers typically use RAID 1 (mirroring) or RAID 5 for data protection. For video we use something called RAID 0 (striping) for speed. The computer sees the striped drives as a single drive and the data is split between the drives, making the sustained throughput much higher. Two 30GB drives striped together result in 60GB of storage.

If you plan on creating your own DVDs, you need plenty of storage

At best quality a single sided 4.7GB DVD holds just under 2 hours of video. To make a 2hr DVD is going to require a very large amount of disk space. Here is a little math exercise that will explain just how much storage you will be needing.

• If you are starting with DV footage, you need 13GB per hour of video.
• This means a 2 hour DVD is 2 x 13 =26GB of footage.
• Add in the extra unused footage and it’s more like 3 x 13 = 39GB.
• Figure that you’ll be adding some extra graphics and audio tracks. Let’s say another 2GB for these.
• Now you need room for the MPEG2 footage for the DVD, that’s 4.7GB more.
• If you plan on creating the DVD in a folder first (we recommend this) that’s another 4.7GB.
• Add it all up and it comes to over 50GB of high speed video storage to make a 2 hour DVD!

Which storage system should you buy

If you want the lowest possible cost, then the FastTrack is by far and away the winner, but please note, you will have to mount and configure the RAID. This is not a terribly difficult procedure, but it does require some effort. You may run into some mechanical, not technical.

Source : http://www.aboutvideoediting.com

The process of video production is something like this:

1. Capture the video to your computer using a capture card

2. Edit the video in a video editing software

3. Download edited video to tape or burn it to VCD, CD or DVD

Video capture card is the device that transfers videos between your computer hard drive and camcorder/VCR. A video capture card should carry either analog or DV in/out, or both.

Video capture cards use hardware and/or software compression (CODEC) to digitize the video onto your hard drive. You can the edit the video and play it back to tape or display the finished movie on your computer screen.

The most popular type of video capture cards on the market today are FireWire or DV cards. You can find inexpensive OHCI FireWire card for under $100. Many computers come with FireWire ports already included. All you need to do is add video editing software and you are ready to edit videos. However, these cheap FireWire cards won’t support real-time editing features.

If you want to capture analog videos you’ll need to add a video capture card to your system. You can find inexpensive capture cards for under $500 that support both analog plus FireWire inputs and outputs.

Most of the video captures cards are bundled with video editing software so you don’t really need to buy software seperately.

Some of the reputable video capture card manufacturers are:

• Pinnacle
• Matrox
• Dazzle
• ADS
• Canopus
• Digital Origin

sorce : www. abouteditingvideo.com

Before you shoot and edit video, you need a camera or camcorder. This is the first step you must take in order to create great videos to share with others.

The hard part for you is that there are so many cameras out there – so how do you get a good value and enough camera to do the job?

The most important consideration besides the cost of a camera, is whether or not you are working with a digital format (Digital-8, miniDV) or an Analog format (Hi-8, VHS, VHS-C, Super VHS-C).

VHS & 8mm cams use composite video jacks. S-VHS & Hi-8 cams use a special connector called an S-Video (or YC or SVHS) jack. This special connection breaks the video signal into chrominance (color) & luminance (brightness). If your camcorder has these jacks, you definitely want to use them when you edit. Composite & S-Video are bpth analog video. With analog video, the video quality of your editing system is variable. Factors such as the capture card, storage & CPU will have a big impact on your overall production.

Today there is a better format to use – Digital Video (DV). This new format is dramatically better then the older analog standards. When you combine the quality of DV with the special FireWire (or IEEE1394 or iLink) and DV/FireWire capture cards, you get a digital video editing system that is simply incredible. The video quality is the same regardless of what card you buy. There are now two consumer digital formats. MiniDV and Digital8.

If you are planning on getting a new camcorder, GO DIGITAL.

And do not hesitate to get a Digital8. Make sure the camcorder has FireWire (or iLink or IEEE1394) jacks. Do not under any circumstances buy a digital cam that does not support FireWire input & output.

The bottom line is that you will get a better experience with the newer digital formats.

The next step forward is considering how much you want to spend on a camcorder. New digital video cameras run anywhere from as little as $450 all the way up to the high-end George Lucas style digital video cameras. A realistic price ranges from about $500 to $1200. There are so many good choices in this range.

Now you should think about what features you need. Below I have listed the most important features that you should investigate before deciding to make the purchase.

Resolution

Resolution, in this case, is defined as the number of lines that make up an image on a screen. While the DV format is capable of about 550 lines of resolution, some models do not take full advantage of these capabilities. The closer you get to 550 the better your video quality will be.

Optical Zoom

There are two types of zoom: Optical and Digital. Optical Zoom is handled within the phisical lens itself. Digital Zoom is handled inside the brains of the camcorder. Some manufacturers hype up the digital zoom capabilities of their cameras stating their camera has “Up to 500x Digital Zoom!” or even as high as 700x…

While this sounds fantastic, you really never want to use footage in a video that you achieved while using the Digital Zoom feature. The way it works, is that the lens can zoom a certain amount – once this level has been surpassed, your camera shifts to Digital Zoom. Most of the time, a digital zoom will result in poor picture quality, choppier images, and a noticeable presence of square pixels on the screen.

Still Picture

Some people may want to use their video camera as a method for acquiring still images. If you already have a digital camera for photography (aka a digital still camera), then you might not find this appealing because the quality you get with a video camcorder will usually be around 640 x 480 pixels.

Other Features

To be honest, many camcorders under $600 are very similar. You will probably be happy with any of these makes/models provided you are not looking for a specific feature and you just want to shoot some video. When you start to get a bit more advanced and seek better alternatives, you may want to investigate these finer points:

CCD Size/Number of CCDs/Better Lens quality
Your lenses are the eyes of the camera, converting images and sounds into digital bits. The more you pay, the more lens quality you are likely to get. The larger the CCD, the more light it lets in, and the better the video quality. The more CCDs a camera has (only 3CCD and 1CCD camcorders are on the market today) determines how carefully each color is segmented, which results in higher quality videos.

Optical Stabilization System
Higher end cameras include an optical stabilization system which balances shaky images internally to the lens itself. Many consumer cameras include a digital image stabilization system which is cheaper and lesser in quality. Digital image stabilization is good, yes, but not like optical stabilization.

USB Web Streaming
Some camcorders include a USB cable for you to transfer pictures, video clips, and streaming live video to the web.

So go out there and get started. Owning a digital video camera is a blast and can be used for so many things like filmmaking, wedding/event taping, birthday party, and more. Pick one that you will use and connect to your home computer for editing.

To create desktop videos, you also need:

• Video Capture Card
• Computer
• Storage

If you already have a computer you want to use for desktop video editing, you can simply add one of the video capture cards available to it.

Normally FireWire cards really need a minimum of a Pentium II 300 or faster. Although the older your computer is, the more difficult it can be to add a video capture card, but that doesn’t mean you have to go out and get a new computer. It just means you’ll need to do a little more research into your machines resources and probably give it a little tune up. For example, older slower machines may need to be beefed up with memory and storage. Be prepared to upgrade to 128 megs of RAM and add some dedicated storage for video editing.

If you plan on getting a new computer on a budget, I recommend getting a system with an Intel P4 or AMD Athlon with at least a 1Ghz processor. With 2G, 2.4G CPUs all around, I guess any processor you can find on the street can do the job.

You want a minimum of 256 megs of RAM, but with memory prices so cheap, I recommend you go with 512 megs for better performance.

For storage you want a minimum of a 30GB drive, split into 2 partitions. Partitioned means that the drive is split into two drive letters. The C: partition should be 10 GB and have all your software on it. The remainder of the drive will be called D: All you want to put on that drive is video and audio and your saved editing projects.

This will allow you to produce a video about 1 hour long. The ideal video storage solution is a dedicated drive. This means you have 2 hard drives in your computer. The first is for your operating system and all your software. The second drive is used only for your video files and projects.

Make sure you get at least an 8 Meg AGP graphics card (16 or 32 is better).

To summarize, if you are starting from scratch, buy a P4 2.4Ghz with 512 megs RAM, a 20+GB Ultra DMA drive and a 32 meg graphics card. Add in a second 40+ GB EIDE drive or a VideoRAID for your storage. For more professional editing get a graphics card that supports dual monitors so that you will have more work space.

What about Macs?

With a Mac the answer is simple. If you have a new G4, you are in great shape. If you have an older Mac (G3 or slower), get a new G4 or iMac. The G4 has been designed from the onset to be a video editing scream machine. The new G4s have built in FireWire and they do a great job, just add Final Cut Pro or Premiere and you are ready to edit.

Here’re some more concerns:

The more RAM the better

Memory is still very cheap, and this is a great performance booster. Premiere 6 really wants 256 megs. While it will run with less, you will have a much more stable, better running system with 256 megs. Also, with the new chipsets, the new faster RAM is one of the biggest contributors to improved performance. By running less then 256 megs on a new computer system, you are actually throttling down your overall system’s performance.

If you plan on using a 3D effects plug-in or compositing your video with multiple layers, you’ll find your system runs smoother and faster with 512M or even 1G RAM.

Get the biggest system drive you can afford

If the system comes with a 40GB drive, get it. You will use up the space. A big system drive is great for storing lower resolution/multimedia quality video clips.The last thing you want to do is have to open up a system that’s performing great just to add more storage for software.

·Get a CD-RW drive or better yet, a DVD burner

These drives are great for backing up large files. You can also create Video CDs, DVDs.

Multimedia peripherals

I recommend a step up audio system. While most of video capture cards come with audio capture built on, most digital videographers eventually find themselves doing some soundtrack manipulation and basic audio editing. Having a step up sound card will let you do a better job and as an added bonus, many of these cards come with some kind of audio recording utility and even basic audio mixing/editing tools.

Every month computers get more powerful and less expensive, so the recommendations here could become dated very quickly. I plan on updating it every few months.

Source : http://www.aboutvideoediting.com

Your computer is a lot like your car—when you buy it, you have certain ideas about what you want to do with it. You buy a car to get to and from work, run errands, and travel. You buy a computer to write letters, check e-mail, browse the Web, and perhaps play games. But the analogy stops there. Unlike your car, which more or

less stays the same from the day you buy it, your computer can be changed with hardware and software. As your needs grow, so can your computer.

Since you’re reading this article, you must be interested in editing digital video on your Microsoft Windows XP-based computer. I guarantee that you’ll have more fun with video editing than you do just writing e-mail. But just as you wouldn’t take a compact car off-roading, your computer might not be up to the task of heavy video editing.

“What kind of system do I need?” is one of the most common questions about video editing in the Windows XP newsgroups, chats, and other community forums. This column is the first in a series that helps you assess your computer hardware so you’ll have the best experience with Windows Movie Maker.

Movie Maker 2 is an upgrade to the video editing accessory that comes with Windows XP. Check Windows Movie Maker 2 Download for system requirements and the free download. Windows Movie Maker 2 is an ambitious program and is much more advanced that the previous version. For more information about Movie Maker 2, see two Expert Zone columns, Moviemaking 101 and Moviemaking 202. The Focus On Windows Movie Maker page has links to digital video communities, as well as how-to information. To learn more about working with digital video, read my book, Faster Smarter Digital Video (Microsoft Press, 2002).

In future columns, you’ll learn how to upgrade or replace your system to can handle the performance demands of video editing. My goal isn’t to encourage you to spend more money. On the contrary, if you’re informed about the kind of hardware upgrades you need for video editing, you might be able to perform a minor upgrade instead of buying a new system.

Powerful Computer Saves Time

If there’s one thing that will bring a computer to its knees, it’s video editing. Pushing around huge, multi-gigabyte video files is a strain on any system. And when a computer is busy working away at something, usually you’re left staring at the screen waiting for your machine to catch up. The most arduous point in this process is the video’s final rendering time. Rendering time is the time it takes for video-editing effects to be applied to your video and output into the final format (like a DVD or file to be sent via email).

Depending on how many effects you use in your video and on your computer’s speed, you could be looking at an hour or more of rendering time per minute of video. That’s right, per minute. So if your production is 30 minutes long, your computer will be rendering a very, very long time if it’s underpowered. This is an extreme case, but I’ve seen more than one newsgroup posting from someone editing video on a computer several years old and running at 300 MHz. Understandably, those posts complained about the 25-hour project rendering time.

Ultimately, the question you have to ask yourself as you start to edit your videos is, “What is my time worth?” If you’re adding intense effects to every video clip, your rendering time will shoot up. If you don’t mind leaving your computer churning away at a video project for 24 hours and you don’t need to use your machine for anything else, you may be just fine with the 300 MHz computer. For most of us, though, that’s not the case. Having our computers inaccessible for an entire day isn’t an option. As you read through this series and discover how each hardware element will affect your computer, decide whether the money you’ll spend is worth the time you’ll save. As you can probably guess, I believe that a powerful computer is a must if you want to have an enjoyable video-editing experience that’s free of frustration. Computers should wait for humans, not the other way around!

Computer hardware also has an impact on the speed of the video-editing application that extends beyond rendering. Previewing effects, applying filters, even moving clips around all require major computer horsepower. An underpowered machine will slow your use of any video-editing application, turning a simple video edit into a 30-minute procedure of click, wait, click.The advancements in Movie Maker 2 require some fairly serious horsepower—your optimal experience will be with a 1.5 GHz or faster CPU. That’s not to say that you can’t use the application on a slower machine, but everything from importing video clips to previewing effects will take more time. It’s hard to be creative when you’re waiting for your computer to catch up to you.

Take Stock of Your Computer Assets

Your computer is an amazing tool—hundreds of parts, all working in concert, capable of some impressive feats. Some pieces of hardware have a significant effect on video-editing performance, and others have very little. It’s important to understand what each piece does and how it affects your digital video-editing experience so that you know what upgrades you may need. But before we get into that, let’s figure out what assets you currently have on your computer—there’s no sense in upgrading if you have sufficient power.

Three basic elements make up the core of your computer, and they’re tightly related: the CPU (processor), RAM, and the hard drive. The CPU transfers information to and from the hard drive (permanent storage) and RAM (temporary storage for whatever you’re currently working on). There are some simple steps you can follow to discover what’s inside your computer. The rest of the articles in this series will detail how each of these elements impacts your video-editing experience. Before diving into them, it’s important to figure out exactly what you have.

Discovering RAM and CPU speed is a straightforward process that was greatly improved in Microsoft Windows XP. Prior to Windows XP, you’d have to reboot your computer to see how fast your CPU was. Microsoft has since simplified this process, integrating it into the operating system.

To obtain RAM and CPU information on a Windows XP computer

The System Properties dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 1. The first line shows the type of processor, and on some newer processors (such as the Pentium 4), it shows the rated processor speed. The next line shows the processor’s current speed in MHz or GHz (remember 1 GHz = 1000 MHz).

Figure 1: The System Properties dialog box shows your CPU speed and RAM.

Why show the processor’s rated speed and the current speed? Because processors don’t always run at the speed they’re supposed to. For example, on a computer I built, the actual CPU speed was 1.9 GHz instead of the 2.54 GHz that the processor was capable of. Until I changed the processor speed by altering a few settings, I was getting far less speed than I was supposed to. The last line shows the amount of RAM installed on the system. Unfortunately, this doesn’t show the type of speed of the RAM.

Check Your Storage Situation

Next, you should check your storage situation. The best way to do this is to go into the Computer Management Console. This tool offers the easiest way to view your drives and space situation and allows you to see this information in one place.

To check storage

This view tells you a great deal about your hard drives and how they’re divided. You should be able to see how many physical hard drives you have, how they’re divided, and how much storage space you have to work with. Your computer will be different from mine, but here’s what you can learn by looking at Figure 2:

What’s Next?

Now that you know what you have inside your computer, the next step is to decide what to upgrade (if anything), how to best spend your money, and which components will give you the most enhancement for the least investment. I hope this series will both educate you and give you some new ideas about what’s possible. Digital video editing with Windows Movie Maker 2 and Windows XP is a lot of fun, but having the right kind of computer hardware makes a huge difference in how much you’ll enjoy the experience.

Jason Dunn is an avid digital media enthusiast who also writes about mobile technology. He’s the author of several books, including PhotoImpact 7 Power, Short Order Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000, and Faster Smarter Digital Video. Jason also runs Kensai, which focuses on helping companies successfully navigate the online world.

Source : www.microfot.com

A powerful tool that opens up a whole world of creative video possibilities. The V-4 is a 4-channel video mixer made for portable or fixed installation use. It is ideal for use in nightclubs, places of worship, theatres, and other live performances. The V-4 video mixer also has MIDI in/out/through, for realtime or sequenced control of video sources with effects and transitions.Video mixer/switcher with 4-channel inputThe V-4 is equipped with 4 composite (RCA) inputs plus 2 S-video (Y/C) inputs. It offers scene transition of the 4 video sources with dissolve, wipes (about 200 variations), and switching. The V-4 outputs the same video source to all 3 jacks (Composite x 2, S-video x 1), for simultaneous monitoring and displaying, without resorting to external distribution boxes. The V-4 comes with over 200 transition effects of all types, including hard edge, luminance, multi-border, sliding, and soft edge types.Professional video qualityThe input video sources are processed completely in the digital domain, and give professional video quality (13.5MHz, 8-bit, 4:2:2, DV quality). Ideal for use on large screens, and because the V-4 internal processing is digital there is no quality loss.2-channel TBC/frame synchronizerThe input sources go through independent 2-channel TBC (Time Base Correction) circuits to correct the time code, independent 2-channel frame synchronizers are also applied to the 2 sources at this stage.

Source: http://www.nextag.com

The Panasonic AG-HMC150 is a sign that the AVCHD format has matured from a cumbersome consumer format to a nimble HD choice for event videographers and burgeoning pros.

While editing the content still has its hurdles, the new data-based workflow, even in worst-case scenarios, has its benefits. But it’s not for everyone. Shooters who need long record times, extreme durability and a lightweight camcorder will rejoice. Beyond the obvious advantages, the AG-HMC150 delivers stunning image performance and a proven camcorder design. We think this camcorder is one of the most notable of the year. Let’s take a closer look with our Panasonic AG-HMC150 review to see why it’s a standout camcorder.

Form and function matter to a shooter. The Panasonic AG-HMC150 has carried over a well-thought-out design from the Panasonic AG-DVX100 and AG-HVX200. For owners of these camcorders, the design will look very similar. If you’re new to this design altogether, we think you’ll find it to be a good blend of manual controls that are easy to reach and not too many buttons to clutter the camcorder’s housing.

Most notably, the AG-HMC150 camcorder is very light. The AVCHD format allows for less weight, as there’s no need for a tape transport. This is a great quality for handheld shooters or anyone lugging the camcorder around long hours. Additionally, we don’t see Panasonic skimping on AG-HMC150’s design volume. The camcorder itself is fairly large, which makes it much easier to stabilize and control. That’s an important point of interest to professional shooters. In the end, we experienced only one slight design hiccup. The audio gain controls are a little challenging to get to with the protective shield in place. This shield is there to limit the chances of bumping the gain pots. Avoiding that chance is great, but it annoyed us when we wanted to make gain adjustments. The good news is that you can easily remove this plastic shield and possibly file it down a bit, should you choose to take the risk.

The AG-HMC150 should appeal to a broad category of shooters, with its variable frame rates and several different recording quality options. Formats include 1080/60i, 1080/30p, 1080/24p, 720/60p, 720/30p and 720/24p to choose from. The 720/60p stands out for its ability to work as an over-crank frame rate for smooth slow motion on 30p or 24p playback. Other than that, it’s standard fare of interlaced and progressive formats. Things get interesting, however, with the inclusion of a new, high-quality recording setting.

The PH recording mode is set at 21Mbps. That’s an increase in previously-released AVCHD camcorders that should see benefits in the camcorder’s ability to compress motion more accurately. We’re appreciative of these improvements in quality, but keep in mind this also means more heavy lifting on your processors in editing. You’ll have to balance quality with efficiency if you’ve got a slower system. Otherwise, Panasonic offers a free utility that will convert the AVCHD files into the DVCPRO format. This will reduce the responsibilities of the processor, but will dramatically increase file size. The AVCHD format has its tradeoffs. The clear benefit of the format is the data-based workflow and the native file format’s small file sizes.

The first thing we noticed about the AG-HMC150 was the wide-angle lens. This zoom lens starts at 28mm (35mm equivalent). That’s a decent wide-viewing angle, perfect for small rooms. And while the 13x zoom doesn’t seem like a great deal of telephoto power, the experience of moving through the lens length from the 28mm starting position reveals lots of wonderful lengths in which to compose compelling shots. All this means there’s a lot of shot lengths for Creative Directors and DPs to choose from. You can also put away your wide-angle converter; it’s 28mm right out of the box, and it has enough on the telephoto side to get you up close and personal.

The Panasonic AG-HMC150 also features color and gamma controls similar to those of the AG-DVX100 and AG-HVX200. The color reproduction of this AVCHD camcorder, despite being a higher compression ratio of 4:2:0, looks great. The progressive scan CCDs also help the AG-HMC150 capture clear images before passing that data through AVCHD compression algorithms. We were pleased with the resolution and details in the images at the higher bitrates. This includes the ability to handle motion as well, which is where the increased compression bandwidth really pays off.

Beyond the look and feel of the AG-HMC150, the professional features extend to the audio controls. Two XLR inputs equal two channels of audio that can be controlled independently. We found the gain controls to be heavily guarded (in a good way) by a clear plastic shield that made it unusually difficult to get a good handle on the control. This helps keep the gain pots from being bumped accidentally. Fortunately, you can remove this shield or modify it if you’re clever with a file. To do so, of course, will be modifying at your own risk.

On top of the camcorder, there’s a shotgun microphone holder for the obvious reason of adding said mic. Or the on-board mics will also do the job for the casual shooter. All these options give the shooter some flexibility. You’re limited, however, with the Dolby AC3 audio recording format as the only audio codec. The AC3 audio performed quite well, though.

Following the footsteps of the AG-DVX100 and AG-HVX200, the AG-HMC150 is set to move right in and find itself at home with a unique set of shooters. Creative videographers who need an HD camcorder with professional controls at a reasonable price will be most interested. The AVCHD format could turn some folks away, as tape still gives us a sense of comfort by familiarity. But, as processing and memory technologies increase, the cost efficiency of the tapeless workflow will ultimately improve and will be the most compelling in the end. The Panasonic AG-HMC150’s superb performance and proven design make it one of the first prosumer-level camcorders poised to cross that tapeless line.

Format: AVCHD
Image Sensor: 3 x 1/3″ CCDs
Interchangeable Lenses: No
Lens f-Stop: f1.6-3.0
Optical Zoom: 13x
Focal Length: 28-368mm

Filter Diameter: 72mm
Focus: Auto/Manual
Iris/Gain Control: Auto/Manual
Shutter Speed: Auto/Manual
Maximum Shutter Speed: 1/2000 (60i), 1/1000 (30p, 24p)
Minimum Shutter Speed: 1/15
Image Stabilization: Optical
Internal ND Filter: Yes
Manual White Balance: Yes
Zebra Stripes: Yes
Viewfinder: Color .44″ 235k pixels
LCD Monitor: Color 3.5″ 211k
Progressive Scan: Yes
Video Out: HDMI, component, composite
Audio Modes: Stereo
Microphone In: Yes (XLR)
VU Meter: Yes
Manual Audio Level Controls: Yes
Headphone Jack: Yes
Speaker: Yes
Wireless Remote: Yes
External Battery Charger Provided: Yes
Battery Type: Info Lithium Ion
Form Factor: Standard, horizontal
Memory Card Loading Config.: Back
On-board Video Light: No
Accessory Shoe: Yes

Source : www.videomaker.com

]]> http://noorrochim.wordpress.com/2008/12/31/panasonic-ag-hmc150-avccam-camcorder-1/feed/ 0 noorrochim