Digital Video Introduction
Downloading video from your DV camera to your computer places huge demands on your computer's hardware - just consider that for each second of video, you are effectively downloading 25 separate frames of video, plus the high quality sound file associated with that second of video.
Connect a digital video camera to a computer
Because there is such a wide variety of hardware available, it is impossible to detail every possible configuration. The following list describes some of the basic capture devices and explains how to connect them to your computer. Depending on the capture device and associated hardware you have on your computer, you could use none, one, or several of the listed configurations.
When Digital Video cameras first came on to the scene in the 1990's the only computer interface that was able to meet these bandwidth requirements was the 'IEEE1394' standard. This is more commonly referred to as 'Firewire' and to a lesser extent, 'iLink'. Firewire connectivity for video download was thus adopted as a standard across the industry, and it is difficult to come across a DV camera that does not support this connection. The ‘DV socket’ on Canon DV Cameras enables you to link it up to a computer using a 4-pin to 6-pin ‘Firewire’ cable (not included with the camera). In addition to Firewire, The USB2.0 Hi-Speed interface cable is now also able to facilitate the transfer of high quality DV format footage to a PC. This connection method is supported only on Windows XP Service Pack 1 and above on a computer with preinstalled USB 2.0 ports.
Firewire Port
If you have purchased an Apple Macintosh computer within the last 2 or 3 years, you will more than likely find that you already have a Firewire port on your computer. If however, you own a PC, you are less likely to find that your computer is equipped with a Firewire port.
You can add a Firewire port to your desktop computer by purchasing an OHCI Compliant IEEE-1394 PCI card. If you have a USB connection on your video camera, and it is not one of the cameras that support USB 2.0 DV footage download, it is primarily for the purposes of downloading still images from the memory card. Some cameras allow low resolution video recording to the memory card which can also be downloaded through the USB port.
Digital camera connected to an IEEE 1394 card
To get the best quality from your digital video (DV) camera or mini–DV camera, you should have an IEEE 1394 capture card installed on your computer. An IEEE 1394 card is a piece of hardware that passes the information from the DV camera to your computer. Because the data is already in digital form, it can be read and transferred directly to your computer without any processing or conversion. That means you'll enjoy the highest–quality video that is possible with a consumer video camera.
For Firewire, the driver for downloading digital video data from the camera must support the port on the PC, not the camera. As long as the port supports IEEE-1394 (Firewire) data transfer, the computer will be able to download data from the Canon digital video camera using the driver for the card
For the Windows environment; these drivers are built in to Windows versions 98SE, ME, 2000 and XP. Windows 95 is not compatible with Firewire, and Windows 98 First Edition, although compatible, does not carry built in drivers – you will need to purchase a Firewire DV kit (see below), which is shipped with Windows 98 drivers.
For the Macintosh environment, OS 9.1 and above, and OSX and above include native support for Firewire ports and DV cameras. For OS 8.6 to OS 9.04, Firewire support is available from the Apple website.
For cameras that support USB 2.0 Hi-Speed DV footage download, the drivers are supplied on the disk that comes with the camera. This connection method is only supported on Windows XP Service Pack 1 computers with preinstalled USB 2.0 Hi-Speed ports. Please note that no other operating system, PC or Macintosh is compatible with this connection type.
Editing Software
Microsoft Windows XP users can also use the ‘Windows Movie-Maker’ software that is included with that operating system, or the more capable ‘Windows Movie-Maker 2’, available from the Microsoft website. Windows Movie Maker 2 will also need to be used if you intend to download DV footage through the USB 2.0 Hi-speed port available on the MVX35i.
Apple Macintosh owners are able to use the ‘iMovie’ software that is available on some preinstalled machines, or from the Apple website. Other alternatives available from Apple on this platform include Final Cut Express and Final Cut Pro.
In addition to the above, there are many commercially available video editing suites that range in price and functionality, for Windows 98 upwards. Think about what you want to achieve with your video editing and conduct research to check that your potential purchase meets with your requirements, technically and functionally.
Burn My Movie On To A DVD
Creating a DVD from your footage is not just a case of copying and pasting the final movie file to DVD burn software, but a complex procedure where you import the video footage, build the menu structure including titles and chapters, and then convert the footage to compressed MPEG2 format. The process is known as 'authoring', and you will need specialist software to do this. If you already have a DVD burner, you may well find that authoring software was bundled with the burner and is already installed on your computer. If you intend to purchase a DVD burner, make sure you choose a product with a generous software bundle. Some video editing applications allow you to save your final movie in DVD format, and also give basic authoring capability. If the software you are using does not have DVD format (MPEG2) as an output option, save it as a High Quality AVI file, and then let the authoring software convert it before the burn process.
Hardware Requirements
Video editing is one of the most resource-intensive processes that you can do on your computer. A computer with a processor speed of less than 1 GHz, and anything less than 512mb of RAM will struggle to cope with the demands placed on it by the capture, editing and rendering process. In addition to this you will also need a large capacity hard-drive dedicated for downloading the raw video footage to, and as a temporary location to store the rendered files. A capacity of 80GB with a rotation speed of 7200rpm is considered the minimum for serious video-editing.
Glossary
Bandwidth: A network's capacity for transferring an amount of data in a given time.
Bit rate: The number of bits transferred per second.
Capture: To record audio, video, or still images as digital data in a file.
Capture device: Hardware that transfers audio and video from an external source, such as a VCR or camcorder, to a computer.
Clip: Small segment of a larger video file.
Codec: An abbreviation for compressor/decompressor. Software or hardware used to compress and decompress digital media.
Compression: A process for removing redundant data from a digital media file or stream to reduce its size or the bandwidth used.
Cross-fade: A method of smoothly moving from one video clip or photo to another. With a cross-fade transition, the frames in the playing clip fade out as the frames in the new clip fade in. In the film industry, the same process is called a dissolve.
Depth of field: The measurement of the area in front of and behind the subject that is in focus.
Digital video (DV): Video images and sound stored in a digital format.
Frame: One of many sequential images that make up video.
Frame rate: The number of video frames displayed per second. Higher frame rates generally produce smoother movement in the picture.
IEEE 1394: A high-speed serial bus standard that provides enhanced computer connectivity for a wide range of devices, including consumer electronics audio/video (A/V) appliances, storage peripherals, other computers, and portable devices.
Project file: The file that contains information about the files that have been imported into or captured in the current project, and how files or clips have been arranged.
Source: Audio and video content that can be captured and encoded from devices installed on your computer or from a file.
Storyboard: A view of the workspace that displays the sequence of your clips.
Timeline: The area of the user interface that shows the timing and arrangement of files or clips that makes up a project.
Trim: To hide parts of a file or clip without deleting them from the original source. Files and clips can be trimmed by adjusting the start or end trim points.
Trim points: The points where playback of a file or clip begins and ends. There are two trim points: start trim point and end trim point.
Windows Media file: A file containing audio, video, or script data that is stored in Windows Media Format. Depending on their content and purpose, Windows Media files use a variety of file name extensions, such as: .wma, .wme, .wms, .wmv, .wmx, .wmz, or .wvx.
System requirements
In order to edit video materials you need the following minimum system configuration:
- A 1.5 gigahertz (GHz) processor, such as an Intel Pentium 4, an AMD Athlon XP 1500+, or equivalent processor
- 512 megabytes (MB) of RAM
- 20 gigabytes (GB) of free hard disk space
- An audio capture device (to capture audio from external sources)
- A DV or analog video capture device (to capture video from external sources)
- An Internet connection (to save and send a movie to the Web or to send a movie as an attachment in an e-mail message)
Files types
- Audio files: .aif, .aifc, .aiff .asf, .au, .mp2, .mp3, .mpa, .snd, .wav, and .wma
- Picture files: .bmp, .dib, .emf, .gif, .jfif, .jpe, .jpeg, .jpg, .png, .tif, .tiff, and .wmf
- Video files: .asf, .avi, .m1v, .mp2, .mp2v, .mpe, .mpeg, .mpg, .mpv2, .wm, and .wmv
Windows Movie Maker 2 (For Vista)
Windows Movie Maker is one of the applications that have not been changed much since Windows XP. The new version includes relatively minor updates such as: new effects, new transitions and support for the DVR-MS file format which is used in Windows Media Centre to record television. In Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate, Windows Movie Maker offers as an additional feature the capacity to capture video from HDV camcorders. Another difference, compared to the older version from Windows XP is the fact that it no longer supports importing video from analog video sources such as web-cameras.
Windows Movie Maker is a tool that allows users to create and edit video content. The interface is pretty simple and easy to use: you have a storyboard view and a timeline view, a preview screen, collections of imported media and a tasks list. The timeline consist of one 'Video' bar, an 'Audio/Music' bar and one 'Title Overlay' bar. The content from each bar can be edited. You can stretch the content, cut it in segments, etc.
Windows Movie Maker
Windows Movie Maker is a free video-editing tool included with Microsoft Windows XP and Vista. With Movie Maker, you can turn your home movies into videos that you can share across the Internet, or burn to a CD or DVD.
A lot of inofrmation and tutorials on this blog are based to WMM (Windows Movie Maker) not only its free and installed on every PC based computer but also because it's easy for anyone to use.
A lot of inofrmation and tutorials on this blog are based to WMM (Windows Movie Maker) not only its free and installed on every PC based computer but also because it's easy for anyone to use.
How to save your movies to your computer
Saving a movie that you created in Windows Movie Maker as a file on your computer will give you the highest-quality movie file. Later, you can watch the movie by double-clicking it, which opens and plays it in Windows Media Player. Computers will probably always support common video formats, so saving your video to your computer is also a great way to make sure it will always be accessible.
To save your movie to your computer
1. | Open your movie in Movie Maker. |
2. | In the Movie Tasks pane, under Finish Movie, click Save to my computer. |
3. | The Save Movie Wizard appears. On the Save Movie File page, type a name for your movie. You can also choose a folder to save it in by clicking the Browse button, but My Videos (the default) is usually the best place to save your movie. Then click Next. |
4. | On the Movie Setting page, click Next to accept the default setting of Best quality for playback on my computer. |
5. | Movie Maker saves your movie, which might take several minutes. On the Completing the Save Movie Wizard page, click Finish. If Play movie when I click Finish was selected (it is selected by default), the movie will automatically play in Windows Media Player. |
How to download movies from your digital camera to your PC
Connect your digital video camera to your computer using an i.Link/Firewire/IEEE 1394 cable. | ||
Turn your camera on, and set it to playback mode. When prompted, click Capture Video using Windows Movie Maker. Then click OK. | ||
Microsoft Windows Movie Maker starts the Video Capture Wizard. On the Capture Video File Next. | ||
On the Video Setting page, accept the default settings by clicking Next. | ||
On the Capture Method page, click Next. | ||
While the tape is being captured, you'll see it playing in the Preview window and you'll be able to hear the audio through your speakers. After the tape is captured (this usually takes about an hour), the wizard will stop automatically. It always scans the entire tape, even if you have just recorded a few minutes of video. If you reach the end of your recording before it reaches the end of your tape, click the Stop Capture button, and then click Yes. |
What you need to make movies
To shoot and edit digital videos with your computer you need the correct equipment.
The following list will help you select the right equipment:
- Required Equipment:
- MiniDV digital video camera
- MiniDV tapes
- Computer that supports a digital video connection
- i.Link port (also known as FireWire or IEEE 1394) on your computer
- Video editng software such as Windows Movie maker, iMovies (for MAC), Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro
Recommended accessories for camera:
- Tripod
- Spare battery
- Small Lights
- External USB (Universal Serial Bus) hard disk drive
- DVD burner
- Headphones
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