nalog video-capture cards are usually installed inside your computer in much the same way. That means you’ll have to have some expertise in upgrading computer hardware, and you should follow the computer upgrade guidelines I detail in that earlier section of the chapter. Okay, it may seem obvious, but I’ll say it anyway: Make sure your computer has an available expansion slot of the correct type in which you can install the card.Many capture cards have neat little accessories called breakout boxes. The space available on the back of an expansion card is pretty small, and may not provide enough room for all the needed audio and video ports. Instead, the ports will reside in a breakout box — which can sit conveniently on...

If you want to capture video from a digital camcorder, the best way to do so is with a FireWire port. But if you want to capture analog video — whether from a VCR, Hi8 camcorder, or other analog source — you’ll need some specialized hardware. You can install a video-capture card in your computer, or (possibly) use an external analog video converter that connects the analog device to your computer’s FireWire or USB port.Read the packaging carefully before you buy any video-capture hardware and make sure that it is designed to capture analog hardware. Some FireWire cards are marketed simply as video-capture cards, even though they can only capture digital video.When choosing an analog video-capture device, check the packaging...

Your computer is probably set to power down after a period of inactivity. Normally this is a good thing because it conserves energy, but it can cause problems during video capture and some other video-editing actions. To temporarily disable power-saving options, follow these steps:Choose Start➪Control Panel.In the Windows Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance if you see that option, and then double-click the Power Options icon. If you do not see a Performance and Maintenance listing, simply double-click the Power Options icon. The Power Options Properties dialog box appears.On the Power Schemes tab, set all four pull-down menus (near the bottom of the dialog box) to Never.. Alternatively, you can just choose...

Windows operates the various components in your computer by using software tools called drivers. Outdated drivers can cause your computer to run slowly — or even crash. This is especially true of video display drivers in Windows XP. The display adapter (another name for the video card) is the component that generates the video image for your computer’s monitor. Hardware vendors frequently provide updates, so check the manufacturers’ Web sites regularly for downloadable updates. If you aren’t sure who made your display adapter, follow these steps:Choose Start➪Control Panel.In the Windows Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance if you see that option, and then double-click the System icon. If you do not see a Performance...

Even if you have a brand new computer with a wicked-fast processor and lots of RAM, you may experience problems when you work with digital video. Perhaps the most common problem is dropped frames during capture or export. A dropped frame occurs when your computer can’t keep up with the capture or export process and loses one or more video frames. Pinnacle Studio and most other video-editing programs report dropped frames if they occur. If you encounter dropped frames (or you just want to help your computer run more efficiently for video work), try the tips in the following sections to improve performance.I recommend running Windows XP for digital video work, and the following sections assume you are using XP (whether the...

Perhaps the nicest thing about using a Windows PC is that no matter what you want to do, lots of software is available to help you. Countless video editing programs are available.Video-editing software for Windows breaks down into three basic categories:Basic: At the low end of the price-and-feature scale are free programs (such as Windows Movie Maker) or programs that come free with cheaper FireWire cards (such as Ulead VideoStudio or Roxio VideoWave). These programs are usually pretty limited in terms of what you can do with them; I recommend moving up to the next level as soon as your budget allows.Intermediate: A growing number of video-editing programs now offer more advanced editing features at a price that is not...

If you have a PC and want to work with digital video, perhaps the one upgrade you are most likely to perform is to install a FireWire (IEEE-1394) card. A FireWire card is crucial if you want to capture video from a digital camcorder into your computer.To install a FireWire card, you need to have an empty PCI slot inside your computer. PCI slots are usually white and look like the open slot. If you have an empty PCI slot, you should be able to install a FireWire card. Numerous cards are available for less than $100. Most FireWire cards also come packaged with video-editing software, so consider the value of that software when you make your buying decision. Pinnacle (www.pinnaclesys.com), for example, sells Pinnacle Studio...

Richard Greenberg announced the establishment of SDI-2 line fixed wireless point of video products. The SDI-2 give reliable multicast video wireless over distances up to 50 kilometers in a single hop. It integrates advanced digital video format in the medium and high-performance radios, security systems and remote monitoring data outposts can now give real-time, full color, full motion video. The SDI-2 can be fitted into the current existing wireless Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) for video surveillance in high definition of remote sites which is not currently available.Mr. Greenberg said: "The SDI-2 is the first of a series of new products that we expect to launch in the coming months, both for wireless...

Updated camera equipment could soon give Fayetteville patrol the chance to travel through time."With the new cameras recording pre-event incidents," said Police Captain Fayetteville Brown Casey. "So if I am at a red light and a car blasted through it, he turns, I can turn to my [video mobile], and it will track the car for 30 seconds to two minutes."Brown said the Police Department hopes Fayetteville equip all 28 patrol cars with digital video recorders. The request, he said, is listed as a consent to the agenda for Tuesday's City Council meeting.Fayetteville police units are currently equipped with mobile video recorders, which require VHS tapes. The department purchased the 23 recording devices in 20...

Earlier I recommended that you run Windows XP if you plan to work with digital video. Windows XP is vastly more stable than previous versions of Windows (especially Windows 95, 98, and Me) — and it does a much better job of managing system memory, which is crucial when you work with video. If you don’t already have Windows XP, you’ll need to upgrade.If you already have a version of Windows on your computer, you can purchase an upgrade to Windows XP Home Edition for $99 or Windows XP Professional for $199. If you don’t already have Windows, the Full Version of XP Home will set you back $199, and the full version of XP Pro costs $299. Windows XP Professional is nice, but so is XP Home. If you don’t need the extra networking...

Countless PC vendors offer computers running Windows for just about any budget these days. For about the same amount of money as you would have spent just to buy a printer 10 years ago, you can now buy a new PC —including monitor — and if you shop around, you might even find someone to throw in the printer for free.You may find, however, that a bargain-basement computer is not quite good enough for digital video. The hard drive may be too small, the processor may not be fast enough, the computer might not have enough memory, or some other features may not be ideal. Look for these features when you’re shopping for a new PC:Windows XP: Some new PCs might come with Windows Me (Millennium Edition). Windows Me has some fundamental...

Apple offers a pretty good selection of video-editing software for the Macintosh — good thing they do, too, because not many other software vendors offer Mac-compatible editing programsAdobe Premiere: Available for both Windows and Mac, this was one of the first pro-caliber video-editing programs for personal computers. It’s a little expensive (about $550), but provides an advanced, power set of video-editing toolsApple iMovie: It comes free with all new Macintosh computers, and you can download the latest version of iMovie for free from www.apple.com. iMovie 3 is featured throughout this book.Apple Final Cut Pro: If you can afford pro-level prices and you want one of the most cutting edge video-editing programs available,...

If you already have a Mac that is a year or two old, you may still be able to use it with digital video if it meets the basic requirements described in the previous section. If it doesn’t meet those requirements, you might be able to upgrade it.As a general rule, however, if your Mac doesn’t already have a G3 or higher processor, upgrading is probably going to be more expensive or challenging than simply buying a new Mac. And in the end, a very old upgraded Mac probably will not perform that well anyway. One of the biggest obstacles you’ll face involves FireWire. If your Mac does not already have a FireWire port, you may have difficulty adding one. PowerMacs can usually be upgraded with a FireWire card, but the few Maccompatible...

Picture this: Our hero carefully unscrews an access panel on the blinking device, revealing a rat’s nest of wires and circuits. A drop of sweat runs down his face as the precious seconds tick away, and he knows that fate hangs by a slender thread. The hero’s brow creases as he tries to remember the procedure:“Do I cut the blue wire or the red wire?”If the thought of opening up your computer and performing upgrades fills you with a similar level of anxiety, you’re not alone. The insides of modern computers can seem pretty mysterious, and you might be understandably nervous about tearing apart your expensive PC or Mac to perform hardware upgrades. Indeed, all the chips, circuit boards, and other electronic flotsam inside the...

Like the debate over whether cats or dogs make better pets, the question of whether to use a Mac or a PC has been disputed tirelessly between the true believers. It has been a largely unproductive dispute: For the most part, Mac people are still Mac people, and PC people are still PC people. But who is right? If you want the best computer for working with digital video, should you choose a PC or a Mac? Well, look at the important factors:Ease of use: Macintosh users often boast that their computers are exceedingly easy to use, and they are right. But if you’re a long-time Windows user, you might not think so. Some things are easier to do on a Mac, but other things are easier to do in Windows. Neither system offers a clear...

After your movie has been exported, playing it is pretty easy. Simply locate the file on your hard disk and double-click its name. The movie should automatically open and start to play. If you exported your movie from Windows Movie Maker, the movie file will be in Windows Media (WMV) format.Despite the name, you don’t have to be a Windows user to view Windows Media video. You do need Windows Media Player to view Windows Media files, but Microsoft offers a version of Windows Media Player for Macintosh. Movies created on a Mac are also cross-platform-friendly. iMovie outputs videos in Apple QuickTime format, and Windows versions of QuickTime have been available for years.After you have previewed your movie, you can either...

Like iMovie, Windows Movie Maker also enables you to export video for a variety of applications. Windows Movie Maker is especially well suited to exporting movies for Internet playback. To export a movie for online viewing, follow these steps:Open the project that you want to export (such as the Chapter 1 project).Choose File➪Save Movie File. The Save Movie Wizard appears.Choose an export format for your movie and then click Next. For now I recommend choosing My Computer.Enter a filename for your movie and choose a location in which to save the file.Click Next again. The Save Movie Wizard shows details about the file, including the file size.Click Next again. The export process begins.When export is done, click Finish. Your...

Apple iMovie exports movies in QuickTime format, or you can export directly to your camcorder’s videotape or Apple iDVD. To export your project in iMovie, follow these steps:Open the project you want to export (such as the Chapter 1 project).Choose File➪Export. The iMovie Export dialog box appears.Choose how you want to export your movie from the Export menu. For now, I recommend that you choose To QuickTime.Choose a Format, such as Web.Click Export.Give a name for your movie file in the Save As box. Make a note of the folder in which you are saving the movie. Choose a different folder if you wish. If you remove the .mov filename extension, Windows users (you probably know a few) will have a hard time viewing your movie.Click...

One of the best things about digital video is that it enables you to get really creative with your own movie projects. To make your work worthwhile, you may want to share your video work with others. Thankfully, sharing digital video is pretty easy too.Modern video-editing programs are designed to make it as easy as possible to share your movie projects — often with no more than a couple of mouse clicks. For now, we’ll export a movie that would be suitable for viewing over the Internet. if you have your own edited movie, you can use. The steps for exporting your movie are a little different depending on whether you are using Apple iMovie or Windows Movie Maker, so I’ll address each program separate...

Adding special effects to your video is pretty easy too. Here’s one that makes a video clip look like it came from a really old reel of film:Click a clip in the storyboard to select it. If you’re following along using the sample clips from the companion CD-ROM, choose Clip 02, which is probably the last clip in your storyboard.Open the list of video effects in your video-editing program. In iMovie, click the Effects button under the browser window. In Windows Movie Maker, click Video Effects under Collections on the left side of the screen.Click an Aged Film effect to select it. In iMovie, there is only one Aged Film effect. In Windows Movie Maker, scroll down in the list of effects and choose one of the Film Age effects....

You can add a transition to the simple movie you put together in the previous section by following these steps:Storyboard Clip browserOpen the Chapter 1 sample project you created in the previous section if it isn’t already open. You can follow these steps using any movie project that includes two or more clips.Open the list of video transitions in your editing program. In Apple iMovie, click the Trans button just below the browser window. In Windows Movie Maker, click Video Transitions under Collections on the left side of the screen.Click-and-drag one of the Circle transitions to a spot between two clips on the storyboard. A transition indicator appears between the two clips.Click Play in the preview window to preview...

Editing video is really cool and easy to do if you have a reasonably modern computer. But why talk about editing when you can jump right into it? Here’s the drill:Open Windows Movie Maker (Windows) or Apple iMovie (Macintosh). If you don’t know how to open your video-editing program, or if you aren’t sure you have the latest version, check out Appendix C for information about iMovie, or Appendix E for the scoop on Windows Movie Maker. If you are prompted to create a new project by iMovie, create a new project and call it Chapter 1.Put the CD-ROM that accompanies this book in your CD-ROM drive.Choose File➪Import in iMovie or File➪Import into Collections in Windows Movie Maker.Browse to the Samples\Chapter 1 folder on the...

Video (and audio, for that matter) is considered a linear medium because it comes at you in a linear stream through time. A still picture, on the other hand, just sits there — you take it in all at once — and a Web site lets you jump randomly from page to page. Because neither of these is perceived as a stream, they’re both examples of nonlinear media. You tweak a linear medium (such as video) by using one of two basic methods — linear or nonlinear editing.If your approach to editing is linear, you must do all the editing work in chronological order, from the start of the movie to the finish. Here’s an old-fashioned example: If you “edit” video by dubbing certain parts from a camcorder tape onto a VHS tape in your VCR,...

A video file represents a huge amount of information — so it takes up a lot of space in the digital world. You need fast hardware to handle video, and monster hard drives to store it. To conserve storage space during editing, professionals have long used a trick called offline editing. The idea is to capture lower-quality “working” copies of your video into the computer. After you complete all your edits and you’re ready to make your final movie, the software decides which portions of the original video must be captured at full quality — and then automatically captures only the portions you need. Conversely, if you work with full-quality video on your computer for all your edits, you are performing what video pros call...

FireWire is one of the hot new technologies that makes digital video so fun and easy to work with. FireWire — also sometimes called IEEE-1394 or i.LINK — was originally developed by Apple Computer and is actually an interface format for computer peripherals. Various peripherals including scanners, CD burners, external hard drives, and of course digital video cameras use FireWire technology. Key features of FireWire include:Speed: FireWire is really fast, way faster than USB or serial ports. FireWire is capable of transfer rates up to 400Mbps (megabits per second). Digital video contains a lot of data that must be transferred quickly, making FireWire an ideal format.Mac and PC compatibility: (What a concept.) Although FireWire...

Digital recordings are theoretically inferior to analog recordings because analog recordings can contain more information. But the truth is that major advances in digital technology mean that this really doesn’t matter. Yes, a digital recording must be made up of specific individual values, but modern recordings have so many discrete values packed so closely together that human eyes and ears can barely tell the difference. In fact, casual observation often reveals that digital recordings actually seem to be of a higher quality than analog recordings. Why?A major problem with analog recordings is that they are highly susceptible to deterioration. Every time analog data is copied, some of the original, infinitely variable...

In 1996, I read a technical paper on a new technology from Apple Computer called FireWire. This new technology promised the ability to transfer data at speeds of up to 400 megabits per second. “Yeah, right!” I quietly scoffed to myself, “Why on Earth would anyone need to transfer that much data that quickly? Besides, Apple will be out of business by the end of ’97.” Yeah, right.Thankfully I was wrong about Apple, and I soon learned about a new phenomenon called digital video that could take advantage of this new FireWire technology. Digital video files are big, too big in fact for computers of just a few years ago to handle. But FireWire allows high quality video to be shared easily and efficiently between digital camcorders...