DVD Writing Tips
- Analog videos (analog 8 mm and VHS) must be converted to digital format before they can be burned to DVD. Video-capture devices (internal or external) can connect your camcorder or VCR to your PC. Some capture devices even perform the conversion in hardware. Others ship with conversion software.
- Digital video camcorders that can also read analog tapes (typically 8 mm) perform the conversion on the fly and send a digital stream directly to your PC.
- USB 1.1, which has throughput of about 11 MBps, is not fast enough for high-quality video capture. High-quality video (30 frames per second with 24-bit color at a resolution of 640 by 480) requires throughput of at least 210 MBps to maintain quality and not drop frames. USB 2.0 works at speeds up to 480 MBps and FireWire (IEEE 1394) can run at 400 MBps.
- You'll need lots of free hard drive space to work with digital video. Even if you use one-step DVD-creation tools, the software will cache the video on your system's hard drive before burning the DVD. Two hours of high-quality digital video usually takes up nearly 4GB of hard drive space.
- Digital video tapes hold one hour of high-quality video. 8 mm analog tapes are typically two hours long and VHS-C analog tapes are usually one hour long.
- Most consumer DVD authoring and burning products can fit just one hour of high-quality MPEG-2 video onto a DVD.
- Most DVD authoring tools allow you to record to DVD at lower bit rates (which means image quality is likely to be somewhat reduced), so you can fit up to two hours of video on a DVD.
- Many set-top DVD players cannot play DVDs that have been written at lower bit rates.
- Don't be confused by one-step or automatic DVD-creation software promises. They can do their work with little user intervention, but the time it takes to encode video and burn a DVD can be quite lengthy. Encoding, compiling, and burning a one hour DVD can easily take two hours.
- Many set-top DVD players will play DVD-R discs only, not DVD-RW or DVD+RW discs. Check the manufacturer's Web site for details since this information is not always listed in the manual, especially with older models of players.
Shooting The problem: Most home videographers swing their cameras from subject to subject, creating the unwanted effect of constant, uncontrolled motion. Others focus for too long on a series of stationary subjects. Viewers feel either seasick or bored. The solution: Take a series of shots that establish the scene and the subjects you're interested in. Concentrate on each shot individually, and pause the camera before moving to the next shot. A good video mimics the movement of your own eyes, which focus on one image at a time, rather than jumping from point to point. The technique: Whenever possible, start with a "long shot" that makes it clear where the scene is taking place. Then move to a "medium shot" that homes in on the action. Now you're ready for your close-up. Focus the camera on a distinct point of interest, such as your subject's face, and hold the camera steady on the subject for a count of 10. That's just enough time to capture someone's expression, depict facial features clearly, and provide enough of a clip to leave room for editing later. (Auteur hint: Try pointing the camera at people's hands, too.) Once you've got these shots, the scene is complete, and you're ready to shoot the next one. When you're editing later on, you'll have distinct shots and scenes to choose from, rather than a jumble of continuous, bouncy video. With drag-and-drop scene editing, you'll be able to create a sequence that is interesting to watch and recaps the event with some elegance. The environment: Take special care with lighting and sound. To convey the details of the scene to your viewer, including the nuances in your subjects' voices and the expressions on their faces, minimize extraneous sounds and make sure there's plenty of light. In practice, this means turning off music or TVs in the background, keeping the camera away from humming appliances, and moving an extra desk lamp or two into the room where you expect to be shooting. Editing Watching unedited home videos can be a boring slog. Between bursts of action (Maggie's first steps) and dialog (Bart's cheers at Maggie's first fall), dull interludes stretch on minute after minute (Homer on the couch). But if you edit your home videos into short, entertaining films with titles, sound tracks, and special effects, you'll keep your audience interested. It's not a quick task: Selecting and trimming your scenes takes time. For every five minutes of interesting, watchable video, expect to spend at least 30 to 60 minutes editing. Here are the tools that a typical video-editing software package provides. Media library. This is where you store the clips you've brought in from your digital camera or VCR. You can also keep still images here, so you can mix photographs into your video. Depending on the program you're using, the media library may also include special effects, sounds, and music that you can add as you edit. Storyboard. Work with thumbnail views of your scenes in the order you've chosen them from your media library. The storyboard tool lets you drag the edge of any scene to alter its length. And if you decide that the ending scene would work better at the beginning, just drag it to that spot. Time line. This is a view of the collection of scenes and effects that will make up your video. Using this part of the interface, you can see how your music overlaps with your video and how the transitions and other special effects are lined up with the main video track. The timeline offers an overview of your video and a sense of the length of each scene. Video preview window. When you've selected your scenes, trimmed them to the lengths you like, and put them in order, press Play, and watch your masterpiece unfold. Some programs let you watch the preview in full-screen mode. Saving and Sharing Burning a CD or DVD. Most video-editing programs make it easy to burn your clips onto a CD. Using Pinnacle Studio, for example, you simply click once to save a video as an AVI, MPEG, RealVideo, or Windows Media file, and then click again to burn the file to a CD. With Magix video deLuxe, you can burn an auto-play CD that will start playing as soon as the disc is put into any computer. With Apple's iMovie, you can burn your video to a DVD or save your film as a QuickTime file and burn it to a CD. Storing and sharing online. If you're using Apple's iMovie2, go to http://tools.mac.com to save your clips online. Then go to www.apple.com/imovie/tellus to offer to share your videos with the broader Mac community. For $39, you can have a one-year membership at Neptune Mediashare (www.neptune.com), where you can use Web-based tools to create great-looking video albums and share up to 25MB of clips with friends (fast Net access is a must). Upgrades go all the way up to 1GB of space. And for a free way to store not just videos but photos, documents, and audio files, sign up for a free Yahoo! Briefcase (http://briefcase.yahoo.com). You get 30MB of free storage, accessible from anywhere, for sharing materials with anyone you like. Sending video via e-mail. After you've saved your video (in nearly any format), you can compress and e-mail that file as an attachment that your recipient can decompress and watch. Some programs, including Pinnacle Studio, let you e-mail the video directly from the editing program as soon as it's ready to go. This would be a big file, though, which might cause problems for some e-mail programs or overload your recipient's e-mail account. In some cases, as with Yahoo! Mail, you can e-mail short clips without doing any kind of compression first. Instant-messaging programs are also good for transferring large files without straining your friends' in-boxes. Other ways to share. You can save to DV or VHS tape: If you've got your camera handy, you can use it to receive the edited video back from your computer and save the final product on a DV cassette or even a VHS tape, if you can connect a VCR to your camera. Alternatively, programs like CyberLink PowerDirector Pro 2.0 let you create not only DVDs but also Video CDs and Super Video CDs, which can be played in many DVD players. Online Resources About.com: Desktop Video (http://desktopvideo.about.com/cs/howtoshootvideo). Read articles and find tips on choosing your shots.
Check the industry buzz on all the newest camcorders. DV Format (www.dvformat.com). Learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of competing formats. Epinions.com (www.epinions.com/elec-video-camcorders-all). Compare camcorders and read detailed user evaluations to help you decide which model is right for you. iTools (http://itools.mac.com). Store and share your videos (Mac users only) on a private site that you can invite others to visit. Sony ImageStation (www.imagestation.com). Get 15 minutes' worth of video storage for free. That's enough to share several short clips. When you've got more to share, consider putting together your own Web site. It may end up being cheaper than paying separately for online storage. SpotLife.com. Sign up for plans ranging from $3 per month to $100 per month for varying amounts of video storage space. If you plan to store lots of family footage to share with relatives, this is the first place to go.
Ulead Systems: Find out how to shoot in a way that makes editing afterward as easy as possible. |
