DIGITAL VIDEO CAMERAS • IMPORTING DIGITAL VIDEO  • DIGITAL VIDEO EDITING

DVD RECORDING • WRAPPING UP • ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Technology today has enabled ordinary people to have the power to do things that were previously only possible with great financial resources.  This guide gives you some specifics as to how you can gain the power to create and communicate in the video field.

CAMCORDERS

What format to use? Tape, Flash Memory, Hard Drive or DVD?

We strongly recommend flash memory or hard drive.  These are the easiest to transfer to your computer

Some Good  Camcorders

Flash

Some Good HD Camcorders

Flash

Some Good Pro/Semi-Pro Camcorders

AUDIO

Audio can be just as vital as the video. Using an external microphone instead of the one that is included is always an option, so you must look for a microphone-in jack. It is also good to have a headphone-out jack so you can monitor your audio and correct for any problems while recording. Some higher-end and middle-tier consumer camcorders include manual audio control, which allows the user to adjust the audio level of the microphone's channels; this is important when recording something like a concert, or anything very loud or soft.

All consumer camcorders have built-in microphones, but tend to pick up unwanted noise. Front-mounted mikes generally do a better job of capturing sound from a source in front of the camera and of rejecting the sound of the camera operator muttering. If you'll be recording very quiet scenes, look for a camcorder that doesn't pick up too much motor hum through the built-in microphone. Different types of videographers need different sound-capture capabilities, so look for the features that match your needs.You might want to invest in an external microphone, such as...

IMPORTING FOOTAGE INTO YOUR COMPUTER

As noted, you can use USB 2.0 or Firewire (on some cameras) to import your video from a camcorder to your computer.

IMPORTING VHS TO YOUR COMPUTER

There are 3 ways to do this:

If you already have a DV camcorder, the easiest solution is to plug your VCR into it (audio and video RCA connections) and attach the firewire output to your PC (all DV camcorders should have firewire). Capture the VHS video to a computer video editing program using an analog-to-DV converter, which includes many DV/Digital8 camcorders as well as standalone analog-to-DV converters.

If you don't have a DV camcorder, you can get a video capture card or a dedicated external analog-to-digital converter. The external device will feed to your PC via firewire or USB, whereas the video capture card uses your PC's PCI bus. I prefer the firewire/USB solution because I had issues with video and voice synchronization during capture. Video capture cards typically come with a TV tuner, like the Flyvideo 2000 or XCard and can make your PC act as a TV; the picture can be very good when used in conjunction with a free deinterlacing program called DScaler, and these cards are relatively cheap. DScaler does not work with ATI TV cards (different chipset). Once you have the hardware, get a good video capture program (Pinnacle Studio or Ulead DVD Movie Factory), and then burn to DVD.

You can get a "DVD VCR" with Firewire connections, and you can plug a DV/Digital8/DVCAM camcorder or VCR into it and transfer the tapes to DVD at even higher quality than by using the analog connections. it's almost painless to pop in the VHS tape and a blank DVD, press a few buttons and directly record the old tape to a shiny new DVD disc. (A slight variant on this method is to connect your VCR to a separate DVD recorder unit.) If you don't need to modify the video at all (editing, adding chapters and custom menus), this method is the easiest and most direct.

IMPORTING USING A VIDEO CARD

A Video/TV Capture Card allow you to send a Video or TV signal to your Computer. The signal can then be recorded to the Computers Hard Drive with TV or Video Capture Software. There are several different kinds of Capture Cards on the market, with varying functions. Most TV and Video Capture Cards include software that will allow you to capture TV or Video and then burn to either DVD or Video CD.

10 TV and Video Capture Cards:

1. ATI TV Wonder HD 650 Combo PC TV Tuner

2. Pinnacle PCTV HD TV Tunerr

3. Hauppauge WinTV HVR 1600

IMPORTING & CONVERTING .FLV FILES

In general videos on Internet are in format FLV. A version of video compression appropriated for Websites. .There are many sites that allow users to freely upload, view, and even share video clips, but most of them encode its video files into Flash format, which prevents viewers from downloading files and making digital copies. Now you can download and convert them for iPod Video, iPhone or even just to watch in iTunes. This will work on either Mac or PC using Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer. Numerous readers are available to be able to read this type of format on a computer

DIGITAL VIDEO EDITING

Editing is crucial to making a good video.  The editing stage is when you can divide your footage into clips, which you can subsequently shorten, modify or combine; add music, narration, sound effects, special effects, and more.

With the popularity of video on the web and sites like YouTube, there is an increased need to understand the different types of video file formats and what they do. Each format has its advantages and disadvantages, Here are a few of the major formats in more detail...

MPEG

Most of you will have heard of MPEGs. MPEG stands for the Motion Pictures Expert Group.

The MPEG standards consist of different Parts. Each part covers a certain aspect of the whole specification.The standards also specifies Profiles and Levels. Profiles are intended to define a set of tools that are available, and Levels define the range of appropriate values for the properties associated with them.MPEG has standardized the following compression formats and ancillary standards:

• MPEG-1: is the first compression standard for audio and video. It was basically designed to allow moving pictures and sound to be encoded into the bitrate of a CD. To meet the low bit requirement, MPEG-1 downsamples the images, as well as using picture rates of only 24-30 Hz, resulting in a moderate quality, It includes the popular Layer 3 (MP3) audio compression format.

• MPEG-2: Transport, video and audio standards for broadcast-quality television. MPEG-2 standard was considerably broader in scope and of wider appeal--supporting interlacing and high definition. MPEG-2 is considered important because it has been chosen as the compression scheme for over-the-air digital television ATSC, DVB and ISDB, digital satellite TV services like Dish Network, digital cable tv signals, SVCD, and DVD.

• MPEG-3: Developments in standardizing scalable and multi-resolution compression which would have become MPEG-3 were ready by the time MPEG-2 was to be standardized. Hence, these were incorporated into MPEG-2 and as a result there is no MPEG-3 standard. MPEG-3 is not to be confused with MP3, which is MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3.

• MPEG-4: MPEG-4 uses further coding tools with additional complexity to achieve higher compression factors than MPEG-2. With its more efficient coding of video, MPEG-4 moves closer to computer graphics applications. In more complex profiles, the MPEG-4 decoder has effectively become a rendering processor and the compressed bitstream describes three-dimensional shapes and surface texture. MPEG-4 also provides Intellectual Property Management and Protection (IPMP) which provides the facility to use proprietary technologies to manage and protect content like digital rights managment. Several new higher-efficiency video standards (newer than MPEG-2 Video) are included (an alternative to MPEG-2 Video):
  • MPEG-4 Part 2 (or Advanced Simple Profile) and
  • MPEG-4 Part 10 (or Advanced Video Coding or H.264). MPEG-4 Part 10 may be used on HD DVD and Blu-ray discs, along with VC-1and MPEG-2.

ADOBE FLASH

Flash Video is a file format used to deliver video over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player (initially produced by Macromedia) versions 6–10. Until version 9 update 2 of the Flash Player, Flash Video referred to a proprietary file format, having the extension FLV. The most recent public release of Flash Player supports h-254 video and HE-AAC audio. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. Notable users of the Flash Video format include YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo! Video, Reuters.com, and many other news providers.

WMV

WMV is a Windows-only format generally used for streaming video over the internet. Again, it is a compressed format. Microsoft claims that the bit-rate is twice that of MPEG-4, meaning that the overall quality is higher even though file sizes are larger. It is the default format for Windows Media Player but doesn't work on Apple's QuickTime Player, though the plug-in Flip4Mac WMV (www.flip4mac.com) will solve this problem. Its main competitors are MPEG-4 AVC, RealVideo, DivX, and Xvid. The first version of the codec, WMV 7, was introduced in 1999, and was built upon Microsoft's implementation of MPEG-4 Part 2. Continued proprietary development led to newer versions of the codec, but the bit stream syntax was not frozen until WMV 9. While all versions of WMV support variable bit rate, average bit rate, and constant bit reate, WMV 9 introduced several important features including native support for interlaced video, non-square pixels, and frame interpolation. WMV 9 also introduced a new profile titled Windows Media Video 9 Professional, which is activated automatically whenever the video resolution and bit rate exceed 300,000 pixels (eg., 512 × 586) and 1000 kbit/s (eg., 1001 kbit/s). It is targeted towards high-definition video content, at resolutions such as 720p and 1080p.

QuickTime

QuickTime is integrated with Mac OS X, and it was an optional component at install for earlier versions of Mac OS. All Apple systems ship with QuickTime already installed. QuickTime is optional for Windows systems, although many software applications require it. Apple bundles it with iTunes for Windows download, but it is also available as a standalone installation.The QuickTime file format functions as a multimedia container file that contains one or more tracks, each of which stores a particular type of data: audio, video, effects, or text (e.g. for subtitles). Each track either contains a digitally-encoded media stream (using a specific codec) or a data reference to the media stream located in another file. Tracks are maintained in a hierarchal data structure consisting of objects called atoms. An atom can be a parent to other atoms or it can contain media or edit data, but it cannot do both.

The ability to contain abstract data references for the media data, and the separation of the media data from the media offsets and the track edit lists means that QuickTime is particularly suited for editing, as it is capable of importing and editing in place (without data copying). Other later-developed media container formats such as Microsoft's Advanced Systems Format or the open source Ogg and Matroska containers lack this abstraction, and require all media data to be rewritten after editing.

Other file formats that QuickTime supports natively (to varying degrees) include AIFF, WAV, DV, MP3, and MPEG-1. With additional QuickTime Extensions, it can also support Ogg, ASF, FLV, MKV, DivX Media Format.

H.264

DivX

MORE VIDEO FORMATS

Since video editing programs differ widely as to what input and output formats they can support, you will have to understand different video formats in order to be able to choose the right editing software. 

• AVCHD A high-definition digital video format that can record in 1080i and 720p and still maintain a reasonably small file size. AVCHD files are based on the MPEG4 codec. The advent of high-definition (HD) televisions and displays spurred the development of this format, which uses the same resolution as HDTV signals. AVCHD video files can also be burned to Blu-ray Discs™, and played in compatible devices, such as Blu-ray Disc players and the Sony PlayStation®3.
• AVI is another Windows-only format but is older and not so commonly used these days
• DV (Digital Video) DV is the format used by many digital camcorders, usually on Mini DV cassettes. DV format employs a form of lossy video compression, but is still memory-intensive. When transferred to a computer, a DV clip requires roughly 1 GB of storage per 5 minutes of video. (Clips are usually stored on the computer as QuickTime or AVI files.) Despite its use of compression, DV can provide a clean image with up to 520 lines of resolution. DV uses a type of compression known as "intraframe" — that is, it encodes video at the full standard frame rate of 30 frames per second. This allows frame-by-frame editing.
• RealMedia One of the most popular formats for streaming content on the Internet, RealMedia includes the RealAudio codec for sound clips and RealVideo codec for movies. RealAudio and RealVideo files are often given the common RealMedia ".RM" file extension. RealMedia is a container format that's often heavily compressed.
• Xvid Xvid is an open-source lossy video codec based on MPEG-4. It was developed in response to DivX, and received its name from the backwards spelling of DivX. Xvid compresses a great deal of video content into relatively small files, and retains a reasonably good video resolution. It can be used with several different operating systems, and is a popular choice for transferring video over the Internet.

DIGITAL AUDIO

• AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) AAC was developed to improve upon the MP3 audio format, and uses a more advanced form of compression. According to some listening tests, AAC files encoded at lower bitrates (like 96 Kbps) sound as good or better than MP3s encoded at higher bitrates (like 128 Kbps) despite their smaller size.
• AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) An audio format for Macintosh operating systems commonly used for storing uncompressed, CD-quality sound (similar to WAV files for Windows-based PCs). AIFF is a lossless container format.
• ATRAC™ Developed by Sony engineers in the early 90s for the MiniDisc format, ATRAC is a lossy audio codec which offers near-CD sound quality with relatively small file sizes.
• AU An audio format commonly used for posting sound clips on the Internet. AU files can be played back on Windows, Macintosh, and other operating systems.
• MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) A MIDI file doesn't contain actual audio data, but rather contains commands that let MIDI-capable synthesizers re-create a specific musical passage. MIDI has been used for years as a way for electronic instruments (like digital keyboards and sequencers) to communicate with each other.
• MP3 (MPEG1, Audio Layer 3) The most common codec for storing and transferring music. MP3 employs a lossy compression, but still manages to deliver near-CD sound quality in a file that's only about a tenth or twelfth the size of a corresponding uncompressed WAV file. When creating an MP3 file, depending on the desired file size, you can select varying amounts of compression and sound quality.
• MP3Pro An updated version of the original MP3 codec. Small, low-bitrate mp3Pro files contain much more high-frequency detail than standard MP3 files encoded at similar low bitrates. The high-frequency portion of the audio signal is handled by an advanced and extremely efficient coding process known as Spectral Band Replication (SBR), while the rest of the signal is encoded as a regular MP3. That means that when you play an mp3Pro file on non-mp3Pro-compatible software, you'll only hear the non-SBR-encoded portions (so you'll lose the highs altogether). However, when encoded and played back using a fully compatible audio program, such as Windows Media Player, mp3Pro files can deliver very good sound quality using low bitrates.
• SDII (Sound Designer II) An audio format for Macintosh operating systems which is often employed by pro-quality sound editing software applications. SDII files, like AIFF and WAV files, are capable of storing uncompressed CD-quality audio.
• Vorbis (Ogg Vorbis) Vorbis is an "open-source" digital audio compression format — it exists in the public domain and is completely free for commercial or non-commercial use. Vorbis is most often used in conjunction with a digital A/V container format known as "Ogg," it's usually referred to as "Ogg Vorbis." Vorbis, like MP3, it is a lossy compression system, removing frequencies deemed inaudible.
• WAV A standard audio format for Windows, is often used for storing high-quality, uncompressed sound. WAV files can contain CD-quality (44.1 KHz/16-bit) audio signals. CD-quality WAV files require relatively large amounts of memory — roughly 10 MB per minute of music. WAV is a container format. .
• WMA (Windows Media Audio) Developed by Microsoft, WMA is one of today's most pervasive Internet audio formats. The Windows Media Audio format has built-in copy protection abilities, unlike MP3. Windows Vista contains native support for WMA encoding, enabling users to create their own WMA music files.
• WMV (Windows Media Video) Microsoft's proprietary lossy compression format for motion video. Windows Media Video is used for both streaming and downloading content from the Interne and lets you play back and manage a range of audio and video file types, including WMA and WMV.

Most video capture cards (see Digital Video Capturing) come with basic editing software which will enable you to tie together video sequences.  If you want to experiment further with video editing then you could look at some of these programs.

WHAT FORMAT TO USE NOW THAT YOU'RE DONE EDITING?

So many formats! How do you get the best video format when you have so many competing criteria, such as:

• Compatibility
• File size (smallest format)
• Video quality
• Editing software runs on your computer

Use Flash for best compatibility and close to the smallest file size

Flash is the only player that's pre-installed on both Windows & Mac computers. If you use Windows Media format, you leave out your Mac visitors. If you use QuickTime, you leave out your Windows visitors. Yes, those users can download and install extra software so they can view the video, but some people won't just to view a video. The easy solution is to just use Flash, since both Windows & Mac computers have it preinstalled.Besides exporting or converting your video to Flash format, to get it onto your site you'll also need to install a Flash video player.

Here's a rundown of the benefits of using a Flash player:

• Maximum compatibility. Almost all users can view it without downloading additional software.
• Tiny, fast download for those users who don't have it already. The competing media players like Windows Media, QuickTime, and Real are huge and cumbersome to install.
• User-friendly startup. You can have the first frame say something like "Video loading, just a sec...", to let the user know that everything's working and the video is about to start playing. Other media players typically provide no feedback to the user, just a blank window.
• Watermarking. You can add a transparent logo to the corner of your movie (such as the name of your domain) and link it back to your website. So people may be less likely to steal your video, and if they do, it's an an automatic ad that takes people right back to your site.
• Ability to make your own custom controls.
• Full-screen video. Getting full-screen video is easy with Flash. It's usually impossible with other formats/players.
• Piracy protection. It's very difficult for users to save your video to their hard drives and then post it on their own websites. On the other hand, if you want users to have the ability to download your video, then this would be a downside. In that case, your best bet is .mpg for maximum compatibility.

It gives you fantastic compatibility, and the filesize is just a little bit bigger than a similar-quality video in another format (like H.264/MP4). In the olden days you'd have to choose between compatibility, filesize, or quality. These days you don't have to choose. Flash is what YouTube and Google Video use, and they use it for a reason: More people can play Flash video than other other format, since Flash is pre-installed in more browsers. It's true that Flash isn't 100% compatible for everyone, but the point is, nothing is 100% compatible. Using a Flash player is simply more compatible than anything else.

Alternatives to using Flash

The next-most compatible format is an .mpg format,either Windows Media Player or QuickTime can open it. But that compatibility comes with a price: .mpg files are much larger than modern formats for the same amount of quality -- sometimes up to twice as large.

After .mpg, the next-most common format is Windows Media (.wmv), but Mac users can't see it without installing extra software.

Apple's QuickTime (.mov) is at the bottom of the list because it's only pre-installed on Macs. Windows users can install QuickTime, but of course many of them won't bother to install software just to watch your video.

Different Flash video formats

• .flv - This is the raw video file itself. This is what you get after converting from .mp4 or some other format. This is what your Flash player will play. It stands for Flash Video.
  
  
• .swf - This is the format of the Flash video player software. The extension stands for ShockWave Flash, an older name for Flash.
  
  
• .fla - You'll probably never see this format. It's only relevant if you're building Flash projects with Adobe's Flash Development kit. If you do create your own Flash projects with the development kit, then the .fla format is just a Flash document (a software or animation project you created). But this format doesn't run on the web. You use the Export command to convert your project into a .swf file, and that is what you actually upload to your server.

WHERE TO PUBLISH YOUR VIDEO?

You've made your video and now you want to share it with the world. Millions of people everyday are uploading videos of themselves and friends to Youtube, and a number of other free hosting sites such as Vimeo and Google Video. YouTube is the preferred destination for uploading video on the Internet, as it offers the maximum number of viewers. Instructions for uploading a video are relatively easy. First you'll have to open an account, once this is done it's generally a two or three step process that allows you to browse for your video file on your computer, add a little description and then click upload. Most of these sites will also give you options for adding a thumbnail, selecting your genre and in some cases revenue sharing. After you've uploaded your video, the hosting site provides the option of sharing your movie by giving you a link/URL that you can email, they also include a great feature that allows you to copy the HTML code and "embed" the video into your own website or blog.

.Members of YouTube are offered to be a part of groups called "Channel Types" that make their channel more distinctive. At one time, when a person signed up for a Director account setting, he or she was offered to have unlimited video length, but that is no longer offered, although the users who joined the "Director" group during that time still have that unlimited video length setting. At that time, they were still also limited to 100MB in video size, but now these accounts are limited to 1GB. The types are:

• Comedian,. comedians displaying their comedy bits for YouTube viewers.
• Director, movie makers displaying their videos for YouTube viewers.
• Guru, people who are experienced in a certain field make videos of what they do.
• Musician, musicians or bands covering songs or displaying originals or giving lessons on songs, scales, chords, etc.
• Non-profit, a status obtained by 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations accepted into YouTube's non-profit program.
• Reporter, civilians or professionals who make videos about local or international news and current events.
• Politician, one who is running for or currently involved with the politics of government.
• YouTuber, a general viewer of YouTube.

YouTube's video playback technology for web users is based on Adobe Flash Player. This allows the site to display videos with quality comparable to more established video playback technologies (such as Windows Media Player, QuickTime, and RealPlayer) that generally require the user to download and install a web browser plug-in in order to view video.Viewing Flash video also requires a plug-in, but market research from Adobe Systems has found that its Flash plug-in is installed on over 95% of personal computers.

YouTube's videos are distributed through streaming media in a range of formats, with the video and audio quality dependent on the platform. YouTube's offers users the choice of two quality levels, normal and high, both of which are based on the Flash Video. These videos are encoded with audio in mono MP3 format.The normal quality videos have a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels, while the high quality videos have a resolution of 480 x 360 pixels. YouTube accepts videos uploaded in most formats, including WMV, AVI, MOV, MPEG, MP4, DivX, FLV, and OGG. It also supports 3GP, allowing videos to be uploaded directly from a mobile phone. If you do not think your current video file format is recognized by YouTube, you may get the best results from converting your file to MPEG4 video with MP3 audio.Videos uploaded to YouTube are limited to ten minutes in length and a file size of 1GB.

You can find instructions for uploading normal and high quality videos at the YouTube Help Center.

DVD RECORDING

Whether you are new to DVD Authoring or are a seasoned veteran there are many software tools that you can use to make professional quality DVD Movies.

DVD AUTHORING SOFTWARE

Pinnacle Dazzle DVD recording and video transfer make it easy to video capture, DVD transfer and DVD burning.

Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6 Easy-to-use disc authoring and burning software, Choose from 70+ motion menu styles for DVD menus that pop, Plug-and-go DVD recording; end-to-end HD DVD disc creation, Use the Edit Room to add polish to videos with titles, music, and effects,

Sony DVD Architect Studio Import audio, video, and stills from an extensive range of formats, Easy to use menu-based and drag-and-drop interface for DVD design and authoring, Create picture slide shows and music, compilations, Still and motion menu creation, Text editing and shadow effects

AVS DVD Authoring AVS DVD authoring uses a wizard base model to walk you through the possible difficulties commonly associated with DVD Authoring software; meanwhile, giving you the ability to customize your menus

DVD Lab DVD-Lab is an advanced DVD authoring program, The software is versatile and easy to use.

CyberLink PowerProducer 5 Strong Blu-ray capabilities, easy to learn, handles all DVD types. Creates standard, Blu-ray, and HD DVD discs.

MyDVD 10 Lots of valuable applications you'll use frequently. Burns DVDs quickly. Perfect audio-video sync for real-time capture to DVD. Good video editing and slide-show production.

Nero 9 Ultra Edition Can burn Blu-ray and HD DVD data (but not multimedia) discs. Streams multiple TV channels to remote PCs. Shares content with networked computers, phones, PDAs, game consoles, and DMA-attached home theater components. Flexible installation utility lets you omit unwanted modules.

There are a few of the more expensive programs, such as Sonic Solutions DVDit! 6 , Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 , Vegas Pro 8 Professional Video Editing, Audio & DVD Creation.

PROMOTING YOUR VIDEO

Now you have your video on the web, but unfortunately so do several other million people. So how can you give yourself a better shot of making sure your video gets seen?

Tagging - When you upload your video, make sure you don't ignore the tag section of the upload form. Effectively tagging your video will really help people running a search to find your content. Think of tags as helpful pointers that help people to identify the contents of your work - not using them is like trying to sell tinned goods with no labels on them - you can do it, but you aren't likely to be wildly successful.

So if your video is about how to write your first blog, you might add tags (separated by commas, usually) e.g. "wordpress", "wordpress blogging", "blogging", "blog", "first blog", "beginner's wordpress" and so on. The more descriptive tags you use, the better.

Keyframe or thumbnail image - If your video has a great "thumbnail" image - the frame of the video that appears in search results before the video is played - you'll have a much greater chance of getting it watched on YouTube and other services. Some sharing services will allow you to choose your own thumbnail from anywhere in the clip. Others, such as YouTube, use the clip right at the mid-point of your video as a Thumbnail.

Effective titling - If your thumbnail and tags are well thought through, don't blow it by writing a useless title. Just as with blogging, your best shot at getting your video clicked on is to either tease your potential viewer or give them an accurate description of the contents of your video

Get the word out - Once you've optimized your video for discovery, the next thing you need to do is get the word out about it.

If you have a blog, blog about your new video. If you use Twitter, Myspace, Facebook or other social media services , make sure you publish a link to your video in any or preferably all of them. You could also consider writing a Squidoo or Hubpages entry related to your video, and cross promote it that way.

The key is to make sure your video is either linked to - or better yet, embedded - in as many places as possible.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Here are some good web resources for software reviews and recommendations:

WFF Links for Film Makers

Videomaker Magazine

PC Magazine

CNET

ZDNET

Digital Producer

DV Magazine

Desktop Video